Martinez: “To play even 20 minutes at Olympiakos, you have to be more than 100% ready”

Next Sunday (05/11, 19:30), o Olympic will welcome to “G. Karaiskakis” and in front of his audience PAOK, in the great derby of the 10th matchday of the Stoiximan Super League,

The coach of the “red and whites”, Diego Martinez, spoke to the Cosmote TV camera about the game with the “doubleheader of the north”, highlighting the difficulties that his team will be asked to face. At the same time, he referred to the duo of Ese and Mandi Kamara in the axis, but also to the appearance of Porozo in the position of stoppers.

Diego Martinez’s statements in detail:



For the last appearances of the team: “The team has shown consistency. We’ve had some really good performances and scored goals. We have gained stability in good performances, but the most important thing is to continue on the same path and improve even more. Let’s correct what needs to be done and continue to do well what we’re already doing.”

For the game against PAOK: “We start a week now playing a game against a very demanding opponent. This week can be considered even more demanding than the last. The game will be very intense and very demanding. I expect a difficult game against a quality team. They have a good organization, they have talent and if we want to continue the good results we have to show our best.”

On whether the coexistence of Kamaras and Ese is the greatest advantage of Olympiakos: “What is most important about a person? The brain, the heart, the legs, the hands, or something else? We understand that there are differences, but we cannot separate them, nor differentiate them because everything is necessary in a whole. Olympiacos must have a very good performance everywhere in order to achieve its goals.

Our aim is to have a complete team and to achieve this we have to see everything as part of a whole. Everything has to work well and everything has to be combined because the demands are high. I think we are on a very good path and we want to continue like this”.

For the activation of Porozo and the issue with the positions of foreigners: “Porozo was always in our plans, even when he wasn’t playing. The requirements of each match, the characteristics of the opponent and of each player determine who will play in each game. If we talk about now, at the moment we don’t have that problem because we have some players who are not available. You may call it a problem because it may seem like a problem but for me it is something very pleasant when I have them all well and available.”

For absences: “It’s one thing to be available and another to be ready to play. To play in this team you have to be more than 100% ready, even if it’s to play for 20 minutes. The competition between the players within the team is very high and the demands from the program and the opponents are also very high. And if someone doesn’t play this Sunday, we have a game on Thursday and again next Sunday, constant travel, very demanding schedule. So whoever doesn’t play now will play another time.”