Joao Mario scored three goals and had four assists last season in all competitions for both Inter Milan and West Ham combined. While he was at Inter, he only started 5 games.
Although he isn’t a natural winger, he started three of Portugal’s four games and played down the left wing. The 25-year-old failed to register a single goal or assist despite playing 261 minutes in Russia. He only played 6 key passes and mustered just one shot which came from outside the box. One could assume that he was in the team to add more stability defensively but he was dribbled past five times and completed just four of the 9 tackles he went into.
Meanwhile, Guedes was picked for the World Cup squad after a terrific season with Valencia during which he scored 5 goals and assisted 9 more.
He scored two goals against Algeria in the pre-World Cup friendly and thus earned a starting role for the main tournament.
Guedes picked up the assist for Ronaldo’s second goal against Spain but it wasn’t special by any means and the goal only happened due to a terrible mistake from David De Gea. Against Spain, Guedes had a glorious opportunity to score and he squandered the chance.
In total, Guedes managed 5 shots of which three were from outside the box and only produced 3 key passes despite playing 245 minutes.
So much more was expected from the youngster but he failed to deliver and this increased the burden on Cristiano Ronaldo.