“Sporting looks lost and Rui Borges too. Abel? It can be a solution...”

A sporting defeat against the LASK Linz, for the third round of the single league phase of the Champions League on Wednesday, still echoes in the memory of the fans and the indignation around Rui Borges rises again in tone after a precarious display at the Alvalade Stadium.

O Sports to Minute he spoke with Rui Barreiro, former advisor to the club of Alvalade, who admits that the leonina team seems to be lost in the field, as well as the coach in the bench of alternates, also doing the evaluation of the players who were bad in the meeting before the Austrians.

“ There were many individual errors, starting in defense, neither the sides nor the power stations had a match. You don't understand why Ibrahima Ba doesn't play. Because there was a need, considering the physical power of the Austrians, there was a need to have central, at least one, more physical, so I missed Diomande very much. There was no power station holding the advanceds of the LASK Linz”, first said the former green and white advisor.

“In midfield, João Simões and Doumbia have made the worst games I have seen them play in recent times. Geny Catamo also played a bad game and has been making games far below what was before, and Luís Guilherme already deserved an opportunity to play at first, for having given some dynamics on the right side, when he entered, which Catamo was not able to do”, continued.

Sporting’s major market failure was also addressed, with the ‘no bet’ on an alternate for times when Maxi Araújo is not in the best way to be an insistent theme at this stage.

“Maxi Araújo makes one of the worst games I’ve seen him play and you don’t understand how Sporting doesn’t have an alternative to the left side of the defense. Rodrigo Dias, finally, played once and never played again, has played the Vagiannidis when Maxi was punished... ", reported Rui Barreiro.

“ Why doesn't Maxi Araújo have an alternate to bet? I mean, things have been so thought out, but there's no alternative to the left defense position. Sporting hired the left defense Moncef Zekri, who did not even play with the main team ", pointed.

Rui Barreiro looked at Pedro Lima’s ‘mystery’ in Sporting, which cost the Leonian coffers about four million euros to do... just 11 minutes this season.

“There’s a player who really doesn’t understand why he doesn’t play, who is Pedro Lima. He's a smart player, maybe one of the best AVS players in the past season, has very few minutes, plays between 4 and 5 minutes, enters the finals of the games and is a player who could give the midfield things that the midfield doesn't have. Rui Borges, unfortunately, bets very little, he sees the trainings, but from what I know of Pedro Lima, I think should have other opportunities ", evaluated.

Champions League accounts can get complicated

After this defeat of Sporting against LASK – which was a team to which a victory was given to the lions before the meeting – put the future of the Alvalade club at risk in the million-dollar race. This is because, although five meetings are still missing and six points have already been added, the remaining games are in front of Shakhtar Donetsk, AS Roma, Manchester United, Barcelona and Manchester City, so the points can be short to dream of a playoff trip.

“In the Champions League, nothing is lost, regardless of the added value of the clubs that will play still in front of Sporting. Sporting can perfectly get to the next stage of the competition, now it is necessary not to re-exhibitions like this that it did before the LASK Linz ", said, calming what is yet to come.

Rui Borges' future at stake?

The beginning of the season of Rui Borges in Sporting turns out to be a whirlwind of emotions and results, placing the lions already six points away from the leadership of the national championship and with an almost painful defensive record.

“Sporting has 13 goals suffered in 11 games. In the league we've already lost six points. We're out of margin of error. In fact, I had the opportunity to say about a month ago to Sports to Minute that Frederico Varandas had implicitly said that Rui Borges was a forward coach, and that there were either victories coming, or some change would happen,” said Rui Barreiro.

“ I think Rui Borges figured that out. What we need is for you to be able to react accordingly. And, already next Sunday, in front of the Academic of Viseu, show that, in fact, you can react to the negative outcome before the LASK, in an Alvalade Stadium that was very public, but that left many people displeased ", completed.

Despite Rui Barreiro's hope, the truth is that in addition to the Champions League, there is still a duel before FC Porto and Benfica until the end of the calendar year of 2026, which can complicate the continuity of Mirandela's coach in the club of Alvalade.

“ Would defeat against rivals be Rui Borges' final hatchet? Maybe. The president of Sporting is closely connected to this time, because whether we wanted to or not, this renewal of the squad, besides having missed Diomande, I also had Trincão. All the changes, which were many, if we look at Sporting football and the players who left, finally, it was many people with weight and with a lot of quality ", shot.

“Abel Ferreira may be a solution, but...”

In recent weeks there has been a name that began to be considered by the national and Brazilian press for a possible succession of Rui Borges in Sporting, since Abel Ferreira is finishing the season in Brazil, at the service of Palmeiras, something that the former lion advisor considers to be a possibility to consider.

“ I think it makes sense. Good coaches make sense to Sporting. Whether this is already in Frederico Balconies' considerations or not, only he can answer. But it is already known that Frederico Varandas has an appreciation for Abel Ferreira. If we think a little, apart from Ruben Amorim and Rui Borges, who were already champions by Sporting, let us say that there has not been much success in the choices of the coaches of Frederico Varandas ", indicated.

“ Personally, I think Abel Ferreira, for what he's been doing, is a quality coach. And therefore being a quality coach is always a potential coach for Sporting. I think if those names go up, for some reason it will be. I don’t know what Abel Ferreira intends to do with his life, but he would certainly be honored if Sporting could eventually contact him,” he confessed.

Still, Rui Barreiro clarifies that the priority is to look at the present and not at the future of Sporting, as the situation may detach in the coming times for the goals of this season.

“ The most important thing at the moment is that Rui Borges be given conditions so that he can have no excuses for the failures and, at the moment, I think he still has some capital excuses, considering the squad Sporting has and what has been provided. If we look at the Sporting team we can't say that this team is better than last year's Sporting team that didn't actually win anything. So the work was badly done ", concluded.