Ruben Semedo in-depth scouting report: The next great Southampton defender?

A man that I personally think could be the future of Southampton is Ruben Semedo. A central-defender for Portugal’s Sporting Academy who is linked to a Southampton transfer; he follows a long line of young talents including the likes of Nani, Cristiano Ronaldo, Luis Figo, and Quaresma.

With the potential departure of Virgil van Dijk, we must prepare for the future without him whether we like it or not. Even if we keep our Dutch captain we must bring in someone else to help out. There are many different names that have been thrown out about who to potentially bring in for the central defender position. This article will outline a detailed scouting report of who I believe to be the best player that we can bring in: Ruben Semedo.

Born and raised to be tough

Semedo was born in a Portuguese city called Casal da Mira. This was a very tough neighborhood to grow up around the Lisbon area. The starlet has always considered himself a raw style of football player, which is shown by him growing up playing on the streets. After being scouted out by a smaller team in Lisbon, he was forced to leave the club due to family controversies. He found himself back in the game of football at the age of 16 joining another small club in Lisbon.

His team lacked talent, getting crushed by almost every Portuguese team played, but Semedo caught the eye of the Sporting scout. He was described by several scouts as “always the best player on the field”.

These are high accolades for someone who lacked the experience that young players get and their upbringing. Sporting truly wanted to bring him on as the long-term replacement to current center-back Eric Dier. The Semedo hype caught quickly and some of the biggest clubs in the world were seeking to win the rights of the young Portuguese defender. It was reported that Liverpool actually offered Semedo a professional contract which was close to being finalized. Apparently, the then-current president for the Sporting club, Bruno de Carvalho, had talked to Semedo and convinced him to stay. The starlet then signed his first professional contract with Sporting.

He was described as one of the hardest working youth talents the club as ever seen. He continued to impress everyone within the organization day after day, and was finally given his first team opportunity in 2013. Although the opportunity was the result of an excessive amount of injuries from the Sporting side, including long-term injuries from current center-defenders Eric Dier and Marcos Rojo, he flourished.

His first opportunity was given against Fiorentina. Having to keep holds of the likes of Mario Gomez and Giuseppe Rossi of AFC Fiorentina is not an easy task. He passed with flying colors and was praised for his performance, leading Sporting to a 3-0 win and getting his first professional goal.

He then found his inner demons, starting to revert back to the characteristics that were shown from people around his hometown. The money and fame from becoming one of the most talked about Portuguese players ever started to get to his head. Semedo began making controversial statements regarding his club and his teammates. It began burning many different bridges, to the point where he was loaned out twice.

This last season, however, Sporting was extremely impressed by his loan stint with Vitoria de Setubal, that they agreed to a fee to bring Semedo back to Sporting. He immediately found his way into the starting lineup and has started almost every game at Center-back ever since.

What could he bring?

The 1.9 meter Semedo brings a physical tool that cannot be taught. He is a large and powerful human that wins a good majority of his aerial duels. To add along with his size, he has uncharacteristic speed and agility for a center-defender of his stature. There are many defenders with this size and speed though.

What truly sets him apart from all of these others is his style in which he plays. From his upbringing and a good majority of his development being from the streets when he was younger, he has a distinct style. A good street-style player is someone who dribbles and makes bold tackles. Playing fearless is the best way to think about this. When he started transitioning into the professional game, he began to become an extremely intelligent and thoughtful player. Combine these attributes together, you have a play-making central defender.

When you have someone who plays fearless as he does, you can guarantee that anytime there is a one-on-one situation he is going to come out on top. He will be one of the fastest players on the field so he is perfect for teams that want to attempt to execute a counter-attack

One of the unique qualities discussed earlier is his dribbling abilities. Semedo started his career as a midfielder, and has actually been known to player the defensive midfielder role for Sporting. He has no issue of taking the ball up the pitch and distributing the ball in a play-making position. He has been known regularly to play a perfectly 60-yard through-ball to a running striker.

As a center-defender who plays fearless, another strong attribute has been his growth and maturity from an intellectual standpoint. It is important that he doesn’t make reckless tackles and that has shown from year to year. Semedo brings very good anticipation and patience with each tackle and does not allow any player to control the box. He has become intelligent enough to cover the field in a way to prevent any sort of danger from occurring before it even starts. When it does start, I feel bad for any striker who tries to take him on.

What does he lack?

Semedo is a young player, and therefore lacks some tactical maturity. It is something that is found in many players, but with his lack of professional experience(in the eyes of most individuals), he does have work to do on the tactical side of things. With Sporting’s current style and tactics, it is the perfect fit for what Semedo brings, but he will sometimes make obscure decisions tactically and will go rogue. Although he does have the physical capabilities of pulling himself back into position, this will sometimes lead to opposition opportunities.

One of my favorite things about Semedo will also be one of his downfalls, especially as a young player. He is a rough, cold-blooded defender, and with his youthfulness will sometimes bring reckless tackles.

This aspect of his game has taken an obscure amount of time to get to the point where you can feel comfortable with him on the pitch, but there are still occasions where the recklessness will be on display. He has now reduced his number of fouls to 1.5 a game. If he is able to reduce this number even more while sustaining his aggressive style of play, he can become a world-class defender. Under the guidance of Claude Puel, I believe this is extremely possible.

This is a player who has every physical and mental toolset to become the next great defender. He has been the focal point of success for Sporting CP this season, and can be the focal point for Southampton in the years coming. His cold-blooded and aggressive mentality, while being able to push the ball up the pitch is the exact player Southampton craves. With a little work, could become the defender we always dreamed about for years to come.