Sporting CP 2 FC Alverca 0

Sporting CP v FC Alverca 
Friday October 31st, 2025
Estádio José Alvalade 
Matchday 10

The warm up

Owing to the fact that Sporting play Alverca twice in a week, first in the Taça da Liga on Tuesday and then in the Liga on Friday that leaves me in a quandary of what to write because I don't want to short change you as the reader. Tuesday's post, which can be accessed here on the link below, follows the traditional route of concentrating on the opposition if you'd like to learn more about the club and their form prior to the first meeting; 

https://outsideofthepride.blogspot.com/2025/10/sporting-cp-v-fc-alverca-taca-da-liga.html

Which begs the question of what to focus on in the buildup to today's game. So I thought I'd look into the question of whether the rising criticism of the mister Rui Borges is justified, especially as it's been amplified after the recent performances against Estoril, Braga, Paços de Ferreira and Marseille. So where to start? I guess by stating the obvious, in that Sporting were undefeated in all four games, winning three and drawing one and in truth were unfortunate not to win against Braga if not more than fortunate to beat Marseille so it's swings and roundabouts. Since I've been watching Sporting from when Marco Silva was coach I've seen at least 100 worse performances than those in these four games from the lions. Watching them lose and play badly is not a new phenomenon. Watching them play below par and seeing them still win is somewhat still a new one for me. In England we always hear how the mere act of winning when a side is not at their peak is the sign of true champions and that's how leagues are won. In Portugal when you're 3 points off the top of the league in second place at the time of writing, it appears for a growing number of Sportinguista's, that's when you call for the head of the mister. No defined sensible plan of who you'd think would replace him in the month of October. No sense that a new coach might just follow Rui Borges’ plan in the same manner that Borges himself became pragmatic enough to swap back to Amorim's tactics having realised he needed more time to try and implement his own on this side. No sense a change might actually see them go backwards. Unwavering conviction that a change in coach is the answer to a problem that truthfully only they're seeing right now. I hate to see how they tackle real adversity in their own lives if they throw their toys out of the pram when their football team is 3 points off the top of the table in second place. I believe that's what is known as first world problems ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls or however you choose to define your gender. 

This is Portuguese football, to win the league isn't exactly rocket engineering. For Os Três Grandes it's a case of figuring out how to beat the low block that you'll come up against in about 55 - 60% of the games you're going to play. How do you beat all these teams that are going to park at least ten men behind the ball in the final third of the field in a space of between 12 and 18 yards? These are locks that need picking and sometimes you don't have a set of universal keys, you've got a couple of paper clips with which to try fashion the same result. Sometimes it works and sometimes you'll end up with Sporting CP 0 Santa Clara 1 when you forget you've left your back door open whilst trying to unlock your opponents and you've been robbed blind. However let's suppose you win all of those games, you've then got your second tier which is growing in quality every season. These sides believe they can go toe to toe with you and will allow you the space to operate and play in. These are the games your players should be able to prove as to why they play for you and not one of the country's smaller sides but they will leave you with a bloody nose if you're not careful so keep your guard up and be prepared to take full advantage when it happens to your rivals. Wherever possible ensure you don't just beat the newly promoted sides but hammer them to get your goal difference up just in case. Which leaves your games against Braga, Porto and Benfica. The key here isn't to win, it's to ensure you don't lose and if you do win that's the added bonus. So that's the path to success in a nutshell. If you can also win a Taça that's an added bonus. More often than not you're going to be reliant on the fact you've not lost a Clássico or a Dérbi coupled with the fact that your rivals are having an off season and their total hiccups throughout the campaign total more than yours. For every game you might win in the big ones, your season can easily come undone with just two or three unexpected losses. That's Portuguese football. That's why only five teams have ever won the divisional title in all its history. That's why the team with the biggest budget, paying the highest wages will generally finish as title winners. Therefore, Sporting winning back to back titles is a minor miracle. You shouldn't assume a third title is about to be handed to them on a plate this time around just because they've won the last two. Football doesn't work like that. However, I'd argue, neither should you assume choosing to throw your captain overboard when navigating choppier seas is going to bring you into calmer ones especially when he's still keeping you on course with the ship ahead. I hope you're keeping up with all these analogies. 

When a coach achieves cult like status with a fan base as was the case with Ruben Amorim, so many overlook all the foibles and more importantly never acknowledge they'd became a follower of the cult. You can't have a cult leader without a cult. Amorim is a tough act to follow. If Rui Borges was following any coach other than Marco Silva or Amorim you'd probably believe he was the second coming. His biggest crime appears from the outside looking in that he's simply not Amorim. It's so easy to forget things especially when you end a season as title winners. Sporting had a massive drop off in form during their opening to last season yet I don't seem to see anyone acknowledging that in comparison to this season's. I kept saying to last season's opening that we were putting sticking plasters over the problems week after week despite us winning the opening 13 games. We weren't ten points ahead of Porto either, we were 3 points ahead by virtue of the win in the Clássico. We've merely swapped positions a year down the line. Yes we beat Manchester City 4-1 and Braga 4-2 in Amorim's last two games but those scorelines could easily have read 1-4 and 2-4. Sometimes you get away with it. The wheels were coming off before those two games and well before the even greater downturn following the coach departing. The criticisms apparently don't matter if you ended up winning come May. Well you can fast forward twelve months but we're definitely not in May yet and anything can still happen in this season. Definitely none of us know the outcome of this season. 

Twelve months ago when we changed coach it was all supposed to all be so easy. They'd planned the succession all along, it was just brought forward a few month's. João Pereira was playing the same system and providing the youth team players to slot in so seamlessly into the first team. What could possibly go wrong? He was taking over the best team in Portugal, a side it transpired who lost all belief when their cult leader vanished and took it with him. I mean it started well enough with a 6-0 win to Amarante. Losing 5-1 to Arsenal wasn't really a surprise even if losing 1-0 to Santa Clara was. Pereira had figured out one thing though very quickly, the fact we really cannot defend. We'll never know if he could have turned it around because he did the honourable thing and fell on his sword and didn't take a cent for his troubles. I didn't call for his head on a plate either just in case you were wondering. I did call for Amorim's mind you. I cannot deny what's in print. 

I've long held the view, expressed numerous times over these posts, that we have a defence who cannot actually defend, a fact which can often be disguised by the success the team has achieved on the field. We've also had a string of goalkeepers who cannot save a ball. I don't get this modern need for players who can play with their feet but it transpires are absolute dog shit with their hands when a ball gets blasted their way. Think Renan, Kovačević, Israel… I could be here quite a while so I'll quit while I'm behind. This is a problem that Rui Borges has inherited from Ruben Amorim. A lot of fans seem to have whitewashed over the problems we had during Amorim's tenure and forget that so many times it wasn't all plain sailing. Frequently in post game interviews you heard an iteration of the same term - suffering. Alongside poor defending, we've often been masters of our own downfall with needless penalties being conceded or through going down to ten men and in some instances even nine men. That's not the fault of the coach. Neither Amorim or Borges was instructing them to have a rush of blood to the head and to do something stupid. Sometimes we've been unfairly treated by the referee which is ironic given according to Benfica and Porto we now have them in our pockets. Must have had a hole in the bottom of one and they kept falling out.

The reason we don't beat Braga is because Hjulmand gives away a needless penalty and they equalise deep into additional time. Yes I thought Borges got the line up wrong and should have taken advantage of their frailties which had been exposed in their previous games. I'm not claiming he was immune to criticism during the game simply because the Dane conceded the penalty needlessly. However if that doesn't happen then they win the game 1-0 and there's no two points dropped. This is a Braga team who lest we forget dominated the previous season in Amorim's last game and went in at half time 2-0 up. Yes Sporting came back to win 4-2 but had that not been Amorim's last game there's a real chance that they don't come away with all 3 points or even having gained a point. They rose to what the occasion was and what the win meant. However there are also plenty of occasions whereby Sporting have torn Braga apart at the José Alvalade and scored five times. So I think you can argue both sides that Borges should have instructed his players to be braver but equally there's enough evidence to suggest his decision wasn't a bad one. Take Braga away in the opening game of the 23/24 season. Was Adán rushed back too soon from an injury which was supposed to see him out for a long period of time? Yes. Could this have been a contributing factor to the lions going ahead three times only to see Braga come back 3 times to finish with a point in a 3-3 draw? Almost certainly. Could Amorim have benefited from taking a more Borges like approach and defending their lead? Hypothetically yes but we'll never know because what's done is done. Sporting played them off the park in the semi final of the Taça da Liga in the 23/24 season, hit the frame of the goal three times in the opening 45 and lost 1-0 because they didn't take their chances and put the game to bed. Braga are the fourth best team in Portugal, we've seen that consistently for a number of seasons now. On their day they're more than capable of landing blows on all of Os Três Grandes. Taking a point from them is not the end of the world. Estoril was poor on the eye but they won. Estoril was also piss poor on the eye during the 23/24 title winning season. I thought Arouca was one of the poorest displays of the season, a game we won 6-0 so go figure. 

Going into the weekend's game against Tondela, Sporting had created the most Opta defined big chances of any team in Portugal. Opta defines a "big chance" as a clear-cut scoring opportunity where a player should reasonably be expected to score. This typically includes one-on-one situations or shots from very close range with little defensive pressure, and penalties are always counted as big chances. 

Key criteria:

Reasonable expectation to score: A situation where a player is highly likely to score. 
Proximity to goal: Usually from very close range. 
Clear path to goal: The shot is not blocked or heavily obstructed. 
Pressure on the shooter: Low to moderate pressure from defenders. 

Specific examples:

One-on-one with the goalkeeper. 
An open-net tap-in. 
A free header from close range. 

Sporting have also missed the most big chances in Portuguese football. Total chances created 36, total missed 24 meaning they've missed 2/3rds of all big chances. To simplify, they're only scoring 1 of every three big chances they get. If you add in the Champions League they've created 43 big chances and missed 30 of them so that makes it even worse in that they're only converting roughly 1 in 4 big chances. The positive is of course that they're creating so many in the first place. The worry should be when they stop doing that. The two biggest guilty parties are Luis Suárez and Pedro Gonçalves. The Colombian has had just over 1/3rd of all of those chances with 15 in total and he's missed 2 out of every 3 with 10 in total. Gonçalves meanwhile has missed 70% of all his big chances converting just 3 of 10. 

Trincão has missed both his as has Quenda. Hjulmand has missed 2 of his 3. Only Mangas and Ioannidis have scored their combined three chances presented to them. Thirteen players in total have had at least 1 big chance in the games combined in the Champions League and League, so 11 guilty of not converting those golden opportunities. That's a big issue but that's on the heads of the players on the pitch. That's not down to Borges tactics because if they were wrong overall you'd not have fashioned the most big chances in all of Portuguese top flight football. 

These figures don't include the reported 39 attempts against Paços de Ferreira because it doesn't define whether the 29 shots not on target were either blocked or off target but you can state that overall the lions have had a total of 244 attempts on goal over the course of 12 matches at an average of 20.33 per game. We've seen what happens when coaches get it wrong. Amorim may have come away from the Dragão with a 2-2 draw in the 2023/24 season but only after having their arses handed them to be sucker punched twice by Victor Gyökeres. Fine if you want to claim Borges has gotten away with it on some occasions but don't point that finger without admitting Amorim was on the exact same boat on numerous occasions. I've yet to see us okay as badly under Borges as I have done say against an Atalanta or Olympique de Marseille just plucking two sides as obvious examples. I can find you plenty more if you need reminding. 

Should we be surprised that a Liga 2 side given the opportunity to play on Portuguese TV attempted to give a great account of themselves against the current Portuguese Champions? I don't think so, you'd be offended if they didn't quite frankly. This was their cup final, this was their chance to become giant killers. The lions registered 182 separate attacks, 141 of which were recorded as dangerous. With 39 attempts over 120 minutes in conjunction with the total number of dangerous attacks, it points to one key factor, namely we weren't good enough in front of goal. Their cause however certainly not helped by the Paços players throwing themselves into blocking the ball time and time again. They put in a series of heroic performances all over the pitch. The lions underestimated them. They had one eye on Marseille. Yet that's not new, they did it the season before in the same round and only avoided half hour of extra time to Portimonense because Harder scored in additional time. They did it the season before that going behind within ten minutes to Liga 3 opposition in CD Olivais. So don't claim this is a Rui Borges problem. This is a Sporting CP mentality problem from the players whereby on many occasions they think they just have to turn up. 

It's easy for everyone else to blame Borges because that's the popular narrative. Woe betide anyone ever pointing out that our forward line isn't as efficient and effective as it could be especially having lost the two time Portuguese player of the year and top goalscorer in the summer. So here are the totals for Sporting's forward players in terms of output from all the league games and Champions League games and I'll let you decide whether you think they could up their game or not and show signs of improvement;

Gonçalves

41 attempts
10 blocked
14 off target
17 on target

Suárez

45 attempts
10 blocked
16 off target
19 on target

Trincão

32 attempts 
11 blocked
11 off target
10 on target 

Quenda

15 attempts 
6 blocked
2 off target
7 on target

Hjulmand 

12 attempts 
3 blocked
6 off target
3 on target

Sporting CP Totals

205 attempts 
58 blocked 
70 off target
77 on target

If you want me to go through the individual errors in defence that have led to us conceding goals this campaign I'm happy to do that in the next international break in intricate detail. Borges is not sending his players out going make sure you switch off in defence. 

This post was mostly inspired by a person on X who described Rui Borges to me as one of the worst coaches in the world and suggested under him we'd be fortunate to qualify for the Europa Conference League. That coming a day after beating Marseille 2-1 in the Champions League, being sat second in the table and Borges having only ever lost one game as the lions coach domestically across the Taça da Liga, Taça de Portugal and Liga. 

I always find it odd that any fan of a team would spend their free time watching games of their biggest rivals. So you'll forgive me if I never claim to know anything about our rivals because put simply I don't watch them. I don't track them, I don't read articles about them. The only time I've seen Benfica play outside of a Dérbi has been twice against Internazionale. I've seen the odd Porto game in European competition. Otherwise I'll watch the goal highlights of the Portuguese games but that's about it. I cannot form an opinion on other club's coaches because I'm not watching them. So please no one put words into my mouth of what I'd think about another sides coach because unless it's Amorim or Marco Silva then I'm not qualified to give an opinion and even then I can only do it from a historical context. 

I'm not claiming that Rui Borges is the greatest coach that's ever lived but to suggest he's one of the worst coaches going is frankly ridiculous. I do firmly believe there's a large section of so called fans of a great many number of teams who'd rather their club failed just so they could say I told you so after vehemently attacking the coach for a sustained period of time. Negativity breeds negativity. Look I'm as guilty as anyone for criticising coaches, players and the club alike but only when I feel it's warranted. Unlike a lot of things I read from people, I can at least provide evidence that I've had eyes on in the first instance when providing a minute by minute breakdown of every game. One thing I'm not afraid of is being proven wrong. There's a litany or misreads in my game posts which I refuse to edit post game to make myself look clever. If I look like an idiot that's OK. I can laugh at myself. But don't expect me not to defend my point of view or to point out when someone is talking nonsense to me and firing wild conspiracy theories backed up by no evidence or data, just simply narrative driven with some form of vendetta attached. 

I think some fans are almost fooled into thinking the coach has a controller in his hands and is playing FIFA on the pitch with his players. There are some who believe that a player's price tag is some indication of guaranteed success, that being linked with a player during a transfer window means it's automatically true. There are those whose expectations have clearly been raised too high after back to back title wins, that we should now be title winners every season despite the best part of two decades pissing into the wind before the current run of success. Players are human being and as such as fallible as the next man. They don't control their price tags. Just because someone pays a big fee for you doesn't mean you hit the ground running for your new club. Christ remember what it feels like every time you start a new job for the first few months. Where you have to learn everyone's names, what their likes and dislikes are. Now imagine doing it in front of a crowd of 40,000 people super pissed if you misplaced your stapler. Just because they're a footballer doesn't mean they can switch off what's happening in their lives the moment they step onto a pitch. You cannot criticise a player simply on the basis that as a fan you'd do what they do as a job for free. There's always something going on that none of us will ever know about. Hjulmand has seen his form dip in recent weeks and on Friday we see he's going to become a father for the first time. Most pregnancies fail in the first 12 weeks. He's probably had other things on his mind. Gonçalves has just become a father. Flying to Naples might seem glamorous but it's not like the players get to visit the city like a tourist and he's a father away from his children and that's tough to cope with let alone the sleepless nights when he is at home with them probably wishing he was away in Naples. 

Facts are facts and some are really simple. Like the fact that there's no coach in the world that hiring will replace the goals of Gyökeres on the pitch. There's a reason Luis Suárez was playing in the Spanish second tier and Doris Ioannidis was playing in the Greek Super League. Sporting have massively overpaid for both players and combined they don't get anywhere near the output of the Swede. 

I've seen enough football over the course of 40 years to now be realistic about my expectations. Certainly with two of the first three title wins the first point I truly believed we'd win them is either the game before or probably more than a month after we had won them and it had finally sunken in and wasn't a cheese dream. I don't expect us to get through the group phases of Champions League football and I'm not actually bothered about the competition at all. If we could win the title and let someone else take our place it would not worry me in the slightest. That's why I stopped watching Premier League football about eight years ago. The money just ruined it as a competition. Not that Portugal is much better with Os Três Grandes but it's certainly nowhere near as bad and the Champions League is set up to benefit the larger teams and financially the gap is going to continue widen and those teams from smaller countries will at some point destroy their leagues because no one can complete if season after season they're earning millions in revenue that no other club can get near.

So at what point would I call for a coaches head? I think anytime we finish behind Braga would be enough to at least put a question mark over the coaches head but again that's just a question mark. We followed up the first title win by finishing behind Braga and then won another two titles. I'm pretty sure I said I'd have given Amorim a piggy back to the airport during that season. I also said he could fuck off and get a job as a Drake impersonator. I was never sold on him. I could make the obvious point about his record in the Clássico's and Dérbi's but I'd then sound even more like a broken record but you can search and read my two part posts on why on the one hand I thought he was Emperor's new clothes and then would contradict myself by forcing myself to work out why he achieved the success he did. 

One of the other criticisms levelled at Borges was that he doesn't use big team tactics. What are big team tactics? Go back to the Braga game we would have won if not for Hjulmands rush of blood to the head. Not the rush of blood that led to his new wife getting pregnant I hasn't to add. On the same night Porto and Benfica played out what I understand to be a somewhat tedious 0-0 draw. Did either side employ big team tactics during that game? Were Liverpool employing big team tactics when they lost four on the spin? Arsenal are top of the Premier League, are they employing big team tactics because from what I hear it's like watching special teams from the NFL. Borges came through one of the worst spell of injuries last season and delivered the title and the Taça de Portugal. He'd have also delivered the Taça da Liga had it not been for one penalty. He took Vitória to second in the Conference League table. He's a pragmatic coach and if that's not to everyone's taste then you're entitled to that opinion but to suggest he's one of the worst coaches is not only highly disrespectful, it's completely idiotic. If the statement was true he wouldn't have only lost one game domestically. You can criticise his record in the Champions League but do so fairly. Yes we were fortunate to beat Marseille but the fact is they did win against the only side to beat current European Champions PSG this season. They performed well against Napoli but found out the hard way why they're the current Serie A Champions. Both teams are buying players of Premier League quality. They're not buying strikers from Almería and Panathinaikos or midfielders from Levante or Goalkeepers who were free agents. 

I thought Simões should have started against Braga but the fact remains he's fighting for one of two places in the midfield one of which belongs to the club captain. He's got to force out Morita who is a Japanese international who will spend next summer at the World Cup Finals. Yet Simões is the player who has been trusted in the two biggest games of our season to start against Napoli and Marseille. Had we not had the appalling run of injuries last season then Simões would still be a key figure with Sporting B knocking on the door of the first team. We may have even brought another midfielder in during the summer. No one would have been moaning he wasn't in the team if the hand of fate hadn't intervened. I don't hear anyone calling for Felicíssimo's inclusion. 

One of my favourite jokes is that I'm always watching a different game to everyone else but there's also a huge element of truth in it for me. I'm autistic and I have OCD. I'm obsessed with numbers, data and patterns and if and when the underlying data starts to prove that I'm wrong I'll happily admit to it. I'm also obsessed with psychology and the media and spent the first eight and a half years of my career working in newspapers so I know a little about a few things if maybe not a lot. Since the start of the summer there has been a concerted campaign in the Portuguese media to destabilise Sporting. It started right after the Taça de Portugal final loss with calling Matheus Reis’ incident with Andrea Belotti barbaric. There's barely a week gone by where we've not heard something about the loss of Benfica in the final and how they were cheated out of the title. Then the claims were ramped up that referees favoured Sporting despite the fact that Benfica went an entire season without having a player dismissed. Latterly the media is now fueling the fire on Rui Borges. So point one, I have no time for English pundits let alone Portuguese ones especially those who are paid to court controversial opinions and cast shadows on coaches. In England we've had months of it aimed at Ruben Amorim and after three straight wins from Manchester United all those so called football experts have gone quiet as church mice. The media now relies on criticism because those type of posts generate ten times the volume of traffic to their platforms. It's now the default modus operandi for the majority of media outlets on TV, radio, podcasts, in traditional print and online. I'm not a sheep. I'm a 47 year old man who can form a full opinion based on what I see with my eyes and what the data tells me. I don't kowtow to pressure and I don't say things to be deliberately obtuse. I constantly called Silas out and got told to wind my neck in and that I was being over the top. A little over twelve months ago I painted a picture of where I thought Sporting would be at this point in the season before we lost Amorim to Manchester United earlier than expected. My thought process was simple, we'd lose Amorim and Gyökeres in the summer, João Pereira would come in and I had it in my head we'd be down in 7th or 8th place struggling. So you'll forgive me for not being unduly worried when we're sat in 2nd place at the time of writing. Actually that's a lie because the dirty pigeons won 5-0 since I started writing this and we're now third but still 3 points off Porto ahead of tomorrow's game against CD Tondela. By this time next week we might have lost that game, lost to Alverca in the Taça da Liga and again in the Liga and I might well be thinking shit that's not great. But I'm not worried on any level about any of the three matches. I retain complete faith in the players and the coaching team but that's not to say they cannot improve. I write that as someone who has a diagnosed medical condition which is anxiety based and I'm as calm as a Hindu cow. 

* I'd like to know if Chelsea have inserted a clause into the loan contract of Geovany Quenda which sees the club financially penalised if he's not playing and I'd be uber surprised if there wasn't one in there given its now standardised practice for a lot of Premier League clubs now. He shouldn't be starting on the right in my opinion. I stated the other day that Gonçalves was a poor man's Bruno Fernandes and you'd have thought I'd taken a shit in someone's cornflakes or pointed out that your Nans got saggy tits. Take a pen and pad and at the top write number of times Pedro Gonçalves blasts the ball over the bar and start keeping a tally. Actually whilst you're at it on a clean page start another tally about how many times Quenda stops and doesn't attack on the right wing and another for how many times he loses the ball passing directly to an opposition player. Once you see certain traits you cannot unsee them., they just hit you in the face every time they occur like a large frying pan. 

I don't expect anyone's opinion to change about Borges based on above but you will forgive me for paying no attention to those throwing their toys out of the pram. If and when I feel he needs to come in for additional criticism you'll read it on these pages. 

I don't want to follow a club who becomes entitled like those over the road who thinks at the start of the season they should win the title. That's not the club I fell in love with. I'd get more pleasure of being able to watch the likes of Flávio Gonçalves, Rafael Nel, Mauro Couto, José Silva, João Muniz et al come and make an impression on the first team than I would qualifying for the Champions League every season. Some fans want a Yeremay or Kevin whereas I'm really enjoying watching Alisson Santos develop on that side. Big signings block the development of the kids coming through and this club prides itself on producing that talent. We've seen Fernandes bypass us and go straight to the Premier League just to balance the books. We've seen stadium redevelopments and ten kits a season from Nike trying to steal every last euro from fans pockets and yet spending the sum total of fuck n all to help the women's team development. Writing in English I could have taken the easy route and just used the incorrect club name in all my posts but I've never done it once to grow an audience faster. The name Sporting Clube de Portugal means something to me as equally as it does to all the other fans even sat outside the pride of lions, lionesses and cubs watching in. So forgive me if I continue to back Rui Borges and I'll worry about the things that really need addressing in the here and now. 

Truthfully I can live with not winning another league title in the next decade. I didn't think we'd ever win one of them so winning three has been beyond my wildest expectations and you're not taking the experience of any of those away from me unless dementia kicks in. 

Anyways we've a game to play on Friday night against Alverca. 

Sunday update - Hindsight is a wonderful thing and I should have held off until after the Tondela win and then wouldn't have had to provide an update to the figures above. 

Gonçalves

47 attempts
12 blocked
14 off target
21 on target

Suárez

53 attempts
11 blocked
18 off target
24 on target

Trincão

34 attempts 
11 blocked
12 off target
11 on target 

Quenda

16 attempts 
6 blocked
2 off target
8 on target

Hjulmand 

16 attempts 
6 blocked
7 off target
3 on target

Sporting CP Totals

234 attempts 
65 blocked 
77 off target
92 on target

49 big chances / 34 missed as a team

Suárez 18 big chances / 12 missed

Gonçalves 11 big chances / 7 missed

* wild conspiracy theory on my part clearly given Geny started against Tondela but I'll keep it in to prove I don't edit these things after to make myself appear to be clever. 

Wednesday night update -

In the last three outings coming against Marseille, Tondela and Alverca, the defence has given up 0 Opta defined big chances and just 7 shots on target over the 270 minutes at an average of 2.33 per game. 

The total percentage of shots on target of all attempts v Alverca was the season high at 70%. The next best was Moreirense at home with 56%. The lowest in the Clássico with just 15%. 

The average figures for shots on target home and away in the league is very similar. At the José Alvalade 38.96% and away is higher at 39.60% but you can caveat the former with the fact we've played both Braga and Porto at home. On average 4.5 big chances created per home game and 5 per away. In terms of defence they've given up just 5 big chances at home albeit all of those came in those 2 aforementioned games and 3 of those resulted in goals. Away from home 4 big chances given up, only 1 of which led to a goal. 

With the five debuts handed out to the youngsters against Alverca on Tuesday night in the Taça da Liga, the total numbers of players used in all competitions now stands at 30. Hjulmand given the night off the player with the most minutes with 1240 played. Trincão, Gonçalves and Inácio the others who've played 1,000 minutes or more across all competitions. 

Suárez with the highest XG across all competitions with 9.25, followed by Pedro Gonçalves with 5.86. in addition they make up the top scorers on 8 and 7 a piece. 

Sporting B

Next up Feirense at home on Saturday November 1st at 11am. Wednesday night Vizela could only draw 1-1 away to Lusitania Lourosa who Sporting beat 4-0 last time out. The lions now with a game in hand though their advantage at the top of Liga 2 cut to two points. 

In the markets 

Sporting CP 2/25
Draw 15/2
FC Alverca 20/1

Team News 

Starting XI 

Silva, Fresneda, Diomande, Inácio, Araújo, Hjulmand, Simões, Gonçalves, Geny, Trincão and Suárez 

Substitutes

Virgínia, Reis, Morita, Quenda, Vagiannidis, Kochorashvili, Alisson, Quaresma and Ioannidis.

Huge changes to the starting XI as you can imagine as all eleven players rotated out from Tuesday nights win. Out go the ten youngsters from Sporting B in addition from the matchday squad. 

FC Alverca Starting XI 

13 Gomes, 33 Meupiyou, 5 Gomez, 4 Naves, 55 Chissumba, 8 Amorim, 21 Abdulai, 2 Touaizi, 11 Nuozzi, 9 Milovanovic and 18 Lincoln 

Out go Mendes, Baseya, Esteves, Sabit, Gui, Martins and Leita. 

First half 

The lions line up for their team photo with the world's oldest mascot living his best life. Geny presented with a commemorative jersey for his 100th appearance as a lion. Sporting in green and white horizontal stripes. Alverca in black and gold trim. Alverca looking to restore pride after the 5-1 drubbing, the first team with much to live up to. Alverca get us underway, Sporting attack right to left this opening half. 

1 Mistake at the back near side allows Alverca their first attack. Silva wise to the danger down quickly to block the cross 

1 Gonçalves threads a pass to Suárez who shanks his shot wide of the far post from 8 yards 

2 Danger down the left wing and Silva out to collect for the second time. Alverca as open as they were Tuesday night yet they have been far more attacking in two minutes than they were in 90 last time out

4 Trincão with an acrobatic effort from 10 yards cannons off a defender for a corner. Came from good work from Araújo initially with a run to the edge of the area, he switched play back to Simões and his cross into the centre deflected out for the Trincão effort 

7 Close up of one of the Alverca players and no surprise to discover that their kit made by Nike given its familiarity to Sporting's same styled kit 

7 Gonçalves and Araújo combine well on the left but the Uruguayans pass into the six yard box easily dealt with by the keeper 

8 Trincão playing the role of conductor which is where I think he's most effective dropping deep where he can see the space all across the pitch 

11 Early break in play as Fresneda received treatment for a late tackle from Nuozzi wide right in the final third 

12 Mistake from Hjulmand who gives away the ball inside the lions half. Inácio shields the ball out for a goal kick to nullify the attack down the right 

13 Trincão combines with Gonçalves who tries to set Suárez free but his marker wins the battle

14 ➡️⬅️ Fresneda's night is already done. The youngster looks visibly upset and in a lot of pain as he's led down the tunnel. Vagiannidis on in his place . Let's hope we get the Greek from Tuesday and not the Paços version 

15 Fabulous from Geny left his marker in no mans land and picked out Simões whose header from 8 yards may have threatened the corner flag in the end 

17 Suárez unselfish and squares for Geny who tries to bend a shot into the far left corner from 9 yards which smacks the post and out to safety. Better from the Colombian 

19 Trincão fires through the legs of a defender from 19 yards and brings a save from Gomes. He's particularly weak as we saw in Alverca's last game when the ball is aimed into the corners 

20 Milovanovic tries to swap shirts with Diomande before we're even half way through the opening 45. The Ivorian dumps him on his backside and gives him a piece of his mind for good measure 

23 Gonçalves shot blocked from 17 yards

23 Alverca with their first chance from 22 yards wide of the far right post. Milovanovic with the effort 

24 End to end stuff as Suárez shot from 12 yards deflects up for a corner 

26 Simões' effort blocked from 23 yards. The lions are back in old habits already. 9 efforts and the scores still level. Sporting scored with their first shot after 20 minutes on Tuesday on a night they were calm and patient in their buildup. This game has been frenetic 

30 Naughty from Diomande who takes his retribution out on Milovanovic taking him down from behind and concedes a free kick and maybe fortunate to escape a booking 

31 Geny shot blocked wide right from 9 yards as Alverca crowd the area with bodies 

32 Suárez down clutching his leg. Naves blocked the ball and the Colombian kicked an awful lot of air where the ball would have been 

33 Borges drinks from a water bottle. Could be gin or vodka after the start in the final third 

35 So close to 1-0 as Alverca clear off the line. Suárez fired a shot from a narrow angle close range that deflected up goalwards and headed away from Meupiyou. Hjulmand originally was flattened in the centre but the referee allowed play to go on. No booking retrospectively

35 Trincão brings a save from 9 yards 

37 Araújo laughs in the face of Touaizi on the touchline and earns himself a talking to from the referee. I reckon he'd have loved trick or treaters knocking on his door tonight 

41 Gonçalves fires low from 19 yards. Gomes with his body behind the ball pounces on top of the ball to keep the effort out 

43 Rui Borges is a Casio watch man. Of course he is 

44 Simões shot blocked from ten yards. That looked a glorious chance 

Plus four shown 

45 Hjulmand fouled by Amorim. 

46 Diomande with a defenders finish hooks the ball wide from 7 yards 

48 Vagiannidis finds Simões whose header is off target from 7 yards 

Half time 

Sporting CP 0 FC Alverca 0

This is turning out to be a remake of previous horror films on the night of Halloween as the forward line continues to struggle to convert a raft of chances. The difference in quality all to evident between the sides and yet once more they cannot find a way to put the ball into the back of the net. The two performances from Tuesday and Friday complete polar opposites, the only constant the fact that the opposition have offered no threat. Their XG at half time 0.03. 

Plenty of positives in the first half. Gonçalves, Geny and Trincão all looking bright. Suárez looks like he's had too much candy and the sugar has gone to his head. Seventeen attempts… SEVENTEEN. The referee has been over lenient at times and you imagine that will change in the second half. Oh to have spent the best part of €50m on forwards and neither seem overly proficient at putting the ball into the net though to be fair to Doris he at least has an excuse in that he's sat on the bench. Mercifully Alverca have offered nothing and when they have broken up field Diomande, Araújo and Inácio have had it all contained. I get the feeling Alverca's spirit can be broken easily enough once the first goal goes in but it's a case of if and when it ever comes. I wonder if Borges will be brave and swap Suárez out for Ioannidis sooner rather than later especially given how well he played on Tuesday night albeit against a different side to the one on the pitch tonight.

Second half 

The rain pouring down as the lions take the field for the second half for once ahead of the opposition. Lions get us back underway. No changes from the first half. Little girl dressed as a cat still full of enthusiasm in the crowd. I'll have whatever she's having. 

45 Alverca fall back straight into their 5-4-1 positioning and concede a corner far side with the lions first attack with less than 30 seconds played 

46 Corner cleared but the lions in the stand respond as the volume lofts inside the José Alvalade 

47 Alverca with their first continued period of possession in the entire game. However possession conceded and the lions won another corner as an Araújo cross blocked. Inácio heads into the stand 

48 Third corner as Araújo went to turn and shoot but the defender took it off his toes 

49 GOAL Sporting CP 1 Alverca 0. Suárez swept home into an empty net from 2 yards. VAR check ongoing. I thought the defender got the last touch but it looks more like Inácio on the replay. In that case he's well offside and this won't count 

50 It is now pissing it down as the referee struggles with his headset . 

51 Inácio got the flick on and the referee confirms it is still Sporting 0 Alverca 0

51 Shout for a penalty as Diomande connects with Milovanovic inside the area. Referee quickly waved his hands by his side. Not sure who it was with a touch like a trampoline in the Sporting defence which cannoned off back towards the Alverca forward but it wasn't pretty

55 The atmosphere definitely better than what's on the pitch 

57 Milovanovic with a pea roller from 20 yards. The old man in the team photo could have walked over to that effort and kept it in play 

58 ➡️ ⬅️ Quenda for Geny and Simões for Ioannidis. One eye on Juventus possibly with those two changes 

59 ➡️⬅️ Lima for Milovanovic. Lima of course with the consolation on Tuesday night and Alverca attacking the same half in which the goal came 

60 Trincão with a sliding tackle then tries to make something happen as he drove to the edge of the area but the ball cleared before he could get his shot away 

62 Quenda late to the ball catches the top of the foot of an Alverca player. Still no bookings in this game 

63 Clever ball from Trincão over the top to Doris but the rain not helping speeding up the pass and the Greek fires into the side netting 

65 Corner far side. Shot into the far right hand corner by Vagiannidis from 25 yards spilled by Gomes but he got back to claim the loose ball 

66 Another corner far side. Finally the deadlock broken. GOAL Sporting CP 1 FC Alverca 0. Ioannidis powers his header home from 5 yards 

68 ➡️⬅️ Gui for Lincoln 

69 Quenda brings a save from 12 yards as he looks to score for a third straight game 

71 Perfect from Diomande as he times his challenge inside the area to stop Alverca once again. The player threw himself to the ground. Not as much to win a penalty, more like a toddler having a paddy 

72 Alverca committing more and more men forward now. Sporting need to put this game to bed which they should have done by half time 

73 GOLAZZO Sporting CP 2 FC Alverca 0. As I was saying about putting the game to bed. 24 yard thunder bastard into the top left past the outstretched hand of Gomes. Like Ioannidis performance on Tuesday he's deserved that goal tonight 

76 Doris is built like a wardrobe and charges like a bull as he forced his way through a crowd of Alverca players but his pass over hit into the area 

78 ➡️⬅️ Gonçalves for Alisson and Suárez for Morita 

80 Double effort from Gui. First shot blocked from 20 yards the second deflected up and Silva collects 

81 ➡️ ⬅️ Nuozzi for Leite and Abdulai for Kauan 

84 Yellow as Vagiannidis pulls back Gui

84 Gui does a great Gonçalves impression, the one where he leans back and fires over from 24 yards 

85 Araújo down inside the box but the referee uninterested again. Little tug on the arm. Nothing that warranted the reaction from the Uruguayan as he went down 

87 Amorim fires wide from 22 yards 

87 Suárez cuts a frustrated figure on the lions bench. Life much easier in Segunda clearly 

88 Allison drives forward and gets his shot away between two defenders from 16 yards but straight into the hoardings 

89 Great disguised pass from Alisson but Alverca somehow cleared 

Plus four shown 

+1 Shot blocked from 20 yards out to Allison who whips a shot to the far post from 14 yards. Didn't miss by much 

+2 Diomande with a body check into Leite leaves him flat on his arse inside the area. Nothing has got past the Ivorian tonight 

+3 Why they're showing the misters Casio watch again is anyone's guess

Full time 

Sporting CP 2 FC Alverca 0 

The final word 

Tuesday night it rained goals, tonight it just rained but I've seen plenty of games where the lions haven't played well in these conditions. If my opening statements to this post were in front of a jury and I needed 90 minutes of visual evidence to prove my point then there it was. I think I won the argument made above pretty convincingly. Once again we've seen the lions dominate possession, kept a clean sheet, give up no big chances for the fourth game on the spin and yet the one thing missing is the ability to put the ball into the back of the net. My counter argument to that once more will always be you only need to outscore the opponents by one goal to win a game and that's the lions fifth straight in all competitions. It will add fuel to Borges critics fire of course. I'm sure some stupid fucker will say we should have a mister that doesn't wear a Casio watch because the internet is full of fucking morons and you don't have to look very far to find one or more. 

It could have been a very different scoreline of course. Geny hit the post, Suárez sees one of his efforts cleared off the line and at 2-0 at half time you could well believe it would have finished 4-0 or more. Suárez of course rightly flagged offside for the chance he did convert. Doris finally breaks the deadlock with the type of header that Paulinho's presence brought before his departure the summer before last and then the wonder strike from Gonçalves to make a wet night worth it for those in attendance. It also puts the pressure back onto Porto as they take on Braga over the weekend having lost against a poor Nottingham Forest side in the Europa League and needing a late goal to beat Moreirense 2-1 on Monday night. Sporting aren't the only side making life harder than it needs to be for themselves right now. 

Don't let anyone tell you this wasn't a well deserved win though. Apart from maybe one minute into the second half when Alverca kept the ball for maybe a minute, they pretty much spent the entire rest of the game on the back foot. Wave after wave of Sporting attacks like the allies attacking Dresden during WWII only with less devastating consequences. Their XG 0.23 against a total of 8 attempts. Thankfully their finishing worse than ours and I cannot remember Silva having a single save to make even if he had to be alert in the first two minutes to stop two crosses from the wings. 

It's no surprise to see them line up in a 5-4-1 and put bodies behind the ball. It's the default formation that Sporting find themselves up against in the majority of matches and I've lost count of how many times I'll have written that as soon as they get the first goal and the opponents have to look for a way back into the game, that's when they take advantage and they did exactly that about thirty seconds after I wrote now put this game to bed. Gonçalves was picking up on telepathy clearly. 

The loss of Fresneda early on the biggest negative of the entire evening. He definitely looked in a lot of pain and I'll doubt we'll see him again this side of the international window. 

Araújo caused all sorts of mischief down the left on Halloween. He looked like el diablo had taken over his soul for the evening as he mischievously grinned in the face of one of the Alverca defenders. He's definitely earning cult status with every game that passes and not just for his mischievous side but for the quality he brings to the team defensively and offensively. 

Diomande was back to his very best tonight and I'd not want to upset him on the pitch. I'm sure he's very placid off of it but tonight he did not give a single inch and used all of his strength time and time again against whoever came up against him. I don't know who made the mistake that nearly let Alverca in with a poor touch at the back but they owe the Ivorian a drink come the end of the night because he got them off the hook. 

Simões full of energy once more but his heading needs an awful lot of work. His presence does allow the lions an extra option when they look to break. His movement great as he linked up on the overlap with Araújo down the left in the opening 45. His withdrawal I'm convinced with Juventus in mind and the same with Geny who brings so much more quality down the right than Geovany Quenda. Time and time again we see that burst of pace from him to shed his marker and he was unfortunate to see his effort hit the post in the first half. 

Luis Suárez… well he shares a name with a famous forward but he's definitely not got the same level of talent for putting the ball onto the onion bag. Well maybe in the Segunda. His face on the bench spoke a thousand words. What I did really like was in the first half when he squared the ball to Geny and that's the first time I can remember him being truly unselfish in a sporting shirt which might be doing him a disservice but given I can't think of another single similar example I'm going to run with it. Otherwise same old issue as mentioned in the buildup to this post. He's not a youngster either. He's a very expensive toy and unfortunately for him that means the weight of expectation will continue to grow. He's clearly got some talent. Is he a forward that thrives on confidence? We've never seen him hit a good run of consistency to find out. One good season in Spain does not make you a premium quality forward as were finding out to our detriment. 

27 attempts to score 2 goals is not good enough. I can't disguise that fact and we can't hide from it either and there's no excuses for it. We have the squad we have and the positive is of course we keep posting ridiculous numbers week after week in terms of attempts; 39 against Paços, 29 against Tondela and the 27 here. You shouldn't need that many attempts to score 8 goals let's be fair.  What are they missing? Well the answer is sat in North London so we just have to now get on with it. As I believe the kids say - it is what it is. However Doris scores again and whilst he doesn't look like he's going to break goal scoring records if he's a once a night man that would do me. I think at some point he and Suárez have to swap over as starters, maybe that fires the Colombian up to a better effect coming on as the substitute, who knows. For now the Greek definitely looks the better of the two and he's the one with two goals in two games. 

Vagiannidis, Alisson, Quenda, Morita - much of a muchness. Oh good I'm running out of thoughts and words so let's go to man of the match. Diomande gets my first vote for the reasons previously mentioned above. Araújo gets my second vote because he's always good value to watch and for his overall contribution on both halves. Trincão gets my third vote. I'm a broken record I know but I think sitting that bit deeper allows his game to flourish so much more. It's a shame it was so wet out there because sometimes he fell victim to the increased pace on the ball when his pass skidded off the surface. I'm thinking of the pass to Doris over the top of the defender which was great vision and on a dry night most likely would have popped up almost perfectly for the Greek. Definitely had a big part to play in all that was good for Sporting in the first half. Final vote and my man of the match goes to Pedro Gonçalves. Superbly taken winner. I don't think I saw his attitude drop once and none of his petulance that drives me potty. However it wasn't the goal that impressed me most, it was his vision and range of passes in the first 45 minutes and his understanding with Araújo, Trincão and Suárez in the final third. I think him and Trincão have both found their level with Sporting. They're good enough for this league and would do well to know between the pair of them where they're well off. Play where you're well loved and take the pay cheque in your latter years somewhere hot. I don't think either are good enough to make that step up to say the Premier League and it's no surprise both their times at Wolves were failures. 

Juventus next. What version of them we face remains anyone's guess. What version of us they find is also a big mystery.