PAOK: What will the Double-Headed Eagle do with Alessio Lisi on the bench?

On the Mind Game show, Vasilis Sambrakos discussed Alessio Lisi and PAOK after their 1-1 draw with Olympiacos in the 10th round of the Stoiximan Super League. In his view, the Italian coach came out of the derby a winner, and the club now needs to make its intentions clear.

“Compared to what PAOK had shown us in previous games, especially against the big teams, this was better in terms of how the team functioned. It wasn’t better, though, in what they did with the ball: how long they kept it, how many passes they made, how organised their attacking play was. We didn’t see that.

But the truth is we didn’t expect to see that from Lisi’s PAOK at this stage. We expected an improvement in how the team functioned and a better balance between defence and attack. That certainly satisfied the Italian coach, as he confirmed after the game.

It was probably PAOK’s best defensive performance, but you can’t call it balanced. Yes, they had a plan: quick attacks whenever they won the ball in midfield or higher up, and direct balls out of defence to avoid Olympiacos’ press. But we didn’t see complex build-up play or many combinations, and we didn’t see PAOK players getting on the ball around the edge of Olympiacos’ box and creating chances. So I can’t call it a balanced performance, but I understand why their coach is satisfied.

At this point, PAOK couldn’t have done much better. If they had scored from their first big chance, through Zafeiris, the game would obviously have been different. But football isn’t built on ‘ifs.’

The day after, the Italian coach is very much a winner, because with the performance and unity his team showed, the conversation about him and his future at PAOK is clearly changing.

However, this is the right moment for PAOK to communicate what they think about their own future and their coach’s. Last summer, everything the club said, combined with Ivan Savvidis’ repeated presence, signalled that the title was the goal. For a club of PAOK’s size and history, that’s where they should be aiming. But we need to see how realistic that is, given the club’s transfer activity.

That summer, PAOK not only parted ways with their most successful coach, but also replaced him with someone experiencing a situation like this for the first time in his career. Lisi had never challenged for a top-flight title. He was not a tried and tested solution. On top of that, the club’s signings are not of the same market value as in previous transfer windows. You can’t expect this team to have got everything right in its first steps.”