What do I know about Panathinaikos? Well, once a relative of mine bought me their home shirt after a holiday visit, my local team Portsmouth once splashed a relatively high amount of money on a few players pre-Premier league years on some Greek international talent and Greeces European Championship triumph but other than that I know nothing.
Until now I had never actually had any European management experience in the way of Football Manager so I thought I would take Lockdown 3.0 as the perfect opportunity to do so and the rest they say is history…Well, not history but what follows is what I now know 1 (or 2) season later in charge of Panathinaikos in the Greek Super League 1.
My first observation in my foray into Panathinaikos was the stark realisation that a lot of Greek players sound the same and I’d have to get to grips with this pretty quickly, second was that their finances weren’t what I had expected at all given them being 1 of 4 of the biggest teams in Athens and thirdly…Is that THE Federico Macheda?…Of Manchester United fame? Yes it was…And he’d been hiding in these parts for a fair few years after failed attempts at establishing himself at Cardiff and Nottingham Forest leaving then for Novara in Italy on a free and then AGAIN on a free to Trifylli (That’s Panathinaikos’ nickname) but as they say their loss is my gain.
The last 3 seasons for Trifylli had been rather uneventful to say the least considering their history, finishing respectively in 11th, 8th and 4th. The expectation of my management was to finish in the top half of the Greek Super League 1 and reach the semi final of the Greek Cup and I could definitely do that considering I had taken Southend from lower league football in previous Football Manager games to Premier League glory.
We’d line up in a 3-5-2, and like a typical Englishman I thought I could bring Championship style football to the Greek leagues and take it to them and for a relatively small time it worked out until I realised that the team were leaking massively at the back and we needed to solve that problem.
I quickly adapted my first tactic into a 4-2-3-1 which closed things up at the back almost instantly. I had loosely based my tactics on everyones favourite managerial shithouse Neil Warnock, playing wide attacking football making use of the wingers and hitting on the counter at every opportunity pressing aggressively alongside it but once again we came unstuck by not tracking back into our positions which had me adapting as the season progressed. We’d have to regroup when we lost the ball, play it short and from the back and pass it into space to make sure we kept possession (Which was also a part of the clubs vision).
We’d line up in a 3-5-2, and like a typical Englishman I thought I could bring Championship style football to the Greek leagues and take it to them and for a relatively small time it worked out until I realised that the team were leaking massively at the back and we needed to solve that problem.
I quickly adapted my first tactic into a 4-2-3-1 which closed things up at the back almost instantly. I had loosely based my tactics on everyones favourite managerial shithouse Neil Warnock, playing wide attacking football making use of the wingers and hitting on the counter at every opportunity pressing aggressively alongside it but once again we came unstuck by not tracking back into our positions which had me adapting as the season progressed. We’d have to regroup when we lost the ball, play it short and from the back and pass it into space to make sure we kept possession (Which was also a part of the clubs vision).
After a bumpy start to the season which included a plethora of loses including Asteras Tripolis, Aris and a battering by Olympiakos, we followed up with a narrow win against Lamia and a slobberknocker 4-3 end to end against rivals AEK which soon became a bit of a personal grudge match for myself. The Greek Cup fixtures came around in December where Trifylli were pitted against Greek Super League 2 outfit MGS Panserraikos in the 5th round comfortably winning 3-0 away.
By the mid point of the season we’d been bouncing between 2nd and 5th place which pleased the board thoroughly hitting our top half of the table target, I’d signed Spanish defensive midfielder and now vice captain Raul Baena on a free transfer, French attacking midfielder Axel Bakayoko on loan from Inter Milan until the end of the season, young Dutch centre back Sepp Van Den Berg from Liverpool joined us until the end of the season and versatile defender Djavan Anderson signed on a season long loan. A special mention goes to young defender Nikitas Nikolis signed from rivals Olympiakos as a future prospect then loaning him out to Ialysos.
Lets talk about Federico Macheda once again...By this point in Trifyllis season Macheda had established himself as our one and only comfortable goalscoring striker behind Carlitos. With some absolute clinical finishing I had to take the opportunity to offer him a new contract with the fear that I might lose him, I managed to convince him to sign a 3 year contract with a 1 year optional extension and some quite lucrative clauses and bonuses including seasonal landmark goal bonuses (Ouch), top goalscorer bonus (Ouch) and appearance fee. One positive to take away from those contract talks other than the incentives was the minimum release clause of 12 million which if triggered would give the club a much needed financial injection.
We stumbled into the second half of the season with a Greek cup loss to PAS Giannina in the 5th round which was followed up by a 4-1 defeat to AEK (Anger intensifies) but what followed was a 9 game unbeaten run taking out top of the table Olympiakos by 2 goals to 1, that man Macheda sealing the deal, two 3-1 wins against Volos and Larisa and a 3-0 win at home to Athens rival PAOK.
Macheda managed to net 7 goals in 10 games alongside Aitor Cantalapiedra who came into form late on in the season with a point to prove netting 4 in 9 with 2 assists and a rating of 6.96 to finish. Trifyllis defensive performance in the second half of the season meant we only conceded 9 goals in 14 which was pleasing, Sokratis Dioudis playing 38 conceding 34 and keeping 4 clean sheets establishing himself as first choice goalkeeper and securing a new contract.
By the mid point of the season we’d been bouncing between 2nd and 5th place which pleased the board thoroughly hitting our top half of the table target, I’d signed Spanish defensive midfielder and now vice captain Raul Baena on a free transfer, French attacking midfielder Axel Bakayoko on loan from Inter Milan until the end of the season, young Dutch centre back Sepp Van Den Berg from Liverpool joined us until the end of the season and versatile defender Djavan Anderson signed on a season long loan. A special mention goes to young defender Nikitas Nikolis signed from rivals Olympiakos as a future prospect then loaning him out to Ialysos.
Lets talk about Federico Macheda once again...By this point in Trifyllis season Macheda had established himself as our one and only comfortable goalscoring striker behind Carlitos. With some absolute clinical finishing I had to take the opportunity to offer him a new contract with the fear that I might lose him, I managed to convince him to sign a 3 year contract with a 1 year optional extension and some quite lucrative clauses and bonuses including seasonal landmark goal bonuses (Ouch), top goalscorer bonus (Ouch) and appearance fee. One positive to take away from those contract talks other than the incentives was the minimum release clause of 12 million which if triggered would give the club a much needed financial injection.
We stumbled into the second half of the season with a Greek cup loss to PAS Giannina in the 5th round which was followed up by a 4-1 defeat to AEK (Anger intensifies) but what followed was a 9 game unbeaten run taking out top of the table Olympiakos by 2 goals to 1, that man Macheda sealing the deal, two 3-1 wins against Volos and Larisa and a 3-0 win at home to Athens rival PAOK.
Macheda managed to net 7 goals in 10 games alongside Aitor Cantalapiedra who came into form late on in the season with a point to prove netting 4 in 9 with 2 assists and a rating of 6.96 to finish. Trifyllis defensive performance in the second half of the season meant we only conceded 9 goals in 14 which was pleasing, Sokratis Dioudis playing 38 conceding 34 and keeping 4 clean sheets establishing himself as first choice goalkeeper and securing a new contract.
All games played we finished in 3rd which was 1 position above the media prediction and way above the board demand of a top half finish which pleased them greatly, at this point I’d learnt that the Greek Super League 1 then split into 2 separate championship and relegation leagues joining Trifyllis in the championship group were top of the league and run away champions Olympiakos, rivals PAOK and AEK, Asteras Tripolis and Aris. 10 fixtures later with both home and away ties with the respective teams left the table with Olympiakos at the top, Panathinaikos in second thus us achieving Euro Cup II qualification and AEK in third.
I look back at the season with a good feeling that I achieved everything that was expected of me and more, Trifyllis had qualified for European football for the first time in years giving us the opportunity to make a name for ourselves once more in Europe. The oncoming season doesn’t come without it’s challenges, the ongoing trend of financial struggles and the oncoming loss of fan favourite and solid centre back Bart Schenkeveld sit on the horizon. We have some great youth prospects coming through including previously mentioned Nikitas Nikolis will be placed on the bench, Sotiris Alexandropoulos will be looking to break into the first team playing in defensive midfield and Spyros Tzavidas will look to continue his progress.
What will be expected of us in the next season…
Comments
Post a Comment