The positions of Biel and Vrsaliko turn the system and people against Karabagh

THE mitchell Before the Olympiakos game against Karabagh on Thursday (October 6th, 10:00 p.m., COSMOTE SPORT 2, LIVE Sportish), he is expected to complete the dress rehearsal of the line-up at Renti tonight, and he has a lot going on at the moment, both for the system and also for the footballers who will be in the regular squad.

Mitchell’s European debut in his second spell at the Olympiacos bench is a major ‘must’ for the Piraeus side. Still pointless in their group, the Reds and Whites need a win over Qarabag in Faliro to keep their hopes of qualifying for the Europa League and Conference League knockout games alive.

If Olympiacos draws against Azerbaijan, they need to get a result in Azerbaijan next week. While in case of defeat even third place in the group will require a lot of effort.

This ‘must’, combined with Olympiacos’ substantial absences, therefore makes the Spanish coach think twice and thrice about how the Piraeus team should face the struggling Karabagh. For this reason, he carried out several tests during the training sessions at Rentis.

Mitchell chooses a system and Biel

However, the positions of Biel and Vrsaliko show that they will judge a lot, both for the system and for the faces of the eleven. The Spanish footballer performs best as a ‘ten’ and second as a right winger. However, during his time in Copenhagen he had played as a centre-forward on several occasions.

In particular, the 26-year-old was used as a center forward in 14 games in all competitions, collecting 8 goals and 7 assists. Not remarkable is the fact that he had a goal or an assist in 7 of the 14 games, that is half.

In fact, all of the games took place in 2022, with two of them receiving flattering comments from the manager, his teammates and the Copenhagen fans. Biel had scored two goals and provided an assist in Denmark’s 4-4 draw with Eindhoven in the Netherlands to beat the Conference League games. In the league, too, he scored a hat-trick in the derby against Brodby (4-1).

So if Mitchell chooses to use his compatriot at the front of the attack, Aboubakar Kamara will remain on the bench. If the Spanish coach prefers the latter in the center forward position, Biel will play either as a staff midfielder (in 4-2-3-1) or as a right winger (in 4-3-3).

If the 4-4-2 stays the same as in the game against Atromitos, then logically both the Spaniard and the Moorish international play in the penalty area. Unless there’s a surprise from Wei Jo Huang, who felt better in the last practice session. It is recalled that Bakabou does not have the right to participate in Europe and El Arabi is injured.

By the way, apart from Bakabu, we mustn’t forget that for the game against Qarabag, the Olympiakos coach doesn’t have available James Rodríguez, Samaseku, Fortuni, Agibu Kamara, De la Fuente, Leidner and Kasami, who are also not in the European list contain.

The tests with three stoppers

Defensively, Mitchell has tried a formation with three central defenders (3-4-3, 3-5-2), but also with four in the same row (4-2-3-1, 4-3-3), 4 -4-2). In the trio, Vrsaliko was used as a stopper, Avila in the right back half role (as you know, Ba and Retsos are injured).

As for midfield, the Spanish manager hasn’t decided yet whether to leave with just Embilla and Inbong Huang or add a third midfielder. However, Kunde and Bouchalakis weren’t even under 20 in last Sunday’s game against Atromitos. More on Mitchell’s mood is expected to be revealed in tonight’s final training session at Rentis.