With these six, AEK has always won, and for the first time it did not switch to automatic

AEK, from where it looked like the favorite to win the championship, where the new stadium was like a fortress, took two blows that definitely shook his confidence.

After 14 consecutive wins in the OPAP Arena, came a 1-3 defeat at the hands of Olympiacos and then a goalless draw with Panathinaikos.

No stadium wins alone

It has been proven in practice that there is not enough supply alone to lead you to success. Of course, the fact that the AEK has returned to its home creates an additional dynamism. The stadium definitely gave a boost and helped bring some victories that might not have been possible in the Oka, but in modern football the seats don’t play such an important role.

Even at -8, AEK was a better team

The important thing is to have a good team. AEK in 2014/14 succeeded, because Almeida from the match in Agrinio in mid-September then made a plan that was difficult for other Greek teams to deal with. Football that combines high strength with the quality of some soccer players.

With this football, AEK was able to make a common assumption even at the end of the first round, when they were at -8: that they are the best team in the league. No one was even surprised when they managed to turn it +2 after defeating Panathinaikos in Tripoli and +1 after winning the postponed match in Peristeri.

She was shaken by defeat at the hands of Olympiacos

However, it lost five points in the home derbies with Olympiacos and Panathinaikos and the upcoming match in Toumba sets the conditions for AEK to be 4th and -5 from the top.

Certainly nothing has been decided yet, nor will it be decided even if he loses in Tumba. Regardless of the results, the biggest problem is that the fear is the image that the team showed after the first goal conceded by Olympiacos, as well as the general image against Panathinaikos.

For the first time in Almeida, we saw AEK walking around not knowing what was happening on the field. After the defeat at the hands of Olympiacos, a match followed in which it was very easy to control the pressure that Almeida’s team put on the opponent.

This did not happen with Olympiacos. The Red and Whites may have won 1-3, but they struggled in the first half and out of pure luck held the score at 0-0.

For the first time she had a phobia

Perhaps Almeida judged this matter and dropped the team with Panathinaikos with exactly the same recipe. With Araújo moving forward, Pineda behind him, Amerbat-Jasenovic on either end and the Szymanski-Johnson duo on the axle. However, it turned out that the second half and what followed after the first goal created a phobia among its players, perhaps also in the instructions of the coaching staff.

AEK’s first half team against Panathinaikos had nothing to do with the first half team against the red and whites.

The team was greatly upset by Levy’s absence

Of course there is a gap in Levi Garcia that confused Almeida a bit. The Argentine coach did not trust Van Wert, and did not believe in Zuber’s solution for the big matches, which he tried with relative success with OFI outside and Atromito inside, and mixed with his team. He took Araujo out of his successful turn and took him to the top, a decision that didn’t work once the pressure stopped and the Argentine couldn’t find a target. Taking Pineda to a higher level, he used two purely defensive midfielders in the centre.

He played his best football with them

AEK has played very well this year and with a basic plan I tested Almeida and got solutions from several players. However, no one can doubt that AEK played the best football during the period whose starting line-up was the duo of Pineda-Symanski on the pivot, Araujo behind Garcia, Gacinovic on the left and Eliasson on the right.

He didn’t mind the midfield 6 at all until Eliasson was injured

With this plan, AEK ran from the double in Agrinho on 17 September until the 20th minute in Tripoli on 6 November, when Eliasson was injured.

Pay attention: for 7 matches Almeida did not disturb this group of 6 players at all. With this scheme he went 6/6 with goals of 13-1. He won 0-2 at home to Panetolikos, 4-1 at Ionikos Stadium, 0-2 at Vikelides Ares, 1-0 at Atromitos Stadium, 0-2 away at Levadiakos Stadium, 2-0 at PAOK.

Eliasson’s injury in the 20th minute in Tripoli brought him the first loss of points since the defeat in Leoforos. He then forced Almeida to search and find solutions before more absences followed to manage.

He has not shown that he aims to quickly get Eliasson back into the starting line-up

Personally, I would have expected the Argentinean technician to keep this in mind, and to do everything he could to restore this recipe as soon as possible. Of course, as long as his team was doing well, he had no reason to bother her, but he never showed he had the goal of getting Eliasson back into the starting line-up.

Amrabad seeks more involvement and plays the position differently

He may be pleased with Amrabad. No one can doubt that Amrabad is a great footballer, and a man of passion with whom to go to war. However, AEK found a way, that local games for them weren’t war games, to be exact, they didn’t have to fight to win, they had their plan, they made it hard for the opponent and it was clean up. .

Ambat seems to be seeking more involvement than AEK needs, based on the football he played from mid-September to early November, and he plays the wing position much closer to the center than Eliasson.

Eliasson worked better with Jasinović

With the Swedish winger, AEK was faster, more direct, took a better offer and had more space, but Jasinović also had more options. We’ve seen Gacinovic work with Eliasson many times – not the same with Amrabat.

Of course, Almeida will have his reasons, he trains every day, seeing how Eliasson is back. So I’m not pretending he’s wrong, but in the era when Eliasson was the main player and Pineda was playing low in the double axle, AEK did better.

Whenever they play together, AEK wins

The formation was very aggressive with 6 players and Peneda next to it, but AEK easily beat PAOK with this ball, easily overtook Vikelides double, made six straight wins and only conceded one goal.

The only time the quartet of Gacinovic – Eliasson – Araujo – Livia Garcia started together in 2023 was in a 3-0 cup match against Olympiacos. While in the league, the Gatsinović-Eliasson pair on the wings, without the injured Levia, only started at Heraklion in 0-2 with OFI.

AEK for the first time does not go with automatic

To be sure, AEK remains firmly in the race for the championship. The four competitors still have 27 points to fight for each, so the difference between 2 is zero. Even if the game didn’t go well for Toba, she would have opportunities to turn things around.

I just felt the need to point out that Almeida came up with a plan in mid-September that he had a lot of faith in, and didn’t half change until Eliasson had it done.

With this plan, with 6 Simanski, Pineda, Araujo, Gacinovic, Eliasson and Levia, he had only victories and from the moment the Swede was injured we had not seen them before. It will be interesting if Almeida reappears at the end of the season and of course if he can find form and adjust the situation.

For the first time since mid-September, AEK can’t seem to be automatic and their manager must find a way to get them back on track for a title. Because deformation at this time would definitely be fatal to AEK targets.