georgelaz

both teams look very hungry and in good form. i think ya'll will cancel each other out 1-1

^ This drama is sorta irrelevant. PAOK is a decent team but none of their players are better than our best 11 Mitroglou > Klaus Samaris > Tziolis Fortounis > Pelkas Holebas >Tzavellas BUT the aforementioned PAOK players do have a place in reserve/bench for sure pending on injuries. Pelkas might become more valueble than Fortounis over time, but he isn't right now. We have to use our BEST. None of our coaches had any qualms about playing Kpaps at 20, why? Because he was the best CB for the job at the time. Karagounis started for us at 35 because he was the best CAM at the time.

no one has been in form for the ethniki, though lol

^ shitty, he's been in great form this season

I always think Greece should win every game in this group. After these results though, I'm finally filled with doubt. Let's see what happens!

hmm what do you guys think of starting both mitroglou & klaus? they have different strengths klaus = poaching, faster, body contortions mitroglou = shot power, heading, strength they use opposite dominant feet (though mitroglou can use both) is it a waste for two strikers that could be more utilized to patch up our dicey midfield?

^ finally people saying that Klaus & Mitroglou are our best strikers right now! We just gotta solidify our AM/Wingers we got a lot of options, we just gotta find the right formula and we're up and running IMO. 2-3 of these guys are probably our starters unless i'm forgetting someone. Lazaros Fortounis Ninis Kone Fetfatzidis Karelis right now I'm feeling Karelis Kone Ninis (it can really go any way of the aforementioned.) regardles of form probably Karelis Kone Feftazidis (because they're all in our natural position and I feel Kone has a bit more edge than Ninis right now) Samaris as cdm for sure and tachtsidis in for him when slacking. Maniatis with Samaris is a great combo imo they do different things and use different dominant foot. our back end is basically a lock. Mitroglou ??? ??? ??? Samaris Maniatis Holebas Manolas Sokratis Torosidis Karnezis After Torosidis retires we move into a 3 cb position because we have no class right backs compared to the 3 CB's we have. But I say we do this AFTER world cup.

^ interesting point. Hard headed = Mageth

I agree with Sabella. He has international success & Argentina has a similar culture to Greece.

I thought it wasn't him in goal for a second because they zoomed to the Milan Keeper

You can tell the commentators have so much fun saying 'Samaras' lol

Yeah just this year Karnezis > Nikopolidis In His Prime IMO.

I'm not going to lie - I kinda would be interested to see how Ranieri would have panned out if he stayed as coach now because of his Premier League success. His approach is very modern and he has no qualms starting a 19 year old if they're in top form. His style is actually closer to British to Italian, it seems. I think his booting was also political. He didn't want to start Katsouranis & was the antithesis of EPO's system of experience is king.

I've met knocks outs in every ethnicity. Mitroglou works well with ninis & kone and they're doing decent right now. He also used to work well with Salpingidis but his ethniki days seem over.

CB's and GK's have a longer shelf life, generally.

Your comparison of using Cisse, Kats, Leto, Silva, Karagounis = Berg, Zeca, Ninis, Karelis, Essien We had a pretty s%$#! defense when we won the title last time too. (Boumsung was our best in the backline for example ?) Sanchez is much better. It's mostly likely that Olympiakos will take this title again BUT it's still comletely in our cards to win the title - it won't be easy but we can squeeze by 1st place by 3 points over the gauvroi.

I agree with Pash. Mitroglou is still a weapon if he's getting good service. ninis works really well with him. I also wouldn't mind Samaras getting a dig. That's what I'm saying tho, if we make our 3 subs midfielders in the 60th minute, we can make up for our shitty midfield through the power of fresh legs. One of the problems that we've overlooked is that our subs have been very bad Katsouranis in while, chasing a goal for example?

this to me seems to be our best lineup. these subs in brackets would be good replacements if a particular unit is doing bad. Holebas - Manolas - Sokratis - Manolas - Torosidis (Subs Moras / Siovas / Stafilidis) Samaris Maniatis (Subs Tachtsidis / Petsos) feftfa - Ninis - Karelis (Subs Kone / Fortounis / Lazaros) Mitroglou (Subs Klaus) Greece is still in my opinion a top 20 side, pound for pound, talent wise. we gotta start acting like it. I know a lot of people are Maniatis haters, but he does a lot of the dirty work that Samaris doesn't do. He's a decent engine. Also, if you look at the suitable subs in the attacking midfield, that may be where our problem is. We don't have any clear cut starters as we've shuffled these guys around so much. We got quantity, but not the same quality that we do have in the defense. Therefore, almost always our subs should probably be attacking, the fresh legs and different offensive angles that each of our AM offer can be made up for in quantity rather than quality. Turn the weakness into strength! my 2 cents

Magath creeps me out. We need someone who understands both Greek & World football - much like Santos.

Highlights are here. don't know how long they will remain up though... we had +5 chances that would have been sheer goals - just a matter of inches. (as sokratis said, we had very bad luck) I would've appreciated less audacious attempts and at least test the keeper a bit instead of going for the highlight real at first though.. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qrhNe61Cgmc

Didn't see that one coming. Wacky starting lineup. Despite the injuries I'd started Manolas still as CB kpaps as cdm Playing feftfa would've been good too. It's hard to pinpoint this campaigns failure on a major thing - it's many little things that accumulate to make our squad rubbish. 2 things that come to mind is we need to enhance team chemistry. 2nd we need to try to play ballsy attacking football. MAX 1 DM the rest forwards. We might as well start doing this now that we're out as an experiment.

I predict 2-0 Greece. Mitroglou & Aravidis to score. Let's see.

Yes. I get it. But the question is, who else on our NT can do what he does? On that RW. No one else naturally fits there. I guess I'd slot Ninis in there if anything besides Fefta. His move to the Saudi League is very unorthodox for a 24 year old footballer with so much potential. He probably has his reasons though (the car crash near death experience / family needing funds back in greece etc.)

Fortounis gives me more confidence atm. Ninis is so inconsistent. You can tell that Fortounis leveled up this season. It's not just form.

I really like that lineup ^ Karelis is the new salpingidis. Fefta is still the best Greek for his position and still has a place with us on our team. If Messi went to play in saudi arabia right now for shits and giggles would he not still have a place for Argentina? I think, of course he would. Class is class. Feftazidis isn't in Arabia because of decline, but rather economical. It's different.