Panathinaikos: another “complete” list, another “upgraded” list | Blog – Yannis Siritis

Yannis Seritis writes about how Panathinaikos is progressing towards the two games with Dnipro and its real needs because… life doesn’t stop at matches with the Ukrainian team.

It’s a good setup that “works” o Panathinaikos. A better and more “complete” preparation compared to the previous two years, when Panathinaikos made many changes, had many question marks and gradually “formed” right up to the start of preparation. This year, the basic formula will not change, as it did at the beginning of last year. It doesn’t look like he’s going to change the main stopper in the matches against Dnipro, like last year. He’s got the same wingers (all!), he’s got all the main defenders since last year, he’s got all the midfielders except Corbelis. The substance is there, it has an identity and chemistry that they’re trying to improve on, Panathinaikos is ‘covered’, and it doesn’t have huge base needs to fill its roster.

He’s got a very good left-back (Mladenovic), he’s got a reputable midfielder, but he’s had ‘poor’ numbers in Sampdoria’s bad seasons (Djuric), and he’ll run until the games against Dnipro with one or two more. Extras even confrontations with the Ukrainians. Is this enough? maybe yes. If he fails in the two crucial European matches, where he will obviously be banking on his current identity, it wouldn’t be his fault… the non-transfer. It will be the fault of the poor performance of the players who can definitely eliminate the Dnipro.

But then? Does life end in Dnipro? of course not! Either he qualifies, or he is disqualified and given a second chance, against Slavia Prague.

“Pale” for eight, we’ll see “six” too …

Clearly the priority at the moment in terms of transfers is to get a stopper, given that Sideras and Fikai are replacements in preparation. The second, in fact, also left-handed, was very good today against Rogaska and showed promise, despite taking part in a training session with the “big” for the first time. All the best, as long as it does not “wither away” in Panathinaikos II in case it develops rapidly. But the Greens can’t go with Vichai as the third goalkeeper in matches against Dnipro. They will get at least one defender (they are already late because they “stopped” friendly matches for Austria one by one …), and maybe even before the matches with the Ukrainian national team. This is “closed”.

The ‘open’ issue is the midfield, as it seems unlikely that Panathinaikos will get the number ‘eight’ as the season progresses. In general, not only before the first European Games. Based on today’s data, Jovanovic builds on the Seirin-Kleinheissler-Zeka trio (he also has Truige) and moves forward by seeing and doing. numerically plausible. Qualitatively… depending on how you see it. If Panathinaikos qualifies for the Europa League groups, then it may need a higher “eight”, in the only position in which it clearly lagged behind last year compared to all three rivals: AEK (Pineda), Olympiacos (Huang) and PAOK (August).

And if the issue of the “eight” does not cause a problem at the moment (especially if Zika continues at a good pace), then the issue of acquiring a defensive midfielder should “burn” Panathinaikos. However, this does not seem to be the case yet. He should burn it not only because the qualitative distance between Csokai and Ruben Perez is messy, but also because if we assume Zeka can also compete in the position, unfortunately the Portuguese comes off two crusading surgeries and you can’t be 1000% sure of his trajectory.

Panathinaikos’ decision to go with Ruben Perez as a starter is obvious and will show in the future if it is the right one. However, if Robben again reaches the point of entering the field even with … one leg (as in the memorable match between Leoforos and PAOK) because he will not get a par (“normal”) six (like Kourbelis, not an “eight”) , This has nothing to do with right or wrong. It’s false, period, and dash. And it will pay off with time, just as the mistakes of the winter transfer window paid off with time last year…