Ever since Bakayoko’s success in Milan and cult status in the red and black colours, Milan have been searching for a profile younger but similar to that of Bakayoko.
Milan found a player that was tailor made for their requirements in the club managed by an Old ally. The player ? Florentino luis. The club and the Ally ?- Benifica and Milan legend Rui Costa. Milan have been negotiating with Benifica since December and now talks have intensified in the last few days with Gazidis meeting Benifica’s hierarchy.
A player which has been compared to Kante seems to be yet another jewel from the estemeed Benifica academy. Known for players such as di Maria, Eusebio and Jao Felix recently Florentino Luis has come fort with a big reputation already. Let us a take a look at his features to see what he is all about
Physical Profile
Club: Benifica SC
Nationality: Portugal
Age: 20
Height: 183cm
Foot: Right
Position: CM, DM
Position and Pre-Benifica days
Florentino joined SC Benifica youth academy when he was 10 years old. But due to his intelligent reading of the game and defensive skills he saw a meteoric rise to the top. The then Benifica Youth Bruno Lage coach often deployed him in the Centre-Mid position. When Lage was promoted to be the coach of Benifica he brought Luis along to the senior squad.
Florentino played his first game against Nacional in a 10-0 drubbing of Nacional. He impressed his coach so much in that match that Bruno Lage started using him more often in the Main XI.
Florentino Luis is very similar to players like Claudio makelele who is know for making the holding role or the anchor role very famous in football. Although Luis is taller and more agile than Makelele was.
Style Of Play
A key component to understand Luis’ style of play and positioning is understanding the system employed by Bruno Lage. He uses a modern adaptation of a 4-4-2 which sees high tempo and plays posession football. When in posession full backs push forward and wingers mover into the centre with one centre midfielder pushing football and Luis staying back. A forward drops back to create a passing option between the lines and this creates an overload in the centre.
Florentino Luis sits deeper and forms a passing triangle which brings the ball out from the back. Luis tries to pick out a pass to more advanced players or a player between the lines while distributing the ball. Luis is tasked with stopping counter attacks when benifica lose the ball.
Defensive Abilities
The core of his talents lie in his defensive abilities and understanding of the game. In addition to his talents, Florentino’s high work rate makes him a force to reckon in the centre of midfield. Luis uses various techniques to study his opponents moves before deciding to challenge for the ball. He tries to read the opposite player’s body posture, the pressure he has on the ball and what passing lanes he has so as to cut them off before evenutally dispossesing them.
Florentino’s highly apt timing for all his tackles ensures he dispossess them cleanly not giving away too many fouls
Attacking Play
As explained earlier, Lage’s high intensity passing game is based on interchange in positiins and quick passing for the ball. Luis is a pivot in constructing the attack. He always looks for runs made by his teammates and picks them out. His uncanny ability in analysing passing options makes his passing completion stats at 93%.
Weakness
Like all young players Luis needs to improve and gain experience in terms of positioning and tactical reading of the game. Often his aggressive nature comes as his undoing when he rushed into a challenge and gets dragged out of position creating space for opponents to pass. Florentino shoud learn to judge his surroundings also a bit better
Due to his agreesive pressing nature he also tends to get side-stepped by opponents who are faster than him as seen in the image below
Conclusion
Portugal has a recently become a hotbed for talent and Florentino has become a player than could fit many systems due to his many special qualities. Although there are some mistakes which can be ironed out with more playtime it is worth nothing that so much progress has been made by Luis without him playing a full season.
Stats for the season
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