Thoughts On Asteras’ Failed European Push

My Thoughts On Asteras’ Failed European Push

By Alexander Koutakos

Things are just not meant to be. I had hoped that Asteras would make Europe this season. But, Asteras have now been mathematically eliminated from a European ticket. At first, it was tough to swallow. 

However, this failed campaign gave me a lot of hope for next season. Even without Luis Fernandez, Asteras drew twice against Panathinaikos, once against Aris and once more against PAOK. 

I have many thoughts about how Asteras played during the play-offs so far. Both good and bad. Anyways, this blog itself will be less formal and instead it will be a more of a free flowing blog.

Now, where to begin? Well, Asteras started off the play-offs with a massive draw against Panathinaikos. Papadopoulos the goalie, even scored a goal in extra time. It was a phenomenal scene! 

The next 6 games consisted of 3 draws and 3 loses. Things turned for the worse when Luis Fernandez got injured. Ever since he got injured, Asteras’s attacking product diminished. 

There was no creativity nor threat in the final third. Barrales was left isolated and the whole attack looked lifeless. 

On a more positive note, Barrales just recently ended his goal-scoring drought against Panathinaikos. Nonetheless, it took him around 2 months to do so. I would have rather seen Panagiotis Tzimas play a few days ago against Panathinaikos. He is young, he dribbles well and he also has an eye for goal. Recently, Asteras have been quite reluctant to take Barrales off of the starting XI. 

Even last year, Douvikas only registered a few appearances. Now, with Volos, he has scored over 10 goals and has provided some crucial assists. He is also set to move to Utrecht for a reported 1 million€ fee! 

Hopefully, he becomes a successful talent in the eredivisie. Another thing that I saw quite negatively over the past few games was Rastavac's inability to play a different system than the 4-2-3-1. The 4-2-3-1 has its perks, but it hasn't been working in a long time for Asteras. The attack is isolated and the midfield is not that creative enough. 

Now, one may say that without Fernandez, what can you expect? In my opinion, you can expect more than what we have witnessed lately. A 2 striker formation would have been nice or even a 4-3-3. The underlying message here is that when something isn't working, you should aim to fix it and or change it. 

Now, for the elephant in the room. Refereeing. The refereeing has been atrocious for Asteras lately. If you have checked my Twitter account recently, you would have noticed a very angry individual. 

The incident that ticked me off the most was the Crespo-Riera incident. In this incident, Riera had the ball in the box and was running towards goal and then in all of a sudden, Crespo shoved Riera to the ground with both of his hands. It was a clear penalty. There is nothing more to it. That missed penalty call cost Asteras the win. There were many more incidents like this. But, I am not  gonna write about my team just for the purpose of pouting about poor refereeing. 

Now for some positives! The first thing that I loved was the never give up attitude. The first games against Aris and Panathinaikos truly highlighted that. Asteras was losing in both of those games and then fought back ferociously in the final 10 minutes. This attitude is in Asteras’s DNA. After all, we are the team from the Morea! Our ancestors were Kolokontroni and many other Greek revolutionaries. 

Another thing that I liked was the constant and somewhat effective counter-attacks. Every game, Asteras would have at least half a dozen well organized counter-attacks. They are not the most effective, yet they did cause the opposition some defensive troubles. But, when Fernandez does come back, they will be even more effective. It is only a matter of time until we see him play in blue and yellow once again!

Well, those were my thoughts. I hope you enjoyed reading this and that you learned a thing or two about the club that I hold so dearly to my heart. 

On to next season!

HellasFootball 

Follow @AKoutakos