Panathinaikos Fans, Is It Time To Panic?

Panathinaikos Fans, Is It Time To Panic?

By Antonios Theodosis



Over the summer I had high hopes and anticipation for the 2020-2021 Super League season. The club had signed some talented players, hired a fresh and exciting coach, and there were rumors that the club would be heading back to Leoforos. Things seemed to be looking up after a mediocre season and less than stellar performances in the derbies.

 

Fast forward to October 2020 and with a whole pre-season done and a couple of games in, things have not gone as smoothly as we had hoped. During the pre-season friendly games the team seemed promising, but they seemed to lack any sort of dominance in the friendlies played. New coach, new players, and a new project made many fans, including myself look past anything concerning.

 

Now that the team has played in two competitive matches, it is apparent that these issues are still prevalent and need to be sorted sooner rather than later. In the clash against Larissa earlier in the week, Panathinaikos found themselves up 1-0 after a Federico Macheda strike found the back of the net. Although the Greens were up for the majority of the game, they were not playing particularly impressive football. The passes were slow and sometimes late, missed opportunities to play one of Carlitos or Macheda through, and an overall lack of cohesion made the team look like they have never played together before. Larissa on the other hand were playing quicker football at a nice tempo and eventually capitalized on Panathinaikos’ sloppy play.

 

Some will argue that we are only two games into the season and these issues will be addressed with time. I would agree to a certain extent, because the team is full of new faces and they need some time to gel, but with that said losing to Asteras Tripoli and drawing with Larissa does not inspire much hope. With all due respect to those two teams they are not exactly clamoured with talent. On paper Panathinaikos should have been able to hold these two off, or at the very least show some spark of promise. If the team cannot beat Larissa and Asteras Tripoli then they have no hope of beating the better teams like AEK, Olympiakos, and PAOK.

 

Another point of concern I have with the team so far is the apparent deviation away from the initial plan put in place. At the start of the summer the thought was that Macheda would be sold and Carlitos would become the new talisman. Instead, Macheda was given an extension and essentially relegated Xatziovanis to the bench and forced Carlitos to play out of his natural position. This has had a domino effect as Antonio Xavier was supposed to be the backup option for Xatziovanis, but has arguably been the best player for Panathinaikos so far. Instead of playing either Xatziovanis or Xavier, Poyatos is forced to play Carlitos in their place with Macheda occupying Carlitos’ true position. The team is playing with two strikers, with one being out of position and one winger on the right side.

 

Things will also begin to get more complicated once Lucas Villafanez returns from injury as well. The Argentine’s preferred position is just behind the striker, but Poyatos has also played Carlitos there before as well. The biggest takeaway from the deviation of the initial plan is that the team may not be playing at its highest potential as players have been played out of position or not at all. It is something concerning as if this continues it may cause players to feel uneasy and quell any form of chemistry that is needed to improve the performances of the team.

 

To wrap it all up the question naturally arises, should we start to panic? I would say at the moment no, we should not panic just yet, but we should rightfully be concerned. A big issue has stemmed from the Macheda extension as it has thrown the attacking line off balance with players being benched and played out of position. These are things that can be addressed of course, but will they? Carlitos is too good of a player to be on the bench and with a fresh new contract it does not seem likely that Macheda will be riding the pine anytime soon either. The best we can hope for is that Poyatos switches up the system and is able to accommodate in order to get the best out of his players. If he can’t do that then I cannot see this team making any sort of impact this season and we may be back to square one by Christmas time.


Hellas Football 


Follow @antoniostheo on Instagram 

 

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