Jorge Jesus reply, consistency and big clash: pre-Sporting v Arouca | OneFootball

Rui Borges, Sporting head coach, previewed this Saturday’s match against Arouca, corresponding to Matchday 7 of the Liga Portugal Betclic. At the press conference, the Lions’ manager also addressed some issues surrounding the team’s current moment, such as consistency or the lack of it, Jorge Jesus’ words about Gonçalo Inácio, among others.

Analysis of Arouca

"It’s one of the good teams in our league, despite the less positive result in the last round. I think they had the coach of the month [Vasco Seabra]. It’s a team that likes to have the ball even against the big teams. They like to keep possession and combine well, without losing verticality through certain players, even against the top sides. This season, they seem even more defensively consistent to me. The coach is known for trying to enhance the game, but we are more focused on what we can do to stay on our path."

Porto - Benfica

"I’m only concerned about our game and doing everything we can to get a win in front of our fans. Consistency? I’ve lost one or two results in the final minutes, but I’ve also won some. In terms of consistency, with Rui Borges, Sporting were national champions, got 82 points in two seasons, reached the Champions League quarter-finals, won the Portuguese Cup, and were the team that scored the most goals. We are a team that wants to score. I’m very positive and I look at the good things. We are aware of what we need to improve and work on, but we are optimistic because it has been very positive."

Opportunities for players with few minutes

"The pre-season work has been somewhat similar to what we’re doing now; it was useful for working on dynamics. We have to make decisions and find the best connections within the team to face the next game. Pedro Lima has been growing, just like Jesse Derry and Nestory Irankunda. He was in a team that defended in a low block to break on transitions, and now he is in a team that has to keep possession and make quicker decisions. Silas has also been showing up and doing very well. He comes from a different context and a different level of demand than the Portuguese league. Everyone, in their own way and in their own time, will get their opportunities."

Response to Jorge Jesus

"Inácio, like anyone else, has aspects he needs to improve. I’m happy to see him in the national team; it shows he hasn’t been nearly as bad as you say. I’m not going to judge a player for an own goal or for missing two passes. He misses more because he takes more risks than others, I’ve said that before. He has been consistent at Sporting and he is focused and calm. There is no message at all from Jorge Jesus; I heard him say that it was your opinion and that he didn’t agree. I believe he will learn a lot from mister Jorge Jesus, he is a great coach, and hopefully he helps Inácio grow in some areas."

Quaresma and Flávio Gonçalves in the national team in the future

"Out of this game are [Ibrahima] Ba and Moncef [Zekri], and Blopa by choice because he has only just started training again; Simões is in the squad. I’m nobody to justify call-ups. I would choose some and the coach chose those he believes are the best to represent the national team, and I will always stand with those he chooses because his national team is ours and mine too. I work with Edu and Flávio and I know their abilities, and in time they will go to the national team, I have no doubt. They know what they have to improve to be part of the coach’s future selections and they are calm. I’m pleased with those who were called up. I’m happy to see Rui Silva and Inácio back in the national team, and in the future there will be others from Sporting as well."

Portuguese players and foreign signings

"Regardless of having Portuguese players, adaptation has to do with the players who stay from one season to the next so they can understand and show the level of demand at Sporting. We do not turn our backs on our academy or on Portuguese players. In some years, we won’t have as many Portuguese players as we would like, but they are emerging from the academy so they can reach the first team as quickly as possible. As for signings, our market is also expensive, and I look a lot at our league and like to look at players who are already established in our championship. Teams like Famalicão and Sp. Braga sell very expensively. Mid-table teams do the same, even with foreign players, and that affects our domestic market. But we will always pay close attention to Portuguese players."

It’s not Inácio’s fault

"I can’t confirm whether Inácio will start because nobody knows. He is super calm. He had the misfortune of scoring an own goal, but it’s not his fault, it’s the team’s. We look at the collective. We were punished in a moment of a game in which we gave the opponent absolutely nothing, apart from one header in the first half and the goal right at the end. I look at the positive side. We drew two games and we are further behind than we want to be, and we always want to win. Now, there are things we don’t control. Honestly, I would rather get to the end of the game, speak to the team and say, ‘We were poor in defensive organisation, we lost too many positions, we lost duels, we allowed the opponent to build too much,’ but I can’t say that. We did enough to win the game, but we could have done more in attack and created more goal-scoring chances. But the opponent had 11 players inside the box. In a new team, of course we want to grow through wins because that is the demand at Sporting. We want to fight for everything we are involved in. Here, the group wins and the group loses. The leaders are the team captains who are there, but they don’t need to be captains. Some emerge as leaders naturally and over time they will impose themselves in communication and in the demands they place on their teammates. We lack some maturity, we have a young team, we’re not going to hide from that, but it’s part of the process. We have to help them and push them individually to grow in character so they can impose themselves and pass on Sporting’s level of demand to those who still do not understand it 100%."

Four points fewer than we wanted

"It is very important to win. First because we are coming off a draw and if we want to fight to be champions, we have to win. We are not happy just with winning, we want to play well too. On top of that, we are heading into an international break and it is important to go into it with a win and maintain our levels of collective and, above all, individual confidence. After the break, we have a difficult away trip to Braga. We want to win regardless of the break to close the gap to our opponents. We no longer depend only on ourselves; whoever is ahead of us also has to drop points. In what we can control, we have four points fewer than we wanted. We have to grow, but grow while winning."

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇵🇹 here.