3 Things to know about Leicester City transfer target Morato

Firstly, I checked over his FB Ref and Sofascore profiles to get an understanding of what kind of player the East Midlands club was/is scouting. Most critical is to understand the stylistic utility of the defender, as well as the positionality they take up.

Positionality is quite easy to check. Using the talent’s profiles, we can see Morato is a left-sided centre-back who likes to progress the ball. On top of that, as part of that brilliant Benfica side, they typically take on a much higher and compact defensive line.

As such, positionally, Morato is what Leicester City have been missing for a while. A natural left-footed centre-back. However, the Brazilian is no Wesley Fofana, and nor would I consider them similar to Evans.

Stylistically, Morato is a left-sided Wout Faes. This means a more composed variation of the Soyuncu-style player. Essentially, he is more thoughtful as to when he puts in challenges, passes, or progresses through ball carrying. However, the 21-year-old still does these more aggressive and progressive actions.

As per the Sofascore profile, we see that over the course of last season, the defender achieved 2.4 clearances per game and 1.0 tackles per game (not the quantity of tackles in total). These represent fairly modest figures. They are likely skewed by Benfica’s usual dominance in games.