I hate to say it but ever since the miss against Croatia he really has not played well for Sporting. At least that is the way it is being portrayed by the fans and media.
Arsenal protecting a lead at home might be the most difficult set up for a striker. Best defense in the world with 2 elite CB's and they were unwilling to give any chances, they locked down Haaland multiple times in similar situation, no big shame in it.
Arsenal ended up being a rly dull team. Most of their goals come from set pieces rather than open play
Their defense is great, their open play attack has regressed and they don't really have any elite attackers since Saka has been sub par after injury. From one perspective they've built a team that has been really good and in the mix to win, but they also haven't developed these attackers or open play to a level that deserves where they are. They have a lot of money, if they get an elite left forward and maybe 9 they will hit another level but idk arteta isn't developing the talent offensively.
Or he is just drained and fatigued. He has not played these many minutes in a season for a while at this level.
I read an article somewhere where Suarez was training at 25% while the rest of the team were at full workouts. He probably has some fatigue at this stage of the season - this is his first real season of first division + champions league. it’s a huge leap to what he’s seen in his past. 45 games - 33 goals for one of our players to even see 40+ games in a season is noteworthy. Portuguese league is still very tight so he won’t be getting any rest until the math sorts itself out
I always liked Porto bc it launched Falcao, James, Guarin, Lucho and Jackson (to a lesser extent - he peaked at Porto) but I would be happy for Sporting or Benfica to sneak away with the league but it doesn’t seem likely with 4 league games left and 7 points ahead of Benfica and possibly 5 points ahead of Sporting
Issue it we have a going away match in Colombia so starters will play. Jordon is a perfect game to build his confidence back up but also perfect game to try new players
Sporting advance to the final after beating Porto on aggregate. Though a 0-0 for the second match was disappointing.
He looked good in certain situations. He had a pass that was good in the area that his teammate wasted & could not put a decent shot on goal. He had an acrobatic “ media chilena“ volley shot that unfortunately went to straight to the keeper. If it took a bounce a foot to the left or right it would have been a golazo. He did look a bit clumsy and drained though for a guy who played such few minutes but that may go back to the issue of so many minutes played this season compared to other seasons.
This has huge implications for both of our Lisbon boys future, after the Benfica late winner against Sporting they now have a huge advantage in the race for CL holding the head to head tie breaker if both teams win out they'd be tied on points. It seems like a good chance that whichever team misses the champions league is likely to sell assets like Rios or Suarez. I think both players have done really well for themselves and I don't mind them staying as long as they have champions league, but both Lisbon clubs will demand a high fee to let them go if they have champions league .
A part of me wants to see our key players establish some tenure rather than get merc’d off to the next team just because their “stock” is highly valued. I get the whole “buy low, sell high” concept but it would be nice to see how our guys can do on the same team for a couple of seasons before going else where
Yeah I'm happy for them to stay put, I think though with the striker market being so short right now and no CL if he wants a bigger club he could get it and Benfica took some big swings this last year to stay above water so even with CL they need to sell but Rios is a key player now and guys like Sudakov and Lukebakio aren't in the clubs plans and came for big fees so probably the first to be sold.