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Stats:
Guilherme Biro Club: Corinthians Nationality: Brazil Position(s): RW, AM, LW, LB Preferred Foot: Left Height: 5’7”/171cm Age: 19
Strengths:
Dribbling, distance shooting, creativity, passing, vision, composure, defensive work rate.
Development Areas:
Weak foot usage, shot volume, aerial duels.
Corinthians' carry on delivering
Guilherme Biro is a future superstar and one of several players part of Corinthians' special generation of young academy talents. Robert Renan (Zenit St. Petersburg) & Murillo (Nottingham Forest) both have already moved on this year, while Pedrinho agreed a move away for February 2024 (Zenit St. Petersburg).
Other academy players such as Gabriel Moscardo, Wesley and Matheus Donelli have all linked with moves away in the near future.
This is a golden generation for Corinthians’ academy and Guilherme Biro is certainly a potentially huge star. With his raw ability, it won’t be long until he’s snapped up by one of Europe’s elite teams. His profile is so unique, valuable and mouldable to different tactical set ups and systems.
Guilherme Biro: Style and strengths
Biro is a very agile player due to his low centre of gravity. He has that ability to turn at the very last second of potential contact from a defender to turn away from them calmly.
Not only is he so agile but Biro shields the ball well by putting his body in between the opponent and the ball. This enables him to draw a lot of fouls in dangerous areas to win free-kicks and penalties. Biro actually has 2.69 fouls drawn (top 6% of attacking midfielders/wingers outside top five leagues).
He’s not a high take-on volume-type player as he’s more of a creator and ‘controller’ type winger - think of a Bernardo Silva-esq RW over a Jérémy Doku-type RW. Biro’s lower take-on numbers further back this with 3.53 take-ons attempted and only 1.35 of these successful (38.1%). Biro has a lot of finesse. He often opts to shoot with the inside of the foot to create accurate curved shots from distance. Biro is able to shoot effectively from outside the box with minimal back-lift of his shooting foot/leg.
This style combined with his shorter legs allows him to able to get shots away quicker and easier in tight spaces due to less distance for his shorter limbs to travel. From outside the box Biro is deadly often choosing accuracy over power with his truly gifted left-foot.
The Brazilian’s volume of shots could be better though as he only has 2.19 per 90. Not terrible, but not amazing. I’d like to see him a lot closer to (or greater than) 3.00 shots per 90 - particularly in Campeonato Brasileiro Série A this should be attainable. Creativity is one of Biro’s greatest weapons in his arsenal. When on the right, not only does he cut in to shoot but also to play some pin-point deliveries into the box for his attacking team-mates.
The lofted cross into the box is his preferred move. Biro’s vision to identify the space on the pitch and his football IQ enables him to know how to exploit and invade this space. This is a very valuable trait to possess. When in deeper positions he loves to play line-breaking passes to slip through the pressing structure of the opponent.
The Brazilian's passing ability doesn’t stop there. His disguised passes, where he plays the ball revealing his intentions late, either through minimal back-lift or playing a reverse pass that’s unexpected and throws off markers.
When closer to the box, Biro relishes when producing a good calibre final ball. He judges the weight of pass on through balls very well, making the chances he creates of higher quality.
Areas to improve
One of the biggest concerns with the 19-year-old in a more physical league is his stature. His aforementioned height could result in him being ‘bullied’ by more physical full-backs and defenders if he moved to Europe. Although I would say that, despite the fact he’s a player of a lot of finesse, he also has plenty of power in his short compact build. In particular, he has good defensive work rate which means he’s happy to track back and get involved in winning the ball back. Biro’s upper body strength could definitely be better, but it’s certainly good enough to win duels. Aerial duels are another area for development. Biro has an aerial duel success rate of 45.5%. Obviously, he’s limited in this area due to being 5’7”. With this in mind, maybe Biro’s best role is as an interior then because in these areas he’ll have less aerial duels to contest with and it’d allow his creative abilities to be optimised in and around zone 14 and the half-spaces. Composure in the final third is a big part of what makes Biro so effective. In the goal below he showed great tight control and anticipated the defender rushing to close him down so he quickly dropped his shoulder to lose his marker and cut in on his left to unleash a clinical finish into the top corner.
As previously mentioned, Biro's defensive work rate is pleasing on the eye. He isn't one to shy away when pressing the opposition when out of possession. With 6.06 recoveries (top 9%) he’s always looking to win the ball back by anticipating mistakes from his opponents.
This skill is particularly valuable for teams wanting to maintain possession and sustain pressure on their opponent to ‘suffocate’ them by making them face attack after attack. Biro is a 2-way dribbler meaning he’s comfortable dribbling inside onto his left side AND also outside to his right too. This adds further unpredictability to Biro, making him harder to mark because he doesn’t appear to have a ‘weak’ side.
However due to his left foot dominance and over-reliance, Biro does massively prefer to go on his inside onto his left foot. If he really increased his weak-foot usage when carrying the ball (along with shooting too) Biro would become an even more complete player who’s much more effective and efficient.
Positional analysis
There are three main positions I see Guilherme Biro thriving in. An attacking midfielder (advanced 8 or number 10), a ‘controller’ right-winger, or as an inverted left-back.
Attacking Midfielder
Biro has a natural ability to evade pressure in tight spaces with his agility and is very dangerous on the edge of the box where he can shoot or play passes in behind. In this interior role, Biro can be the primary creator behind a striker playing great link-up play with local attacking team-mates.
‘Controller’ Right-Winger
If played on the right side of the pitch, Biro is best as a RW. A similar mould RW to a Bernardo Silva, Michael Olise, Raphinha type winger whose role is to create from the right. Mainly through cutting in to play lofted passes into the box for the ST or tucking into central areas to create around the half space.
Inverted Left-Back
If played on the left, I think it’s best in a deeper position. As an inverted LB, this gives him positional freedom to roam around the field in deeper positions. It opens the pitch up to him to create from deep.
It’s here where Guilherme can break-lines with this acute passing and progress play to be a key component of build-up play. With the inverted full-back position on the rise, I can definitely see a top club playing Biro here because it’s perfect for his profile. Right now, Biro hasn’t been linked with teams in Europe much just yet but it’s only a matter of time. This summer he was linked with a move to the Qatar Stars League but that rumour failed to materialise. However, Biro has a high ceiling which I hope he’s able to reach by making smart suitable career moves that are calculated decisions. He’s certainly a player football fans should be on the lookout for.