After an absence of a few weeks, it’s time for the return of the loan watch! After previously featuring Connor Ronan, Christian Herc and Connor Johnson, we are going to an untapped country. Greece, to be precise. In the capital city of Athens, you will find a rather sizeable club by the name of Olympiacos. Playing for Olympiacos this season is none other than Wolves very own Roderick Miranda.
After being signed by Nuno last summer, Miranda fell down the pecking order after Ryan Bennett made the RCB place his own after presumably out-performing Miranda in training. With the arrival of Leander Dendoncker in August, it was thought best that Miranda went out on loan for the season, although don’t be surprised if he doesn’t return to the Black Country.
Anyway, while Miranda is still a Wolves player, he can still feature here, so let’s turn our attention to how Roderick got on in Olympiacos’ recent win over Lamia. Despite having played 45 times for Portugal’s various youth sides, Miranda has found himself somewhat of a bit-part player in the Greek Super League.
Miranda has only played 303 minutes in the league after 14 games. Yes, he’s featured slightly more in the Europa League, but you do have to wonder how good Miranda actually is if he’s struggling to get into Olympiacos’ starting XI.
Heavily involved
In the game against Lamia, which was a routine 3-0 win, Miranda was heavily involved from the start. He played as the LCB in a back four. When he has played, there’s not been a great deal of consistency as to where he’s lined up, sometimes its RCB, sometimes its LCB. Ah well, I guess that’s what you get with loan spells. The below map shows Miranda’s (#25) average position and the players he linked up with most frequently. The darker the line, the bigger the interaction.
Roderick completed 84 out of a possible 87 passes or 97% dependant on how you want to look at it. Although Lamia (full name: PAS Lamia 1964) aren’t the toughest of opponents, the range of passing on offer from Roderick was fantastic. It wasn’t just short, simple passes as you would perhaps expect from a central defender. Once again, I ask you to look at the below image.
Lamia only got promoted to the Super League a couple of seasons previous, even still, Miranda’s pass map is most impressive. As opposed to focusing on his passing, we are going to magnify our attention on Roderick’s interceptions throughout the game. There are six in total. Some are rather mundane and a non-event so we’ll skip those, but we’ll look at one good, one bad and one wildcard.
