Paulo Alves on Sporting’s attack: no sign of Gyokeres in sight… | OneFootball

Paulo Alves was called upon to comment on Sporting’s striker duo, Luis Suárez and Fotis Ioannidis. In his most recent statements, the former Lions forward inevitably compared both players to Viktor Gyokeres.

Fotis Ioannidis scored his first goal for Sporting last Monday, September 22, in the Lions’ victory over Moreirense. Since then, no one has remained indifferent regarding the player and the signing secured by the club’s management at the close of the transfer window. Paulo Alves believes that both the Greek and Luis Suárez have already shown good signs in Rui Borges’ team.

“The Sporting management is fully aware of this player’s value because he had been on their radar for a while. He is a typical penalty-box striker, strong and good at holding up the ball,” he began, in statements to the newspaper O Jogo, continuing: “You can tell he has a nose for goal. He knew exactly where to position himself to take advantage of the cross. He seems like an excellent alternative to Luis Suárez.”

The former Alvalade player recalled that, besides Ioannidis, Suárez also quickly became one of the team’s standouts: “Luis Suárez is technically very advanced, has good link-up play, is associative, and shows a great goal-scoring ability. Ioannidis seems to be physically stronger in duels, and it’s still too early to assess his aerial game.”

“Neither player has Gyokeres’ goal-scoring ability,” he further emphasized, although he noted that they can “complement each other”: “At first, I don’t think so because it would change the team’s tactical setup and structure. Maybe towards the end of a match, when the team needs to play more directly and have more presence in the box. Suárez, as we saw against Casa Pia, has already shown he can drop deeper and link up play. Both can coexist towards the end of a match. For now, I think it’s too soon.”

Regarding Viktor Gyokeres, Paulo Alves ultimately disagrees with the notion that the Swedish international did everything alone at Sporting: “I don’t think Sporting was less democratic because they had Gyokeres. They just had a player with certain characteristics who stood out for his goal-scoring instinct. Without this player, they have to integrate everyone else in a simple and objective way.”

“The players who have come in have brought new things to the team and are well integrated. That’s how great teams are built. Sporting has done this well and the coaches have to adapt,” concluded the current football manager.

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