For decades, Brazil has been a hotspot for young and promising players.
Most of the time, these prospects tend to be skilful and talented forwards who entertain through flair.
In recent years, players like Real Madrid’s Vini Jr or Arsenal’s Gabriel Martinelli have left South America with the spotlight on them for their entertaining and exciting style.
There are, however, hardly any defenders grabbing the headlines.
Although players like Serie A’s Roger Ibañez and Bremer have recently entered the global stage, Brazilian centre-backs rarely leave the country with the public eye on them.
Robert Renan may prove to be the exception.
In fact, Renan’s entire profile revolves around breaking the norm and being unique.
The left-footed centre-back has recently broken into Corinthians’ first team despite being just 19 years old, exactly 10 years after PSG’s Marquinhos rose out of the same academy.
Robert Renan, a regular in Brazil’s youth national teams, is a highly technical and composed centre-back capable of playing a crucial role in both possession and transition.
As the Filho do Terrão rose through the academy, there was always doubt about whether this composure and technical style of play would translate into the senior team.
These questions were quickly put to rest as Renan displayed a rare tranquillity in his first few matches for Timão.
Since making his debut, the 19-year-old has become one of Vitor Pereira’s reliable options at the back.
In this scout report, we will break down Robert Renan’s profile through in-depth statistical and tactical analysis.
More specifically, this analysis will examine Robert Renan’s characteristics and involvement both in and out of possession.
Robert Renan Player profile
Robert Renan is a left-footed 19-year-old centre-back with a rather unique profile.
The Brazilian only has 13 professional games under his belt, having broken into the first team towards the end of the 2022 campaign.
After a few opportunities in the Copa do Brasil, Vitor Pereira quickly realised the 19-year-old’s potential and slowly integrated him into the squad.
Obviously, at such a young age, there are raw aspects to his game that must be developed with care.
Nonetheless, Renan has been able to quickly adapt to Vitor Pereiras tactics and mature his game at the senior level.
Physically, Robert Renan may lack the desired stature for a centre-back at just 186cm (6’1”).
This lack of height naturally limits his aerial ability, and that may be perhaps the only weakness in his profile.
Nonetheless, Renan is able to make up for this lack of physical stature through aware and technical defensive engagement.
As we will examine later, the Brazilian is able to provide an extremely effective defensive presence through intelligent positioning, excellent mobility and acceleration, and effective technical defending.
Similar to Marquinhos or Lisandro Martínez, Renan makes up for a lack of height with a complete defensive profile.
As he is left-footed, Robert has consistently played on the left of a centre-back duo.
Below, his heatmap from the 2022 Série A further illustrates his movement and positioning on the pitch.
He is incredibly mobile, and despite being the left centre-back, he is able to cover a lot of ground with and without the ball.
It is also notable how much his movement drifts into the final third.
In possession, Renan is able to utilise his passing ability by advancing forward and picking out dangerous passes.
Out of possession, he is also able to step up and close down opposition, whether in pressing or counter-pressing scenarios.
Although it is based on a much smaller sample size, we can see that Man United’s Lisandro Martínez has a very similar heatmap.
The Argentinian centre-back is perhaps the closest player, stylistically, to Robert Renan.
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