Jose Luis Mendilibar has blasted his Olympiacos players as he claimed it was the 'norm' for his side to struggle in front of their own fans - accusing them of doing 'stupid things' on the pitch.
The Greek giants got over the line at the weekend with a narrow 2-1 win over Panserraikos with Rangers heading for them on matchday four of the Europa League on Thursday. Philippe Clement and his troops face a massive Premier Sports Cup semi-final showdown as they look to lift some of the fan pressure ahead of that journey to Greece.
Both sides have picked up six points from a possible nine to date in Europe's second tier competition and know bagging all three this midweek will put them in a strong position for the knockout round of the competition.
But despite victory at the weekend, that keeps his side second behind Aris in the Greek Super League standings, Mendiliber said: "I didn't enjoy the game at all. We gave our opponents far too many chances. If they had equalised and got a draw, we couldn't have complained.
"It seems to be the norm for us to struggle in our own stadium this season. We didn't do anything well. Even when we went ahead, we kept doing stupid things.
"All week, we worked hard in training and on the pitch we did the complete opposite. It's the players' fault, it's my fault too. I'm the boss so it starts with me. I am as much to blame.
"I choose the starting team and choose our tactics and I haven't convinced our players about the way they should play. I wish I could explain what went wrong.
"You read the stats and we had four times the possession, a lot of chances, a lot of shots, but on the other hand you make so many mistakes and we kept giving the ball to the opponent. To almost not win the game with
Read more on dailyrecord.co.uk
dailyrecord.co.uk
