9 Days, 3 Games – Crucial Time for AEL

9 Days, 3 Games – Crucial Time for AEL

By Michael

Eleven rounds of this Greek Super League have been completed and AEL find themselves in 7th position with 15 points, which this season has been claimed to be the club’s best start in 30 years. That is great and impressive from a fans perspective after 3 seasons battling at the bottom-half of the league surviving relegation.

This Greek Super League has been very competitive and the goal for AEL is to keep up with the momentum and show some sort of consistency if they are to achieve a top 6 finish to participate in the Championship play-offs and aim for European football, as stated by eccentric owner Alexis Kougias. Currently the Crimsons have a tough period coming up starting this weekend, with 3 games within a 9 day period consisting of two league games, and a midweek second-leg Greek Cup game.

Round 12: AEL vs N.P.S Volos (30/11/19):

The first of the three matches coming up for AEL is at home and must put themselves to the test against fellow Thessalian club N.P.S Volos, who are sitting in 11th position with 13 points. This is the first ever meeting with the 2-year-old Volos club which means the history matching up with AEL starts here.

This game will be treated as ‘crucially important’ for AEL as the Crimsons will look to win at home and climb up the table after the losses to Lamia, where a huge opportunity to go 3rd position was lost, and to PAOK in the previous two rounds. Another important note for this match is both Amr Warda and Ergys Kace, who are on loan from PAOK, will return to play against Volos. But, Adnan Secerovic and experienced defender Alexios Michail will miss out and serve their suspensions.

Greek Cup: AEL vs Kalamata 2nd Leg (04/12/19):

The second match within the 9 day period is a midweek Greek Cup game against Football League (3rd Division) side Kalamata. ‘Go hard or go home’ is my message here for AEL for the second-leg match. Kalamata are up 3-0 on aggregate, so the task here in order to progress to the next stage of the Greek Cup is to play an all-out attacking game right from kick-off.

Manager Michalis Grigoriou, who has firmly stood with the 3-5-2 formation throughout the season courtesy of the sacked Serbian manager Gordan Petric in pre-season, has somewhat been effective for AEL. However, Grigoriou in the first-leg replaced the 3-5-2 with a 4-2-3-1 formation with a second string side, where costly errors led to all Kalamata’s goals and recorded a historic win. At the time of the first-leg, Kalamata were top of the table in the Football League, but now 5 weeks later find themselves mid-table 2 points above the relegation zone. Can AEL come from behind to win on aggregate? Who knows what will happen.

Round 13: Asteras Tripolis vs AEL (08/12/19):

The final match of the 9 day period is a trip down south to Peloponnese for Round 13 against Asteras Tripolis, who currently sit 12th position and will definitely be pushing for a win as their season has not gone as planned. Nonetheless, this a mission for AEL to pressurise the teams aiming for the top 6, as third place and twelfth place is only separated by just 7 points.

That purely showcases how competitive this Greek Super League season is with the format of Championship and Relegation play-offs. The best AEL can do is avoid relegation, which has done so in the past 3 seasons, so a win against Volos at home is vital before heading down to Peloponnese for Round 12 game against Asteras, to keep up with the momentum and push for Top 6. Although, playing at Asteras’ home ground is never an easy place to grab a win so it will be another extremely difficult game to claim the 3 points.

Squad Progression Overview:

After the 1 nil away loss to PAOK, manager Grigoriou stated on PAOK TV by pointing out the main fault of the Crimsons is the offensive line. That is the lack of finishing ability and states there will be reinforcements to solve this problem. So far, no transfer developments regarding AEL have appeared for the winter transfer period. In the meantime, we will find out who are those reinforcements. 

However, I have been overall impressed with the defence this season despite a few rookie errors along the way and conceded 14 goals. It is much more organised with a great pedigree of experience with Vangelis Moras, Slavko Bralic and Alexios Michail all leading the defensive line, with Nikola Stankovic and Manolis Bertos as the wing-backs.

The midfield has been overall good with Milosavjlevic playing terrific in the attacking midfield role and is the top-scorer for AEL so far this season, with Adnan Secerovic and Ergys Kace playing the defensive midfield roles, though the position does not suit players like Kace. He is coping but the position is much more suited to players like Fation Andoni, who has the physicality to duel with the opposition even though half the time he has been used off the bench. However, Kace is in that position is instructed by Grigoriou to create flair and feeding the ball either out wide to the wing-backs or the strikers.

On the strikers, Marko Nunic has just 2 goals to his name this season both against that heroic comeback away win against Aris in Round 5 and has been disappointing. Even though Grigoriou has started the big Slovenian ahead of summer signing Abiola Dauda, who’s also been disappointing and his only goal sealed another comeback victory for AEL against OFI in Round 9. Overall, the strikers have been underperforming who have wasted countless chances that are either created by the free-roaming Amr Warda or the attacking midfielder Radomir Milosavjlevic.

Both strikers must step it up in this crucial 9 day period as well as for the rest of the season and convert their chances for AEL to have any hope of achieving Top 6 and progressing to the next round of the Greek Cup.

The team must show consistency and not drop low mentally. Captain Moras will make sure to prevent players from having a loss in confidence and try to put all heads together to focus for the 3 games, otherwise AEL will become a sinking boat before the Christmas break.

Let’s see how it all unfolds.

Hellas Football.