Who Is Savinho?
Throughout football history, Brazil has constantly developed world-class wingers.
The unique flair and talent are consistently evident in the many prospects that emerge from the Brasileirão.
One of the leading talents of the next generation is the 17-year-old winger Sávio Moreira (“Savinho”).
According to Fabrizio Romano, Atlético Mineiro agreed to a reported €6.5 million plus add-ons offer from Manchester City.
Sávio burst onto the scene in 2020, just 16 years old at the time.
Since making his professional debut at a very early age, he has been slowly breaking into Atlético Mineiro’s star-filled first team.
In addition to impressing in Galo’s academy, Savinho has also performed for Brazil’s U15 and U20 sides.
He is still very young at 17 years old and a raw product.
Aspects of his game, such as the end product and decision-making, are still being polished.
However, he has the talent and abilities to become a tremendous player.
The City Football Group will certainly loan him out and take his development very seriously.
Like another Brazilian talent signed by Man City, Kayky, he should be expected in Man City’s first team in a few years.
In this Savinho scout report, we will analyse Sávio’s style of play, identifying his strengths and weaknesses.
We will discuss his role in Brazil’s and Atlético Mineiro’s tactics, as well as his best position and role.
Savinho Position & Style of Play
For both Brazil and Atlético, Sávio’s role has been relatively consistent.
In most matches, he has operated on the right wing.
Despite being left-footed, he is far from an inside forward.
Savinho’s heat map below shows that he is often near the sideline, maintaining width.
His right foot is pretty good, as we will examine in depth later, so he can either drive inside or take it down the wing.
As the Brazilian is predominantly left-footed, his heat map naturally bleeds over into the right half-space.
Savinho Heat Map
Savinho Dribbling Skills
Sávio Moreira is a very skilled player.
He brings an aggressiveness and willingness to attack, which is often essential.
He is very successful in doing so due to several components.
Overall, his dribbling ability is very good.
More specifically, the Brazilian has the ball control and technique to match his flair.
Additionally, his reactions are excellent.
The 17-year-old can react quickly to the defender’s movements and perform the best move to get past him.
Finally, his acceleration and pace allow him to attack spaces on and off the ball with great danger.
Savinho can also use this pace to beat defenders with quick direction changes.
So far, he has averaged an impressive 10.32 dribbles per 90 throughout his short career.
He has achieved a success rate of 53.2%, which is quite high, considering how often he performs a dribble.
It is essential to note that this number is slightly inflated due to matches for Brazil U15 and Atlético’s academy.
Still, the Brazilian has maintained a high rate for Atlético Mineiro’s first team.
At any rate, his tendency to drive at players and find himself in 1v1 situations is very consistent.
As we have seen with his heat map, he is often positioned as wide as possible.
This positioning allows him to maximise his time and space on the ball.
Savinho can also have a much better view of the game in front of him.
As he is left-footed, he often looks to cut inside and combine through the middle.
However, he will also look to dribble onto his right foot with just as much frequency.
Naturally, the middle of the pitch will be much more crowded and consequently with much less space.
Taking players down the wing allows him to progress with much more space and ease.
At any rate, his ability to be very threatening with both feet makes him very unpredictable and challenging to defend against.
The image below shows that the 17-year-old receives the ball very wide in a 1v1 situation.
Centrally, his teammate checks in, bringing a defender with him.
As a consequence, the left half-space is very crowded.
However, that is no problem for Savinho, who quickly changes direction to the right and beats the defender.
He can then dribble closer to the box and deliver a dangerous cross.
In another instance, Savinho again looks to beat the defender on the wing.
The creativity and technique in his dribbling make him a very dangerous player.
The Brazilian is able to not only get past defenders but also beat them so that they can’t recover as quickly.
He is not simply dribbling past players to have them right on his back.
He often gets past them in ways that create time and space for him.
In this case, he performs a move that essentially turns the defender the wrong way.
Sávio then advances with time into a favourable 2v1 situation on the wing.
Savinho Passing Abilities
Despite still being a rather raw player, Sávio has good passing abilities.
So far, he has averaged 26.6 passes per 90 at a 75% completion rate.
By itself, the success rate is far from impressive.
However, context matters very much.
From these 26, Savinho averages 4.04 passes to the penalty area per 90 and 6.75 forward passes per 90.
These passes are naturally much more difficult and have a lower completion rate.
Upon closer examination, he appears to be very aggressive and impulsive in his decision-making.
His passing behaviour is a clear pattern, which can be illustrated through his pass map.
Against URT, he played 75 minutes and attempted 32 passes at an 81% success rate.
Since the Brazilian plays as a right-winger, most of them originate from the wing.
The length and type of pass also vary a lot.
In the middle third, most of his passes tend to be lateral or back passes.
As he gets closer to the final third, nearly all of them go forward.
Savinho Passes Map
While passing is not Savinho’s major strength, it still poses a threat.
He has decent vision and awareness to put his teammates into dangerous positions.
However, this is not done enough and should be something Manchester City look to develop.
The raw ability is there, but it needs to be developed to consistently pose a threat.
Against Boa Esporte, he plays a fine through pass to put his teammate in a 1v1 with the goalkeeper.
As usual, he receives the ball on the wing near the sideline.
He then drives forward and sees his teammate making a run into the space behind.
Savinho can break the last defensive line and take three defenders out of play.
As we have examined, his passing can progress through the zones and create chances.
Additionally, Manchester City should explore his crossing ability.
His dribbling allows him to get into optimal areas to deliver these crosses.
Savinho averaged 2.65 crosses per 90 in his career so far, which is not necessarily frequent enough.
However, it is worth noting that over the past year, he has often been used as a substitute with limited playing time.
This lack of consistency and limited playing time, of course, has affected many of his statistics.
The ability is certainly there, but many factors will influence frequency and success rate.
A good example of this occurred against Boa Esporte.
After receiving the ball wide, the Brazilian beats the defender and drives closer to the box.
He gets into an excellent position and has three people to cross to in the box.
The 17-year-old can find his teammate in the middle, who can get a header off.
His strengths and tendencies certainly give him the potential to be a dangerous threat crossing-wise, but his delivery and consistency should be developed.
It is also important to note that he is crossing with his weak foot.
His ability to use both feet, both crossing and creating, expands his potential tremendously.
Savinho Areas Of Improvement
While Sávio has many strengths, as we have seen above, there are areas where he needs improvement.
When he joins Manchester City in the summer, he will be 18 years old, giving him ample time to improve and develop into a world-class player.
At any rate, if he wants to compete in Manchester City’s first team in the future, he will have to improve these areas.
First, his finishing ability is lacking.
His shots do not pose a significant enough threat, so he does not score very often.
The talented right-winger also does not create many chances for himself.
His dribbling and passing make him a significant part of his team’s attack, but those usually create for others.
Given that he plays with his strong foot inside, he could be looking to create many more chances for himself.
Sávio is very intelligent with his off-the-ball movement.
He can get into good spaces and make good runs.
His pace also allows him to beat defenders with ease.
Given these strengths, he should be scoring and getting on the end of many more chances.
His overall finishing needs work.
That is his actual shooting, as well as his behaviour, that leads to him getting into these situations more frequently.
His goalscoring output could also be enhanced by improving his shot selection.
The best goal scorers in the world are not only there due to their excellent finishing but also due to their effective shot selection.
The expected goal model quantifies a shot’s quality by considering several factors.
One of these factors is the shot location.
An xG map illustrates areas with the highest probability of scoring.
It essentially shows where players and teams should be aiming to finish chances from.
Savinho Shots Map
A significant portion of his shots come from very poor locations, with a low probability of scoring.
Additionally, almost no shots are from the optimal area.
This area is in the middle of the box around the penalty spot.
Rather than settling for these long-range and poor shots, he should focus on developing his play and getting into better areas.
This will drastically improve his goal-scoring rate and develop this area of his game.
In summary, Manchester City should focus on developing Sávio’s end product.
Some aspects of his crossing and passing ability can be enhanced with less work, whereas his finishing and shot selection require significant improvement.
Conclusion
Manchester City may have gotten a bargain for the young Sávio Moreira (“Savinho”).
Although still a relatively raw player, he possesses characteristics and strengths that can be nurtured and developed.
His potential is very high, especially as he is a very young player.
In addition, the City Group certainly have the structure to develop him into a world-class player carefully.
Sávio is one of the leaders of the next generation of Brazilian stars, and Manchester City have done a good job in securing his talent.
The future certainly looks very bright for the 17-year-old.
