Let’s talk Fábio Vieira. Where has he done well? Where has he struggled? What can he learn from the best to turn into a Premier League difference-maker?
After Fábio Vieira arrived at Arsenal in a surprise transfer worth £30 million (plus £4.26 million in add-ons), one of the immediate points of intrigue was about his ultimate position. After all, considering the depth issues elsewhere, £30 million would be a lot to pay for pure Ødegaard cover.
When asked about his new addition’s best spot, Arteta was expansive:
“That’s something the player is going to tell us. We are already trying him in different positions in training, and he’s played on the left, right, as a false nine and an attacking midfielder, so it’s good. He doesn’t want to be locked in any one position, because he’s so used to it, and that’s a really positive thing for us.”
With a preseason interrupted by a minor knock, Vieira started on the right-wing for the U-21’s per request by the senior team. He then made his brief debut in the second half at Old Trafford, as Arteta put in a full YOLO lineup to claw back the lead. You probably remember how that turned out.
His next chance was at Zurich, where he started at the 10. Within minutes, he was floating all around the pitch, and adding clips to those YouTube compilations.
Vieira was deep and active on defense. After quickly recovering the ball and navigating traffic, he delivered a perfect weighted throughball to a sprinting Eddie with minimal windup…
…and Eddie was off to the races for the first goal.
The early season has not been short of such highlights. Among them…
In the first match against Bodø/Glimt, he gathered his own corner and sent a perfect cross for a Holdini goal:
There was a beautiful Jesus dribble combined with some opportunistic Vieira one-touch poaching:
And then, of course, there was the heat-seeking missile in his first Premier League start against Brentford:
On top of all this on-ball prowess, the defensive work rate has been a nice treat:
Surprisingly enough, he currently leads the Premier League in possessions won in the final third, with 2.2 per 90.
His 6.1 counterpressing recoveries per 90 are also tops among all players.
Granted, he racked up these numbers in a sample size of 203 minutes, but this isn’t wholly against form: he racked up impressive advanced recovery numbers at Porto, too.
OK, so Fábio Vieira is talented. Cool post, bro.
Where has he struggled? How can he get better? What can he learn from the best in the world?
Let's dive in.
Adjusting to the Premier League
It hasn’t all been smooth sailing. The late-game cameo against Southampton was … pretty rough. Concerns about Vieira’s size were given credence when he was routinely pushed off the ball, showcasing happy feet and misplaced passes.
An indicative moment happened at 70' against Nottingham Forest, when Vieira subbed on at the right wing next to Ødegaard.
Kouyaté has a heavy touch in the midfield, and that triggers a press swarm. Partey, Jesus, and Vieira all join in…
…and Kouyaté is dispossessed, with the ball gathered by the ever-opportunistic Vieira. Here’s where he makes his mistake, though. He’s got Ødegaard wide open in the half-space, and a quick pass would open up all kinds of possibilities…
…but instead, he tries to dribble away. Kouyaté can both keep up with him, and bully him off the ball. Kouyaté gets the ball back, and the counter fizzles in seconds.
The focus is naturally on the loss itself (getting son’d by a physically-imposing player) instead of what precipitated it (a lack of immediate, decisive action).
It’s fair to say there’s been an adjustment period. Considering his rapid ascent from Liga Portugal sub to top-of-the-table roleplayer at Arsenal, this is expected.
Here’s a quick comparison between his performances in the Europa and the Prem:
His losses climb from 6.21 to 7.54 per 90
His long passes drop from 4.07 to 1.33 per 90
He’s only had three total touches in the penalty area in the PL
He’s only winning 11.8% of his league duels
Interestingly, he’s more active overall in Premier League action, with 73.6 actions per 90 (compared to 55.29 in Europa). By eye test—aside from a rock-solid start at Brentford—there’s a more frenetic, less composed energy to his appearances to date.
But of course, we shouldn’t read too much into those numbers. It’s early, and the same size is small.
Getting pushed off the ball
Is his size ultimately an issue? He has two points in his favor. First, Arteta and Edu know ball, and they clearly don’t think so: they signed him. Second, one must simply scroll through a list of the game’s greatest-ever attackers to see that a diminutive stature can often be an advantage.
A professor of exercise science described it as such:
Shorter people have a quicker stepping pattern. Essentially, they’re spry: They can change directions much faster than tall folks, and they have better control over their limbs.
How do these short kings maximize their impact? Let the obvious points flow.
1. Bulk up in core strength
At his peak, N’Golo Kanté was a bowling ball of balance and energy that racked up dispossessions and made it hard for opponents to return the favor.
Likewise, one of the most common mental images of Messi is of him parting the seas while hapless defenders try (unsuccessfully) to lean on him and bounce off.
Vieira is looking to join their ranks.
“It’s a different type of game. In England it’s more physical and you need to work on this. I promise I’m working!” he said. When asked if he had been on the weights, the 22-year-old said: “Yes, three times a week. It’s time to improve.”
2. Pass it before getting contacted
The simple one, as covered above. You can’t tackle what you can’t see. As the game got taller, the best Barcelona sides were among the shortest in the world. Quick, anticipatory passing cares not about your height.
3. Avoid back-downs by gathering and moving at the same time
This is a particular area in which Vieira has gotten in trouble a couple times so far. Here’s an example against Southampton.
Vieira worked himself into a good position for a line-breaking pass by Saliba…
…but instead of scanning beforehand, and gathering it on the move, he gathers it like a power forward in the NBA looking to back somebody down. Salisu has time to run up from his LCB spot and tackles him pretty easily.
How does Vieira stack up?
To better understand Vieira’s performance to date, I pulled data for Vieira and three worthwhile comps in the league: Bruno, Martin, and Bernardo.
The data is for all competitive fixtures to date (including Champions and Europa League matches) and includes their performance across positions.
I highlighted some things that jumped out:
Vieira has the lowest success rate on dribbling of the four (28.57%)
He’s winning the lowest number of offensive duels (26.83%)
Perhaps most importantly, he has the lowest touches in the box by some margin (1.88 per 90)
He’s receiving the lowest number of passes (28.6)
On the other hand, he’s been successful at blasting long passes and is passing it into the final third at the highest success rate of the group.
What can he learn from them to take the next step?
1. Communicate and field-scan like Ødegaard
In the above clip against Southampton — when Vieira was tackled from behind — I counted zero field scans in the ~5 seconds leading up to him receiving the pass. He had worked himself into good position between the midfield and defense, and probably didn’t sense that the LCB was coming up to challenge him.
It’s something he does, but not as feverishly as Ødegaard, who is constantly gesticulating, scanning, and communicating (so long as Amazon cameras aren’t around).
I noticed this in a small moment in the early dominant periods of the same match. As Thomas took the ball away, Ødegaard made himself available.
As he found space, he stretched his arms to show it to Partey. He then did one look to Saliba, one to White, one behind him to Saka, and one to both defenders around him. I caught five total glances around his shoulder…
…and as the ball was on its way to him, he was still scanning.
Some say he’s still scanning today.
2. Play everywhere like Silva
Arteta wanted a Zinchenko-type, so he got Zinchenko. He wanted a Jesus-type, so got Jesus. He wanted a Silva-type, so he got … Vieira.
Watching Silva really helps clarify the potential vision for the new player, and it’s much more expansive than a simple Ødegaard understudy. In his time at City, he’s been deployed all over: winger, attacking 10, box-to-box 8, false 9.
Technically speaking, his position has been “the pitch.”
Like Vieira, his skillset initially screams attacking central midfielder, not prototypical inverted winger, but he’s featured out wide throughout his career, and not just out of necessity: this experience dates back to Monaco. On the flank, his sense of space shines, and he’s able to bang in high-level crosses. (Likewise, Vieira first broke in to Porto on the wing.)
Most notably, since joining City, Silva's defensive work rate has made deeper roles possible, often playing as more of a box-to-box LCM.
Against Liverpool, for example, he’d drop deep and free up Cancelo to join the front line.
This banger of a longball kicked off a near-goal for Cancelo:
The 2–1 Champions League victory against PSG makes for interesting viewing for us. With no KDB, Foden, or Grealish available, Zinchenko started at LCM (almost scoring in the process). Silva got the call at False 9.
The game kicked into overdrive when Jesus came on for Zinchenko. Silva and Jesus were at their flexible best, interchanging up front and manipulating space.
Crashing the box with Sterling, Silva accepted a deep cross and played it to Jesus for the decisive goal.
Looking at his experience at Porto, it isn’t difficult to picture Vieira doing a few of the same things in a pairing with Jesus.
In all, any comparison to one of the world’s best players should be seen as complimentary, though best-case. Looking back at Bernardo’s old tape at Monaco, it’s hard to envision Vieira (or virtually anyone, to be fair) ever reaching his peak as a dribbler.
But thanks in part to his example, Vieira may be slightly more advanced in other areas at a similar point in his career, specifically defensive work rate (which Silva grew into) and long finishes.
Even on a roster packed with greats, Silva’s versatility has allowed him to stay on the pitch.
3. Become ungovernable like Müller
One of the easier comparisons is to Bruno Fernandes. His risky, line-breaking style of passing was (sadly) on full display against Arsenal, and a skill that Vieira has the skills to emulate, as seen against Zurich.
But let's go with a more interesting option: Thomas Müller. This may seem like an odd comparison on the surface. Müller, after all, isn’t a small, young dynamo — he’s a 33-year-old Waluigi, devoid of superlative technical talents.
But he’s also been one of the world’s best players. If ever there is a player to study for his positioning sense, it’s him.
He’s even got his own word for his role, which is apparently part of Football Manager lexicon if you play that: Raumdeuter. It loosely translates to “space interpreter” or “space investigator.”
Ultimately, the role is less about positional discipline and more about understanding vulnerabilities in the defense, exploiting them, and consistently managing to put himself in the right place at the right time.
Müller can often find himself way outside on the touchline, particularly early in games, where he can get a more panoramic view of the pitch (instead of having to Owl-scan around his shoulder).
Once he gets his bearings, he’s all over the place, but his favorite spot is in the attacking right of the opponent’s box — a place where Vieira could afford to have more presence. Müller’s bending runs and immediate actions cause havoc around the keeper. His role isn’t focused on ball-control or pure efficiency (he loses the ball a good amount). It’s about goals.
The Raumdeuter showed up in the thrilling 2016 comeback against Juventus.
After tying the score with a header, he gathered the ball on the right and hit it across the field to Thiago. Müller then cuts right into the box…
…and now that he’s transitioned from attacking midfielder to shadow striker, he finds a spot right next to Lewandowski in the box for a cross…
…as the ball trickles away, the defenders are naturally (and understandably) drawn to Lewandowski, as they often are to Jesus in the box these days. Müller is left all alone for a pass from Thiago.
Müller then delivered back to a cutting Thiago for the decisive goal.
He had 32 goals for the club that year. Over the course of the career, Müller has always found the most production when unshackled from a traditional role. He’s at his best when the system is simple and he’s free to run amok.
Looking at some of Vieira’s performances down the stretch for Porto, there are some Raumdeuter impulses. Porto’s assistant coach said he “has the intelligence of wise old men.”
He's excelled at crashing the box, and was decisive at netting loose balls and second chances— something Ødegaard is improving at this year. It’s a treasured skillset for an Arsenal squad with constant activity in the final third.
🔥 In conclusion 🔥
What's clear is that Vieira's sense of freedom is a feature, not a bug. His best days at the office tend to look something like his two-goal day against Santa Clara:
But as he adjusts to a new situation, there's much more to consider. Here’s a TLDR that probably needs its own TLDR:
On receiving: Vieira can learn to be more demonstrative, vocal, and paranoid when moving to receive the ball, like Ødegaard.
On protecting the ball: While he gains comfort (and strength) as a dribbler in a new league, he should be more immediate with passes before getting run over, and avoid trying to back guys down.
On wingerism: As far as positions go, he is constitutionally more similar to Silva than Ødegaard. Like Silva, as of today, he’s probably most dangerous as an attacking midfielder up the gut, but that’s not the whole story. While not a traditional winger, and not a Saka clone by any means, I’d caution against writing off his potential there too early. Starting at RW against PSV, in a lineup featuring Saliba, Ødegaard, Xhaka, and Martinelli — he was probably Arsenal’s best player on a lethargic night, particularly when starting wide and cutting across zones like Saka did so well against Southampton and Forest. As a general rule, the more free Vieira is, the more effective he is—this shows up in his pass maps. On top of that, his crosses over there could open up a lot.
On the 8/ “Fake 10": After watching all this tape, he is simply better defensively than I realized, and looking forward, a lot of it comes down to whether he can sustain his work rate. If so, the Ødegaard/Vieira midfield may not be as DOA defensively as one would think long-term, so long as it’s someone of Partey’s defensive quality behind. It will take some time, though. I wouldn’t draw too many conclusions about his lone appearance at LCM to date, which was on Astroturf in the Arctic with Sambi behind. He was 95% passing and hit 9/10 long balls, but he didn’t impose himself, and looked more like a deep-lying playmaker than a Xhaka clone prior to switching over to the right at 59'. That may have been intentional. In the preseason, Arteta had this to say: "Granit has certain characteristics ... When Fabio Vieira plays in that position he will have a different role because his qualities are different, and it’s the same with Martin.”
On easing in: All that said, it’s a fair argument that it’s simply too much to ask a new player to shift leagues, miss preseason, learn a language, bulk up, play pivotal minutes, and simply jump in at 3+ positions in varying lineups. I would understand anyone’s urge to say “get comfortable at the 10 and we’ll go from there.”
On Jesus: Him and Jesus have a lot of potential together. They’re both capable of dropping deep and busting lines, and they’re both capable of covering for the other’s vacated space. As we’ve seen with Xhaka, more activity around Jesus—and his tornado of deflections, dribbles, pulled defenders, and deflected shots—will only lead to goals. They could be a real headache to keep track of.
On poaching: He can learn a few things about shadow-striking and receiving the ball in the box from Müller. The instincts are there, but he’s simply gotta get in the box more. His pure ball-striking talent is on par with any of ‘em.
I’ll end with a fun fact that I stumbled upon while researching this. Going back to his youth days, he’s never missed a penalty kick: a perfect 15/15.
May your day be pleasant, and may you feel the devilish joy that washes over Arteta when he’s about to provide an injury non-update.
And happy grilling everyone.
🔥
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