PAOK’s new Italian pragmatism: what Dynamo Kyiv should fear under Alessio Lishi

Dynamo Kyiv’s next European opponent is Greek side PAOK. A deeper breakdown will come closer to the first leg, but one thing is clear already: the PAOK of last season is gone. The club changed coaches. Razvan Lucescu Jr. left for Qatar to replace Roberto Mancini at Al-Sadd, and PAOK appointed 40-year-old Italian Alessio Lishi. Lishi was born in Rome on November 4, 1985. His playing career never took off – he hung up his boots at 22 after a spell in Serie D with Guidonia – and he turned to coaching immediately. He started as a fitness coach in Lazio’s youth system, but his real breakthrough came in Spain. At just 26, he joined Levante, working his way up from the infantiles to the reserve team. In the 2020/21 season he saved Levante B from relegation, and a year and a half later he was handed the first team. His debut as head coach came in the Copa del Rey – an 8-0 thrashing of amateurs Huracán Melilla. A goalless draw with Osasuna followed, and Lishi was confirmed. He couldn’t save Levante from the drop, but his record of 8 wins and 27 points in 22 league games was respectable. Next came modest Mirandés, where he lifted the team from 17th to the promotion playoff final. They lost to Oviedo, but Spanish journalists called his work “outstanding,” praising his tactical sharpness and ability to overachieve with limited resources. Lishi’s most revealing season was at Osasuna. The team started poorly, then surged into the Conference League places, but collapsed at the end – six straight defeats left them 17th, just above the relegation zone on head-to-head. Lishi kept saying the fans should be proud, but the board disagreed and sacked him. Many winced at his press-conference lines like “this is a painful defeat, but if we have to lose, I want it to be like this.” Still, the numbers tell a different story: Osasuna underperformed by 7.5 goals on xG and lost over 11 points on xPTS, which should have placed them 10th. Lishi’s strength is tactical flexibility. He started with a 5-3-2, then switched to a 4-2-3-1 – and that change brought 14 points in six matches. The team began to keep the ball a bit more, press better, and make proper use of Croatian striker Ante Budimir, who had been isolated in the old system. Yet Lishi’s Osasuna remained a defensive team. Only eight sides conceded fewer goals in the second half of the season. Set pieces, discipline, and patience – that’s what the Italian will bring to Thessaloniki. Dynamo should prepare for a pragmatic opponent that doesn’t mind surrendering possession and strikes from dead balls.