Panathinaikos - Mid Season Review

Panathinaikos - Mid Season Review 

By Antonios Theodosis



After a summer full of changes that brought in new personnel both on the bench and on the pitch, the anticipation for Panathinaikos’ start to the 2020-2021 Super League season was quite high and yet the disastrous start to the season forced Panathinaikos owner Giannis Alafouzos to fire newly appointed manager Danny Poyatos. 


After replacing Poyatos with Laszlo Boloni the Greens now sit in fifth place with eighteen points at the winter break. The Greens have amassed just five wins so far along with three draws and five losses, conceding twelve goals and scoring fourteen along the way.

 

At the midway point of the season Panathinaikos are in a much better spot than they were at the very beginning. At the start of the season, under Poyatos the team was not playing well at all and were utilizing an unbalanced 4-3-3 formation which saw talisman Carlitos playing out of position out wide on the left. 


The cards were eventually shuffled with the appointment of Laszlo Boloni who opted to modify the lineup and the way that this Panathinaikos team plays.

 

Boloni so far has had this Panathinaikos side playing very well and has given the youth players such as Zagaritis and Alexandropoulos a fair shout, much to the satisfaction of the Panathinaikos faithful, myself included. One of the strong points for this team so far has been the midfield trio of Mauricio, Kourbelis, and academy product Alexandropoulos. 


The trio have so far proven to be hardworking and threatening going forward in several cases, especially Mauricio who has had multiple chances to score in the last few games of 2020. If they can continue their hot run of form into 2021 it will prove to be very beneficial to Panathinaikos’ attempts to get back into Europe.

 

For me at this midway point of the season I would say that Villafanez has proven to be the most important and strongest link to Panathinaikos’ fortunes turning around towards the end of 2020. Boloni has played him in a free role in which he has been allowed to roam the pitch and create chances for his teammates going forward. 


He has so far provided strong performances against AEK, Panaitolikos, and PAS Giannina by either assisting, scoring, or contributing in the build up play that led to the goals. His form so far has coincided with Panathinaikos’ good performances and for the sake of the Panathinaikos fans let us hope that his hot run of form continues into 2021.

 

At this midway point of the season I would have liked things to have been better, but alas the dreadful start to the season halted our chances of being in a better position now. With that said however, I like the direction the team is heading toward under Boloni. 


He has made it known that he will not tolerate lack of effort and attitude and has also given the youth players the chances we fans have been begging for. If this run of form can continue into 2021 I like our chances of reaching our initial goal of qualifying for European competition. 


Let us look toward 2021 with some positivity.  


Hellas Football 


Follow @antoniotheo on Instagram 

 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Top 10 Chants in Greek Football

Image
Top 10 Chants in Greek Football By Nick Tsambouniaris, Greek ultras are known around the world for their passionate support. Atmospheres at games are electric to say the least as fans act as the 12 th man for their team. Here are my top 10 chants in Greek football with a hyperlink to the YouTube video of them being belted out in full glory. 10. AEK – RE BIN LADEN This cheeky party starter aimed at Olympiakos from AEK’s Original 21 makes it as number 10. As you can see in the below link, every single fan is jumping and singing along with purpose, making for a great atmosphere. 10. AEK – RE BIN LADEN 9. PAOK – IRTHAME SKASTOI APO TIN KLINIKI Gate 4 of PAOK are notoriously known for creating an intimidating atmosphere wherever they go. This particular chant gets extra points for its climax ending when the fans rise from the ground as one jumping all over the place. The chant itself is also funny and sums up the passion of Greek football fans in general as it says they
Read more

A Knee away from the 1998 World Cup

Image
A Knee away from the 1998 World Cup By Greg Gavalas Coming of what would have been for the Ethniki in World Cup Qualifications, Mexico 70 was close with a very good team, and as mentioned in that part, until 1994, Greece had seldom even got close to World Cup Qualification however the next opportunity to reach the grandest stage would happen in just the next campaign which was for the 1998 World Cup to be held in France. Coming off the 1994 World Cup itself, Greece would form a new face under coach Kostas Polychroniou, the vast majority of the team was also new with younger and very skilful players who would also go through their first full qualifying campaign for Euro 96 previously. After a bright start to that campaign, the Ethniki would fall short of qualification to Russia and Scotland, however the team played nice football and were a totally different squad to that of Alketas Panagoulias in 93/94, even scoring 23 goals for the 96 campaign vs 10 for the 94 campaign. Kostas Polychro
Read more

The Panathinaikos - Croatian Connection

Image
The Panathinaikos - Croatian Connection By: Antonios Theodosis Athenian based club Panathinaikos is a part of the “big four” of Greece, and like their rivals, Panathinaikos have seen their fair share of foreign talent come in through the ranks. In my last article, I covered the connection Panathinaikos had with players from Argentina and the success many of the Argentine’s brought to the club. For the Panathinaikos faithful, the connection does not stop with Argentinian players. The Greens have also seen their fair share of notable Croatian players come in through the ranks and help bring success to the club. Some of these notable players are: Velemir Zajec, Mario Galinovic, Goran Vlaovic, Mladen Petric, Gordan Schildenfeld, and Danijel Pranjic - with the latter granting me the opportunity to answer some questions I had regarding the Panathinaikos - Croatian connection. However, the connection does not stop with the players. Gate Thirteen, Panathinaikos’ ultras fan group hav
Read more