Olympiacos face Panathinaikos on Oct. 11 and Marseille on Oct. 15. Marius Mouandilmadji could start the derby, while Armando 'Hormiga' Gonzalez may return late from Mexico duty.
Armando 'Hormiga' Gonzalez will return late from his duties in Mexico, and Imanol Alguacil already has reason to work more intensively with Marius Mouandilmadji. The Chadian forward doesn't need to find fitness. He needs to quickly learn what the Spaniard wants in terms of movement, pressure, and transitions.
The Panathinaikos derby arrives on October 11th, and Marius has an advantage that grows every day: he is training at Renti without Gonzalez. The road to the derby lineup is open, especially if the Mexican returns tired and with minimal regular training.
The two-pure-forward option doesn't hold much promise. Alguacil has shown he prefers one up top and more players around him, especially in big games where he needs better balance and control.
Four days later, however, Olympiacos plays in Marseille. There, Mouandilmadji cannot play because he is not on the League Phase list. Imanol will again need either Roman Yaremchuk or Armando Gonzalez, both of whom are registered in Europe.
This creates a strange but useful management. Marius can take the big Greek game, while Yaremchuk and Gonzalez must stay competitively ready for the Velodrome at the same time.
Olympiacos is not just looking for the best forward. For four crucial days, Alguacil needs two different tops and two different plans.
The Red and Whites will face Olympique de Marseille on Oct. 15, and we believe Imanol Alguacil's side can beat the French club.
To put things in context, Marseille are currently 17th in the league table and recently lost the French clásico to PSG, one of the teams in the worst form in recent years.
We are not saying Luis Enrique’s team arrived and played with alternative players and didn't put out their starters, but they were coming off a negative run at the start of this season, even struggling to get their first victory in the French championship.
This is how Marseille’s sporting projects have developed in recent years. It seems that when a new coach arrives and new signings come in, everything gets restructured; they find stability and can compete again at the highest level. And they can string together runs of positive performances, but in the end, the project falls apart.
If we see Jota Silva, Leon Bailey, Gustavo Sá, Gustavo Puerta, and Remo Freuler connected and cohesive on the pitch, feeding balls to González, who could be the starting striker for this match, we will likely see a positive result for Olympiacos.
