One serious injury, comeback, second serious injury, second comeback. Leader, ten, leader, with the seven on the back.

No. 7 suddenly becomes No. 53, the leader is no longer the leader. The important thing is useless now, outside the group, doesn’t count.

But finally 7 is his again, he’s back, he’s playing, he’s shining, he’s important again, he’s a leader again, he’s great again.

The truth is that at Fortunis we never get bored. He seems to have been a constant topic of discussion since joining Olympiakos.

Not only for what he does on the field, not only for his competitive qualities, but also for the environment, the ups and downs of a career that never seems dull, straight forward and predictable.

Out of the national team, two months after his return

The last episode is blue and white, not red and white. It was mid-March when Fortounis was on Poget’s call-off, making his first international return since March 2021.

Poget used him as a substitute for the game Gibraltar for the qualifiers, with Fortounis even receiving the armband when he came on as a substitute, which allowed him to start 70 minutes in a friendly against Lithuania at the OPAP Arena a few days later.

There was a feeling at the time that Fortounis would now be part of the national team but that didn’t go as far as Poget ruled him out of games against Ireland and France.

And now; And now he reopened a great debate, centered on Fortunis. But before the talks, the weed comes first. And above the opinions lies the reality.

What has he done this year?

So let’s take a look at this year’s Fortunis and, using Opta data, let’s see what he did with the Olympiakos shirt in the Stoiximan Super League this year.

These are the 10 players with the greatest open-play threat involvement in this year’s league.

The red bars show the endgames they reached per 90 minutes, the blue bars the chances they created and the gray bars show the times they were involved in attacks but not including the last pass or shot to have.

Araujo and Amrabad took the first two places. The Argentine because he threatened execution a lot but was also present in the other two areas, the Moroccan because he excelled.

Third of the season, Fortounis. Olympiacos’ 7 had 2.5 finals per 90 minutes of open play and qualifying for creating 1.8 chances for his teammates but also being involved in attacking build-ups a further 1.6 times per game.

Unique Greek on the list and first Red Whitevia Hames, Biel and Huang.

Behind is only Araujo

Let’s look at another: mThrough Opta we can collect all open play finals that players participate in and score them with xGoals.

In other words, let’s look at the players whose overall presence in open play posed the greatest threat.

These are the top 10 players in the league in terms of the threat they posed with endgames, endgame passes but also attack build-ups.

This year’s Fortounis’ 0.59 was only behind Champion AEK’s MVP Araucho’s 0.63.

In order not to be confused with decimals, you can just think about it: if someone has watched the Super League games, they are more likely to see the ball in the net than the involvement of Araujo and Fortunis.

It started in the dark and ended in a flash

That was fortune this year. He started the season unsung and ended it as one of the best players in the league.

Consistent class with the ball at his feet, unparalleled design ability that is reflected not only in the 10 assists but also in the numbers we’ve seen.

“Poget says he’s not following his regular schedule”

According to the report, none of this is enough for Gustavo Poget. Nikos Syriodis made it clear to Sportish on Friday:

“The Uruguayan wasn’t particularly happy with what he saw from Fortounis in the two games he played, nor with the training sessions he followed closely.

At the same time, in his opinion, Fortounis is not following the tactical plan as much as he would like, with the result that this affects the overall functioning of the team.”

Many questions

The report raises more questions than answers.

• What tactical directives does Fortune not follow?
• What are his weaknesses and are they so damaging that they eliminated him from the national team?
• Can Greece afford to forgo those undisputed qualities in the latter part of the game?
• If the Uruguayan doesn’t see Fortunis as a regular, might he not have him on the bench so his skills can come in handy in certain situations?

Perhaps the Uruguayan will make us wiser in the coming days if he explains his decision better.

The context in national teams

Until then, it would be good to remember the following. National coaches are also called selectors because that is exactly what they do: they choose.

You have the right to nominate any player you want, you are not bound by any obligation. The same goes for the players, of course, who only play for the national team when they want to.

Fortounis does not have a contract with the national team but with Olympiakos. It’s his, he gets paid by him.

In this team he is obliged to give his best and Every Olympiakos coach is the one who has the “duty” to make use of itbecause the management gave him a major order.

Poget needs to succeed without him

Poget could favor Bacacheta in space behind the forward while also considering Fortounis isn’t suited for him either on the wings or on the bench.

No problem, its right. With just one important note: Poget should succeed. This is the premise of any coach making a difficult decision.

The Van Sip decision on Socrates-Manolas

That was for Rehagel, who wanted Kapsis as the main player and not Gouma or Dabiza, who wanted Vryza in attack and not then ‘hot’ Dimitris Papadopoulos, who had Charta on the bench and Liberopoulos out of action. You do what you want as long as you succeed.

So did Fan Sip, who (rightly so, I think) decided to march without Manolas and Socrates. The Dutchman thought it through, implemented it and stuck it out to the end. Only he didn’t manage to lead us to a final stage and left.

Poget needs to take us to Euro 2024

The same goes for Poget. The Uruguayan did brilliantly in the Nations League without Fortounis and decided to do without him in the qualifying group as well.

let him do what he wants With Bakaseta, with Constantelia, with whoever. It is enough that Greece is in the final stages of Euro 2024. Without “yes, but but”, without asterisks and footnotes.

There is nothing else, another goal for Poget. He didn’t take office to play better football or to refresh and build the new national team squad.

These were carried out by Van Sip but there was no qualification and the Dutchman left. Poget came to qualify for no other reason.

If that means Fortounis has to retire from the national team, then so be it. The summer of 2024 is enough for us to meet in Germany’s stadiums. So clear, so strict.

Even about Hames

And we close with a red-white prism. This season’s movie could have multiple titles. You could call it: “The season in which Olympiacos fielded 42 players in the league and 39 of them started at least once.”

You could also call it: “The season in which Olympiacos Piraeus failed to win 12 European games with four different coaches.”

Another title reads as follows: “The season Olympiacos Piraeus spent a lot of money on midfielders and finally Fortounis was the best again.”

Why is that happend? The one who started the season as an underdog finished it before everyone else, even Hames. Not even the Colombian could do better than Fortunis.