Fernandes, Guerreiro and the 10 Portugal players to crash the last six months

Cameron Smith

• 29 Mar 2022 22:32 BST
• 4 min read

Ruben Vezo is the Portuguese player who has declined the most over the past six months, according to SciSports.

Using in-game data to calculate the performance of every Portuguese player in major leagues, Vezo has suffered the biggest drop-off of anyone.

Currently playing for a Levante side rock bottom of La Liga, Vezo has played the majority of the club's league minutes but has still only tasted victory once in the league. Levante's two wins other have come when Vezo was sidelined through injury.

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It has been a disappointing campaign for Levante but also for Vezo who hasn't had an easy time of it this year.

Second on the list is Benfica's Joao Mario, best-known for his spells at Inter and West Ham. The midfielder has played just over half of the available minutes for Benfica this campaign, and despite contributing four goals in 22 games he has still declined as a player, according to SciSports.

The days of him featuring in a top five league appear over.

Next up is Borussia Dortmund wing-back Raphael Guerreiro. The left-sided player was first choice for Portugal at Euro 2021, but has been replaced by youngster Nuno Mendes in the national team set-up.

With his starting space lost at international level, Guerreiro has relied on club form. Despite six goal contributions in the Bundesliga this season, he has been injured fairly regularly and his current form is a far-cry from the 16 goal contributions he managed in the league last campaign.

He's now 28 years old, and age is perhaps catching up with him, although he is still a very good player.

Fourth is Paulo Oliviera, who is currently plying his trade at SC Braga in the Primeira Liga. The 30-year-old centre-back is a regular in the side, but hasn't impressed when he's been on the pitch, according to SciSports. His seven yellow cards in all competitions may not help, and discipline is certainly something he can work on.

Everton's Andre Gomes is fifth, and despite a change in manager his fortunes haven't changed. From a star young prospect at Valencia, Gomes is now struggling to get into the Everton starting XI and has only played 12% of the available minutes in the Premier League this season.

He also hasn't scored a league goal since the 2018/19 campaign.

Sixth is Vitoria's Rafa Soares and seventh is Leicester City full-back Ricardo Pereira. Before his injury, Pereira was a flying both-way full-back, but he is not quite the player he was before he was sidelined for 10 months. Pereira is still a very active defender, but hasn't been able to prevent Leicester's slide away from European football.

Next comes Manchester United superstar Bruno Fernandes. He was Man Utd's saviour when he arrived, but the signing of Cristiano Ronaldo and the shift of focus to the five-time Ballon d'Or winner has hampered Fernandes. He has still incredibly put together 15 goal contributions in the Premier League this season, but his overall game has suffered and it doesn't look like he'll hit the 30 goal contributions he managed last season.

Filipe Ferreira and Gil Dias round off the list.

How is the SciSkill ranking calculated?

Over the course of a season, there are players who will enjoy increasingly poor performances and increasingly positive performances.

FootballTransfers, in partnership with SciSports, has determined 10 French players over the last six months whose performances have declined to a higher degree than anyone else.

SciSports explains how our development ratings are gathered:

"Among others, a positive development could be boosted by more playing time, playing time on a higher level or better performances on the pitch.

"A negative development could be due to the player being active on a lower level than he used to play, bad performances or the fact that he does not play that often as he used to do.

"A SciSkill Development of 0.0 could indicate that a player is performing exactly like our algorithm expects him to do. Another reason could be inactivity (e.g. a long-term injury or suspension)."