Filipe Alexandre Dias benches Sporting star: not guaranteed a place | OneFootball

Filipe Alexandre Dias believes that Sporting delivered against Rio Ave the response it had been missing at the start of the league campaign (4-0), with Luis Suárez also taking center stage in attack and effectively 'sending' Fotis Ioannidis to the bench for good.

"At the very least, he regained his confidence levels. He scored twice, celebrated with his teammates, didn’t put on an act or throw a tantrum, justified the coach’s trust and proved that, when he is at his best, he is the rightful owner of the striker’s spot, not Ioannidis," he wrote in the newspaper 'Record'.

In his analysis of the rout, the analyst believes this was the Lions’ first truly assured display in the league: "Every game has its own story, and this was the first truly solid and emphatic match Sporting have produced in the league. And it wasn’t because of Rio Ave’s mistakes that the rout took shape so early. The Lions came out all guns blazing and were deadly in front of goal. By the 37th minute, the 4-0 scoreline said it all," he explained.

Filipe Alexandre Dias also believes that the result allows Sporting to project a more confident image after letting leads slip in the opening rounds: "The team ‘toyed’ with its leads in the first two rounds and, after the positive signs against Alverca, yesterday it was vastly and completely superior. Sporting finally managed to hold on to a deserved lead without any problems, managing proceedings well."

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