Akis Mantzios is past the bench of Aris after losing at Zosimades. For a Greek coach, 17 months is a long time on the yellow bench. The fans and administration may have had big dreams for this year’s team, but the truth is that Akis Mantzios’ tenure has been absolutely successful.

He finished last season in third place with Aris, which is the club’s best scoring position in 40 years. A course that has increased the appetite, but after a year of overcoming, the first thing to think about is laying the foundations to maintain that level.

The score without -6

If you look at the score, Aris is on the field without the -6, which the coach cannot answer for, with 35 points in 5th place. She is above Panathinaikos, one game down, one point below fourth PAS Giannina, and five games below third AEK in equal games. So the team hasn’t managed to grow, but it’s more or less close to the ranking it achieved last year, which was a 40-year record.

The prerequisites for a level up were not created

In order to be able to level up, you need to meet the requirements. If we look at the base created by Mantzios last year, what it took to raise the level of the team and what happened, you can understand that there were no conditions to go up a level and the fact that Aris was in a stable game is important.

The team had a healthy base last year that allowed them to win many games 1-0. Without having a great goalkeeper, Aris had created a character, a tenacity that allowed him to rack up a large number of wins at the limit. It was not easy to repeat this in the next season.

No help came where it was needed

The team had to be reinforced on positions that appeared to be in pain. A coach’s good work for about an entire season will help you build a game base and see what exactly you need to take it a step further. Aris knew he needed a better goalkeeper than Cuesta, a more reliable double stopper, a player with one-on-one skills and a center forward who had the easy goal. Of course, there were other positions and roles that needed improvement, such as B. Players would increase the intensity and aggression from the extreme backs, but the basis for improving Mars were these additions.

An attempt was made in the summer, no one can blame the administration for not wanting to help Mantzio’s efforts, but the decisions in key positions were not targeted.

A reliable defensive duo was gained with Brabets, Fabiano and two football players, Kamara, Entiage, which increased the intensity and energy of Aris. But no solutions were given for the three key areas the team needed to level up. Dennis quickly proved to be Cuesta’s junior goalkeeper, Iturbe, who came to solve the problem one on one. It took a long time before he could help even 20-30 minutes in the game, and above all it was not acquired for that.

We are in Greek football and there is no such thing as a perfect team. Aris had a serious base, he was strengthened by the transfers of Brabets, Fabiano, Entiage and he could overcome everything if he had the player to score the easy goal. Two things made life difficult for Akis Mantziou. The -6 and the non-acceptance of the net fee.

Hard at -6, not easy to overcome

At -6, the coach and team are judged for an incorrect score. Although everyone knows that Aris would be close to his goals with the six points the team has brought on the pitch, it is being judged on a score for which neither the coaches nor the players are responsible. But it’s not just that. Imagine the psychological void that’s created in a team looking to start into the championship hoping to score goals they’ve had many decades to claim and before the season starts too learn that there are six degrees of punishment. There is a distinct emptiness, an added pressure, a sense of permanent injustice in a sport where psychology plays a key role.

Mantzios demanded until the last day

When the team saw Aris on the field, they yelled from the first game that they don’t have a forward. Akis Mantzios would be responsible if, when Kamaras was brought to him, he believed that the problem at the head of the attack was solved. I am well aware that this is not the case. Former Aris coach realized from the first moment that the specific soccer player is not a striker. No one can say that Kamaras isn’t a good player, but he’s not a centre-forward. He doesn’t have an easy target, and he doesn’t move where a normal center forward should be. The players Aris had on the squad to fill the position couldn’t play key roles in a team aiming high and it turned out whenever they were deployed.

Akis Mantzios has never stopped asking for a clean sheet so his team can get what it’s worth in games. What I’ve never understood is how it’s done and Aris didn’t take over for the January period while he already knew that Kamara would go to the Africa Cup of Nations. However, the manager didn’t stop asking about a takeover even when the transfers were finalized in January, on the logic that someone from the open market would come to fill the position.

Up until the holiday break, Aris looked better on the pitch than last year. He played football faster, he had more intensity, more defensive balance, he created more, but he wasn’t effective in attack. If the goal doesn’t come, it’s fatal and natural that the problem starts to grow. The pressure on the team mounted, Kamara went to the Africa Cup of Nations, the solutions behind him proved insufficient and games came earlier in the year when Aris was really bad.

Confident, but he didn’t score goals with anything

However, everything would be different if the side started scoring on Kamaras’ return from Copa Africa. Akis Mantzios literally lost his job from games his team controlled, creating chances but scoring nothing. At 0:2 at Volos, Aris had 69.4% ball possession, 17:4 final score, 7:2 at home, but lost the xg 1.08-0.63 according to opta. It was perhaps even more extreme in the 2-0 defeat against PAS. Possession in the 70.7% final in favor of 6-20, in goal 2-5, the xg 0.96-1.39 and yet it was beaten.

The two missed penalties with Lamia

But nothing would happen, everything would be different if Aris had kept his big goal, the trophy, open. Anyone who watched the game with Lamia understands that the coach cannot take responsibility for this result. It’s not the manager’s fault when a team misses so many chances and two penalties in the same game. Aris doesn’t continue in the cup simply because there wasn’t a striker who would take the ball and give Maggio and the rest of the team the right to believe that a second consecutive penalty cannot be lost. The striker who takes over the ball at the decisive moment and has the trust of the entire team.

Pay for not getting a regular centre-forward

Everyone understands that things would have been different this March had he qualified for Lamia. In practice, in this match, the cooperation with Akis Mantzio began to count down and the end was drawing to a close, since the conditions were created that there was nothing to expect for the team, so that 1-2 results in the championship go wrong .

In short, anyone who has a picture of this year’s Mars Games understands that the main reason the team was knocked out of the cup and not placed well in the top 6 despite the -6 is that the centre-forward was the had great need. It wasn’t just the easy goal that was missing, but also the footballer who, with the right moves in the penalty area, drives the development of the entire team. I believe that Kamara would also score more goals if she had a footballer at the front of the attack covering the specific area.

Akis Mantzios is a thing of the past after 17 months at Aris. He reached the club in his first season on a historic position, paying dearly for -6 and not increasing for the second.