Olympiacos: He has found the way, but it is not enough. He needs a second way Blog – Kostas Nikolakopoulos

In his blog for the newspaper, K. Nikolakopoulos explains why the Olympian must find “another” way in light of the big matches coming up.

This season, at least so far, Olympiacos has found a basic way to win their matches, whether they are the most difficult or the easiest. But this only method is clearly not enough for him. He has to find a second one. Urgently I would like to say!

Firstly, In what way does he get victories? He entered his matches strong and well and was able to advance the score and go into the locker room with the lead. This happened in a total of 14 league and European victories. The recipe has always been the same… Let's take these 14 games in chronological order:

With Genk 1-0 at home (1-0 in the first half)

With Chukaretsky 3-1 at home (3-0 in the first half)

With Atromito 4-0 at home (2-0 in the first half)

With Kokariki 3-0 away (2-0 in the first half)

With Lamia 4-0 at home (2-0 in the first half)

With Kifisia 4-0 at home (2-0 in the first half)

With Aris 4-1 at home (1-0 in the first half)

With PAS 3-0 away (2-0 in the first half)

With West Ham 2-1 at home (2-0 in the first half)

With OFI 2-0 away (1-0 in the first half)

With Panayetolikos 3-1 at home (2-1 in the first half)

With Topola 5-1 at home (3-0 in the first half)

With Kifisia 3-2 away (2-1 in the first half)

With Aris 2-1 away (2-0 in the first half)

We are talking For five wins in Europe and nine in the league. In the first half (seven), Olympiacos led at halftime with a score of 2-0. In two, a 3-0 lead! In the previous five years, the score was 1-0 (three times) or 2-1 (twice). Note that in almost all of these matches, the “red and white” not only scored an average of two goals per half, but also kept a clean sheet (conceding only two goals)! Almost a perfect picture, going into 14 games with an average score of 2-0 at the break!

ExistingOf course, there is always the exception that simply confirms the rule: in two other matches, Olympiacos led 1-0 at half-time, but did not win in the end. They tied 2-2 with Topola away from home, equalized in the 90th minute and played from the 70th minute with ten men. The team drew 1-1 with Panathinaikos against Leoforos in the cup, a result that cannot be described as bad, tied in an away derby.

the problem For Olympiacos, it begins and ends when the first half ends in a draw or a loss. In this edition, he won only four matches in the end, two with Panserikos and two more with Asteras and Bas. However, in most of his games of this type he takes damage, sometimes quite significant. Let's also take it in time:

1-1 away with Genk (0-1 in the first half)

With Panserraikos 2-0 at home (0-0 in the first half)

With AEK 1-1 away (1-1 in the first half)

With Freiburg 2-3 at home (1-2 in the first half)

With PAO 1-1 at home (0-1 in the first half)

With PAOK 2-4 at home (0-1 in the first half)

With West Ham 0-1 away from home (0-0 end of the first half)

With Asteras 2-0 away (0-0 half-time)

With Freiburg 0-5 away (0-4 in the first half)

With Volos 1-1 away (1-1 end of the first half)

With Panserraikos 1-0 away (0-0 in the first half)

With Basil 0-0 away

With Lamia 0-1 away (0-1 end of the first half)

With AIK 1-2 at home (1-2 in the first half)

With Panathinaikos 0-0 at home

With PAS 3-1 at home (0-0 in the first half)

We are talking For another 16 matches Olympiacos went into the break tied or losing and ultimately won only four, lost six and tied the other six. It's a chaotic contrast to his results (14 wins and 2 draws) in the 16 matches he led in the first half! It highlights the scale of the problem.

For this I started today's article by writing that Olympiacos must find another way to win – and the other way is to learn to win even when the second half starts with a draw or even a loss. In order to achieve your goals, you also have to shoot games. There is no other way. Unless you can always be ahead at half time and win 87.5% of your matches and draw the remaining 12.5% ​​like he does to this day!

we can, On the other hand, we should also note that of his six draws, four of them were in big matches and were acceptable (with Genk, Pau, AEK and Pau again), but the other two (at Peristeri and Volos) were unacceptable at all). But all of his six defeats were in more or less the same style, five of them in big matches (with Freiburg, PAOK, West Ham, again Freiburg, AIK), but also one in Lamia.

Until now More interesting note: Olympiacos has a terrible problem when they lose in the first half – it has happened six times and they have lost five of them! He saved the tie with a goal in the 96th minute in Genk… It's not bad when you level at the break. On nine such occasions, he recorded four wins, four draws (two derbies and two “bad”) and one loss, but to West Ham in London.

The bottom line, in light of the many big matches awaiting him: either he will do everything in his power to enter the first half first, if he continues with the same success in good results, or he will give everything and at least try not to lose in the first half, or he will do everything in He has the power to turn things around. Otherwise, in order to achieve his goals, he will be excluded.

accidental: A source, whose authenticity I cannot verify 100%, says that AEK actually sought, as heard, in January to sign Hwang from Red Star, but was unsuccessful. If the information is correct, it is clear that AEK is constantly trying to deal a serious blow to Olympiacos, because it is a common secret that they tried, again unsuccessfully, last summer to acquire Bakkapo as a free agent.

today's picture:

I don't know If it's Mendes, Pedro Alves or Carvalhal, I know that Olympiacos included players from all the important teams in Portugal in January!

From Porto Navarro and Carmo. From Benfica, Chiquinhos. Cabral from Sporting. From Braga to Horta. Oh, and Gilson from Monaco! That's true, isn't it?

Finally one