Who is the “Ancelottized” Rui Borges? A brief analysis of the Sporting coach

He arrived in Alvalade after Christmas with a prophetic slogan, perhaps: "When inspiration is lacking, attitude is not lacking". The man from Mirandela, who had a brilliant spell at Vitória SC, succeeded João Pereira, a coach who had had many difficulties in maintaining the level of play and the mentality of the group in the aftermath of Ruben Amorim's departure to Manchester United.

The coach who flirted with the impossibility of winning the championship twice ("we'll see", he said at Marquês) left Sporting with 11 wins in 11 matches (39 goals scored, five conceded). Benfica was five points behind and FC Porto six.

Rui Borges arrived to put out the fires and restore the spark to several footballers, such as Viktor Gyökeres. Before landing at the Lisbon giant, the coach played for Mirandela, Académico de Viseu, Académica, Nacional, Vilafranquense, Mafra, Moreirense and Vitória de Guimarães. At 43 years of age, Borges, with the surname of a poet, has the chance to win a double.

The story finally unfolds this Saturday at Estádio da Luz. Sporting only needs to win the derby to become national champions for the third time in five years, something only seen in the 1950s.

Bola Branca commentators Francisco Guimarães and Francisco Sousa give a brief portrait of the Sporting coach.

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Francisco Guimaraes

He is a coach with the profile of a holding team. In other words, a small team. His teams have difficulty playing out of the blocks. They are generally not dominant, which makes them more suited to counter-attacking. This was already the case at Vitória and continues to be the case at Sporting, which, considering that it is a larger team, can be considered a problem.

His teams are vertical. He likes attacking full-backs, midfielders who play long balls, defensive midfielders who get the ball to the centre-backs and deep forwards. He takes his time to make decisions during the game, and he doesn't always get it right. Sometimes, in desperation, anything goes, including ideas he doesn't believe in.

His greatest quality is the “Ancelottization” of the process. Simplicity is the secret (sometimes it is too simple). Faithful to the “united we will win” speech, full of clichés, he manages to get the message across effectively. In fact, his teams fight until the end, they unite in the face of adversity and the players with more personality take on the role of leaders, deliberately replacing the coach.

He is a calm and serene coach during the game. An impenetrable statue, which is good in times of greater pressure and anxiety.

Francisco Sousa

He is a coach who came with a different tactical system from his previous experiences. He is a coach who is very capable of developing players, of valuing players in public as well. One of the things that brought cohesion and continues to provide emotional and motivational support in the dressing room is the way he constantly values ​​the great figures of his team in public. He is full of praise. Just a little while ago he said that Gyökeres is the best forward in Europe, constantly praising the role of Hjulmand, and he has been leaving words of praise for some of the youngsters who have been emerging, for Francisco Trincão and other important names.

Then, there are, in a way, double standards here, because there was already a somewhat nonsensical speech here about Conrad Harder. There are players here who, both in terms of performance and profile, taking into account the coach's game plan, are clearly not a perfect fit. I think that Rui Borges often ends up undervaluing players by not using them. Anyway, I think that he has already made some mistakes here, in his very genuine way of communicating, completely unconcerned with how the speech comes across more or less polished.

Compared to Bruno Lage, he seems to be less in turmoil on the bench. Just as Lage also showed a good ability to adapt to circumstances, I think Sporting gained stability with the return to the 3-4-2-1. It is a sign of Rui Borges' intelligence and ability to reflect. The problem is that the choices of profiles, at various times, ended up disappointing.

If it is a fact that Sporting is also showing signs of improvement, taking into account the growth of some players who have been evolving almost by force because they are increasingly used in certain positions, I give the obvious example of Zeno Debast, who is still far from mastering all the skills as a midfielder, but has undoubtedly grown in that department, even in the way he presses and recovers, which was one of his biggest weaknesses, even when playing as a central defender. But he has recovered some players who were out and who will be very important for this final stretch, they have already shown this at times, Pedro Gonçalves, Morita, that will be very important.

He has brought back the best Gyökeres for the final stretch of the season, and he has been absolutely decisive, and Sporting, and this does not speak well of Borges, is more dependent on Gyökeres than it was with Ruben Amorim, even though it was already scoring a lot of goals with Amorim. The team used to be more harmonious, and this dependence is real, it has been real. I think it has been a lifeline for Rui Borges.

From the point of view of options, he was not always a coach capable of making this team grow in a sustained way.