The ideal pressing, Jovanovic’s “specials” and the excellent Palacios

*The pressing is one of the favorite elements game for Ivan Jovanovic. After all, we have established this in his term of office so far Panathinaikos. The Serbian worked with the players on this part in today’s only training session in Bad Erlach, Austria.

*Football players were divided into the following groups:

Pink: Juancar, McGnusson, Sideras, Vagiannidis, Ruben, Kleinheisler, Bernard, Palasios, Verbitz, Ioannidis.

Greens: Margono, Mladenovic, Fikai, Senkefeld, Kotsiras, Csokai, Zeka, Cerin, Mancini, Aitor, Sporar.

Jovanovic he was asking for specific things which had to do with correct or near-perfect pressing. He wanted his players to keep the right distances, move properly in the area and of course have the right timing when pressing in order to block the opponent.

*Several times when the coach he saw what he wanted to shout “well done”. Most of the credit went to Palacios and Aitor who were almost perfect in pressing the opposition. There were, of course, also the observations when something was not done correctly. For example, at one point Jovanovic said to Sidera when the young defender took a swipe at Sporar: “I care about you being there and controlling the space behind you, I don’t want you falling on it like that».

* Kotsiras during a training phase he fell hard on Huancar and knocked him to the grass. Immediately, the Panathinaikos right-back went to apologise, and Jovanovic laughingly told the Spanish left winger: “No one is eating you. How much power do you have…».

*After the pressing exercise, a doubleheader followed. The teams remained the same and the goalkeepers, Lodingin and Brignoli, were added. The pinks won 1-0 with a great goal from Palasios.

*The… especially with football players is something that Ivan Jovanovic is used to. He did it today too. Towards the end of the pressing exercise, the Serb called Daniele Mancini to him. She showed him on paper what she wanted from him about how he should move in space and what he should do in the position he is in. After the training, the Serbian coach had a chat with Filip Mladenovic, analyzing the training and what he is asking of him.