A couple of weeks ago, Total Football Analysis produced a scout report on one of the EFL Championship’s in-form attackers, Harvey Vale, who was on the verge of making his international debut for the Republic of Ireland at the time of writing.
We used weighted combinations of raw Wyscout data to build custom metrics tailored for right-wingers in our analysis, and Vale stood out as a rising, system-dependent playmaking asset who likes to invert from the right wing, positionally.
Using that same dataset, we’ve produced this Carlos Forbs scout report.
Forbs profiles in many ways as a complete contrast to Harvey Vale.
Rather than a controller or pure creator, Carlos Forbs is an explosive dribbler whose game centres on volume carries and 1v1 duels.
What makes Carlos Forbs stand out is not just that profile, which is admittedly a personal favourite of mine, but on top of that, he is not one-dimensional.
He’s not just a fast dribbler, Forbs is capable of beating defenders regularly when going 1v1 against them and, crucially, delivering an end product.
This Carlos Forbs scout report shares analysis of Carlos Forbs’ style of play with Club Brugge in the Belgian Pro League and UEFA Champions League 2025/2026.
Carlos Forbs Stats
Figure 1 presents key 2025/2026 data on Carlos Forbs, including a heat map, position map and percentile ranks for our custom-built metrics.
The percentile ranks benchmark the 22-year-old’s performance on each of our metrics against that of other right-wingers who have played at least 600 minutes in the Belgian Pro League and leagues of similar quality (the EFL Championship, the Dutch Eredivisie, the Portuguese Primeira Liga, and the Turkish Süper Lig) this season.
Carlos Forbs Percentile Ranks 2025/2026
Carlos Forbs ranks at the very top in our Progression Score metric, which combines progressive runs, progressive passes and accelerations, highlighting his heavy involvement in driving his team upfield and into the final third.
The Portugal U21 international is also extremely impactful once he gets into the final third, resulting in his elite >90th percentile numbers for Final Third Impact Score and 1v1 Score.
These metrics are designed to signal ability to consistently beat defenders in isolation, get into highly threatening positions and generate chances for both himself and teammates.
Carlos Forbs achieves this through explosive dribbling and a willingness to engage defenders directly, making him a constant threat in transition and settled attacking situations when afforded space.
The 22-year-old’s heat map shows a strong concentration high and wide on the right, with heavy involvement in the final third, further reinforcing his value in those high-value areas of the pitch and reflecting his role as a final-phase attacker.
The winger is most influential once possession has progressed into the opposition half, rather than during deeper build-up phases, though he can also contribute meaningfully if he receives around the halfway line and is required to progress his team into those advanced areas either in settled possession or on the counter.
Carlos Forbs’ Creativity Score ranks well above average.
This metric more explicitly focuses on his chance creation threat and intent, even if those actions don’t directly generate an attempt on goal.
His score here indicates a solid level of playmaking ability, though this is not the main area of his game.
Instead, his creative output tends to emerge as a result of his directness on the ball and ability to destabilise defensive structures through dribbles.
Carlos Forbs’ Crossing Score is his second-worst performing metric of our six, though it still sits above average, suggesting that while he’s capable of delivering from wide, this is, again, not the defining feature of his profile.
The clear limitation in Carlos Forbs’ profile comes via our Defensive Score, where he ranks well below average, pointing to a contribution which is heavily weighted towards attacking phases, with less consistent involvement out of possession, though this is an area that can feasibly see dramatic improvement over a short time period.
The data indicate that Carlos Forbs functions best as a direct, high-impact winger, thanks to his ability to progress play, break defensive lines through individual actions and generate attacking output through his speed and dribbling, rather than through controlled build-up or structured chance creation.
Carlos Forbs Counterattack Threat
The first thing worth noting as we delve deeper into the details of Carlos Forbs’ game is that the 22-year-old winger possesses blistering pace on top of solid ball control even when moving at pace.
This naturally makes him a major counterattack threat on Club Brugge’s right wing.
Barcelona and their famous high line found out about this first-hand in their UEFA Champions League League-Phase clash with Club Brugge, as Carlos Forbs scored twice and assisted once against the Catalan outfit, earning the Belgian Pro League side a draw.
Both of Carlos Forbs’ goals along with his assist in this game came as a result of the winger and his team intelligently exploiting Barça’s high line with his pace.
Above, we see an clip of Carlos Forbs’ first goal, Club Brugge’s second of the game.
The winger gets played in behind Barcelona’s backline and adjusts his body positioning as he approaches the goal to set himself up for a shot on his favoured left foot.
In the end, Forbs curls the ball towards the far corner of the net, putting his side 2-1 up against Barcelona and proving, on the biggest stage of European football, how threatening he can be in transition with his lethal combination of pace, movement, strong run-timing and technical quality.
Carlos Forbs Pace, Link-Up & Vision
Though this left-footed right winger does still tend to stay wide more than he cuts inside, but his threat is such that he can consistently keep defenders guessing about his next move, such as whether he’ll take the ball on the inside or outside, or whether he’ll carry or release.
This clip of Carlos Forbs carrying the ball inside from wide to generate a chance against Arsenal is a great example of his ability to make something happen out of very little.
Forbs plays a neat one-two, continues on running at pace and ends up playing a defence-splitting through pass to get into Arsenal’s box.
This certainly wasn’t a clear-cut goalscoring opportunity but the clip does highlight how Forbs combines his lightning fast pace with solid technical ability and vision to link up with a teammate and slice through Arsenal’s defence, offering a significant attacking threat from the right wing which can generate momentum for his side and belief in their supporters, potentially changing the atmosphere inside the stadium in a favourable way for Club Brugge.
Carlos Forbs Wing Play, Dribbling & Crossing
Carlos Forbs’ pace will always place a seed of worry in opponents’ minds, when they’re aware of the threat he poses on and off the ball.
That concern is valuable as it can contribute to destabilising the opponents’ defence and creating opportunities for his team.
We saw a great example of this in Club Brugge’s UEFA Champions League second-leg clash with Atlético Madrid, with Forbs having been out of action due to an ankle injury for the first leg.
Though Club Brugge ultimately ended up losing the match and getting knocked out of Europe’s elite competition by their Spanish opponents, the Portuguese winger proved a nightmare for Atleti left-back Matteo Ruggeri to try and deal with, making it a long night at the office for the Italian defender.
Above, we see an example of Carlos Forbs picking the ball up around the halfway line as his team looks to transition to attack in the first half.
Forbs possesses the pace to just blast in behind the opposing defence, but he bides his time here and draws the Atleti left-back into a challenge before flicking the ball beyond him and driving down the line, showcasing he can threaten via ball control and agility too, not just pace.
The cross is low and hard from his weaker right foot; he does find a teammate but, in the end, the ball was difficult to control and Atlético can clear the danger.
In the next clip, from the second half, Ruggeri stands off Forbs a bit more, potentially not wanting to get beat by his pace in behind again.
This affords Forbs the space he needs to cut the ball onto his stronger left foot and curl an inviting ball into the danger zone.
This highlights how Forbs can keep the opponent guessing about his next move from the wing.
In the last clip, once again, Forbs successfully baits Ruggeri into a challenge, flicks the ball past and creates a decent crossing opportunity on his right.
You’d probably rather Forbs have a cross with his weaker right foot than his left, given there is a noticeable drop-off in quality when he uses his right foot.
He’s still comfortable actually using it and can create danger with his weaker foot, as we’ve seen.
However, the most danger by far comes from his left, and that’s the threat you’d primarily want to guard against when he receives out wide.
With that said, his pace in behind is clearly the main weapon in his arsenal, so deploying a high line against Carlos Forbs is asking for trouble no matter who you are, as Barcelona found out.
Conclusion
Carlos Forbs is best utilised as a right-sided inside forward or wide transition winger in systems that prioritise verticality and quick attacking phases rather than slow, possession-heavy control.
He thrives in systems that isolate him against full-backs or release him quickly into space, making counterattacking or high-tempo attacking systems the most natural fit for his profile.
Surrounding him with a defensively reliable full-back and structurally disciplined midfield would help offset his limited defensive output while maximising his attacking freedom.
Teams that combine compact defensive structures with fast, direct attacking transitions would get the most value from Carlos Forbs.
