Olympiacos coach José Luis Mendilibar, after his team’s away victory against Athens Kallithea in the Round of 16 of the Greek Cup, emphasized that his team needs to score goals more easily.
Full Press Conference of the Experienced Coach of the “Red-and-whites”:
What do you take out from this game and the opportunities you gave to several players?
What I liked was that the opponent did not threaten us at all; we didn’t give them a single opportunity to come close to our area. They came close to our area once or twice, but they did not really threaten us, and most of the game was played in their half. We gave playing time to several players, which was positive. However, what I didn’t like was that we had to work very hard to score, and we need to be able to score more easily.
We see that Olympiacos players don’t often shoot in matches. Is this something you’ve discussed?
Yes, we’ve discussed it. If we want to push the opponent out of their area and have a second chance to score, should we don’t on the first, we need to take more shots. I’ve told the players that they need to take more risks, and when the opposing defense is tight, we need to shoot to force the opponent to come out of their area. It’s something we’re working on and talking about, and it needs to happen more frequently.
You’ve made a lot of changes in the recent matches; is this something you will continue or will you keep a tight rotation?
It’s quite reasonable to continue with changes when you’re playing a game every two or three days and players are getting worn out. After these matches, we had some players feeling fatigued and experiencing muscle issues; so, with so many consecutive games to play, it’s obvious we will keep making changes.
