Alves booed by own fans after thrashing as transfer quickly turns into nightmare

Dani Alves was booed by his own fans after his new side Pumas UNAM were smashed by Santos Laguna on Sunday.

The Brazilian joined Pumas at the end of July after being released by Barcelona, signing a one-year deal with the Liga MX side. So far though, his time at the Mexican club has been a disaster, with Los Universitarios yet to win any of the five games he has played so far.

The lowest point of his time at the club came on Sunday when Pumas were hammered 5-1 by Santos, who are fighting near the top of the table. Alves had started in central midfield at the Estadio Olímpico Universitario.

But the hosts found themselves three goals down within the first 41 minutes, with Harold Preciado netting twice and Fernando Gorriarán also scoring. That prompted Pumas boss Andres Lillini to make several tactical changes at half-time.

One of those changes was to move Alves to the right-back area, where he had been so successful for Barcelona. But the changes did not have the desired effect, and Alves was even at fault for Santos' fourth goal.

Just four minutes into the second-half, Alves was muscled off a high ball by Preciado who was then able to break forward. The right-back attempted to recover with a slide tackle, but Preciado saw it coming and cut back, with Alves left on the floor.

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Preciado then passed the ball to Juan Brunetta, who fired past Julio Gonzalez and into the bottom corner. Though he later provided the assist for Juan Dinenno's consolation goal, Alves was still booed by hiw own fans.

Third-placed Tigres are up next for Pumas, in what would appear to be a challenging game. And boss Lillini admitted his team were "out of sync" as he demanded they improve their performances.

"The team is out of sync. It has to go back to being the group that it was and that many times brought this forward. These inertias are complicated when they are negative. The group will have to find the best form, always looking forward," he said.

"We are going to see if in this week of double shift we can turn this around and get ahead. We are sustained or condemned by the results. We will seek against Tigres to be more solid at the back, look for it from theory. If we can't keep a clean sheet in our goal, it's going to be very difficult to pull this off."

Alves has already faced criticism for his decision to join Pumas, with his recent performances only adding to the feeling he made the wrong call. Former Barca star Rivaldo has already questioned his compatriot.

"I don't know if Dani has made the best decision, choosing to join Pumas. Yes, he could play in a country where the coach sees him more often, but I think the Brazilian boss has a lot of confidence in Dani Alves because of his experience," he told TUDN.