Below follow words by Olympiacos coach Diego Martinez in the press conference after the Kifissia match in G. Karaiskakis.
Did you get the answers you wanted from the newcomers?
I never like talking about particular players; I will comment however on the entire team. I am satisfied with our win following Thursday’s tough evening and our frustration by that result. But we had the pleasure or, even better, the pride to see our team responding well and putting on a good display, as they did on Thursday; so, following a bad result we delivered an equally good performance. We had players who were capped for the first time together and this adds value to our win. We have the roster to stand up to the expectations of our heavy schedule; however, this is our schedule of fixtures and we abide by that, so it is important for our players to be ready and respond well, as they did this evening.
Last year, the team struggled in such matches. What has changed this year? Also, in the beginning of the match, there has been a 20-minute period in which the team fails to delivers and then it does. What happens in this period?
I know no team that may perform perfectly. In the Europa League, we start well in matches. Today, we found it hard to get into it; it was our first afternoon match and we played just 60 hours after a tough European encounter and thus it was difficult to adapt to the match. We put on a good display in attack, we created many chances and we were sharp everybody has to understand that we have an offensive-minded team and this bears the risk of suffering counter-attacks. This was the case tonight and both our midfielders are aggressive who want to reach the ball first. This needs some more work in order to learn and keep possession. But when a team has such players, this pays off. We have a team that drives a match forward and we are quite sharp in attack. We definitely have to work because this style of play comes with its risks and we have to strike a balance. On your second question, we have changed 16 players from last year. Today, we had 8 players on the pitch who were not in the team before. I count Mady Camara also as a newcomer since he was on loan last season; it is only Retsos, Ntoi and Paschalakis who were the team last year. But we do not have to run comparisons. We have our eyes set to the future; this year marks a new endeavor with new ideas and methodology. This is why we say there are good things that we need to improve. We have managed to display well and get the results and this also due to the fact we have a brand-new team. Once more, I would like to thank our supporters for being here, because they remind us to stay focused whenever we lose our pace. We had the pleasure, again, to feel this connection with our fans and ear a positive result. To conclude, I want to say that our schedule is heavy and we need all players to be here and present. In just 2 days, we are to play another tough and demanding match. We have to remember that, throughout the season, we will play many matches and we need all footballers. There is tough and challenging schedule ahead of us, however we are looking forward to Wednesday’s encounter.
