The 10 Portugal players to explode the last six months

Cameron Smith

• 15 Mar 2022 22:00 GMT
• 4 min read

Wolverhampton Wanderers goalkeeper Jose Sa the most improved Portuguese player over the last six months, according to SciSports.

Using data to calculate the performance of every player eligible to play for Portugal, Sa has statistically improved the most this season.

Sa only joined Wolves last summer, and was a relative unknown to most Premier League fans when he signed from Olympiakos.

Stepping into the shoes of departed Rui Patricio, Sa has arguably been one of the very best goalkeepers in Europe, and has helped Wolves mount a European charge this season.

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At 29 years old, he is running out of time to make his international debut, however.

Second on the list is Porto's Vitinha, who spent time on loan at Wolves last season, but has impressed massively back at his parent club. He is a regular in the side, and has helped them to the top of the Portuguese top flight in their bid to recover the title after Sporting CP's success last campaign.

Third is Francisco Moura, left-back for Braga. He is just 22 years old, and was linked with Brentford before the January transfer window.

Next up is his Braga team-mate Vitinha, who is a centre-forward at the club. His form in front of goal has improved massively this year, and he's already into double digits for the campaign.

Fifth comes Ricardo Matos, while sixth is Liverpool forward Diogo Jota. Now a regular at Anfield, Jota has already beaten his best ever Premier League scoring season this time around, and is now an integral part of Jurgen Klopp's attack.

Next comes Udinese's Beto and then Lille's Tiago Djalo. Fulham wonderkid Fabio Carvalho is ninth after his impressive start to the campaign drew the attention of Liverpool, who just missed out on signing him in January. He has lit up Craven Cottage, and is already well into double digits for goals and assists in the Championship this season.

Vitoria defender Heldar Sa rounds off the top 10.

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 Spanish players over the last six months whose performances have improved 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).”

It should be noted that vast improvement does not necessarily mean that a player was underperforming previously.