Matheus Reis sent off, Borges praises new signing after Arouca v Sporting | OneFootball

After Sporting’s victory over Arouca, 2-1, Rui Borges attended the press conference to answer questions from journalists. The coach of the Alvalade club addressed Matheus Reis’s sending off, the difficulties faced by the team, Luis Suárez’s brace, and also offered high praise for Luis Guilherme.

Analysis of the victory and a comment on the fans’ support

“I’ll start there. I want to thank the fans, who were tireless, who were incredible. They always are, and it’s largely thanks to the energy they brought from the stands that we managed to secure this hard-fought but deserved victory for everything we’ve been doing over time. The first 10 minutes of the second half could have cost us dearly; Arouca could have turned the game around because they had a chance right after to make it 2-1, but Rui made a great save. We could have made better decisions here or there, but we might have been punished for those 10 minutes when we didn’t start well. At halftime we warned the players, we knew it was important to start strong, with energy and intensity, but it’s very individual and we didn’t start that well. Arouca grew in those 10 minutes. Then, we kept believing, always changing, always looking to add something different, and we achieved the win with a lot of determination and huge ambition. It was a tough victory, but a fair one.”

How do you motivate players after Champions League games?

“It’s a mystery to us, no matter how much we try to keep the guys ‘alive’, that was the main message yesterday and today. At halftime it was exactly the same. We knew it would be harder for many reasons: the weather, the pitch—which gets heavier and demands more from us. It would demand much more from us than the game against PSG. That’s what we asked for, but it also depends a lot on them individually. All we can do is warn them in our talk and change something strategically to keep them focused. Unexplainably, we started the second half poorly, and it was just 10 minutes, but those 10 minutes could have put us behind, and that can’t happen. We have to understand what we need to do to prevent this. We all need to figure out what we can improve. Arouca wasn’t causing any problems. But we’re not in their heads, it’s difficult. But the team knew how to react, and for all the ability the team showed, I think it ended up being a tough but fair victory.”

How do you assess the more central position that Luís Guilherme takes at certain moments in the game?

“Luís is a kid with a lot of quality and, as much as we’ve already identified him and know what he is, we’re all learning here: he from the team, the team from him. Given the absences, we thought the left position could be the solution for him for now. He’s someone who can play on the left, the right, but also centrally. We tried to adjust there because at first he was doing well in the central role, but he was too deep and Trincão understands those areas better than Luís Guilherme, and the goal ended up coming from there. Since he was dropping back a lot, his marker wasn’t following him because he was moving into the opponent’s midfield line while their defensive line stayed put. And Trincão, at the moment of the goal, is higher up, pinning the fullback, and I think the ball goes in behind, to Maxi. When you attract, even a meter makes a difference, and Trincão reads those positions better because he’s more used to them. We tried to change things a bit in that sense and gave Luís Guilherme more freedom. At halftime, we went back to normal and even gave Luís Guilherme more width, and for me, he had a superb second half. Again, it’s a mutual understanding that we’re building and learning what each player gives us.”

Matheus Reis’s sending off

“The guys celebrated everything, in the heat of the moment, maybe said something in the heat of the moment, I don’t know. They knew how tough the game was, Arouca was also wasting some time here and there. It’s normal for the guys to be more stressed, it’s normal to say something or another that we shouldn’t. I’m not sure exactly.”

Another brace from Suárez

“I said he was going to score one because when we identified him, before the end of the season, we knew what he could bring. I’m not talking about the goals. That’s a consequence of his work, his competitive attitude. What he gives the team in terms of work, technically and tactically, in terms of attitude and energy, is very good. And it’s important. More than the goals, it’s that game after game, 90 after 90, he never drops his competitive attitude, he puts himself on the line for the team. Then the goals are the consequence. He has a nose for being in the decisive moments.”

The main challenges Arouca posed

“Very honestly, tactically, Arouca had a dynamic of pushing our winger into a back five, and bringing Fukui into the dead zones out wide, pushing Morten at times and we didn’t want that. We tried to adjust at halftime, but that wasn’t even where they created danger, it was from us losing the ball, in a moment of their offensive pressure and a quick attack. We controlled the game, their striker was more about duels, but Matheus and Inácio did well. Now and then we were late to the reference, but tactically it was mostly that, Fukui trying to push Luís Guilherme or Geny into the back five. But that wasn’t really the issue.”

Pote’s return to a position he doesn’t usually play and the possible physical fatigue of Trincão

“Pote, Ousmane [Diomande], and Zeno [Debast] are still limited by their playing time, because of their previous layoff. Regarding Trincão’s position, it was more a matter of reading the game, at the moment. Trincão has sacrificed himself for the team in every game, he’s played all the matches, lots of minutes. It’s natural that here and there he’ll feel more fatigue; today we could see he was feeling it, even in his energy, so we decided to put Pote there, also because it’s his position. That’s Pote’s position. Based on the strategy and the reading of the game, we thought it was best to put him there because Luís Guilherme on the left was giving us a lot of imbalance and getting close to Arouca’s box. It was purely for freshness. He knows what to do in that position, even though sometimes he plays elsewhere. It doesn’t really affect him. He’s a very intelligent player, he came in very well. I’m happy to have him back, and Ousmane and Zeno too, because they make the team stronger collectively, even strategically. I took Matheus off and put Zeno in because he has a decision-making ability well above average and in a tighter game he could find passing lines that Matheus Reis might not find as much, and we tried a lot in that direction. They are players who give us different things and the team gets stronger because we have more options.”

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