Goncalo Ramos is the perfect Ronaldo replacement for Portugal and Man Utd

Neel Shelat

• Updated: 23 May 2023 09:00 CDT
• 11 min read

The 2022 World Cup was not supposed to be one for Benfica striker Goncalo Ramos, yet as the quarter-finals of the competition approach, the hotshot is suddenly on everyone’s lips.

If the explosions of Enzo Fernandez, Jamal Musiala, Cody Gakpo and Josko Gvardiol were predictable, this sudden rise in prominence of Ramos was altogether less anticipated.

This is not a slight on the abilities of the 21-year-old, but simply down to the fact that he found himself behind Cristiano Ronaldo in Fernando Santos hierarchy at the beginning of the tournament. Despite the 37-year-old’s falling out at Manchester United, the coach seemed unwilling to drop his star man.

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Indeed, that was the case throughout the group stage. Ronaldo’s dominance saw him start every match, including the final fixture against South Korea, which was effectively a dead rubber. But his frustrated reaction to being replaced after 65 minutes of that encounter provided an unexpected twist in Portugal’s World Cup tale.

Ronaldo was dropped for the round of 16 tie against Switzerland as Santos made his point, with Ramos the man to benefit. And the forward took his opportunity quite brilliantly, becoming the first man in 20 years to score a hat-trick on his World Cup debut. It was his first international start.

Suddenly, everyone is talking about Ramos and the potential of him moving to a top European club, with Manchester United among those linked. Here’s why the Benfica man is suddenly one of football’s hottest properties.

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Isolated role for Benfica

Ramos spent the majority of his youth career at Benfica and rose up the ranks through the second team. He only became a first-team regular towards the second half of last season under interim head coach Nelson Verissimo. However, he was behind Darwin Nunez and Roman Yaremchuk in the pecking order for the striker position, so he often found himself playing as a No.10 or inside forward. Still, he managed to return seven goals and an assist in just over 1,600 minutes of league football.

Both of the aforementioned players left Benfica in the summer transfer window, and new head coach Roger Schmidt placed his trust in Ramos by asking him to lead the line in his 4-2-3-1 system. This set up features very attack-minded full-backs and narrow wingers in a dynamic front line, but the striker is usually required to stay as high up as possible to stretch the opposition’s defence.

His touchmap from the season does a great job of depicting his role, as his activity is mostly clustered inside the penalty area and in the attacking third

(Image credit: Liga Bwin Stats app by @PositionIsKeyPT)

The stats also paint a picture of his isolated role in possession, as he has averaged just over 10 passes completed per 90 in the league this season, receives just over four progressive passes per 90 (fewer than Benfica’s first-choice wingers, number 10 and full-backs) and gets just 26.2 touches per 90, fewer than all of his team-mates apart from the goalkeeper.

Ramos’ pizza chart from the current league season sums up his role pretty well, as he has a high volume of shots and touches in the penalty area, but is pretty low on all other metrics.

Pure poacher

None of these stats should be concerning because this is the perfect role for Ramos. Data analytics experts SciSports say that Ramos is at his best when used as a poacher according to their model, and this is precisely what Schmidt has been doing.

His shotmap for the season proves that, showing how the 21-year-old striker almost dwells in the centre of the penalty area.

Ramos’ job is simple: let his team-mates get the ball up the pitch and reach the attacking third, and then get on the end of chances inside the penalty area to score goals. The above shotmap shows he is doing that well, but let us take a look at some more stats to get an even better understanding of how he has fared.

Even though he has played less than half the amount of league minutes this season compared to last, Ramos already has nine goals to his name in under 800 minutes played, which means he scores over a goal a game on average.

His underlying numbers are equally impressive. His xG tally in the league this season is 8.9, and he averages just over 4 shots per game. Most impressively, his average chance quality is the best among players who have attempted more than 20 shots in Europe’s top-seven leagues this season, as his npxG/shot average is a whopping 0.25!

Ramos vs Portuguese Liga strikers: Overall performance 2022/23

It is easy to explain this given the fact that he often gets on the end of crosses and cut-backs but the fact that he has done so with such regularity is quite laudable. This is, of course, where his reputation as a poacher is built, so his clever movement inside the penalty box is arguably his best trait.

Watch here how Ramos drops back as the opposition defence pushes up as the crossing threat fades, but the striker is already thinking about the next opportunity. He gets in between the opposition centre-back and wing-back, which gives him the little bit of space he needs to get on the end of Enzo Fernandez’s wonderful assist.

Conversely, he does not drop back in the next clip as he sees the run being made by his team-mate, so he stays ahead of the opposition centre-back and gets on the end of a simple cut-back.

Additionally, Ramos also is strong in the air and a great header of the ball. He has won 57.6% of his aerial duels in the league this season, which is impressive for a striker. Thanks to his technique, he is also able to generate a good deal of power on his headed attempts, as is the case here:

Fit at a top European club

Ramos quite clearly is a great goal scorer, but that does not necessarily mean that he can slot into any team he likes. He is a pure poacher, so his link-up play and ball-carrying ability are not great. Therefore, he can excel in a low-involvement role such as the one he has at Benfica, but not all teams can provide that.

Manchester City, for example, like their striker to get involved with his back to goal often, but this is not something that would get the best out of Ramos. Currently, he is being most strongly linked to the other Manchester club – Manchester United – and this does seem sensible.

One of the issues Ronaldo had at the club was that he was dropping deep too much and disrupting his team-mates’ work while not getting on the end of chances in the box as often, but Ramos will do the exact opposite of that. Additionally, the 21-year-old striker is a relentless presser and works very hard off the ball as he leads Benfica’s 4-4-2 press by making curved runs to close down the opposition defender or goalkeeper on the ball. This is another quality that Man Utd manager Erik ten Hag will appreciate.

Nevertheless, the chances of Ramos leaving Benfica in January seem low. The release clause in his contract is reportedly set at €120 million, and although they were willing to sell him for a fraction of that in the summer, their minds must have been changed after his performances in the last few months.

Ramos is one to watch both at the World Cup and when he returns to club football for Benfica. Europe’s best sides are sure to be watching him closely, and they could all look to pounce in the summer when he will have two years left on his current deal.