AEK’s Double Impact

AGONAsport’s AEK contributor, Greg Gavalas, looks back at a challenging spell for the club with consecutive matches against Aris and Olympiacos, games which offered a lot of food for thought.

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It’s amazing how things can change in the space of just a fortnight, and that certainly is the case at AEK who lost Ognjen Vranjes after their impressive 2-0 away win at OFI. The departure of Vranjes has had a big impact on the Kitrinomavri, who lost a fast agile defender that could work alongside either Marios Oikonomou, Dmytro Chygrynskiy and Stratos Svarnas. Yes, all have their qualities, but they lack pace and the agility of the Bosnian, as such AEK’s foul count has risen and more importantly the team has conceded two goals in every game since the OFI match.

Aris Double

AEK faced off with Aris twice in the space of five days, the first match was in the Super League playoffs followed by the midweek game which was the Greek Cup semi-final second leg. The Enosi had won the first leg 2-1 in Athens in March.

Both games were of good quality and we saw nice, open football from the two teams. In the first game, Massimo Carrera went with the 4-3-2-1 formation and with Sergio Araujo up front. The match was highlighted by the amount of chances AEK missed, with both Araujo and Damian Szymanski the culprits.

The positive for AEK was that they created many opportunities, but the concern was the defence which struggled at times to contain Aris. AEK had to rely on Nelson Oliveira converting a late penalty to salvage an entertaining 2-2 draw at the Olympic Stadium.

Five days later, the two teams met at the Kleanthis Vikelidis Stadium in Thessaloniki, with Carrera this time starting Oliveira up front with the trio of Petros Mantalos, Marko Livaja and Daniele Verde behind him. In defence Chygrynskiy joined Svarnas.

Overall, AEK played well throughout the match. Mantalos had an exceptional game in the centre of midfield and created great space for the other three attacking players. However, like in the Super League game, AEK missed many chances and struggled with the Aris attack in defence.

The defensive issues were highlighted when Giannis Fetfatzidis was simply too good for AEK left back, Helder Lopes, and set up Daniel Mancini for the first goal.

Nicolas Diguiny put Aris up 2-0 in the 93rd minute and one wondered if AEK’s creativity was all for nothing. Nevertheless, thankfully for the away team, Livaja was able to score just before the final whistle, consequently dragging the duel into extra time where the same player put away a wonderful goal to make it 2-2 and send AEK into the Cup Final for the fifth year in a row.

Besides conceding four goals to Aris in two matches, AEK’s only other negative was the three red cards to Mantalos, Oliveira and Andre Simoes, meaning that the trio were disqualified for the upcoming Olympiacos challenge in the championship.

Olympiacos serve first defeat in 6 months

Without Mantalos and Oliveira, Carrera made predictable squad choices. Araujo played up front, Livaja was moved from the left to the middle in the 4-2-3-1 system, Verde competed on the right and Christos Albanis was on the left. Nenad Kristicic and Szymanski were in the middle of midfield with Paulinho and Niklas Hult playing as the full-backs.

The opening 45 minutes was one of the worst halves of football served up by AEK in a long time, with Olympiacos outplaying the home team in every component possible.

Poor passing and losing every battle possible summed up AEK, who did not unleash a single shot at goal. Carrera suddenly opted for a huge change in tactics, moving from 4-2-3-1 to a 3-4-3, as Albanis was subbed after just 30 minutes which I thought was rather harsh as he was the only attacking player holding the ball well with decent movement.

The move looked acceptable for a little while, but Olympiacos saw the half out and could have been more than 2-0 up as it ended. The AEK defence was regularly pulled apart by the flowing attack which was orchestrated well by the visitors.

The second half saw a much improved AEK team, and Araujo was able to make it 2-1 after much pressure on an Olympiacos side which was nowhere near as intense as the first half. In the end AEK lost their first match since they received a 1-0 setback  to PAOK at Toumba on January 12th.

Weaknesses

Defence – AEK’s defence is a huge worry at the moment, and not only in the centre. Hult has already left the club, leaving just Lopes for the left-back position. For me, the 31-year-old has not been the same since his injury last year, and this does not serve well with a trio of slow centre-backs as per the trio I mentioned at the start. Already since Vranjes has left, AEK are conceding two goals a game, a 42% increase.

Attack without Mantalos and Oliveira – AEK’s attacking game seems to really struggle when Oliveria is not up front and Mantalos is missing from the middle. The combination of Araujo-Livaja has struggled to show the lethalness we have seen in past seasons, and it’s made for much broken down attacks that lead to turnovers. Araujo has to improve his holding game and keep possession better which could help connect with the dangerous Croatian attacker.

Finishing – AEK has missed many chances in the playoffs and with critical games ahead now, players need to be on target, including Szymanski and Kristicic.

Strengths

Oliveira up front, Mantalos in the middle middle – We have seen a very strong AEK attack when the Portuguese international starts, his form is good and his ability with the ball allows him to connect very well with Livaja and Mantalos. Any question of Mantalos’ value was on show for all to see in the disappointing match with Olympiacos.

Massimo Carrera – The Italian maestro is quick to change tactics when he can see Plan A is not going right, immediately switching to Plan B. He has the team working on a variety of formations, with the 4-2-3-1 option working best. It would be great to see the team have a full off-season with him and Dimitris Melissanidis digging in his pockets to sign the players Carrera wants in order to get AEK back at fighting for a championship.

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