Rúben Amorim was carried out of the Sporting Lisbon stadium on his hands – this time not just in speech. After his last home game as coach for the club, the team lined up for him at the exit. As Amorim ran through the trellis, the players snapped like a crocodile’s mouth at fresh prey. There was no escape for the Portuguese, they kept throwing their coach into the air. And with a little imagination you could imagine Amorim flying across the Celtic Sea to his future employer <a href="https://www.archysport.com/2022/01/premier-league-manchester-citys-turnover-for-the-first-time-higher-than-manchester-uniteds/" title="Premier League – Manchester City's turnover for the first time higher than Manchester United's”>Manchester United.
If there were still any doubts for Amorim as to how he, as a previously small trainer alligator, would be received in the currently very murky waters of the titular saurus in Manchester from next week, these are likely to have increased since Sporting’s spectacular 4-1 win against United’s city rivals City Done on Tuesday evening. They will now certainly receive him at the English record champions United in the same way he left his Portuguese homeland: on their hands.
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Sporting Lisbon not only defeated City in the Champions League, it ate up Pep Guardiola’s team. The Amorim alligator snapped four times, as insatiable as United once was in the duels with neighbors City – before it was fed financially from Abu Dhabi. Despite City’s early lead through Phil Foden (4th minute), the title favorites approached the opponent’s penalty area with astonishing carelessness when in possession of the ball, as if Sporting were just a stuffed crocodile. Without protection, City was countered mercilessly, and the outstanding Sporting attacker Viktor Gyökeres repeatedly ran towards goalkeeper Ederson alone. The Swede, who was still employed at FC St. Pauli in 2019/20, took advantage of three of his many chances (36th, 49th, 80th), two of which were from penalties. Lisbon’s winger Maximiliano Araújo also scored (46′).
Sporting’s 4-1 defeat was the heaviest defeat for Manchester City, who were used to success, in more than four years. But she fit into the current image of the team. When the score was 1:3, striker Erling Haaland hit the crossbar with a penalty as hard as if he had wanted to score two goals at once. City is “a bit in a dark situation,” reported veteran Bernardo Silva, and everything seems to be going “in the wrong direction” at the moment. Even if you play well, you don’t take advantage of the chances and concede goals too easily, complained Silva. That has to change quickly, otherwise it will be difficult to make up for the losses.
Guardiola is slowly running out of players
Within a week, City suffered three defeats in a row, for the first time since 2018. The round of 16 exit in the League Cup at Tottenham was followed by the first league defeat in Bournemouth – and now the attrition in the Champions League. With seven points from four games, City must be careful not to miss direct qualification for the round of 16 through a top-eight finish. And the big chunks are yet to come: Paris Saint-Germain and Juventus Turin. The Telegraph wrote that City had “no energy, no spark and no ideas.”
After Silva’s fundamental criticism, the coach tried to appease. No, he does not share the player’s opinion that they are not on the dark side, emphasized Guardiola. Although his team is not emotionally stable enough at the moment, they knew that it would be a complicated season after four league titles in a row. Guardiola assured that he likes such challenges. However, he is currently running out of players with whom he could overcome the crisis.
Recently he only had 13 operational professionals available. Things didn’t look much better against Sporting. In addition to the world footballer Rodri, who injured his cruciate ligament, the regulars Rúben Dias, John Stones, Jack Grealish and Oscar Bobb were absent; Kevin De Bruyne was only able to play for a few minutes after suffering a hip injury for weeks. And players like Kyle Walker, Jeremy Doku and Nathan Aké also recently returned. City’s personnel shortage is due, on the one hand, to the grueling busy schedule for top players. And on the other hand, probably an overly optimistic transfer summer. City confidently sold its offensive all-rounder Julián Alvarez to Atlético Madrid – for an internal record fee (75 million euros). In the previous season, the Argentine had first compensated for De Bruyne’s months-long absence, then the absence of Haaland.
Despite the heavy load, City only brought in the young winger Savinho and Ilkay Gündogan on a free transfer. The returnee from FC Barcelona should fill the gap left by Alvarez. But so far Gündogan has not been able to build on his former city form. In 14 competitive games he only managed one goal and one assist. A month ago, Guardiola judged the former DFB captain to have “played one of the worst matches” he had ever seen from him. Gündogan is a long-time favorite player of Guardiola, about whom he had never publicly commented in this way before. Against Sporting, Gündogan was only substituted on in the final phase.
At least City won’t have to wait long for an opportunity to get revenge on Rúben Amorim. Manchester United will be visiting for the city derby in December.
