AEK has the midfielders they deserve

her picture Eck Competitively changing for the better game by game. then against Panetoliko As ready and resolute as she needed to get through the shock of defeat at the hands of Panathinaikos – which also left strong wrinkles of complaints about refereeing decisions – she was well prepared for her first night in Obab Arena.

Whatever the fear, reasonable or not, there was a mental readiness of football players to manage the new reality, it disappeared in the first six minutes of the match. She’s back in New Philadelphia the way she should be! Difficult, with momentum, on a sloping floor.

A match that might have tightened AEK at OAKA, might have led them into trouble and pitfalls, quickly became a piece of cake for them. And there will be many, many matches this year, next year and deep into the coming decades, that will end like this. But that’s another conversation…

In order for the field to help you take off, you must also have a strong team. A bad set would drown her in complaining. And the medium will help it look a little better than it actually is, again on a case-by-case basis. Good idea, however, will take it off. It looks like AEK is the team that will return to the title contenders and the home ground will play a role in appearing with an air of imposition.

Its quality improvement is evident in all fonts. It could easily show that this is going to be the season, and at the end of it there will be a report of more than 80% success in transfer additions. Rare for any team on the planet.

And it could reach 100% if everyone got plays at the level that Vida, Pineda, Eliasson, Johnson and Jasenovic were playing from the start. Next is Mukudi, who has already shown good results, the 2018 World Champion, Djibril Sidibe and Van Vert who have been tried and tested. why not;

Midfield force and ‘foreign body’

But the picture has changed dramatically from the midfielders’ response to Almeida’s tactical plan. Obviously from its superior quality compared to all he’s had in recent years, it’s also a matter of quantity: the choices are obviously more, but it’s also targeted to help those – at least some of them – who were already in the group to make their good points.

Damien Szymanski, for example, was brilliant for the second straight game in sixth place. Not only was Johnson’s absence not seen, but Almeida now had a serious dilemma of how to leave the pole out to bring the Dane back, once the current configuration proved to be working perfectly, and while Jasinovic, Pineda quickly became irreplaceable.

The three transfers to midfield have Simanski making fantastic adjustments in the block as well as in the organizational part, while Kostas Galanopoulos, fully prepared and very strong now, comes in full force to claim his time. The elements of the international midfielder are certainly the ones that fit right in with what Almeida wants his midfielders to support.

A ready and complete quintet in midfield positions, now – as Galanopoulos climbs up the hierarchy – is followed by former captain, Petros Mandalos. Which was the only difference in this particular game.

Not because he made a bunch of fouls, one of which cost AEK the goal handed at the end of the match, nor because he scored on… as was his picture of him rushing off to the dressing room as soon as the match was over, while everyone celebrated the unique moments on the new stadium. It looked like a foreign body…

It would be good for him to recover, to find himself and his psychology to face the fact that he would now be a surrogate. However, he can help AEK and the coach expects him to give him things off the bench, as Amrabad has been constantly coming to terms with the new reality.

PennsylvaniaWatch the SPORT24 broadcast from the OPAP Arena: