Lol of course we're fighting for the title we're defending champions. If we're 20 pts behind then sure. Sick of this defeatist attitude everyone has with 1 loss against a better team.
We are not as good this season because the Board didn’t invest any money in the team And we lost Nuno mendes and Joao Mario.
Ugarte, Sarabia, Vinagre, Esgaio and Virginia are fodder? Joao Mario wouldn't have made us any better today and if they really wanted him they would have kept him. Amorim just needs to change his tactics, this was his CL debut and hopefully he's learned that 3-4-3 against these kinds of teams won't work. 3-5-2. Also, there's no substitute for Coates.
For losses like this it usually comes down to leadership, focus and mentality of players on the pitch. Like in WC 2014, Brazil are never supposed to be 7-1 bad compared to Germany. But the Alemao came out prepared to hunt them down and kept exploiting their weaknesses. The goals against are ugly but I wouldn't say that the group stage is a lost cause quite yet. The boys gotta come back motivated and play with a fire under their ass.
Well said. It’s a very young and extremely inexperienced team who’s best players weren’t even on the pitch today. This loss isn’t the end of the world. It’s not all of a sudden a trash team with a trash manager. All this talk of how it wouldn’t happen to Porto or benfica, is your memory that short? We completely dominated Porto last week and were unlucky not to win, again without our best players playing.
Sorry your team had the injuries and the Coates suspension. I think if VAR did not rule out the goal when it was 3-1, the game might have been closer. I suspect the return match in Amsterdam will not be as easy. Good luck against Dortmund!!
I have to disagree, someone posted a picture below with the final score of Ajax beating Real Madrid 4-1 at Madrid. That was not from 1995 but rather a few years ago. Even though some of their stars are gone they still have Champions league experience and pedigree. Sporting have very little Champions league experience and giving up an early goal didn’t make things easy and when that 2nd goal was reverse, it basically ripped the heart and any momentum away from this team. Remember that Sporting had little experience dealing with losing. They lost one game last year and that came after they won the title. Sporting is way better than the team your saw play on the field last night. I’m not giving up hope, at worst they will get into the Europa league.
Agree 100%, Ajax is a great team and if you are not mentally prepared against them, this is a likely result. I expect a better showing when they play in Amsterdam.
If that second goal stand, I felt the game would have ended 3-3. The air was let out of the balloon when that goal was reverse.
True. Sporting started off the second half well . The header from Paulinho was brilliant. Too bad it did not count. However, this game really exposed how limited our squad is. Coates not being there and our defence goes to shambles. Inacio had to be subbed out. Vinagre was woeful.
Vinagre and Esgaio have largely been woeful, although they should be serviceable for majority of our matches. Virginia is a back up keeper. Ugarte still hasn’t even played. Sarabia just joined us and will need more time to gel.
to be honest, part of me feels like this team should switch to play 4-3-3. - we lack depth at CB so playing 3 at the back doesn’t make sense anymore - Nuno Mendes is no longer here and was perfectly suited to the 3-4-3 system -Joao Mario left and our midfield has less ability to hold the ball and control the Game. In our 3-4-3, there are often only 2 cms. A 4-3-3 would put an extra player in the center and solidify the midfield - Our forward players (sarabia/Paulinho/Pote/jovane) will likely have the same production in a 4-3-3.
Nice idea but not happening. I agree we lack depth at CB but it's clear the team hasn't trained any other system so changing now I think would be worse. I agree with Joao Mario being a different player last year who slowed the game down and controlled the ball. Matheus Nunes was one of our best players yesterday but in games like these Palhinha/Matheus aren't enough, Matheus drives the ball forward so well, but then it leaves Palhinha alone and against Ajax who pours midfielders forward he can't do everything. I'm not sure what's happened with Bragança, Amorim refuses to use him or subs him on late. Also the 3 at the back is what made Coates go from inconsistent to being our leader, captain and a baller every game. It suits him perfectly because the 2 other defenders cover for him and he's an excellent sweeper. I doubt Amorim ever changes the 3 at the back, and frankly I wouldn't. The team hasn't trained for it and switching now would be worse in my opinion. What I would do is change to a 3-5-2, Pote in tough games last year would drop deeper to help the midfield 2, maybe Sarabia will do the same. Otherwise, we have to play another midfielder in these kinds of games. Nuno Santos is someone who gives us an option for long balls and presses a lot during the game, so does Paulinho. Having 3 forwards like we did yesterday against Ajax who are one of the best teams at short passing and beating the pressing traps was suicide. Look at Benfica vs. PSV, large parts of that game they were defending and conceding possession, even at home. Good luck, you guys played great, our 2 clubs share a lot of similarities and you have some great players (I wish Antony was on our side).
Esgaio had a great performance first couple of games. Clearly Porro is better but it's a good backup. Vinagre was one of the best so far this season, yes he had a bad game but we also played Ajax like we're facing Tondela.
Benfica are notorious for being slow starters when it comes to the Champions League. They had two challenging ties to get into the Champions League. They dominated possession against Kiev but almost got burned in the end of the game. They have a chance against Barcelona. Post Messi Barcelona looks vulnerable.