Olympiacos: Result, Spirit, Penalties, Finals vs. Bakaboo! | Blog – Kostas Nikolakopoulos

K writes. Nikolakopoulos in his blog in the newspaper about his likes and dislikes in the start of the new Olympiacos.

What do I like about what I see in Olympiacos with Martinez, as we saw him in the first three official matches, but also in his friendlies?

Firstly, It chases the score too much. And as much as we love to see good football, in football the result is primarily important – let me remind you that the number 3^a In last year’s championship standings, did Olympiacos have the best attack?

secondlyHe fights hard in the game to get as much as possible, which brings out the fighting spirit. Somehow defeat Genk with a goal in the first minute and qualify for Belgium with a goal in the 95th minute^the minute and win the first league with two goals in the 63rd and 87th minutes. Let’s also maintain the impressive 3-1 against Rangers in Glasgow (despite a quick equalizer for the Scots), but also the team’s draw in the second half, while losing in two friendlies (1-1 with Norgeland and Sabah).

ThirdThere is an attempt by the coach to make Olympiacos more than a team, more than a family, which is not easy at all when there are so many players coming in and so many players who want to leave or simply leave.

What do not like Beyond the apparent inability to play better football, with the absence of a player like Valbuena, even to change 20-30 minutes, and not help out in the relevant part? The bad hoggies we saw last season haven’t been cut this year. A typical example of this is the ease with which Olympiacos players take penalties.

at three The first official games already awarded two! One from Freire for Genk in Belgium and one from Mande for Panserikos in Karaiskakis. And if the first was a wrong decision by the Argentine goalkeeper, the second was a completely irrational act on the part of the African midfielder. In the age of VAR, would you be next to the stage with your hand up? Let us note that out of the six friendly matches that Olympiacos played, its players scored a penalty kick in two! Rodini for Norgeland and Paschalakis for Rangers. So, in nine matches, the “reds and whites” earned four penalties in their negative position – which is quite a lot.

more However, there is a big weakness related to the poor quality of the Olympiacos finals – in three 90 minutes we saw everything and only three!!! Fortuny’s goal against Genk, Alexandroupoulos’ goal in Belgium and Bale’s goal against Ceres (without Al Arabi’s penalty kick yesterday). There was no other final in Olympiacos to say he upset the opposition goalkeeper – thus no tough process for the goalkeepers of Genk and Ceres! Even Carvalho’s cross on Sunday was out. What we can remember best is Rodini’s slightly missed shot in the last minute of yesterday’s match.

not Coincidentally, Martínez, in his remarks on Subscribe channel immediately after the match, emphasized this very thing three times, that his team lacked good finishes – and, he added, good last passes (the assist) and penultimate (the pre-pass). I don’t know if he meant players with good finishes, assists and pre-cuts should come in, but he said that three times in two minutes, so he clearly saw it as maybe the bigger problem.

We can record…

Firstly, the Olympiacos striker scored only from a penalty kick (Arabic in Ceres). In the first two matches, Al-Arabi and Al-Kaabi did not even reach the final match! With Panserikos, they had three headers (all misses, two from heelers and one from Orabi, the most dangerous) from two crosses from Mandy and one from Bale, while Orabi also had a shot (completely) wrong and another hit the defence. In the friendly, Arabi scored, and for the time being, there’s a way to play as a starter until another better way comes along, as Al Kaabi looks for his footing – not that he doesn’t score, but rather that. Even when Scarpa cleverly pulled him into a position to pass well into the area, he sent the ball over a defender.

secondly, the team’s other top scorer in previous years, Masouras, got unacceptable ends as many times as he was on phases, and continued his troubles throughout 2023. Especially twice in the 1-0 match against Genk, but also yesterday against Panserikos, all three times he was in shooting mode. In one case, instead of sending the ball into the goal, even from the far side, he sent it out! He’s missed the net (one goal in six friendlies), but at least he’s trying hard and helping all over the pitch. For example yesterday in the first half he played, he was a hunter who was felt by the opposition defense. In the second half, when Al-Kaabi entered, he showed little.

ThirdBale finally got a valuable goal that day, but he also had a tragic end, in the second leg with Genk and generally struggled to score throughout 2023. He was awarded the gold precisely for his scoring ability, but it’s actually disappointing. . . With the exception of his goal in the 1-1 draw against Leoforos, we have only seen him scorer in matches against small and medium teams, which ended with a score of 6-0, 5-0, 4-1, 4-0. and 3-0.

I think they really insist that Olympiacos play him on the right, because when he’s in a position to shoot or pass with his right foot, he’ll fail 90% of the time, simply because he’s not right-footed. And what happens in the end is that he loses goals, his psyche goes down, the stands get angry, and so on.

His weapon is his good left foot, which he can only use from the right when he closes in and shoots with an inside slant – but how many of these shots can become targets? And with Ceres we saw that he scored when he hit the post with his left foot.

the fourthFortunes had started providing solutions by scoring in friendly matches (two goals), and he continued that with Genk in Karaiskaki, but he also as a group in 2023 and at least so far he scores goals with a dropper, but he helps very creatively.

In conclusion, Bakabu, who developed in the second half of 2023 to become the team’s top scorer, is sorely lacking. And he needs to be replaced with a good goalkeeper… – Incidentally, the Congolese also started very low at Galatasaray, without making any saves in his first five matches.

Incidentally, Scarpa took the place of Jassim Ba’s Hwang and Brinich in Olympiacos’ squad for matches with Kokaretski. All the children of Team B, Bagalianis, Mavroudis, Liatsos, Sourlis, Tselios, Karakoutis, Sapountzis, Apostolopoulos, also stayed in this team.

accidental: I asked if Olympiacos could take Pontensi, who is privileged from Wolverhampton, on loan, and they told me no. I asked if it was true that he was going to Zagaritis as a replacement left-back and I was told no. They even told me no about my boogie. That’s what they told me, and that’s what I’m telling you.

today’s picture: The day after AIK’s 2-1 win over Dinamo Zagreb, I noticed that the Croats made a big progression in the Champions League with away victories, but never lost at home in the first leg. The development of the match fully justified the result, as Dynamo hit the double very hard, but in the end he did not get it. Regarding the AIK and Antwerp pairs, I have to point out that the Greek teams have been beating the Belgians for several years now. AIK is the same as Club Brugge, PAOK Gent, Olympiacos Antwerp and now Genk.

As far as Panathinaikos and Braga are concerned, I can remember when Jovanovic had an amazing run with APOEL in the Champions League a decade ago, knocking out a French team (Lyon) on penalties and a Portuguese team (Porto). And now he once again eliminated a French team (Marseille) on penalties and again plays a Portuguese team (Braga)!