Tottenham have to find out the truth about Pedro Porro
Pedro Porro took everyone surprise over the summer at the 2026 World Cup, as he was the best right back of the tournament and even put Morocco's star and serial Champions League winner Achraf Hakimi to shame with the excellence of his two way performances for Spain. Far from being just a cog in the wheel, Porro, despite not starting the first game instead of Marcos Llorente of Atletico Madrid fame, was actually one of the most impressive and important players for La Roja in their successful conquest of yet another major international trophy.
While Porro is one of the more highly rated right backs in Europe and even had Manchester City and Real Madrid back interested in his signature before Spurs and Roberto De Zerbi wisely signed him to a new contract before the World Cup even started, he was coming off a horrendous 2025/26 Premier League season.
Porro did recover his form to become a key player down the stretch of the campaign during the relegation fight after De Zerbi took over, but Spurs fans could not reconcile how he was so bad and part of the reason why they were down in the relegation zone for much of the season with how amazing he was for Spain.
Pedro Porro has to prove himself again
And now, in the 2026/27 Premier League season, Pedro Porro is struggling. He is strugglingo stay healthy, he is struggling to stay fit and sharp, and in his return to the starting 11 against lowly Leeds United, Porro was horrible.
Roberto De Zerbi changed the formation and tactics to cater to him starting before the November break, and Porro rewarded him with a disaster class. He looked like a pub league level player, failing to move the ball at all and looking genuinely lost in transition defense. Leeds suffocated him, and his technical quality was abhorrent, going back to the woefully inaccurate crosses that plagued him in the 2025/26 Premier League season.
Tottenham need to figure out which version of Porro is the real one. Is he as good as he showed everyone at Spain, or was he simply being bailed out and carried by a great system and the best players in the world around him like Rodri, Lamine Yamal, and Pau Cubarsi? Or is he a mediocre, overly aggressive, inaccurate crosser who wastes possessions and is ill disciplined defensively? Because that's what he looked like for much of the last season and what he has looked like so far this season, too.
