No way he doesn't do the Giro in my opinion. I also think the could work well with Pog as a co-leader, especially if his time trial goes back to at Quickstep. He seemed to work well with Evenepoel towards the end of the year.
I don't understand the problem correctly? in Uae Tour he was co-leader with Pogacar. in Catalonia, Paris Nice, Giro and Burgos he was the Leader. next year he will get extra support in the Giro with Mcnulty, Novak and Grosschartner. Fisher Black will also make his Grand Tour debut. this could also be the Vuelta. Almeida won at QS hill stages. now at Uae it were 2 mountain stages of 2000m+. without bad luck in the Giro 4th and a view of the podium. and now in the Vuelta without super form top 7. it could be worse, right?
I don´t know if you are portuguese or not, but marco chagas former rider and journalist from rtp portugal, said that spoke to joao almeida about his calendar for next year. And he said that next year he will be with pogacar at the tour france.
And it makes sense. Ayuso should be the leader at the giro. Joao almeida doesn't have the capability to win a grand tour (he can do top 10), so it makes sense to put him working for pogacar, because he will need help.
Ayuso is a different animal, he can win grand tours next year. Joao almeida is not a elite rider, he have a lot of weaknesses, that make difficult for him to win a grand tour.
I'm not a hater of joao almeida because i'm also portuguese, but we need to be honest in the evaluation of the riders.