How Is Imanol Alguacil Improving Olympiacos

A report by Sport24.gr outlines Olympiacos' improved performance under head coach Imanol Alguacil. The Basque manager has been at the helm of Thrylos for just over a month now, and he has slowly steadied the ship, which was struggling for consistency at the start of the new season.

Alguacil kicked off his tenure as the Olympiacos coach with a 1-0 defeat to OFI Crete, but he had little to do with the loss since he got only two training sessions with the squad ahead of the match. However, he came back with a bang, sealing two consecutive victories against Jagiellonia Bialystok in the UEFA Europa League and Levadiakos in the domestic league. It is important to note that these three matches happened in the span of a week following his appointment as the new coach of the club.

While he has mostly managed narrow victories against the opposition he has faced till now, three points from these matches have been crucial in gathering the positive momentum for Olympiacos after a slow start. The 1-0 win over eternal rivals Panathinaikos restored the player's faith in their capability as the Red and Whites cut the league leaders' lead at the top to just two points. The 1-0 and 2-0 wins over Marseille and Panetolikos, respectively, further added the necessary momentum to Olympiacos' campaign, as Alguacil succeeded in using his squad to its limits to grind out these results. 

Alguacil is urging his team to focus more on building from the back and on making the foundations of his gameplay in keeping hold of the ball, and pushing it upwards through either Gustavo Puerta or Remo Freuler in the defensive midfield roles. 

As Alguacil did not make a call on the players he has found in his squad after joining the club, he has nonetheless been able to make the most out of them. In the starting line-up for the Panetolikos match, he made seven changes from the Marseille game. Thus, Olympiacos had fresh players without fatigue to control the tempo of the clash, replying on a strong defence in the likes of Panagiotis Retsos, David Carmo and goalkeeper Stefan Ortega. 

Attack remains the only area where Alguacil still has some work to do. Olympiacos have made quite a lot of chances with an overall xG of 12.10. Armando Gonzalez, Marius and Roman Yaremchuk are the ones set to lead the attacking lines this season with Ayoub El Kaabi out. Alguacil is testing with each of them upfront, but a consistent solution is yet to be found.