Pep Biel is hot for Olympiakos, but needs space in his game

Olympiacos didn’t start well this season. The conditions are set for him to lose the scepter in the Greek league, but he has two major advantages.

The first is that he knows how to win titles and there doesn’t seem to be a team capable of winning the championship to the end at this point, with Panathinaikos remaining a question mark. The second is what his management is starting to activate: he has the ability to command higher numbers on contracts and transfers than the domestic competition.

Olympiakos fans are hoping that advantage (and it’s starting to show) will make all the difference.

He acquired the soccer player who made the difference in Denmark

The addition of Hui-Joe Huang is already starting to pay off. Nottingham beat Nantes and Brest in the auction for the South Korean striker and loaned him to Olympiakos.

But the transfer of Pep Biel, who turns 26 next week on September 5, has had an impact. Transfer of a footballer who apparently did not have the requirements for this. The Spaniard was instrumental in getting into the Champions League groups and is under contract until 2024.

Copenhagen did not buy it cheaply in 2019. He spent 5,000,000 euros to acquire it from Zaragoza. However, Olympiakos management found the advantage of acquiring the footballer who makes the difference in the Danish league.

Educated with a rare skill

The Danish league goes into the 7th round. Champion Copenhagen didn’t start well with a 3-0-4 record but Biel is the top scorer in Superliga with 6 goals and 3 assists.

Olympiacos are bringing into their machine a trained footballer with a rare ability in final execution whose career has skyrocketed since last year. The ease with which he finds a goal and the way he does it is a bit reminiscent of Christos Jolis, only he has a proven ability to play more inside and not start from the edges.

Thorup released him and his numbers skyrocketed

He went to Copenhagen in 2019. In his first year in all competitions, he made 44 appearances, scoring 5 goals and providing 5 assists. As a sophomore, he made 31 appearances in all competitions, scoring 3 goals and providing 5 assists.

Somewhere there begins the start. In October 2020 Stole Solbakken leaves Copenhagen and a month later Thorup takes over. The Danish coach understood Biel’s ability to execute and how he is hampered by the constant legal play. As time went on, he was given freer, more attacking roles, either behind the forward or even as a false 9.

With Solbakken he was pinned down the right flank and with him he played in 47 games, scoring just 6 goals and providing 7 assists. With Thorup, he played 78 games, scoring 26 goals and providing 23 assists. With the Danish coach, he either scored or delivered a final pass that turned into a goal every 118 minutes.

The championship in Copenhagen was the starting signal for Biel’s career

The start came last year when Biel’s full release propelled Copenhagen to the championship title. Speaking to people who have knowledge of the Danish league, the facts in the league have changed over the past year with this career start of the young Olympiakos player brought about by his release.

First in goals and assists

He was his team’s top scorer in division with 11 goals, team’s top scorer in Europe with 7 goals, first in assists with 5 in league, first in assists in Europe with 6. Olympiacos therefore acquired the footballer, last year it was defined which team will win the danish league.

He needs freedom

When asked where Biel makes a difference, I got the answer that when he came out of the Solbakken forms he showed that he can make a difference.

Trapped on the right side, he’s better suited to play something between a hidden hunter, a false nine, and a ten. Located on the edge of the territory, it is always ready to take advantage of its efficient and intelligent processing.

His secret is to read the phase and penetrate the opponent’s space vertically to take advantage of his quick and effective execution and play face-to-face into the opponent’s goal.

He comes in hot

Copenhagen hasn’t started well in the league this year, but he’s hot himself. He exits the league as the league’s top scorer with 6 goals and 3 assists in 7 games. If we take their numbers from last year and this season, Copenhagen finds a goal every 109.5 minutes, either by goal or assist.

Olympiacos gets a footballer who will help him with important things he is missing. It gives him efficiency, more movement in space and the ability to approach both Hui-Joe Huang and the box and play between the opposition’s stoppers and defensive midfielders.