Statements after the victory of Olympiakos over Volos in “Georgios Karaiskakis” for the last matchday of the regular season in the Stoiximan Super League, made Jose Luis Mendilibar.
The coach of the “red and whites” emphasized that the improvement of his team has nothing to do with some … magic wand, adding that Olympiacos is getting better and better in every game, while he also spoke as much about the matches with Maccabi Tel Aviv , as well as for the start of the playoffs.
In detail what the coach of Olympiakos said:
On the six wins in the six matches he is on the Olympiakos bench and whether he has a magic wand: “There is no such thing, many times it’s good football and other times it’s accuracy. We are satisfied with what we have achieved, because this was also the goal when I joined the team, to win as many matches as possible and get back into contention for the championship. It is also for us the first time we have come to such a big club, where we always have to win all the games”.
On the wins, on using all the players at his disposal and on whether he’ll cut the rotation in the playoffs: “I can’t answer you now, we will see that during the games. But everyone has to fight for the footballers to rest, it is difficult for them to play themselves every three days we have matches. I can’t tell you if I’m going to use 26 or 27 players in the playoffs, but I’m going to use a lot of them because we have to give our players a break.”.
On how far Olympiacos is from what it wants to see: “Each time we are getting closer and closer to what we want to see. We saw it now in this match in the second half especially when we forced the opponent to play in the half court. Our players must believe it all the time, but also prove it. Every time we get better and better, we are a good team and we show that in all our matches”.
On his shots ahead of Maccabi and how he felt when he saw the crowd applauding him when he entered the pitch: “It is important to have the people back on the field and it is important to play with them next to us. So the players feel like they have to find their rhythm faster and when they slack off the world is there to pick them back up again. This is important. If you think that Thursday’s game is more important than tonight’s game, we considered this game more important because we wanted to go down in the standings and we did it. Every time we do that we get closer to our goal, I can’t tell you right now if we’re going to win or lose on Thursday, but I can definitely tell you we’re going to play well.”.
On the fact that he used all the available strikers at his disposal, but also on the fact that Olympiacos dropped in the standings and enters the playoffs third: “I haven’t felt the pressure yet, I’m calm and I’m fine. But when the draw is made and the playoffs begin, I might feel the need to win games. Regarding the strikers, I found the opportunity to use them all by changing the players’ positions as well as Jovetic and Fran Navarro. But without spoiling the balance in the team, we continued to play well and I think that what we did on the field worked out for us”.
Source: Sport Fm
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