Imanol Alguacil brings high-pressing intensity and expansive wing play to Olympiacos, leveraging tactical fluidity to transform Thrylos into a possession-based attacking powerhouse.
In a decisive managerial reset, Olympiacos have sacked José Luis Mendilibar and installed Imanol Alguacil in the dugout.
Another Basque coach takes over at the Karaiskakis Stadium, and fans can expect a similar style of football to Mendilibar's philosophy. Alguacil is expected to keep the usual 4-3-3 and 4-2-3-1 formations, as he relies on high-pressing football, quite similar to Mendilibar, Mikel Arteta, Ernesto Valverde, Xabi Alonso, Unai Emery and Julen Lopetegui.
“What a great team, what a way to compete! They are wonderful. I’ll tell you something: Real Sociedad is the Spanish team that plays the best football, without any doubt. Imanol Alguacil deserves congratulations," were the words of Paris Saint-Germain boss Luis Enrique before his side faced Real Sociedad in the UEFA Champions League in February 2024. Alguacil played an influential role in transforming the Sociedad side, which won the 2020 Copa Del Rey, their first major trophy in 34 years.
Alguacil's football is extremely attacking and is based on ball possession while making the pitch as large as possible through the use of wingers. The likes of Joel Roca, Kostas Fortounis, and Gustavo Sa is set get more responsibilities under him, as most of his attacks tend to generate through creating space in the opposition area by stretching the opponent.
The Basque manager also urges his players to continuously focus on their off-ball movement. At Sociedad, he often asked his wingers to play as an inside forward, being the quickest on the pitch, while providing a much advanced role to his full-backs.
Sequence of play in the 71st minute between Real Sociedad and Granada during 2020/21 seasonThe above setup represents the kind of play Real Sociedad players under Alguacil orchestrate. The final passing system relies on midfielders who can accurately pass the ball to advancing full-backs with ground or lofted passes, while keeping an eye out for gaps for the direct strikers. Passers such as David Silva and Martin Odegaard helped Alguacil maintain this style of gameplay.
Underloaded flanks are often exploited by Alguacil's players. However, this requires a proficient passer who switches play accurately without losing the ball, since any slip-up here could be punished by pacey opposition attackers. Therefore, calm and composed midfielders play a huge part in the 55-year-old's philosophy. In the above representation, note how right-back Joseba Zaldua has acres of space in front of him as Sociedad was playing from their left to shift Granada's entire defensive mindset over there. Just a quick passing sequence between the central midfielders and an inside forward right-winger helps unlock the space for a reliable right-back to exploit while giving a CAM like Silva a chance to make the run into the box.
Olympiacos can expect the midfield to change their style or an revision of the area could happen in the coming days. Dani Garcia, Gustavo Puerta and Remo Freuler will be asked to tweak their gameplay without any rash decisions.
However, as Kostas Lianos notes, one of the drawbacks of Alguacil is that he has never managed a team where the pressure is intense. He had an international career with the Basque Country, and then moved on to become the coach of Real Sociedad's youth departments before being appointed as their first-team head coach in 2018. He commanded immense respect from the Basques and never really felt the pressure from the fans and the club when things did not go his way.
Nevertheless, Alguacil's appointment proves that the club is essentially keeping in line with Mendilibar's style as it has simply worked, but giving the players a fresh breath of leadership and minor adjustments for long-term success.
