Olympiakos End of Season Review

Olympiakos End of Season Review

By Stephen Kountourou 

The Greek Football season is officially over. Despite the difficulties that the pandemic has brought upon us all, the beautiful game in Greece has been a constant and much needed distraction for what has been a tough 18 months. For Olympiakos supporters, in particular, myself included, it has been a most memorable one. The highs of retaining the title, competing on Europe's biggest stage, and watching some of our best and brightest talents shine throughout a long season where the squad has barely had a break. 

Now that Thrylos season has officially concluded and the Greek champions have a well deserved rest before the Champions League second qualifying round in July, I will be taking a look back at another successful campaign from Pedro Martins' men. From the regular season and retaining the title during playoffs, to the Greek Cup and falling just short of a domestic double. I will not be reviewing Olympiakos European campaign as I highlighted that a couple of months ago, but give it a read if you are interested in my thoughts there. 

Regular Season

The beginning of the season Ironically started with the ending of the last campaign, as Olympiakos played the extremely delayed Greek Cup final against AEK, postponing the league game that would have been between the two sides. Lazar Randjelovic scored the winner as Thrylos ran out 1-0 winners and kicked off their season with a Greek Cup victory. 

 

The actual start of the 2020/21 campaign came the following week as Thrylos hosted Asteras Tripolis in a comfortable 3-0 win in Karaiskakis. As the first few weeks progressed it was clear that the squad missed a much needed preseason to properly refresh after losing key members of the team over the transfer window while also attempting to embed new signings as well. 

 

Two of the most important players for Pedro Martins system, that being fullbacks Kostas Tsimikas and Omar Elabedellaoui had left. In their place were veterans Rafinha and a returning Jose Holebas, both of whom brought great experience to the squad but did not overlap as efficiently as their predecessors. This made build up play much slower and while crossing into the box for El Arabi and Hassan was not a problem it was the quality of the delivery that was lacking compared to last season.  

 

Performances during the first couple of months were rather lethargic as the Greek champions seemed to struggle to get going in the first half of matches. This showed by the fact that Olympiakos did not score a goal during the first 45 minutes in the league from the first game of the season until the end of November against Panathinaikos

 

A combination of injuries and Covid19 also hampered the squad, with Pedro Martins at one point having to field a side with no identifiable centre forward in the derby of eternal enemies against Panathinaikos. Kostas Fortounis was deployed as the false nine and ended up scoring the winner from a fantastic strike as Olympiakos defeated their eternal rivals 1-0. By December the defending champions seemed to find their rhythm a bit more as the side went on to score 15 goals in three games over that period against Volos, Lamia and Larissa before the winter break.

 

A big factor in the improvement of performances for me was the introduction of Thanasis Androutsos who was deployed as a right back despite it not being his natural position. It was a revelation to see the 24 year old back in the side after being on the fringes for so long and he instantly brought back the speed and fast overlapping runs to transition from defence to attack that Thrylos were desperately missing.

 

A new problem attempted to rear its ugly head for the Portuguese tactician just before the Christmas break and would continue to hamper his team for the majority of the regular season. Thrylos, as defensively astute as they were in open play, seemed to struggle to defend set pieces. Whether it would be from a corner or a freekick, Ethryolefki even with a healthy lead would concede a silly goal that would bring their opponents back into the game and make their task of winning far less simple.

 

By the opening of the January transfer window, big moves were made to keep the momentum going for Olympiakos. The team was still fighting on all fronts to retain the league and the cup, as well as go deep into Europe after qualifying for the Europa League. It was a rather busy transfer window, for the most part, midseason, as Thrylos saw the shaving of the fat as it were, as eight players departed in a mixture of free transfers and loan moves. 

 

The most significant to the first team being Rafinha and Soudani whose contracts were terminated, Pepe, Pape Abou Cisse and Maxi Lovera who were sent out on loan and Ruben Vinagre who failed to impress on loan from Premier League side Wolves. Maybe one or two for me could have stayed as part of the squad in the latter stages of the season but I will get to that later. In their place came Oleg Reabciuk, Kenny Lala and the marquee signing of the window, Sokratis Papastathopoulos.

 

From that point, there were signs of more dynamism from the team in games as Pedro Martins attempted to properly prepare his squad for Europe while also extending the gap at the top of the Greek Super League table. Oleg instantly filled in for Holebas on the left side of the defence and was an instant hit in his first few weeks. He and Androutsos on both full back roles helped the team find free flowing attacking football that had been missed since the end of the previous season. Sokratis after being carefully embedded into the team became a mainstay in the starting XI towards the end of the regular season. With the Greek international as part of the backline conceding wasteful goals from set-pieces was less of a problem. 

 

By February it was more of a question of when then if Olympiakos would retain the title.  The highlight of the new year was most definitely the 3-0 drubbing of PAOK in Piraeus which more or less cemented people's minds that the league was close to being wrapped up. Thrylos was in cruise control and looked to finish the regular season undefeated. As it transpired this would not be the case as the return match against Panathinaikos in Leoforos saw the champions fall 2-1 at the hand of the Prasini and any hope of an unbeaten season lay in tatters. After that disappointing result, Olympiakos rallied and finished strong as the league split into two.

 

Playoffs

 

As the playoffs commenced Olympiakos needed only three games to mathematically wrap up the title. After the success of the 3-4-3 during the second leg of the Europa League tie with Arsenal, Pedro Martins cited this as the way he wanted the team to play moving forward. To prepare for the next season the team used this formation for 8/10 playoff matches. The title was officially won after Thrylos came back from a goal down to win 3-1 over Panathinaikos to win championship number 46.

 

From that point, it was almost pre pre season for Olympiakos as they spent the next seven games preparing for the Greek Cup final and the following season. This is probably the point where some criticism could be directed at the management of the team at this time. To start with injuries in key players such as Ousseynou Ba and Sokratis could have been handled better. 

The Senegalese were rushed back after sustaining on and off back injuries since the start of the spring which resulted in the imposing defender needing surgery which ruled him out until the end of the season. Sokratis also sustained an injury in the penultimate match of the campaign and while he was rested and seemed fit to play in the Greek Cup final he pulled up short early into that fixture meaning that only one fit centre back was playing in the 3-4-3. 

 

On the subject of the formation, this is something that I truly believe will be great for the club going forward as it does allow the team flexibility to play attacking football in the league and more counter attacking football in Europe. What I do not understand is when you do not have the personnel to play that formation due to injury, rather than playing with a back four, is the insistence to run with that system anyway. I do understand why Martins kept playing the 3-4-3 because these games after the title was wrapped up were meaningless. But I do also think if you do not have the players, namely the defenders to play that system, then going back to the 4-2-3-1 or the 4-4-2 where you do have players sitting on the bench like Kostas Fortounis and Mathieu Valbuena then give those players game time.

 

What was nice to see, even if we did not get much of it over the playoffs, was the more frequent introduction of youth players such as midfielder Vasilis Sourlis and promising defender Alexios Kalogeropoulos with the latter in particular impressing whenever he has played.

 

In the end despite a tough season for everyone involved Olympiakos have deserved champions, undefeated at home as well. The final home game of the season was met with wild celebrations from the players and supporters outside the ground as another trophy was added to the cabinet in Piraeus.  

The Greek Cup

The journey to the Greek Cup final for Olympiakos had its challenging moments but the team was able to recover and push on to face PAOK in OAKA. After completely breezing past Panetolikos in Round 1, the next stage saw Aris give Thrylos a much tougher time. After narrowly escaping the first leg with a 2-1 victory, the holders of the cup found themselves going out of the competition as Aris put the tie in their favour by taking the leg at home in Thessaloniki. 

With minutes to go Andreas Bouchalakis, after a moment of complete genius and a sprinkling of shithousery scored a late equaliser by stealing the ball from the keeper and putting the ball in the back of the net. This sent Thrylos through to the semi finals where they would play underdogs PAS Giannina. After a tough first leg where Olympiakos was saved by an overhead kick from that man Hassan, the Piraeus side took it up a gear at home to win 3-1 and reach a second consecutive Greek Cup final.

 

After weeks of preparation and the expectation of claiming a second domestic double in a row, it was not to be. Thrylos simply did not turn up in this fixture and PAOK ran out 2-1 winners after a late goal from Krmencik to give the Thessaloniki side a deserved Greek Cup. Questions were asked in the wake of this disappointing result. 

 

As said before, why was Sokratis played if not fully fit, and then when he came off why was the system not changed. Semedo was left as the only natural centre back upon the injury to Sokratis so rather than playing Yann M'Vila who was missed in the midfield and Jose Holebas, who has functioned well in the centre back three is also not a fit for the position. Rather than putting the pressure on a player like Kalogeropoulos to play in a huge game such as this, which did not happen in the end anyway, there would have been no harm in reverting to a different formation for this game rather than risking the health of players who were not fully fit as well as losing the chance to win a domestic double against a rival team.

 

As I have also referred to recently, big game players, like Kostas Fortounis and Mathieu Valbuena could have been used to greater effect. This was proved by Fortounis assisting the goal which was scored by Yann M'Vila to equalise in the second half upon him being subbed on. Valbuena coming on in the 92nd minute when he has been fully fit for several weeks was also a mistake for me as by that point PAOK had already scored the winning goal and it was unlikely that the French veteran would contribute much in the dying moments.   

 

Despite this last game of the season ending in disappointment for Thrylos fans, this has still been an amazing campaign with so many highs that helped supporters from all over the world forget the realities of life and the troubles covid19 has brought upon us all. Here's to another season of success and pushing the capabilities of this exciting Olympiakos team beyond expectation. Much like the European campaign, I will be rating Ethyolefki domestic season, and having won the title once more and at least reaching the Greek Cup final I will give 2020/21 an 8.5/10. Pame Thrylos. 

Hellas Football 

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