Francesco Farioli’s new-look Porto, Victor Froholdt and the “Rodrigo Mora situation” | OneFootball

Victor Froholdt is perhaps the best thing to happen to FC Porto in the past few years.

He could be seen as the missing piece, but it is not about that. He could be assessed as the best midfielder that FC Porto have bought (since Vitinha is a product of the Dragões youth academy), but it is not even that.

Froholdt is a machine. A machine capable of running for hours and hours, doing the hard work, sometimes the work mere humans think is below them, for the sole purpose of generating “profits” (profits being wins for FC Porto). He is a robot. But a special one.

You see, the thing about robots is that they don’t normally have emotions. Most robots are incapable of feeling anything. This one not only feels what it means to put on a FC Porto shirt. He embodies it. He is the personification of the club’s DNA.

That is his best quality as an FC Porto player. That is what makes him the missing piece. That is what makes him the best thing to happen to this football club in its recent history.

Tactically speaking, he is a classical box-to-box midfielder. He helps the defence; he helps the attack. Many speculated if he had enough quality with the ball on his feet to be the main guy to organise FC Porto. Well, yes and no. Meaning, yes, he has enough quality to do it. And no, he isn’t organising the team’s game. He is excellent pushing everyone forward with his long stride running across the field like a huge truck coming towards you.

He is also a complement to the real pendulum offensively and defensively: Alan Varela. He recovers his positions faster than anybody else on the field. He offers a secure line of passing quicker than anybody else. Like I said, an absolute machine of FC Porto DNA.

He is so good I dare to say: he is not going to be around for long.

The Rodrigo Mora conundrum

If Farioli’s choice of Victor Froholdt seems to be spot on, the Italian manager’s choice with regard to Rodrigo Mora is completely wrong.

If Froholdt is a passionate robot, I want to think of Mora as Noah from the Bible. Like Noah, Mora carried a lot of animals through dark times and heavy rain periods at FC Porto last season. All of that while being underage. He felt the heavy weight and burden of a whole city, a whole region on his shoulders. He is perhaps the best player to deal with the pressure that the Invicta City is inflicting on the team: FC Porto have to be champions this season.

Rodrigo Mora is the best talent to emerge from the academy since 2022. He has the potential, in less than five years’ time, to be one of the best, if not the best footballer in the world. He should be growing to that goal, not watching from the sidelines.

It is understandable that the Dragões invested a lot of money in Gabri Veiga. But their most valuable asset is this diamond still in the making. He has to play. He has to start every game. He is, by far, the best player on the team.

I understand football up to a certain point, but my knowledge skills on the game are for sure limited when compared to Mister Farioli. He studies the game every day. My advice: study harder. Find a way to play him.