By Leah Bower
Rumours have been rife surrounding Ruben Amorim’s succession to Jurgen Klopp, despite the Sporting Lisbon manager’s denial of negotiations.
Many journalists, such as PortuGOAL’s Tom Kundert, still believe that Amorim’s impact at Sporting makes him a great option for the Reds.
Dan spoke with Tom about his 2021 article, “Sensational Ruben Amorim Continues to Work His Magic.”
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On how Amorim is seen in Portugal, Tom said: “He spent almost a whole of his career at Benfica, which of course is Sporting’s bitter cross-town rivals. Sporting spent €10m buying him from Braga. That’s quite a hefty fee for a manager, but in Portuguese terms, that’s a massive fee. Immediately, there were questions being asked if that was money well spent, given his Benfica background as well.
“It’s just absolutely paid off.
“The atmosphere in press conferences a lot of the time isn’t too pleasant. Ruben Amorim is a complete breath of fresh air.
“He’s just very clear and avoiding controversy and just very objective and straight to the point and very polite to all the journalists.
“One of the journalists asked him at his unveiling as Sporting manager something like, you know, “Imagine if this goes wrong, you know, this is going to be a very tricky situation for you,” And his response was, “Yes, but imagine if it goes right?”
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On what Amorim has achieved: “When Amorim took over, 38 years before, Sporting had won the Championship twice. All the other titles have been shared between Benfica and Porto.
“In his second season, they spent €100 million on transfers, which is an absolutely astronomical fee in terms of Portuguese football.
“He relied on a lot of the youth players at Sporting. It was really going into battle in an uneven background.
“He won the league that first full season and almost certainly will go on to win the league this season. you really cannot overstate how he’s changed Sporting, but I think even the face of Portuguese football these last four years.
“They had a poor season last year, and off the back of that when they started better this season, he said immediately, “Look, the size of this club, we have to be fighting for titles every season. If we don’t win anything this season, I’m leaving.” It just seems to have motivated the players.”
On his player management: “Amorim manages to get the best out of his players and the best out of I’d say older players and players who you really wouldn’t expect him to improve.
“Sebastian Coates, who’s become an absolute cult hero, a good decent player, but you wouldn’t really say top-class player, quite mistake-prone. I think even Sporting fans love Coates because he is the sort of player who gives everything. They realised maybe he was top class since Amorim came over. He changed the system to three at the back and it just suited him completely down to the ground.
“At Liverpool, on the one hand, he’ll have players who don’t need improvement, some of the best players in the world; Salah, Van Dijk, Alisson. Then, of course, Liverpool have got a lot of young players coming up and starting to make an impression on the first team. So in that respect, I think that Amorim could be the perfect coach to try and develop them and keep them travelling in the right direction.”
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On his 3-4-3 system: “Sporting had one of their centre-backs sent off. What does Amorin do instead of rejigging his team another way? He took off Pablo Sarabia, Sporting’s best player at that time, to bring on another central defender to keep that structure of a three-man defence. Sporting went on to win that game 3-0. So it worked out perfectly.
“I would expect him to implement his style and try to get Liverpool players to just adapt to it.
“This season has just absolutely proved that it doesn’t have to be a defensive system. It can be a very attacking system, which of course will suit Liverpool. Sporting has scored more goals this season than any other Portuguese side this century.”
On how he will approach signings: “With recruitment, it’s not really comparable what he has to do at Sporting and what he’s got the opportunity to do at Liverpool.
“They signed Viktor Gyökeres last season for €20m, a record signing, Liverpool bought a player for £20m and he’s probably a bench player, isn’t he?”
On how people will respond to him leaving Sporting Lisbon: “There will be no hard feelings at all. Why? Because it’s inevitable in Portugal that, you know, whenever a player starts doing really well, or a manager starts doing really well, he moves on to a more highly prestigious league.
“People just look at that and obviously it’s frustrating, but they’re realistic as well.
“Some people are saying in Portugal, he’s the best coach since José Mourinho. I think he’s got everything to go to the top and he could be the next big thing in Portuguese management.”
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