Statements ahead of the match between Olympiakos and PAS Ioannina at “Georgios Karaiskakis” (28/1, 19:30), made by Carlos Carvalhal.
The coach of the “red and white” stood on the very good psychological condition of his team and made it clear that he will not underestimate Epirotes, while he also talked about the transfer moves.
In detail what the coach of Olympiakos said:
For the game against PAS Ioannina: “It was very good that we had a week to prepare for this game, because in the previous games we played basically without preparation. Playing every three days you have minimal time for preparation, just enough to recover from the previous match.
Now we had a whole week first of all to better integrate the new players and then to properly prepare our next game. We will not underestimate the opponent. We won’t make that mistake. We also have our recent experience from the match with Lamia and under no circumstances do we want something like this to happen again.
The team is in a very good psychological state. He is confident after a good game we had against Panathinaikos, our win with 10 men against Kifissia and our win at home to Aris. We want to continue this streak in the league by playing a good game and getting the win against PAS Ioannina. In no way will we underestimate them. We will go out on the field to show our best selves”.
On how easy it is to integrate the large number of new players mid-season: “It will not be difficult for them to integrate because these are players with a lot of experience who played in Europe. Things would be completely different if players came from another continent and another league, completely different.
The footballers who have come know how we want to play, they know what we ask of them and they are very ready to join the team. These are very correct choices, very careful, players who came to help the team and once again I want to thank the president, Pedro Alves, Mr. Costas, Mr. Giannis, all the people who work to bring the these players in our team. I am sure they will help us”.
On whether Orta and Ciquinho will debut on Sunday: “First of all, footballers are not going to play because they are Portuguese, because they are transfers or because maybe they are my choices. The criterion is always the same and never changes.
Those who are committed to the team, those who have understood exactly what the team needs, will always play. First, the personal dedication they show to the team counts, and then the quality they have and what they can offer football-wise on the pitch. On Sunday, as every Sunday, the most prepared and most dedicated to the team will play”.
On whether his own presence on the Olympiakos bench is a motivation for players to come to the team: “The players that are coming and especially the ones that I knew from my last teams, Rio Ave, Braga and Celta, are players that I know very well and what I want to say and I’m proud of it is that in those teams it happened a very good evaluation of all the footballers and we had very good results.
Braga put over €100 million into their coffers from player sales while I was there, Telta over €50 million. Rio Ave had very valuable players who are now playing for big teams in Europe.
What I have to say is that I know these players very well, I have assessed their qualifications and what they can offer and that is why there is absolute confidence when we bring them here. That’s one of the roles we have here. To bring quality players who can raise the level of the team and raise their value themselves. This applies to those who are coming now as well as to those who were already in the group”.
Source: Sport Fm
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