He will move to get two central defenders

The Achilles’ heel of Olympiacos last season was its centre-back. The Piraeus side conceded goals, either from goals of their own by their stoppers or incorrect pass passes to their opponents in important matches that cost them the championship and the Greek Novibet Cup.

The four coaches who sat on the bench of the red and whites, Martins, Corbran, Mitchell and Añego, had several times to differentiate between the “twins” in the center of defense, in search of the optimal solution.

And if it were not for Paschalakis under the posts and Tzoulakis in the last matches of the qualifiers saving several positions, the picture would have been much more sluggish.

Determined to go forward in two movements

Olympiacos wants to change that before the new season and is determined to strengthen its seals by signing one or two players, especially if Ba, Cisse, or both are sold in the summer transfer window.

Sokratis Papastathopoulos, who will turn 35 in ten days, has had many good and bad moments in the season. In Europe it didn’t help at all as he only played in the first leg against Slovan Bratislava, only a quarter of an hour in the first leg against Maccabi Haifa and the away match against Qarabaj in the Europa League group stage.

And all this in a total of 12 matches played by Olympiacos in Europe. In the league he helped a lot during Mitchell’s tenure, but he had an own goal in the match against PAOK in Karaiskaki, a wrong pass for Sporar in the decisive derby with Panathinaikos in Leovourou and a wrong pass in the match against Slovan Bratislava. The seasoned footballer is on a free transfer as his contract expires and everything is up in the air at the moment regarding his future.

Up and down ba, sissy is absent

Usain Ba has had many ups and downs in his performance, either due to muscle injuries or due to the fact that he initially could not find a competitive rhythm. In Europe, one played and two did not play, while in the league it was away from October until the beginning of February. He returned to duty in mid-February and has since taken the starting jersey.

Despite this, he played only 45 minutes in the last four matches of the playoffs (against AEK), remaining on the bench in matches with Volos and PAOK and out of the 20-man derby squad with Panathinaikos. There was no shortage of mistakes, such as the one he made in the away defeat against Aris against Dabo, or a mistake in the match against Freiburg that was saved by Waelik. He finished the season with 25 appearances and 113 appearances for Olympiacos.

Pape Abou Sisi was mainly absent from Olympiacos this season. He played in the European qualifiers and after his mistake that Vezović took advantage of to score Karabakh’s second goal at Valero in early October, he was effectively sidelined. In the league, he played in six of the 36 games and half of them were in the early season where he was still counted.

In the other two halves, he played because he had problems with the rest of the defenders. Cisse was also on the run last January, but a proposal that would satisfy him and Olympiacos was not put forward. Everything indicates that the representative of the Senegalese defender will seek in June to find a good offer that will tempt the red and the whites, so that his client can change the environment.

Retsos was the fourth choice, Doe jumping at the chance

Panagiotis Retsos was bought by Olympiakos last summer from Hellas Verona on loan and has an option to buy, but things haven’t turned out the way he and the Piraeus side expected. Not only did he fail to become a regular starter, but over the course of the season he was fourth choice behind Papastathopoulos, Dou and Baa, all without counting Cisse.

The 24-year-old has only made 14 league and cup appearances, while succumbing to muscle injuries has prevented him from claiming more time and space in the squad as well. He was wrong to score Valero’s first goal for Aris in the playoffs, as a result of which the yellow-black team got a psyche by equalizing a little later. Since then, it has not been used in the league or cup.

Regarding Andreas Douy, Mitchell showed him for the first time in an Olympiacos match against OFI in Crete, and despite the fact that he scored an own goal in that match, backed him up, making him a start twenty-four hours later in Baku. In the match with Karabakh, he installed it in the eleven. And in one position, as centre-back, which wasn’t his nature, the 20-year-old would compete as a defensive midfielder in the Whites’ and Reds’ infrastructure departments.

However, Doi seized the opportunity, responding to the assigned role with his passion, tenacity, combativeness, and speed, and for much of that period he was a fixture alongside Papastathopoulos. In total he has played 27 matches, one goal (against Volos in Karaiskakis) and another assist (in the match against Lamia in Valero) and hopes to have a better season next year.

Olympiacos clearly needs serious reinforcement in central defence, with a potential key player or players and potentially one of them being a left-footed goalkeeper.