How good is Vitor Roque? Analysis of the new FC Barcelona player

Vitor Roque signs for FC Barcelona at the age of 18, a player in constant growth who needs to continue improving his game to be decisive in European football. His main strengths are aggressiveness, killer instinct, finishing, movements off the ball and acceleration. He is quite balanced in all aspects, without being perfect in any of them.

Dynamic striker, right-footed but with good use of both legs, highlighting his ability inside the box, he also makes good movements dropping down to receive and likes to drift wide to the right flank. It is in that area where he can also play as a winger thanks to his dribbling, explosiveness in the first meters and ability to attack spaces.

He is only 1.72m tall but with a very strong lower body, which allows him to play with his back to goal with ease. Not having such a developed upper body, he loses too many duels, although he has a great vertical jump for his size.

When he drops to receive, shows good reading of the game, positioning trying to generate superiorities and ability to drive if he sees a free space.

He needs to improve his ball control, first touch and passing technique, as he loses too many balls. When he gives a pass to a teammate, he tries to attack the space behind the defense, being an unstoppable player on the run, showing a lot of aggressiveness.

Good dribbling, with changes of direction and acceleration that allows him to drive into the box, leaving his marker behind. He also shows energy in all his actions and feels comfortable with his left foot, complicating the task even more for the defense, which makes many players give him more space to avoid being outplayed.

When it comes to finishing, his dynamism makes him an unpredictable player. He sprints into the box, when the cross is launched, being well-ahead of the centre-back finishing with ease. In plays in which he has the defender close he has a quick turn to finish, having many resources to score with both legs and is a player with a great header. But above all his main strength is his intelligence inside the box, with a scoring instinct to always be perfectly positioned to finish.

Out of possession it seems that he can be a useful player to trigger the pressing, both in the first line and counter-pressing, top aggressiveness and tenacity is seen in his tireless work-rate.

If I had to imagine his projection and compare him to a player, it would be Sergio Agüero. Ability to finish in many ways, physique and movements off the ball. I think he has a poor technical level but he is faster.

Vitor Roque is a great talent for his age, although his adaptation to European football is difficult to predict. Also, I don’t know if Barcelona’s style is the best for him. It will be necessary to see if he suffers in positional play, linking-up under pressure and in games attacking a low block. If he is capable of opening up the defensives lines with his movements providing solutions to Xavi and finds a good scoring streak in his first season, the growth of the Brazilian striker will be unstoppable.