Olympiakos: Regular Season Review

Olympiakos: Regular Season Review

By Stephen Kountourou

With that, the Greek Super League season is over. The regular season that is. For the third consecutive season, the table will split into two as the top six teams play to decide the title, the European place and who gets nothing from 4th to 6th. 

The playouts however will settle who gets relegated from the bottom eight clubs and who finishes best of the rest in 7th. Naturally, and with little surprise to those who follow my writing, I will be focusing on Greek champions Olympiakos once more.

It has certainly been a strange regular campaign for Thrylos. An unspectacular start followed by winning without being exciting, a wobble at the turn of the year and an improvement in performances with new additions to the team, all culminating in an anticlimactic final match.

Undefeated Without Being Spectacular. 

On the surface Thylos' record until the turn of the year looked good. They comfortably topped the table, had the best defence in the league and were undefeated. But those who watch the Piraeus side consistently saw their team grind out results against sides they should have beaten much more comfortably. Rather than the exciting progressive style of football supporters had become used to under manager Pedro Martins, fans instead witnessed a slow, flat and unspectacular brand of football during the first half of the season. 

There was a clear lack of rhythm, consistent creativity and fitness. This could be due to the early start to the season with European qualifying, injuries and covid recovery, but as 2021 neared its results were still positive but performances were not. 

After the brief winter break, there was hope that Olympiakos would be re-energised for the second half of the regular season. On the contrary, the champions had an uncharismatic start to the new year. With a bore, 0-0 draw to Apollon Smyrni, a loss in the Cup to Panetolikos and an unconvincing derby 0-0 against Panathinaikos, Martins men were winless in all competitions with most of January behind them. 

They would return to winning ways in a 2-0 victory over PAS ending their goal drought and their winless run. From that point, performances improved with a mixture of new signings, that I will get onto later, reinvigorating the squad and the style of play also resembling more of what supporters had become used to seeing with the Portuguese coach under the helm. 

After a 25 game unbeaten run throughout the regular season, however, Olympiakos would finally lose on the final day to Aris 2-1 in Thessaloniki. The defeat while a disappointment has not culminated in a huge uproar from supporters as an invincible season by any team in any league is a huge task. Olympiakos are still top of the Super League by 12 points, ahead of rivals PAOK, and with the playoffs looming, sealing the title mathematically was always going to be a priority.

Derby Days to Forget

As many have highlighted throughout the season so far, supporters have witnessed some of the worst derby matches between Greece's big sides in 2021/22. This is not just an Olympiakos problem, with matches between PAOK, AEK, Panathinaikos and Aris all failing to capture the best of the sport in Greece. This can be attributed to several things. 

The quality for one in Greek football is at a pretty low point and that is evident from the level of players that have been attractive to the bigger sides in recent seasons. The approach managers take to these important fixtures have been hugely negative, as teams seem too scared to go for the win for fear of making individual mistakes and losing to a rival club. We have all said this before. 

These games are the centrepiece to advertise Greek football outside of the country, not only to players to come and play in an atmosphere unlike any in the rest of Europe but to also generate interest from football fans around the world. They have been heralded as some of the most passionate, fiery and intense rivalries in football. 

But if someone this season was to turn on to watch Olympiakos vs Panathinaikos for example, they would have witnessed some of the most uninspiring and boring football the sport has to offer. From games that should be up there with El Classico and the North London Derby for intensity, it was far from anything we expect as supporters of Greek football. 

Player Problems and Finding a Formation

Firstly, some problems arose early in pre-season that caused Pedro Martins to change how he wanted the team to play late on. Kostas Fortounis for one, as the Greek international suffered a second ACL injury and was unavailable for the entirety of the regular season. 

New striker Tiquniho also injured himself in pre-season and was missing for some crucial European qualifiers. To top this all of the squad was massively hit by covid upon the arrival of the Champions League second qualifying match against Neftchi Baku which Thrylos narrowly progressed. 

The sign of fatigue was evident in the next round against Ludogorets and the team paid the price, despite the extenuating circumstances, and were dumped out of the UCL qualifying on penalties. It became more evident as the season progressed that Martins knew the lack of fitness of his team so the style became more negative and safe, which was functional but was not easy watching from the supporters in the stadium or on TV. 

This clear disjointedness of the team can also be attributed to perhaps the rather hit and miss signings in the summer. Players like Agiubou Camara and Tiquinho shone while the likes of Henry Onyekuru, Rony Lopes and Pierre Kunde could only show flashes of their talent at most. 

With Ruben Semedo out of the team, for reasons I will not go into great detail on, the Greek champions also lost the ball-playing presence at the back, who could drive the ball forward from a defensive position and pick out some well-taken passes to quickly counter. 

These problems did improve somewhat in the new year. With reinforcements like the resigning of Kostas Manolas, obligatory Nottingham Forest transfer in Joao Carvalho and the return to fitness of Gary Rodrigues. Olympiakos started to play a much better brand of football which was a welcome return for fans who watched the team week in week out.

The system that Martins deployed Thrylos in for the vast majority of the campaign thus far has been the 4-2-3-1, which ultimately is that best-suited formation for the team and has been the blueprint for Olympiakos playing style for over a decade. 

The issue many people took was again, during the derby matches. Here Martins would attempt to persist with the 3-4-3 or 5-4-1. While I have attempted to defend the use of this system in the past, as it had worked a few times in Europe, it was clear that the players were never comfortable playing this formation. Which leads to even more negative football than before. 

Yes, preparation for using that formation in Europe is essential regardless of the quality of opposition you face, but if you do not have the right personnel to play the system then it is hard to see why it was persisted with so often, and ultimately it cost Olympiakos in Europe anyway.

Final Thoughts Before the Playoffs Begin 

There should be credit where it is due to an extent to the players and Martins for getting Olympiakos to the position they find themselves in as the playoffs are about to commence. At the end of the day, football is a results game and we have witnessed Thrylos play some very attractive football only to end the season winning nothing. 

The football has been getting better despite the loss last week to Aris and this result should be a good wake up call to the players. While there is still a healthy 12 point gap between them and PAOK, the title is not yet secured mathematically. 

With Kostas Fortounis' return imminent, Martins now sticking with the 4-2-3-1 and with no European football, Olympiakos must now fully focus on retaining the championship and attempt to win the double. This would wash away the disappointments of this season and help the team strive to make the next one even better.

Hellas Football

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