When Rúben Amorim is unhappy with his team's performance, he crouches down and looks for inspiration for his coaching from this perspective.

He's been in his coaching zone a lot this season.

But sometimes he doesn't look at the field at all for corners or free-kicks against Sporting.

The basic trust in his team was an important building block in the past two years in leading a young, inexperienced team to the championship and last year to the Champions League round of 16.

Now it's shaken.

Sporting has been on a roller coaster ride since the start of the season.

In the cup, the traditional Lisbon club was eliminated by a third division club.

In the Portuguese league, Sporting suffered their fourth defeat of the season last Saturday, one more than all of last season.

The gap to arch-rivals Benfica Lisbon is twelve points.

Sporting also shows this ups and downs in the premier class.

In the first leg in Frankfurt (3-0) and in both games against Tottenham Hotspur, Amorim's 3-4-3 system worked almost perfectly: with pressing, concentrated defence, quick transitions and counterattacks and a very efficient exploitation of chances in front of the opposing goal.

On the other hand, the two defeats against Marseille provided proof that the people of Lisbon let themselves be thrown off balance by insane behavior: in both games, Sporting players were responsible for a penalty kick and a dismissal after around 20 minutes.

Coach in the club undisputed

Rúben Amorim is experiencing a moment of instability for the first time in his young coaching career.

The 37-year-old former midfielder took charge of a top-flight team for the first time at SC Braga in December 2019 and joined Sporting just three months later.

By the start of the current season, he had only lost six times in 88 league games: "When I only knew successes, I always tried to prepare myself for this moment," said Amorim after the cup exit in mid-October.

In the club he is undisputed.

Sporting President Frederico Varandas appears far less in public than is usual for club presidents of major football clubs in Portugal.

With the risky signing of Amorim for a record transfer fee of 14.4 million euros, Varandas had already tied his presidency closely to the sporting success of the young coach in March 2020 - and had done well with it so far.

The lack of consistency in the Sporting game could now lead Amorim to remember his own strengths.

With Nuno Mendes, Gonçalo Inácio and Daniel Bragança, at the beginning of his coaching career he promoted club players from the Sporting squad and made them an important part of the 2020/21 championship team.

Since then, however, the promotion of youngsters has faltered, mainly because Amorim hardly wanted to change anything about his successful team.

After the defeats of the past few weeks, the coach is now back to players like Flavio Nazinho (19), Mateus Fernandes (18) and Dario Essugo (17), creating more competition for the regular players.

A draw against or a win over Eintracht Frankfurt this Tuesday (9 p.m. in the FAZ live ticker for the Champions League and on DAZN) would be enough for Sporting to move into the Champions League round of 16.

The additional millions from the European pots would also be necessary if Sporting wanted to put out feelers for the greatest club idol in history again.

Since the telenovela about Cristiano Ronaldo's stay at Manchester United began in the summer, many Sporting fans have been dreaming of the exceptional striker's return to Portugal.

Above all, Ronaldo's mother Dolores Aveiro, who had her son move from the Atlantic island of Madeira to the Sporting football boarding school in Lisbon at the age of eleven.

Aveiro, a regular in the VIP box at Sporting games, announced in September that Ronaldo could return to Sporting this season or next.

Sporting could use a Ronaldo in top form, above all because the Lisbon team have shown great problems converting chances this season and only have one real centre-forward in their squad.

And Ronaldo may also enjoy a return, giving him a chance to finally add a Portuguese title to his sprawling laurels.

But even in the Portuguese capital, the love for Ronaldo seems to be cooling off.

Rúben Amorim does not fit the 37-year-old striker into his game system, which is based on high pressing and a willingness to run.

In attack, especially in the Champions League, he builds on the three variable offensive powers Pedro Gonçalves, Francisco Trincão and Marcus Edwards.

For a long time, Amorim refused to comment on Ronaldo's possible return.

He recently commented soberly: "Ronaldo is a Manchester United player.

Everyone at Sporting dreams of his return, but we don't have the money to pay his salary." Even among die-hard Sporting fans on social media, it's clear that Ronaldo will only return to his training club if he's personally very active money waived.

And many Lisbon residents doubt that this moment has now come.