The coach Rúben Amorim admitted this Saturday that the moment Sporting is going through did not help the club’s players to be called up for the Qatar 2022 World Cup, but he advised thinking about Euro2024 now.
At a press conference at the Alcochete Academy, the ‘lions’ coach admitted that the players “always believe they can be called up”, but also that “they are intelligent” and, therefore, they have to look at the latest squad.” naturally”.
“Obviously, the timing of the team didn’t help. That is normal, because football lives from many things, from elections, but also from the moment, from involvement and that is also important. We can’t help these players, but what they have to do is make them think about the next big competition, which is the Eurocup”, advises Rúben Amorim.
In this sense, the coach recalled that, now, his players who were not called up “have two paths -either they are sad and let themselves be discouraged, or they move on”-, but he stressed that “they have a very great character” and, despite fail in this competition, “you can think of the other”.
“I’ve been to two World Cups and I’m not even close to half the player that Pot [Pedro Gonçalves] is he [Gonçalo] Ignatius. That’s what they have to get into their heads. They are phases and in the next one they will surely be, because we as a club do not want to always be in fifth and sixth place ”, he acknowledged.
The position that Sporting occupies in the I Liga, moreover, has a decisive weight in the non-selection of its players, who “have quality for the A team”, but who “is a choice of the coach and does not have to interfere” . in the work that the club has been developing.
“If we were in first place, I’m sure there would be a Sporting player. And that’s the way things are. It is about looking at it like this and not getting into this wave that the Sporting formation is working badly ”, Amorim appealed.
The ‘lions’, however, will have Morita in the squad for Japan, as well as Coates and Ugarte in Uruguay, who will face Portugal in Group H of the competition, but they will not share the coach’s heart, who will be ” 100% with Portugal”, especially since the South Americans “have Sporting players and everything that eliminates Uruguay is in their favour”.
“I’ll be supporting Portugal with the flag and the shirt, so that the Uruguayan players come early. I already told Seba [Coates] We already have the flights scheduled so that they can come right away in the group stage”, the ‘lions’ coach joked.
Sporting does not have any player in the 26-man squad for the 2022 World Cup, which starts on November 20, an unprecedented situation in the final stages of major competitions.
Despite this disappearance, Sporting is omnipresent in the national team, with eight players trained at the ‘green and white’ club, such as Rui Patrício (Roma, Ita), Nuno Mendes (Paris Saint-Germain, Fra), Palhinha (Fulham , England), João Mário (Benfica), Matheus Nunes (Wolverhampton, England), William Carvalho (Betis, ESP), Cristiano Ronaldo (Manchester United, England), Rafael Leão (AC Milan, Italy), in a list that also includes to the former captain ‘leonine’ Bruno Fernandes (Manchester United, England).
The World Championship takes place in Qatar, between November 20 and December 18. Portugal is part of Group H, along with Uruguay, Ghana and South Korea, led by Paulo Bento, with its debut scheduled for November 24, against the Ghanaians, at Estádio 974, in Doha.
Source: TSF
