The two names missing from the squad list
Taremi and Yaremchuk are out. Not injured, not suspended. Left out of the squad for Tuesday's Champions League qualifier against NEC at the Karaiskakis (11). Mendilibar has made his call, and it cuts to the core of where Olympiacos are as a club right now. You do not exclude two of your most expensive forwards from the first competitive match of the season without a message being sent. What that message is, exactly, the coach will have to explain. But the facts are stark: the summer has been about rebuilding the creative spine, Ortega has landed in Athens declaring Champions League qualification the target, Sá is arriving in a club-record deal north of €15 million structured through Mendes and Nottingham Forest. And yet the XI that walks out on Tuesday will be missing the two strikers who were supposed to supply goals at this level. This is not rotation. This is a problem.
A squad still under construction
The transfer window is a window into the dysfunction. Olympiacos are determined to sign Bragança from Sporting, but no formal offer has been lodged (3). Salah-Eddine has already rejected one bid, Antwerp and Dutch clubs are circling, and a second proposal has not changed the equation (1) (2). Francisco Ortega has told the club's directors he wants to leave for River Plate, and the negotiations are far enough along that a resolution could come within hours (5). That is the left-back position and the midfield both unresolved, three separate deals hanging in the air, while a Champions League qualifier ticks closer by the day.
The Sá signing is genuinely exciting, a 21-year-old creative number ten of the type Mendilibar prizes. It is also a deal that will not help on Tuesday. The squad Mendilibar actually has available is the one that matters, and its edges are ragged.
NEC are not here to make up the numbers
Dusan Tadic is 37 years old. He has played one match for NEC. He says he is ready to start at the Karaiskakis and that his team must qualify for the Champions League (12) (13) (15). The conviction is real. NEC have their own injury worries, Sandler a doubt after coming off against Sevilla on Friday (14), and Schreuder left Ogawa and Tahaui out of the travelling squad with a blunt message: this is not a school trip (8). The Dutch side have a clear idea of what this tie requires. Olympiacos enter it 29th in the UEFA coefficient rankings, chasing a top-25 spot that a win here would edge closer (7). The direct path to the League Phase exists on paper, but it is a scenario, not a certainty (6). Spanish referee José María Sánchez will be in the middle (9).
What comes next
Tuesday night, the Karaiskakis, a two-legged tie that defines the financial and sporting shape of the season ahead. Mendilibar must knit a starting XI from a squad that is half-finished, missing two forwards who should be leading the line, and facing a NEC side that believes. The Sá deal will close. The Ortega situation will resolve one way or another. The Bragança pursuit will continue. But none of that matters on Tuesday. What matters is whether Olympiacos can win a match they cannot afford to lose, with the players they actually have.
