Pause without rest. Paulo Fonseca’s 5 ‘headaches’ in Sporting

Paulo Fonseca debuted with the 'right foot' in the technical command of Sporting, thanks to the triumph conquered over Moreirense, in the Stadium José Alvalade, by 1-0, obtained 'a ride' of a (big) goal of Luis Suárez, which allowed him to keep distances to the two top ranked national championships, FC Porto and Benfica.

There is now a break for international commitments... which, on pause, will only have the name, since Rui Borges' successor will seek to take advantage of the next two weeks to put into practice the plans he has in mind, so that the team will be able to go around a sport season of 2026/27 that has been proving to be below the desired.

The time is short, and players will not abound, because of the various calls to national selections. Even so, the expectation is to present a team ‘of a washed face’, already in meetings with União da Serra, Manchester United and FC Porto, which may prove to be determinants for the future in the Cup of Portugal, the Champions League and the I Liga.

‘Treminder’ is to end

At the press conference that preceded the reception to Moreirense, Paulo Fonseca was permanent in pointing out the defensive plan as the one that worries him the most. This, at a time when Sporting presents an average of a goal suffered per game (there are already 16 out of 16 matches), a scenario that, he warned, does not agree with a team that wants to be happy.

“If Sporting does not defend well, it is impossible to fight for titles. One of the priorities right now is to get the Sporting team to stand up for themselves. I'm not saying I was a good advocate, I was a different advocate of how I think you should defend yourself. We worked on it. It is not that I want to spend a lot of time defending, but when we defend, we have to defend according to what I think makes us stronger”, he shot.

More games within the game

Also at the forefront of the duel with the canons, former Olympic Lyon raised concerns about the “positional game” of Sporting, which will deserve particular attention during the competitive interruption: ” Sporting acts 80% of the time in positional attack. If we look at these young players who came, most were not used to this game context.”.

“ It is urgent for players to understand this, because the reality is that we have to play different games within the same game. We're gonna play AS Roma, and we're gonna play the same game all over the country, which is man to man. Believe me, I have this experience. One of the great merits of FC Porto was this, and I think the Portuguese teams were not prepared for this moment of high pressure, man to man ", stressed.

Lion in therapy

The lack of emotional stability has been one of Sporting’s ‘Aquiles shoes’, this time, a scenario that has been translated into a ‘cascade’ of individual errors and twists in the marker, and has even turned out to be one of the reasons that contributed most to the resignation of Paulo Fonseca’s predecessor, Rui Borges.

The Portuguese-Mozambican will thus have to pay particular attention to the motivational chapter of a team that has gone from dominating (almost) all the teams to a constantly overwhelmed one, in the face of the departure of some of the players who gave him the most tranquility, such as Morten Hjulland, Pedro Gonçalves or Francisco Trincão.

How to boost reinforcements?

In a summer marked by an authentic ‘revolution’ in the squad, many players left, but few were the ones who ‘took the stake’. If Sergi Altimira soon asserted himself as the new ‘boss’ of the midfield, there are others, such as Rodrigo Zalazar, Issa Doumbia or Nestory Irankunda, who delay to justify the huge investment.

For the evil of their sins, Paulo Fonseca will not be able to count on these three players, who were called to their respective selections. Still, you will take this opportunity to accelerate the adaptation, for example, of Ibrahima Ba, Pedro Lima and Moncef Zekri, so that they are more useful to the challenges ahead.

Solve... and prevent injuries?

The fifth and final task of the new lion coach will be to realize for sure the state of Zeno Debast and Nuno Santos, the only two ‘clients’ of the clinical department. The Belgian has been ‘out of combat’ since the tie with Arouca, on 19 September (when he was expelled), while Portuguese has not played for more than half a year.

It is also necessary to remember that, in the last two periods, it was precisely in the turn of the calendar year that a ‘tsunami’ of injuries struck the green and white squad, so it remains to be realized whether Paulo Fonseca will carry out any kind of preventive action in order to prevent the scenario from getting worse.