The depth that Panathinaikos has in its roster this year has started to provide solutions.
One of the disadvantages that last year’s Panathinaikos had in relation to its opponents and especially to AEK, in the battle to win the title, was the lack of alternative options. What’s more, since Aitor and Trouillet were seriously injured, the transfer of Chokai didn’t… work out, while Kleinheisler also stayed in the… shallows.
So, as the season drew to a close, the Greens began to run out of steam as Ivan Jovanovic made a few quality changes that could turn around a game that has… gone awry, or at least appears to be heading there.
This year, however, things in this particular part have improved quite a bit and the Serbian coach is already enjoying this difference, in the few games this year that did not go as he would have liked…
The first example is the home game against Marseille, where Bernard, 11 minutes after entering the game, was the player who gave victory to Panathinaikos with the goal he achieved (in the 84th minute), while in the return match against Marseille Ioannidis, who came on in the 63rd minute, was the protagonist of a historic qualification.
In the away game against Braga, the two above entered the 65th minute of the match and in stoppage time, they worked together amazingly, with Mancini not letting the opportunity go unexploited and keeping “alive” the “clover” in the dream of qualifying for the groups of the Champions League which finally lost in the rematch of OAKA .
In Ioannina and in the match of the 3rd match of the SuperLeague, the “greens” had difficulty threatening the home of PAS, with Ivan Jovanovic putting Mancini in place of the injured Djurisic in the 54th minute, with the Argentine, 20 minutes later, taking the assisted Palacios on the game-winning goal.
And we come to yesterday’s game in Tripoli, where Arao and Verbic might have given Panathinaikos the lead, but the 1-2 did not offer any confidence. Until Ioannidis entered the game with the two goals he scored in the 80′ and 87′, they gave a resounding victory to the “Clover”.
In total, out of the team’s 12 games this year, in 5 of them, the changes made by the Serbian coach helped the “greens” leave the field smiling…
