Lucescu’s dilemmas before PAOK’s games against Panserraikos and Eintracht

PAOK’s playing duties after the suspension of the championship begin a day earlier than originally planned with the game against Panserraikos.

Razvan Lucescu’s side lifted the curse of not winning when the league resumed with victory against Atromitos in the national teams’ last break and will be looking to pick up three points in the new series of games until Christmas.

The question for the PAOK coach is how much he will open up the rotation this time given the big game against Eintracht Frankfurt that follows in the doubleheader schedule.

First of all, it is clear that Lucescu has to cope with failures. The suspended Andrija Živković and Tomas Kenziora were joined by Rahman Baba, who has a bruise and is trying to catch up with the Germans. The Ghanaian’s absence puts Rafa Soares in the foreground, but he will have to be managed if Baba is not ready for the “final” with the Germans.

The selection of the Romanian midfielder will also be interesting. Will he continue to keep the Schwab-Cigara and Meite-Ozdoev pairings unchanged? And if so, who will he use on Saturday and who will he give a starting jersey to in Frankfurt?

So far, the “European” duo that led PAOK from qualification to the group stage did not only appear in the game against the Germans in Toumba, and this could also be an indication of Dikefalos’ coach’s intentions.

In attack with Ali Samata, one of the last returning internationals, Brandon Thomas has a clear lead at the start of the game against Panserraikos, while Thomas Murg secures a place in the midfield trio for Saturday’s game.

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