Luis Henrique Barros Lopes, commonly known in the football world as Duk, is a 23 year old (16/02/2000) attacker who grew up in Benfica´s academy. The forward from Cabo Verde, without making his professional debut for Benfica, has been this summer transferred to Aberdeen, where he is giving an outstanding performance, having participated in 15 goals (13 goals & 2 assists) so far in the Scottish Premiership.
Duk is a versatile attacker, having characteristics to perform in different positions. He mainly has started for Aberdeen as center forward, having played alone as the main reference or alongside another striker. In the last matches, he has been playing next to the left side, as a vertical winger, where he has adapted quickly giving high level matches. The most remarkable aspects of his game are his physicality in terms of pace and explosiveness and his incisiveness towards the opposite goal.
Luis Barros is the kind of forward that suits better in a transition based team than on a combinative squad, feeling more comfortable playing in open than tight spaces. In that sense, he is also the profile of forward that creates a lot of goal scoring chances more than converting them, despite this season having changed that dynamic, improving his finishing. He is clever attacking spaces to the back of the rival defense, either from the weak side of the play or taking advantage of teammates movements, where his pace and acceleration are key factors, allowing him to obtain 1vs1 chances. Duk´s positioning either near or far from the penalty area and understanding of the game are also huge. He always offers an alternative to play directly with his movements, making the rival team lengthen and creating that way space for midfielders. He is also good at dragging rivals out of position, usually simulating to support the midfield coming to receive, in order to later turn around and explosively attack the space he himself has created.
Technically, his most remarkable aspect, which has improved a lot during the last two seasons is his finishing, being nowadays much more determinant and killer. He is able to strike with both left and right foot, and despite not being one of his main strengths, he does not hesitate to try long shots to surprise rival goalie. This is shown in stats, where he averages 2,26 shots per 90 minutes, being almost half of them on target (1.06), and scoring 0.55 goals for each shot on target. Despite his not big (1.82m) size (attribute that may be the reason why Duk did not succeed in Portugal), he possesses a great heading, impressing his ability to output power to the ball. Another great quality of Duk´s game is his ball conduction, having great ability to beat his man when having space by great change of pass and pace, being a great counterattacking carrier. He should improve other technical issues, such as passing and ball control, in tight spaces above all, in order to suit different playing styles and compete in different stages, as his all around game is a bit raw.
As mentioned, he did not have many opportunities while in Portugal as Benfica preferred a bigger forward, with more presence. Despite that fact, he possesses good physical conditioning, being agile, speedy and with good strength values to fight in duels and protect the ball. While he has a great work rate in offensive duels and offensive death balls, he lacks a bit of aggressiveness in the defensive phase. A bigger involvement and aggression in the pressing could be recommendable to leap to bigger stages and clubs, while he may also need to improve his consistency during the whole playing time, as he can easily drop in and out of the game.
Duk is clearly living his best moment while playing in Aberdeen, and his season is not going unnoticed, having catched up attention of many clubs. Scottish biggest names and European top league clubs have his name on the radar, and may try to get him in the pocket in the near future.
Click here to see full scouting report
Duk is a versatile attacker, having characteristics to perform in different positions. He mainly has started for Aberdeen as center forward, having played alone as the main reference or alongside another striker. In the last matches, he has been playing next to the left side, as a vertical winger, where he has adapted quickly giving high level matches. The most remarkable aspects of his game are his physicality in terms of pace and explosiveness and his incisiveness towards the opposite goal.
Luis Barros is the kind of forward that suits better in a transition based team than on a combinative squad, feeling more comfortable playing in open than tight spaces. In that sense, he is also the profile of forward that creates a lot of goal scoring chances more than converting them, despite this season having changed that dynamic, improving his finishing. He is clever attacking spaces to the back of the rival defense, either from the weak side of the play or taking advantage of teammates movements, where his pace and acceleration are key factors, allowing him to obtain 1vs1 chances. Duk´s positioning either near or far from the penalty area and understanding of the game are also huge. He always offers an alternative to play directly with his movements, making the rival team lengthen and creating that way space for midfielders. He is also good at dragging rivals out of position, usually simulating to support the midfield coming to receive, in order to later turn around and explosively attack the space he himself has created.
Technically, his most remarkable aspect, which has improved a lot during the last two seasons is his finishing, being nowadays much more determinant and killer. He is able to strike with both left and right foot, and despite not being one of his main strengths, he does not hesitate to try long shots to surprise rival goalie. This is shown in stats, where he averages 2,26 shots per 90 minutes, being almost half of them on target (1.06), and scoring 0.55 goals for each shot on target. Despite his not big (1.82m) size (attribute that may be the reason why Duk did not succeed in Portugal), he possesses a great heading, impressing his ability to output power to the ball. Another great quality of Duk´s game is his ball conduction, having great ability to beat his man when having space by great change of pass and pace, being a great counterattacking carrier. He should improve other technical issues, such as passing and ball control, in tight spaces above all, in order to suit different playing styles and compete in different stages, as his all around game is a bit raw.
As mentioned, he did not have many opportunities while in Portugal as Benfica preferred a bigger forward, with more presence. Despite that fact, he possesses good physical conditioning, being agile, speedy and with good strength values to fight in duels and protect the ball. While he has a great work rate in offensive duels and offensive death balls, he lacks a bit of aggressiveness in the defensive phase. A bigger involvement and aggression in the pressing could be recommendable to leap to bigger stages and clubs, while he may also need to improve his consistency during the whole playing time, as he can easily drop in and out of the game.
Duk is clearly living his best moment while playing in Aberdeen, and his season is not going unnoticed, having catched up attention of many clubs. Scottish biggest names and European top league clubs have his name on the radar, and may try to get him in the pocket in the near future.
Click here to see full scouting report