SPORTING Lisbon boss Ruben Amorim is one of the most highly-rated young coaches in football today.
The former Portuguese international midfielder has, to this point, shown patience and self-belief in terms of building his career and making choices in terms of when to move clubs to give himself a greater platform.
No wonder he is now the outright favourite to replace Jurgen Klopp at Liverpool when the German leaves the club at the end of the season.
Now that Xabi Alonso has revealed he will be staying at Bayer Leverkusen for at least one more season, it seems Amorim is Klopp’s heir apparent.
Liverpool are known to use a data-generated model to rate and evaluate coaches from around the world.
And Amorim is one of the top names on that model, along with Alonso, Roberto De Zerbi at Brighton and the current Bologna coach Thiago Motta.
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Amorim has always shown real personality in terms of believing in himself and believing in his model of play.
He has shown a clear history of being willing to back himself in terms of stepping up levels as he moves clubs but his style of play has remained largely consistent.
Which means we have a good idea of what Amorim’s style of play and game model would mean for Liverpool next season if he lands the big job.
Three at the back and building the attack
One of the biggest things changes Amorim would make at Liverpool will be that he favours a three-at-the-back system with three central defenders.
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He is likely to do the same at Liverpool and introduce the 3-4-3 that we have seen Amorin use almost exclusively at Sporting Lisbon.
This does not mean in any way, however, that the Portuguese coach is defensive minded and the three central defenders for Liverpool would be expected to be brave and comfortable on the ball when looking to play out from the back.
There are actually similarities in the way that Amorim likes his team to build with the way that we see Brighton build their attack under Roberto De Zerbi.
The central defenders, and goalkeeper, at Sporting Lisbon almost pause at times in possession to force the opposition to come and press the ball.
The positive news in this regard for Liverpool fans is that they already have the makings of an interesting back three in the current squad.
Virgil van Dijk is now 32 but his game intelligence and dominance would translate extremely well to playing as the central defender in a back three system.
Equally, Ibrahima Konate has all of the traits needed to be an absolutely dominant player on the right of the back three system.
They also have the youngster Jarrel Quansah who has broken through this season and who is showing promise.
With that said, however, we would expect this to be an area where Amorim would want the squad to be strengthened in order to provide more depth and balance .
The Reds have already been linked with taking the likes of Goncalo Inacio and Ousmane Diomande from Sporting Lisbon.
Both would represent sensible targets for Liverpool if they do appoint Amorim given that they already understand the system of play that Amorim favours.
If Liverpool fans want to understand the coaching ability of Amorim then they have to look now further than the performances of the Uruguayan international central defender Sebastian Coates at centre back this season.
Coates is, of course, a former Liverpool player and his emergence as a dominant and comfortable ball-playing defender will surprise fans of Liverpool who remember his disappointed spell at Anfield.
Changing from a three man midfield to a two
If Ruben Amorim does become the new Liverpool coach after this season then we will also see a change to the midfield unit at the club.
Under Jurgen Klopp we have seen Liverpool consistently use a three-man midfield with one sitting No6 and then two midfielders who have more licence to push forward and play as No8’s in the opposition half of the pitch.
Under Amorim we see Sporting Lisbon use a double pivot in the midfield with two players who are expected to be able to play either as the No6 or as the No8 from that position.
For the most part this season we have seen Amorim favour the use of the Japanese international Hidemasa Morita and the Danish star Morten Hjulmand in these positions.
Both players are comfortable when asked to play as the deepest of the two midfielders and both have the ability to sit and dictate the tempo or look to defend and break down opposition attacks.
Both are also, however, capable of pushing forward and contributing to the play in the final third.
The change to the midfield should Amorim take charge at Liverpool could well be bigger than the changes to the defensive line.
Liverpool have been so used to having a No6 sitting in front of the midfield and the change to having two players who essentially take turns doing this would be an adjustment.
The other question, of course, is which players Amorim would use in these roles from the current Liverpool squad.
Both Alexis Mac Allister and Dominik Szoboszlai are capable of performing these roles from the current squad although the former is more comfortable in deeper areas than the latter.
It would likely mean a reduced role though for the Japanese international midfielder Wataru Endo.
It would also be interesting to see whether Amorim wanted to use Trent Alexander-Arnold in a central role.
The England star’s passing range and ability on the ball would be interesting in the model of play that Amorim favours.
Liverpool have options within their squad in terms of finding players to suit the midfield structure that is favoured by Amorim.
Those players would, however, have to adjust to new roles within the squad.
But according to Portuguese news outlet Jornal Noticias, Amorim is keen to bring some of his key players with him to Merseyside.
The top targets are Goncalo Inacio and Ousmane Diomande, who could help bolster the Reds’ heavily injury-ridden defence.
It is also said that Amorim wants to bring Sporting midfielder Morten Hjulmand – who has been linked with a move to Tottenham – to Liverpool.
Inacio and Diomande have formed a sensational centre-back partnership, having lost just two games in the league this season.
Amorim is reportedly keen to have them both involved at Anfield alongside captain Van Dijk.
Narrow wide attackers
When Klopp led Liverpool to win the Premier League in 2020, one of the main features was the way that his wide attackers came inside and attacked centrally.
The attack of Sadio Mane and Mohamed Salah in the wide areas and Roberto Firmino centrally worked perfectly.
The Brazilian international Firmino wanted to come deep to link with the midfield and the other two wanted to make diagonal movements from wide to attack in the channels or central areas.
The front three of Sporting under Amorim works slightly differently.
The central striker – the highly-rated Viktor Gyokeres for the most part – stays central and pushes the opposition central defenders deep.
And the two attacking midfielders play more centrally or in the channels, almost acting like No10’s as opposed to playing as traditional wingers.
As Sporting attack into the final third the movement of these two attacking midfielders is key as they drift deep or into space to create areas in which they can receive the ball.
At the moment Liverpool are playing with their wide attackers in more traditional wide positions as they build the attack.
Mohamed Salah, on the right, and Luis Diaz, on the left, play as traditional wingers in the areas that they receive the ball – although they do still make movement from outside to in when in possession.
This would change under Amorim and while we know that Salah would be comfortable receiving and playing in these pockets would the same be true of Luis Diaz?
The new role for the wide attacking midfielders would require some adjustment for the Colombian international.
Liverpool do also have the likes of Diogo Jota and Cody Gakpo in their squad, however, and these players would be comfortable playing as the narrow attacking midfielders and receiving in pockets of space in more central areas.
Liverpool also have a striker in Darwin Nunez who would play the No9 role perfectly under a coach like Amorim.
The change to a more narrow role for the wide or attacking midfielders under Amorim would be an adjustment.
Given the fact that Salah’s contract is expiring relatively soon could we see Liverpool decide to cash in on the Egyptian forward?
Conclusion
You cannot help but be impressed when you watch a side coached by Ruben Amorim play.
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There is a clear plan in everything that he wants his team to do and his players are well coached and put into roles that they are comfortable in.
If the Portuguese coach is the man chosen to replace Klopp at Liverpool then the Premier League could well be gaining another great young coach.
Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
