Olympiacos coach, Michel, held the press conference after the match against PAOK for Super League’s MD8.
In detail, words of Olympiacos’ Spanish coach during the Press Conference at “G. Karaiskakis”.
After the Qarabag tie, you said that Olympiacos takes steps forward and the team’s illness is being treated. Do you think this loss represents some steps back?
«Whenever one loses a match, this is a step. We know what losing means for Olympiacos and we do know that the Olympiacos way is only to win».
Olympiacos stands at a distance from the top of the table; do you believe this can be overturned? One comment as well on booing heard against him despite his short span with the team.
«Indeed, as I said before, I know what it means to be the coach of Olympiacos, I know things in Olympiacos are highly demanding and I know that Olympiacos is not used to such a situation.in Olympiacos, there is a steady demand for performing well and winning. It is unbelievable that, after no more than 8 matchdays, Olympiacos is in this poor condition; It was like that since the beginning of the championship.
As for the booing thing, there is nothing else to do but to respect and accept that, because we know that the fans have other demands from Olympiacos, they want to see us performing in another way. It is hard for anyone to accept that Olympiacos is in this situation and that’s why he will try and find who is responsible amongst players and the coaching stuff. We know that the fans are demanding and they want a winning team and there is nothing we can do but to accept this booing.
There is no excuse and nothing we can say to avoid this situation. The only thing we might say is this result is hard to accept given the number of chances we created. We know how things are in Olympiacos and the only thing one has to do is to accept that».
Is it time for Olympiacos to come up with standard line-up so that chemistry is developed amongst players?
«I agree with you. And I’d love to have the same lineup very week but we have injured players. Last week, we lost Cisse. We have a team that features one lineup in European fixtures and another one domestically. What we tried to do was to give time to James in order to get a standard lineup. I agree that we’d rather play with the same eleven players».
Was your left side weak both in defense and offense?
«First, I am not going to make a single bad comment for any of my players. I think that all was due to the circumstances and the moment. All in all, we created enough chances and, honestly, we should have scored one goal more. We built some quality attacks from the right side. Both Garry and Vrousai took on lots of initiatives; we lacked being sharp in the end stage. The result is hard to accept given our display in the match I agree we had more depth in the right side. When one loses, such explanations serve to nothing».
What can you change at this point?
«There is nothing we can tell the fans because they want to watch a winning squad and one cannot explain them why the team goes through this phase. There is nothing to ask for from the fans. We want them to support the team and they want us to win. No outsider may help us. We have to come up with solutions because they may be hidden. We played against a good team that used their assets in defense and offense the way they should. We failed to get even the draw and this is negative. In this context, we have to find what went right and what went wrong in order to win matches to come. I insist that no matter how many explanations we try to find, Olympiacos is not used to losing, we all have to understand that and accept it».
