After not winning a single trophy last season, Porto repeated the bad performance this time around and continued trophyless. The team seemed to have some better conditions to attack the title this season. Nuno Espírito Santo (NES) arrived early enough to prepare the team from the very beginning of Pre-Season. There wasn’t any major departure from last season, and a couple of crucial new names were signed: Felipe for the much in need centre of defence arrived from Corinthians; creative midfielder Oliver Torres was a highly celebrated return; skillful attacking midfielder Otávio returned from loan after a great season in Guimarães. Alex Telles arrived for the left side of defence, to satisfy NES wish to have a left-footed player in that spot (as opposed to very trustworthy, but right-footed, Layún).
Despite the apparent good conditions, the team started to crumble very early in the season. By the 5th round, Porto had already lost 5 points – a defeat at Alvalade and a 0-0 draw when visiting Tondela. But the worst moment of the season came when Dragões had several consecutive draws, including 3 for league: Setúbal and Belenenses, away, Benfica at home. A fourth consecutive draw was close to happen, at home against Braga, but a rageful effort by young debutant Rui Pedro gave Porto a win that motivated the whole team to a much better period that led Porto to be very close to Benfica. In the 26th round, Porto could have overcome Benfica and reached the top of the table, but a tie with Setúbal was the beginning of a very negative end phase: 13 points lost in the last 9 matches. A bitter second place, combined with very unsuccessful performances in both national Cups and disastrous Champions League career made this season yet another big failure for Dragões.
Tiquinho Soares arrived in January and helped the team in their best moment. André Silva had a fantastic first half of the season and earned a place as a regular name in National team’s call ups, but, especially after the arrival of Soares, the very promising striker lost momentum. Danilo had another good season, and was highly influential in the second half of the campaign, especially as Oliver Torres failed to repeat the great 2014-15 season he had at Dragão. Brahimi was Porto’s best player during the second half of the season, but for some yet unrevealed reason, he was not an option for most of the first half. The most regular player in the whole season was centre-half Marcano who managed to overcome the criticism of past years and is know an unquestionable asset of the club.
