Except for the big four, all the team, which competed in European Cups, had to face stressful days in the league. That is what happened to Akhisar. Their squad were not capable of coping with three competitions. The Super League started with a very bad performance for them as they collected only 5 points in the initial 9 fixtures. Besides that, their Europa League group stage ended with a huge disappointment as they finished it in the bottom place with only one point.
During those days, the board made a coach change and brought Cihat Arslan instead of Saffet Susic. Until the winter break, he made his team collect satisfactory points. However, it was clear that they did not spend the break well and lost their concentration on the league. Since then they got anchored to the bottom place again. The board decided to change the bench again and oèted to bring coach Cem Kavcak in. His efforts did not have the desired impact and they could collect only 11 points in 13 fixtures. In this period, it was weird to see them play the Turkish Cup final twice in a row.
Since they could not get any efficiency from Bokila in 2018, all coaches had to use winger Manu up front. He did well and became the team’s top scorer. Loanee Cikalleshi also helped him well in scoring, but the rest of the offence zone including Guray, Barbosa and Onur were far from their usual performances. It is also worth to mention the backline. They recorded only 7 clean sheets during the whole season. In particular, Mustafa’s long injury affected them negatively. Since the whole squad are likely to leave, it will not be easy to come back for Akhisar.
