Renato Sanches – Overhyped or Underutilized?
Ever since Renato Sanches announced his arrival on to the centre stage with his match-winning exhibition in the Portuguese shirt, having played under the captaincy of arguably the greatest footballer on the planet – Cristiano Ronaldo, the 20 year-old has made a name for himself. Being touted as Europe’s next golden boy, the star midfielder, who was stationed at the Allianz Arena has ended up at Swansea City for the on-going season.
Hugely identified as Portugal’s Euro 2016 hero, he will most certainly look to revive his career in South Wales (Swansea) with a coach he has known well from their time together at Bayern. He was snapped by Bayern from Benfica after an amazing Euro campaign, making the price tag of €35m look like a bargain.
The reality of the matter stays that Swansea City is a club that avoided relegation last season by holding on to god almighty as they narrowly made the cut. However, Swansea manager, Paul Clement has sold his best players in Gylfi Sigurdsson and Fernando Lllorente, creating a void for an under-utilised talent like Sanches to fill in.
The only objective on the club’s agenda shall be to survive the Premier League again and win as many games as possible. This is a setting that sounds no less than ideal for an out-of-form young gun like Renato who himself needs to play maximum number of games to come back into is own for club, U21s, and Portugal in the World Cup next year in Russia.
Renato Sanches began his season at Allianz Arena promisingly as Ancelotti took the opportunity to save the legs of his regular midfielders early in the campaign. So Renato beat Arturo Vidal and Thiago for a starting berth. It wasn’t for long though, before he fell out of favour and stopped getting as many starts as he’d have liked to. Sanches barely managed 600 minutes in the Bundesliga overall and started only twice in 2017.
Here is a statistical breakdown of Renato Sanches ever since he turned Pro:
For Benfica
2015-16 Primiera
Games Played : 24
Games Started: 22
Goals Scored: 2
2015-16 Uefa Champions League
Games Played : 6
Games Started: 6
Goals Scored: 0
For Portugal
Friendlies
Games Played : 6
Games Started: 1
Goals Scored: 0
2016 Euro Cup
Games Played : 6
Games Started: 3
Goals Scored: 1
2018 WC Qualifiers
Games Played : 1
Games Started: 0
Goals Scored: 0
For Bayern Munich
2016-17 Bundesliga
Games Played : 17
Games Started: 6
Goals Scored: 0
2016-17 Uefa Champions League
Games Played : 6
Games Started: 2
Goals Scored: 0
2016 DFB Pokal
Games Played : 2
Games Started: 1
Goals Scored: 0
2017 Int’l Champ Cup
Games Played : 4
Games Started: 1
Goals Scored: 0
Is Renato Sanches Overhyped Or Underutilised?
Ironically, he is BOTH!
At this stage of his career, Renato Sanches can surely not be billed as a player on the A-list roster. However, he is exceptionally gifted and watching him commanding the ball seems poetic. He is undoubtedly a product of great fortune and overly-hyped marketing. It is not that his brand-building is knocking the wrong doors, but its just too early in the day for the Portuguese lad to be pitted against the likes of Vidal or Thiago or even a Sigurdsson.
Clearly, his market value has notched down ever since he joined Bayern. Young stars like Mbappe and Dembele have signed big contracts for European giants like Barcelona and PSG. Renato is unfortunately falling behind in the race to being Europe’s ultimate midfield talent.
Nonetheless, he has proven in the past with Portugal, that all he needs is a big occasion to deliver the goods. It is only a matter of time before he proves his critics wrong and gets back on two feet, making the right kind of noise, indicating big plans to the bosses of Europe.
Presently, in the Swansea City kit, the ex-Benfica lad looks like a by-product of the managerial hype that Ancelotti gave to the youngster. But at the same time, Renato Sanches would get more game time from Paul Clement and hopefully, he can remove the stain of an “under-utilised” player sooner than later as the Premier League 2017-18 season’s action gets bigger and better.