Managing Around Europe (Take 1)

I was struggling for some inspiration as to who to manage, I had achieved what i wanted with my beloved Bristol City but I didn’t know where to go from there? So, after some extensive thought of where to go or who to take charge of, I finally decided. . .

I would go on a trip around Europe managing in all of the top leagues with (from who I know to be) good footballing sides in a bid to understand the different levels and standards of football across the continent and widen my knowledge of the game and maybe unearth some footballing gems and future Gods in the process? Who knows!

However, first stop: Greek side, Olympiakos.

(Story to be updated every game month)

Olympiakos SF Piraeus: A Background



Starting Expectations & Budgets



I can honestly say I am happy with that, the team already has good strength in depth and they are in a healthy financial position, all is well!

Friendlies

06/07/2010 – GS Doxa Dramas 2-0 Olympiakos
First game, a match we dominated from start to finish, with having 17 shots to their 7 which probably highlights our need for another striker as we are short in the position, and the possession count was 56-44 in our favour. Finally to top things off we also missed a penalty through 16 year old Lefteris Avramidis (in case anybody was wondering, he is a ‘newgen’)

09/07/2010 – S.C. Ashdod 1-2 Olympiakos
The start of our Israelien tour and I felt a bit better after this victory; it took only 37 seconds for us to break the deadlock here thanks to a brilliant team goal that sliced open our Israelien opponents defence and a cool finish from Marko Pentalic. Then exactly 9 minutes later we hit them number 2; Spanish Winger Albert Riera doing the damage this time. Ashdod pulled back a late consolation but it never lead to anything more. This was another match we dominated so really I was hoping for us to score a few more, but a win is a win and I will take that every time.

12/07/2010 – Hapoel Petach-Tikva 0-2 Olympiakos
Final game of our tour of Israel brought a comfortable 2-0 victory over Hapoel Petach-Tikva with both goals coming after half time through Kevin Mirallas & Krisztian Nemeth. This was another game we dominated and deserved to win by more, but on the plus side this result came with my first clean sheet as boss. Bonus!

17/07/2010 – Hertha BSC 2-1 Olympiakos
Well, we lost and deserved it too. It was a poor performance capped off by an own goal to put ourselves 0-2 down within half an hour. We finally woke up after this and began to take the game to Hertha and our persistence was rewarded on the hour mark through Ariel Ibagaza’s wonder strike. Unfortunatly that was that and we were unable to press on and grab an equaliser from there.


Euro Cup (2nd Qualifying Round)

15/07/2010 – Olympiakos 1-0 HSK Zrinjski Mostar
A 16th minute goal from Kevin Mirallas proved to be enough to secure the first leg, disappointed though myself as it doesn’t make the away trip easier at all, to be fair out Bosnian opponents did well and stopped us from getting in behind on several occasions. But we are half way there and have been drawn away too FC Inter (of Finland not Italy!) if we qualify and make the 3rd round.

22/07/2010 – HSK Zrinjski Mostar (1)1-1(2) Olympiakos
5 minutes into the game and we found ourselves 0-1 down through a controversial goal to say the least. Never the less we pressed on in search of an invaluable away goal and it came on the stroke of half time through Krisztian Nemeth’s overhead kick. We continued to press and looked for all the world as if we would go on to win the game and score again only until striker Marko Pantelic got a straight red card for a ridiculously dangerous tackle. After this i felt safer to sit back and play possession football to see that game out.


Euro Cup (3rd Qualifying Round)

28/07/2010 – FC Inter 3-3 Olympiakos
We went 0-2 down after 33 minutes in this game again against weaker opposition and after only 22 minutes we went down to 10 men to make it a lot harder for ourselves. My half time team talk seemed to change that though and we came out all guns blazing to take a 3-2 lead. In the 89th minutes we were then reduced to 10 men and from the resulting freekick FC Inter went on to equalise. 3 away goals though so it’s not all doom and gloom.

Transfers


Pantelis Kepetanos (SC) signed for abit of strength in depth upfront as i felt the quality we did haven't wasn't good enough


END OF JULY

Oh... you're managing my favorite team!

Kapetanos? Noooooo... Mitroglou is better than him in real life
What about Gekas and Samaras as alternative striker options? I'm suggesting Greeks to keep the domestic bias high, hehe.

Kapetanos is great! Steaua is my favourite team and even though he starts as backup to the first team he plays very well, he is a very cerebral player in my opinion and isn't wasting his chances Good choice to strengthen you attack there!
Game>RL