Who is Rúben Amorim? The Liverpool target who won Sporting's first league title in 19 years

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While Liverpool fans dare not think about the prospect of replacing their cherished manager, the Anfield club will be well underway in their plans to provide a suitable succession plan to Jürgen Klopp’s imminent departure at the end of the season. After nine years at the Premier League club, the German tactician will likely depart as one of the club’s best ever managers and will leave some rather large shoes to fill. Although most reports suggest Bayer Leverkusen miracle worker Xabi Alonso is the odd-ons favourite to replace Klopp, some reports have suggested that if Liverpool can’t entice their former central midfielder back to the club they could instead turn to Sporting manager Rúben Amorim. So who is the 39-year-old tactician and would he be a smart appointment by the Anfield club?

How good is Rúben Amorim?

Although Amorim spent much of his playing career at Benfica, he first made his name as a young coach at Primeira Liga rivals Braga, where he came through the clubs ranks first as reserve team manager and was then appointed first team manager at the tender age of 34. Despite only being at the club for less than six months, Amorim guided the club to the Portuguese Cup and 10 wins in their remaining 13 league games. At the end of the season he was then quickly snapped up by Sporting and has been nothing short of remarkable since returning to the nation’s capital. Over the course of the last three full seasons Amorim has won two Portuguese Cups as well as taking Sporting to their first league title in 19 years, earning the young star the Manager of the Year award in the Primeira Liga. “Amorim is highly rated here in Portugal,” said Gonçalo Tristão Santos, Transfermarkt’s Portuguese Content Manager. “He is a very respected coach, there are almost no doubts about his qualities. Beyond that, people appreciate the way he communicates: he is a coach who is very sincere and direct in the answers he gives, always respecting the opponent. He seems to be a very upright and friendly person.”

What style of football does Rúben Amorim play?

Like all successful coaches, Amorim seems to be perfectly adept at changing his style of tactics and systems to suit the players he has. Although the young manager seems to prefer a back three consisting of three central defenders at all times, he has shown at Sporting that he can tweak his approach to continue challenging for titles. “He won the league title by primarily playing on the counterattack,” noted Santos, when asked about Amorim’s tactics. “Sporting were a team that played deeper down the field but quickly attacked the opponent's goal and it was very effective in scoring. However, in the following seasons, he ended up adapting Sporting's playing style and the team began to play differently with more ball possession and spending more time in the opponent's half. The team did not win the league again, but Sporting's football became more attractive and unpredictable. In the 2022/23 season, Sporting finished in fourth place and had a very dull style of play, but it was a season that went completely wrong. However, this season, we are seeing the most dynamic Sporting side since Amorim's arrival.”

How good is Rúben Amorim at developing young players?

Since becoming Sporting’s head coach in 2020, the Lisbon club have spent €183 million on signing new players. While that is slightly more than Porto (€154m), it is considerably less than Benfica’s spending in that period (€351m). When we couple that with the fact that Sporting have made €323m in player sales in that period of time, it certainly points to a club that have had to sell star players and develop new ones. And that also seems to be something Amorim is perfectly comfortable doing. ”Amorim is a coach who likes to invest in young players, whether from the Sporting academy or not,” said Santos. “There are several examples of this: Nuno Mendes, Tiago Tomás, Gonçalo Inácio, Pedro Porro, Matheus Nunes, Pedro Gonçalves, Eduardo Quaresma, Manuel Ugarte, Youssef Chermiti or Geny Catamo.”