Sporting XI shake-up? Rui Borges on Napoli tactics: low block | OneFootball

Rui Borges had the opportunity to talk about his players. In the 2-1 defeat against Napoli this Wednesday, October 1st, the native of Mirandela presented a starting 11 full of changes compared to last Saturday's game against Estoril. The first of his players to be discussed was Pedro Gonçalves, who started the match on the bench.

“He is a very distinctive player, very unique in what he brings to the team. Sometimes it seems like he's out of the game, but in the penalty play, he's involved in the whole move. We know what he gives us. The first half was different because we knew that in the first few minutes we would have a lower block, but we knew that would happen. We were competent in that sense and then we started to grow.”, he began by saying to Sport TV.

“We had moments with the ball, we lacked a bit more aggressiveness... We don't hide that our game is very central, also due to the individual quality we have. And losing the ball like that leads to the opponent's goal.”, added Rui Borges, before moving on to Fotis Ioannidis, who made his debut as a starter in the Sporting team.

“We need to push the flanks more and be more aggressive at the edge of the area, sometimes it was just Fotis... We felt that the game could go our way, we weren't inferior in anything even when we were losing 1-0,” said the coach of the lions.

In conclusion, Rui Borges showed that despite the various initial changes, the Sporting team remained true to itself: “The team was true to itself, stayed focused and was able to keep the ball. But in these games, against these teams, a small detail and we ended up conceding the second goal.”

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