AEK Athens Mid-Season review 2020/21

AEK Athens Mid-Season review 2020/21

By Greg Gavalas

At the start of the season, I doubt many would have expected AEK’s mid-season review to look like it does, after a season of three coaches in 2019/20, AEK finished the season with Italian coach, Massimo Carrera, who came in and made good improvements to the team which saw AEK finish the season strong.

Sadly, the momentum and expectation didn’t last long, and the 2020/21 season has sadly fallen by the wayside with AEK already out of Championship contention AGAIN before the Christmas and New Year’s break.

Transfers alone, AEK fans had reason to be optimistic, the acquisition, I repeat, acquisition – not loans, of players like former Olympiakos striker, Karim Ansarifard, former PAOK midfielder, Yevgeniy Shankov, long sort after Swede, Muamer Tankovic and Damien Szymanski were signings not seen in a long time, AEK has gone many seasons looking at acquiring players on loan, so this was a nice change.

Despite losing the Greek Cup final to Olympiakos 1-0 in preseason, AEK started the new campaign well, especially in Europe after eliminating St Gallen from Switzerland and what was the highlight of the season, the 2-1 home win over Wolfsburg which granted AEK qualification to the UEFA Europa League.

Ironically though, AEK’s biggest highlight would contribute to one of the worst and most embarrassing European campaigns AEK fans had to endure.

Grouped with Leicester City, Braga and Zorya from the Ukraine, many thought Braga and AEK would battle it out for second place, how wrong that would be.

A 3-0 loss on Portugal was somewhat of a surprise early on, AEK was not too bad but in attack, the Braga players really caught out the AEK defence and this would go onto become a theme for the team.

Despite the Europa losses, AEK was at least winning in Greece, that was then followed by a 4-1 thumping of Zorya in Ukraine under the eye of assistant coach, Gianluca Colonnello

After thumping Larisa 4-1, AEK were on a high before the home game with Zorya, only for Carrera to put a ridiculous line up with just two attacking players, AEK would go onto be humiliated 3-0 in Athens, this would be the start of a downward spiral.

From that game onwards, AEK would play 8 games and record just 2 wins and to this day, not one clean sheet.

On average AEK is conceding 2.3 goals a game since the Zorya rizili and scoring 1.5 goals per game.

Simply unacceptable numbers for a club like AEK, new defenders are a must in 2021.

Simply put, Stratos Svarnas, Nassim Hnid, Paulinho, and Michalis Bakakis are not showing the form needed, for me, Svarnas and Hnid are not AEK material and this has been highlighted in many games were the opposition eludes them and has a free header or shot at goal.

Bakakis has not been the same since his injury and surely his and Svarnas’s Ethniki days need to be looked at carefully.

Carrera’s various and constant formational changes perhaps have not helped and have contributed to a confused defence that is at sixes and sevens most of the time.

Emanuel Insua has not shown the promise many expected on the left-hand side also and needs to improve in 2021.

In truth, Ansarifard has been a standout in attack and has demoted Nelson Oliveira to second choice, although the latter could be on his way out of AEK, in which case AEK will need to replace him.

Levi Garcia and Tankovic have been good in the midfield with captain, Petros Mantalos.

Centre midfield is debatable, no doubt, Andre Simoes has been a standout in a hot return to form, whilst Nenad Kristicic and Shakhov have been ok, would love to see Kostas Galanopoulos or Szymanski feature more here to give the team more added speed.

Worth noting, Thedoris Macheras has been a highlight, the 20-year-old forward has shown great spark on the field and helped AEK play some good football.

So, there is plenty to play with, sadly Carrera will not be at AEK going forward given the form of the last two months and the team languishing in a lonely 4th place in one of the weaker Super League campaigns I have seen.

Manolo Jimenez will come in now for his 4th reign at the club and many will hope for an improvement overall, in order for this to happen, AEK must invest in better defenders and a more versatile central midfield like I mentioned before.

Hellas Football 

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