Hands off Pedro Martins

AGONAsport’s Olympiacos contributor, Theo Bouras, praises Pedro Martins for his work at the club and remains optimistic ahead of two critical games against Arsenal and PAOK. Read 

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There’s an old expression that goes: “You don’t know what you have ‘til it’s gone.” In the case of Olympiacos manager Pedro Martins, those words couldn’t be any more accurate. Since taking over the team in the summer of 2018, Martins changed the poor culture in the dressing room, has guided the team to playing some prolific football, and the results have soon followed.

As of this writing, Olympiacos are the only team in Greece to still compete in Europe, remain first in the Greek Super League, and are in the semi-finals of the Greek Cup. Martins has gotten a lot of flack from supporters for resting some players (see the first leg in the Greek Cup against Lamia) or not resting players enough (see Guilherme pre-injury or Daniel Podence’s time in Piraeus). The 49-year-old Portuguese manager is far from perfect but his work ethic and approach have done wonders for the club.

Olympiacos will be competing in their biggest game of the season this Sunday at Toumba Stadium against second-placed PAOK. Martins insists that the team is focused on their Europa League round of 32 clash against English giants Arsenal. History has been kind to Olympiacos at home against Arsenal with four wins and one loss (albeit it a crushing 0-3 loss that eliminated them from the Champions League in 2015-16).

For the Legend to get a result on Thursday, they will need their wingbacks Omar Ellabadelloui and Kostas Tsimikas to be on their A game. With Hilal Soudani injured and Daniel Podence transferred out of Piraeus, Olympiacos do not have many options at the attacking winger position and will need to rely on Mathieu Valbuena and possibly Kostas Fortounis’ attacking creativity from the middle of the pitch.

Olympiacos are three for three this season when it comes to two-legged aggregates. The 44-time Greek champions eliminated Victoria Plzen, Istanbul Basaksehir, and Krasnodar FC en route to the group stages for the UEFA Champions League. The priority for Martins will be to keep a clean sheet at home and stifle the Gunners. If Olympiacos are able to disable Arsenal from scoring, they will give themselves a real fighting chance next week in London.

The Starting XI is anybody’s guess – will Fortounis start his first European game this season? Will Martins elect to have both Fortounis and Valbuena play together? Will Giorgos Masouras’ work ethic get him to start this one? No one excepts Pedro Martins to have these answers. Regardless of what he choses, Martins has proven that he has a real pulse for this team, the Super League, and all European competitions.

Although the odds are certainly not in Olympiacos’ favor, this squad has shown us that you can never count them out this season. In their last matchday of the Champions League, clinical striker Youssef El Arabi scored a dramatic 87th-minute penalty kick to send the Thrylos to the Europa League knockout stage. Most recently, a buzz-beater header by Ahmed Hassan led to a pivotal 0-1 victory against Atromitos at Peristeri. Hassan was recently re-acquired by Olympiacos after the insistence of coach Martins. The result: a game-winning goal against Atromitos, a game-tying goal against Lamia in an eventual 3-2 Greek Cup game, and the opening goal against Panionios in an eventual 4-0 thrashing. Once again, Martins was spot-on with his feel for the Hassan transfer.

This season, the Pireotes have shown resilience and tenacity. It all starts at the top, and it starts with Pedro Martins.

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