PAOK Mid Season Review 2019/2020

PAOK MID-SEASON REVIEW 2019/2020

By Alain Anastasakis

After an horrible summer that started with Razvan Lucescu's unexpected departure and two eliminations in the European Cup, PAOK took the opportunity to focus purely on the league. 

After Lucescu’s shock departure to Saudi Arabia 3 days after heading back to work, Ivan Savvidis decided to hire Abel Ferreira, giving him the mission to lead PAOK to the Champions League group stages. Unfortunately, and for reasons we won’t explain again, Ajax got the last word in the preliminary round. Disappointment was really huge but we could finally hope a decent campaign for Dikefale in Europa League. And cataclysm happened. The Invincibles, champions of Greece, were humiliated by the modest Slovan Bratislava. If the Ajax game can legitimately be considered as a fraud, this one was nothing but a collective failure. Europe dreams were already over for PAOK.

OWNING THE TOP.

Following the terrible start to the campaign, the Black and White had to get back to work immediately to save their season and reach their goal to keep their crown. And the season start wasn’t so great. 

Three laborious wins against Panetolikos, Atromitos and Lamia and an awful draw against Aris. Time was flying but PAOK stayed on course. And after some worrying games, confidence was back and the machine was back in the right direction, improving its level every week and finishing with some impressive wins. 

But The Invincibles will have to keep this pace and will must not slacken.

STUMBLING-BLOCK: NO VICTORY IN DERBIES
What we can notice about Dikefale’s season are the 4 draws in derbies. If the AEK and Olympiakos games can be considered good, the Aris and especially Panathinaikos ones were absolutely awful. Ferreira had no solution to offer and PAOK got a result only because of individual performances.

OVERALL PLAYERS RATING

Top performers:

We definitely can quote Giannoulis, Ingason and Misic as “discoveries of the year”. Giannoulis already showed great skills in Atromitos, and confirmed in PAOK to definitely win his seat in PAOK starting XI as well as the Ethniki Omada. After an hard half-season for him, the Serbian midfielder loaned by Sporting can finally express all his abilities this season. He became an essential member of the Squad. Same observation for Sverrir Ingason who was called in as a substitute after Varela got injured. The Icelandic defender stabilized the defense who really suffered in the European campaign. He has a great positioning ability and even scores on corners and free kicks. A complete success.

Capitano Vieirinha’s return was highly expected. We could have been skeptical about his level after his cruciate ligament injury (the second of his career), but it hasn’t slowed him down. Essential on the pitch and in the locker room, as always.

He was expected to be Leo Jaba’s substitute but Dimitris Limnios is showing all the potential he has. Simplifying his style of play, showing impressive work-rate and dribbling ability, the 21 years-old winger is definitely on the good way to be one of the best Greek players of the decade. 

The other Serbian in the team, Zivko Zivkovic replaced Paschalakis as goalkeeper. Reassuring in his aerial interventions and with a very good rate of saved shots, he earned the n°1 spot.

Despite a recent weakness, the Polish striker Karol Swiderski also deserves to be quoted as a top performer. With great flair and finishing ability, he scored 9 goals in 18 games. We hope the winter holiday will be beneficial for him to make a strong comeback.

Average:

Diego Biseswar and Leo Matos, after a brilliant season start, seem to be down physically. The Dutch winger, used as secondary striker by Ferreira, hasn’t made good choices all the time and looks. With only one goal and 3 assists in Super League, his mid-season is complicated. Leo Matos case is different. Still doing big efforts but a lack of stamina is what was causing him some issues. We all hope it’s only a matter of time he can get back to his level.

Used by Abel Ferreira in almost all positions, Omal El Kaddouri showed he’s still a brilliant technical player but his inconsistency is a reason why he is not a full-time member of the squad. Not to blame though as he is often misused. 

Centre-back José-Angel Crespo also had issues in the early season, with unusual concentration drops, but proved he was back on track. Expected to be pairing with Ingason when he’ll be back from injury. 

Attack wise, Chuba Akpom can be great and awful. Great when the season began, he clearly needs to improve his level to deserve a chance again.

The Brazilian defensive midfielder Douglas Augusto, who arrived this summer from Corinthians seems to do  enough without taking a risk. We still can't be sure he was the player the team needed in his position.

Flops:

Hard to not speak about Fernando Varela who clearly didn't give back the confidence he received from the club. Awful since last summer and making multiple mistakes, the past season's rock logically lost his position for Ingason.

Quoted for a departure last summer, Léo Jaba seemed to be lost on the pitch every time he touched the ball. Didn't provide enough for the team, finishing the first part with 0 goals and the same amount of assists, he hasn’t confirmed the hopes of the past season.

In line with his last season, Pelkas unfortunately showed he was still down. Some incredible misses and insufficient involvement in offensive movements, we really wonder if the real Dimitris will ever show up again.

And we couldn't finish this part without talking of Alexandros Pasxalakis, who seemed to have swapped with his amateur twin brother last summer, and who logically lost his position.

Not rated (insufficient time of play) : Mauricio, Esiti, Rodrigo, Stoch, Lamprou.

MANAGER RATING

If Abel Ferreira's start was very paradoxical with 2 great matches against Ajax, he has to take part of the responsibility regarding some players not performing to their potential. 

We can also regret some points of his management, especially regarding Lamprou, Esiti or by making El Kaddouri play on the wing or Biseswar as second striker. Otherwise, he's offering a very pleasant style of play, offensive, refined, who insists a lot on moves in attack and combinations. And with 35 goals scored in 16 games and the leading position gained over Olympiakos, we can really praise his work.

Hellas Football