No Offense!

By: Peter Katsiris | February 27th, 2009

Last night marked the end of Olympiacos campaign in Europe as Saint-Etienne emerged 5-2 winners on aggregate to reach the next round of the UEFA Cup. After winning the introductory leg in Piraeus by a 3-1 score-line, the French grabbed another win, this time at home in front of Michel Platini, to round out an impressive performance.

Now for those who know me well enough, they know I always like to assess a loss, at least one with meaning, with a practical approach. I find it’s interesting to brainstorm the reasons that caused the defeat, ways to prevent a repeat, the appropriate consequences, and what I thought should’ve happened – or is that part of the prevention?

So let’s take a look at why Olympiacos won’t be part of European competition for the remainder of this season, as we account for factors spanning both legs:

1. No Offense to Olympiacos manager Ernesto Valverde. The man was hailed as a touchline titan before the winter break as Olympiacos cruised to memorable wins over Benfica and Hertha Berlin. Factor in Olympiacos domestic standpoint which allows the port city giants to flex and eleven-point lead over arch-rivals Panathinaikos and PAOK, and you have the reason why club president Sokratis Kokkalis is menacingly harassing this Spaniard to sign an extension.

With that being said, there is also a downside to Valverde’s tactics. As much as I enjoy winning the Greek Super League year-in and year-out, you have to realize that we have to move on to bigger things; namely European affairs.

After being bounced from the UEFA Champions League by Anorthosis Famagusta, Olympiacos fans quickly assumed we would be a forced no to be reckoned with in the continent’s second-tier competition. It started out right, and after crushing Danish side FC Nordsjaelland, a weak start against Aegean rivals Galatasaray didn’t hold us back; nor did a cliché 1-0 loss to Metalist Kharkiv. Instead of topping the Group B table, we finished in third place; something I wasn’t too happy about, but what can I do?

So when you analyze all the doings of Valverde, a few things come to mind rather quickly. First off, he isn’t one for change. Now that might be a good thing for some, as it shows loyalty in his players – something all managers must have in order to build a successful team. However, there comes a point where you really got to change things up. For as long as I can remember, Olympiacos this season has been playing with a one-man show in attack. Diogo plays in the striker role as the ‘Erythrolefki’ line-up in an unfavourable – at least in my eyes – 4-5-1. Although Olympiacos boasts many lethal midfielders, who show great skill in offense, such as Luciano Galletti, Fernando Belluschi, and Sebastian Leto, you cannot tackle each game with a 4-5-1. In the knockout system utilized in the UEFA Cup, and for that matter across the globe, away goals are really important to a side’s chances of qualifying. On the flip side, usually teams are happy to play defensively on the road, and then bring out the ‘guns’ at home. When Olympiacos met up with Saint-Etienne for the first time last week at Karaiskaki, that was the game the Greek Champions had to win, and win convincingly. What happened was completely the opposite. Losing at Karaiskaki for the first time in Europe since an undeserved 1-0 defeat to AS Roma back in October of 2006, Olympiacos’ long-standing home winning streak was snapped by Alain Perrin’s Saint-Etienne.

In that game Olympiacos, not surprisingly, started the match with one-man in attack, as again it was Diogo who was forced to do all the work in attack. If that and the ensuing loss at the full-time whistle wasn’t bad enough for Olympiacos fans alike, Valverde chose a formation for last night with plenty of resemblance to line-up displayed a week ago. Instead of the 4-5-1 used in Piraeus, Olympiacos entered the pitch at the Stade Geoffroy Guichard with a 4-2-3-1 formation. I’m not a manager, nor do I play the addictive video game known as Football Manager 2009 like others on this site, but I do know that in order to score goals, at least three in one game, generally you need a formation with more than one striker.

You can obviously tell Olympiacos didn’t follow that logic, or should I say Valverde didn’t, and that is why ‘O Thrylos’ can no longer dream about hoisting the UEFA Cup trophy in Turkey this spring.

2. No offense to Didier Domi. He might not be at complete fault for Olympiacos’ exit, but this Frenchman can easily be blamed for sabotaging, unintentionally, Olympiacos’ UEFA Cup plans. In Piraeus last week his play was atrocious, and his lapse in judgement was punished for on two occasions.

The first was a tragic mistake in the heart of the defense, allowing Ilan to score the first goal in Saint-Etienne’s 3-1 win. I guess he just doesn’t like clearing the ball.

Secondly, Domi has got to learn, hopefully elsewhere, that when somebody takes a shot, it is his duty to either obstruct their view of goal but blocking their vision, or by blocking their effort. Bafetimbi Gomis made Saint-Etienne’s win in Greece even more impressive for the Ligue 1 outfit, but when you look at the replay the win was more inflated that it should’ve been. Grow some ‘arxidia’ (ask a fellow Greek to translate that for you) Domi!

3. No offense Saint-Etienne. As much as I do applaud Saint-Etienne for performing well and outplaying us despite their statistical standpoint in France’s Ligue 1, I do have to admit Olympiacos should have emerged as the winning team. My decision is not supported by bad judgement calls from the referee’s behalf, but Olympiacos is arguably a better team.

4. No offense Ernesto Valverde (volume 2). We have to go back to the critique of manager Ernesto Valverde for a second, or two. Last year Olympiacos enjoyed their best season in the UEFA Champions League after quite some time, but it was short-lived as Chelsea FC got the better of Olympiacos with a 3-0 aggregate win in the round of sixteen.

The result was similar to this year’s exit in regards to Olympiacos went to Stamford Bridge in a position to win the tie with a 0-0 score-line hinting the Greeks needed just a goal to progress to the quarter-finals. At that time, Takis Lemonis was the Olympiacos bench boss and he made the same mistakes Ernesto Valverde made (see above, under number one). Now ‘Sir’ Takis, as he was known and to some still is, was canned shortly after Olympiacos were ejected from European competition. So in my opinion, it would be fair to do the same to Valverde. I understand it’s hardly a positive thing to ditch a manager, but if we are too stay consistent as a manager you have to argue that it is only fair if Valverde sees the axe. You can compare he has done great in Greece, but you can counter that by pointing out Lemonis led Olympiacos further in Europe. I’ll let president Kokkalis and co. do the math.

5. No offense. This might be the worst part out of the whole rant. The two legs also pointed out that there is a lack of depth in Olympiacos’ roster. Yes we had injuries in the squad, but that’s what the term depth refers to. I love Olympiacos. I am a madly obsessive, crazily annoying, loud and obnoxious, supporter of the red-and-white, and it’s etched in stone that I always will be. Now, as much as I pledge allegiance to the club, there has to be more depth in the front-man position. It is one of two positions that I feel the club is lacking skill in behind the traditional starter.

With the other role being the ‘keeper position, and that’s only because Antonis Nikopolidis is nearing his career’s end. In the striker role Diogo takes the cake as the striker of the hour, but there is nobody able of filling the void. Konstantinos Mitroglou is a player I highly rate, even though my blogging partner Chris Pavlakos says otherwise – re Christo, he’s from Kavala! Until season’s end Matt Derbyshire is a part of the Piraeus giants, but even his skill set is not ample enough to be a target man. The only striker we had since September that is capable of producing results is Darko Kovacevic, but unfortunately heart surgery put an abrupt end to his football career.

Now that my rant is over, I would like to restate that it is painful for me to come to realization that another European season for Olympiacos comes to a screeching halt, especially after the ease in which the club has performed in Greece. With a stiff schedule headlining the next week or so for Olympiacos’ it’s important not to dwell in the past, but to start fresh and restore confidence. Panathinaikos is up next, and soon afterwards it’s a double date with PAOK. The best response after this horrible actuality would be to restore some pride by kicking some Vazelo and Dikefale ass! PAME THRYLE!