Pedro Porro has been a standout performer for Tottenham this season.

Danny Wright

Fri 15 December 2023 7:40, UK

Pedro Porro has been one of the stars of the show at Tottenham this season.

The 24-year-old endured a tricky loan spell in North London last term but since moving to the club permanently for a fee in excess of £34million in the summer, the Spain international has looked less like Stephen Kelly and more like Dani Alves.

Porro arguably had his best performance in a Spurs shirt at the weekend in the 4-1 win over Newcastle United at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.

The former Manchester City player assisted Richarlison’s second goal and basically played as a playmaker from the right-back position, where he’d often drift inside.

This was evident in Porro’s heatmap because while he did spend most of his time in traditional right-back areas as he made 81 touches against the Magpies, you can clearly see a good amount of his time was also spent in the middle of the park [WhoScored]. No Spurs player had more touches of the ball than the Spaniard in the game.

In that win over Newcastle, Porro also had three shots at goal, with one hitting the target, completed one of his two attempted dribbles, won the only aerial duel he had to contest, won all three tackles he challenged for, made one clearance, made one interception and played three key passes.

It was a stellar, all-round display by Porro, who basically rolled a defensive, midfield and attacking role all into one.

But he’s been doing that almost all season for Spurs, which is why Real Madrid are seemingly regretting the decision to not sign him in the summer transfer window.

Bernabeu Digital reported on 11 December that the La Liga giants wanted to sign Porro in the summer but they ruled out a £34million-plus deal for him “at the last minute”.

Now, the Spanish news outlet describes Porro as “one of the best right backs in the world” with his performances for Tottenham this season being “spectacular”.

Real Madrid have to have the best of the best, especially when it comes to Spanish players. They’re a collector of incredible talent in the world of football but Porro seems to have slipped through their fingers and any chance of ever signing him could be gone.

But Madrid’s loss is clearly Tottenham’s gain because the stats do show that they have a world-leading right-back in their midst.

According to stats by FBRef, over the last 12 months, Porro has ranked in the 99th percentile for shots per 90 minutes (1.93) by full-backs in the big-five domestic leagues and also European competitions.

For non-penalty xG per 90 minutes, he’s in the 93rd percentile (0.12), for assists per 90, he’s in the 97th percentile (0.29) and for shot-creating actions per 90, he’s in the 96th percentile (3.51).

This means that there are hardly any better full-backs in the biggest competitions in the world who are performing their attacking duties better than Porro.

Defensively, the stats are also incredibly encouraging because he’s in the 99th percentile for blocks per 90 (2.22) and 85th percentile for tackles per 90 (2.58).

Porro’s passing stats could be better, admittedly. He only ranks in the 43rd percentile for pass completion (75.7%). However, as seen in the win over Newcastle and the right-back’s overall assist stats, Porro’s passing stats are usually low because he’s trying risky passes that end up resulting in a goalscoring opportunity.

Against Newcastle, Porro generated an xA of 0.4 but completed just 74.6 per cent of his passes, for example.

As he’s tucking more into that midfield role under Ange Postecoglou, it’s worth Porro working on the accuracy of his passes. However, there’s still a high likelihood that he’s going to get an assist so the side-to-side and backwards passes don’t really matter.

You can see why Real Madrid rue not signing Porro because Bernabeu Digital’s claim that he’s among the best right-backs in the world is backed up by the numbers.

Spurs have themselves a player who’s already worth a lot more than what he was signed for and that’s going to be crucial in the coming weeks and months as the Londoners aim to get themselves back in the title race after a poor November.

In other Tottenham news, this Spurs teen has been ruled out of training until January.