The team’s coach, Míchel, was satisfied with Olympiacos in the second half of the Greek Cup match against Atromitos, as he said at the press conference.
After the end of the game against Atromitos, the Spanish coach stressed that he wants to see the team as they performed in the second half of the game at “G. Karaiskakis.”
In detail, Coach Míchel’s press conference:
Following the preparation, is the team that we saw in the second half the Olympiacos that you want?
I want two things: not to see the team as they performed in the first half and to see Olympiacos as we experienced them during the second half. In the second half, we played as a team, something that we did not achieve during the first part of the game, and we showed determination, that’s why the difference was apparent and we got the victory.
Kostas Fortounis gave a strong performance, something that Olympiacos did not have until now; Marcelo scored two impressive goals. We will have Rodinei and maybe another transfer, how much better can we expect Olympiacos to get?
The coach is happy when he sees his players performing as a team. This also applies to Marcelo in the first half; he tried to make many individual efforts, while in the second half he upped his teamwork and got what he wanted on the field. The team worked for three weeks and improved at all levels, both in terms of competitiveness and in physical condition. It makes sense to see our players improved. Surely, we know the type of footballer Kostas Fortounis is, we’ re not crazy; he had to improve his physical condition and he did so. He had an amazing match (he spoke in Greek), he won his place, not just for today but for some time now. At the moment, we’ re finding it difficult to choose our main players, however, the games are not played with 11 players, but with 16.
How can James and Fortounis coexist in the same line-up? In the first half it seemed that there was a gap on Marcelo’s side, how would you cover that? He’s amazing offensively, but he also needs to be covered defensively.
Due to our game play, James and Fortunes could indeed play together in the same line-up. We certainly must find solutions when Marcelo is on the offensive and there is a gap in defence; we need to have balance and to fill this gap. Soccer is divided into defence and offense, but in a good team there should be a balance, that’s what we achieved during the second half.
