Undefeated start for PAOK

PAOK refusing to go down

PAOK’s impressive 2-0 win over this season’s major improvers Panathinaikos proved that they are currently the best club in Greece. PAOK have completed a club record already this season by starting a league campaign with 8 wins from its first 9 league matches in the Greek Super League. Within the club’s first eight league matches, they have already beaten title contenders and arch rivals AEK Athens 2-0, Olympiakos 1-0, Aris 1-2 and Panathinaikos 2-0. However, Atromitos this weekend proved that they could have a major say in who wins the league title.

Message of redemption ringing around the squad:

Everyone involved within the club still strongly believe that they were wrongfully robbed of last season’s league title and ultimately winning the double (Greek Super League and Greek Cup). There is no doubt within the pre-season and throughout the season, PAOK touch on what occurred last season, and make sure that they this time win the league, while in the process crush their main title challengers. At the same time last season, we had already lost to both Olympiakos and AEK Athens but to this point in the season have convincingly knocked off all their title contenders. The clubs main objectives this season were to win the league title as well as qualify for the UEFA Champions League group stages. It would have stung everyone at the club seeing rivals AEK Athens being the only Greek club to gain entrance into the UEFA Champions League group stages this season. They ultimately fell short by being demolished in the final leg of the playoff round against Benfica at Toumba Stadium. PAOK will now look at securing second place in Group L of the UEFA Europa League in which they still remain the favourites to do so and advance to the round of 32 of the competition. However, the club’s main ambition and target is to hold their first league title aloft for the first time since 1985.

Addition of talented youth:

Leo Jaba was signed by PAOK in the summer transfer period from Russian Premier League side Akhmat Grozny for a transfer fee of €5 million for the winger. The Brazilian has been one of the most impressive signings in the league so far. His ability to dribble past defenders with his electric pace proves that he is very difficult to control when opposition players are trying to contain. His breakout match, occurred in PAOK’s 1-4 victory over BATE Borisov, where he scored two goals as well as having two assists. He was awarded with being the most valuable football player of the 2nd matchday of UEFA Europa League group stage. He assisted both of PAOK’s goals for Prijovic and Limnios in the league match against Panathinaikos.

The additions of Amr Warda who was awarded the honour of being named the best player of the Greek league for the 2017–18 season re-joined the club after a season loan deal at Atromitos. The strength of PAOK’s team and structure has seen Warda have limited amount of game time. His preferred and natural position is to play behind the striker, but PAOK already have Dimitris Pelkas in that role. He also has the ability to play on either wing. With the limited minutes that PAOK manager Razvan Lucescu has given Warda, he has been impressive showing his natural talent and ability to keep the ball in tight situations. Warda has proved to be a nightmare for opposition defenders when he subbed on with around 20 minutes to play to get at and attack tired defenders.

Dimitris Limnios has made his mark in the PAOK senior team for the first time in his young career this campaign. He has so far made five league appearances as well as having made 8 appearances across both the UEFA Champions League qualifiers where he got on the scoresheet against Spartak Moscow in PAOK’s 3-2 home win. He looked set to be a part of Lucescu’s starting eleven team, starting as a winger through PAOK’s UEFA Champions League qualifying campaign. He came off the bench in the match against Panathinaikos last Monday night, where he scored within 25 seconds of being subbed onto the pitch. He had some inconsistent patches where his best can be extremely good but can also make mistakes when going forward with the ball. His continued exposure to first team football and training with the very best players at the best club currently in Greece will ensure the 20-year-old reaches his full potential and hopefully plays a major role in the set up of the future Ethniki team.

Adding experienced heads:

Over the summer they added experienced duo Pontus Wernbloom and Yevhen Khacheridi and have gained a lot of leadership and with the two new additions. PAOK officials had been targeting Wernbloom for a while in which it is believed that he flew to Thessaloniki to sign but his family did not want to live there. After a couple of weeks of convincing Wernbloom he signed a three-year deal with PAOK from CSKA Moscow. He arrived in Greece late, and therefore took a while to settle in starting on the bench behind Mauricio and Jose Canas. Razvan Lucescu seems to relucent to change the line-up and prefers stability in his team. However, an injury to holding midfielder Mauricio has allowed new signing Wernbloom to break into the side, being impressive in his league appearances against both Aris and Panathinaikos. His aggressive style of play to win the ball back from the opposition as well as setting up attacks going forward has seen him hold onto his spot. Wernbloom will probably force one of Canas or Mauricio out of the regular starting eleven once Mauricio returns back from injury we will have a greater idea of what Razvan Lucescu plans to set up. The 32-year-old provides an element of calmness and leadership in the middle of the park which could assist PAOK when closing in on securing silverware later in the season.

Yevhen Khacheridi was signed early on in the transfer period as a free agent. Khacheridi has brought his experiences from the Ukraine, having played over 150 matches for Dynamo Kyiv. With PAOK already having solid centre-backs who work magnificently together in Fernando Varela and Jose Crespo this has made it extremely difficult for Khacheridi to play regular football, but he adds more depth to the defensive stocks in which they lacked last season.

The only real concern remains their ability to be able to rotate their squad throughout league matches as well as Europa League encounters. We saw the team slip up against a poor Vidi outfit who to that point had not picked up a point or scored a goal in the Europa League campaign. Although Lucescu post-match took the blame for the loss saying he rotated the squad heavily and they weren’t balanced enough, the performance wasn’t on the manager. PAOK still had enough quality players on the pitch on matchday three but completely took their eye off the task, keeping in mind at the time they still had a crucial match to play against Panathinaikos in the league. If Lucescu manages to motivate his players no matter what the situation they find themselves in then there is no reason why this team can’t win the league as well as making a deep run in the Europa League.

By Athan for Hellas Football.