maggica

If you want to have a world cup with the most quality, I think there should be more European and South American teams. Take out one team from Asia, Africa, and Concacaf.

I am really looking forward to the greek league this year. Panathinaikos, Paok, Aek, and Olympiacos all have realistic chances of winning the league. Olympiacos are the favorites; they are the defending champs, with the best team chemistry. Perhaps not making too many signings will help them maintain unity and familiarity, underrated components of successful teams. However, they don't have very much talent compared to previous years. Panathinaikos have the best roster, on paper. Since there are so many new signings, team chemistry may be an issue. We have started the season very well, however, and I really like our coach. AEK also have some very good players, with good depth in most positions. If the CDMs (Simoes and Johannson) are out through injury/suspension, however, they don't have adequate replacements. Being knocked out of European competition may help their title chances, since they will be less fatigued and suffer from less injuries. PAOK have the most depth; they can field 2 decent squads. They lack a player who can score/create out of nothing, however (like Robery Mak, Vierinha etc...). Overall, the league should be tightly contested this year. It will go down to the wire.

Oikonomou had a terrible match yesterday, and his team lost 5-1 to torino. He was primarily responsible for torino's first 2 goals.

I suspect that we will play with a 3-5-2 formation. This is because so many strikers, wingers/wing backs, and center backs were called up. Most of the callups make sense.As another poster already pointed out, at least there's no aravidis, papazoglou, vyntra, and lazaros. I would replace Tziolis for tachtsidis, and vellios for ninis. I feel sorry for ninis. To have had such a strong start to the season, he must have worked very hard in the off-season. Meanwhile, most of the other players that were called up were probably drinking frappedes and ouzo. I think that ninis would have torn Gibraltar apart with a couple assists..now we have to hope that we escape embarrassment with average players like maniatis, petsos, and Tziolis (I still can't believe he has "earned " so many caps ) running the midfield.

You guys are right, karelis is more effective as a cf behind mitroglou. 4-2-2-1-1 formation with the same players. Lcam fortounis and rcam mandalos. I'd keep tachtsidis over the technically limited kpaps in defensive midfield. Why is it a good idea to play with a 4-3-3 formation against the Dutch?

Mitroglou Karelis Fortounis mandalos Tachtsidis samaris Holebas sokratis manolas torosidis Karnezis 4-2-3-1 formation. We lack wingers, so I'd play mandalos and karelis out of position there. Off the bench, I'd consider bringing in bakasetas,gianniotas, fetfa, and mystakidis. I'm not a huge fan of tachtsidis, but he can help generate chances with his passing and vision. He needs to be more consistent, be more active defensively, and get more playing time with his club. He is still better than maniatis, Tziolis, and petsos, though. Aside from that, my other selections are straight forward. We have a good starting lineup, but not much depth. Bench: kapino, glykos, Tzavellas, stafylidis, siovas, charisis, maniatis, petsos, kone,kyriakos,ninis,Klaus, diamantakos, vellios plus 4 wingers I mentioned.

Like most of you guys, I'm very disappointed with the results today. The Greek league really needed those coefficient points. Let's be real, the ref screwed paok over. If that penalty wasn't given, I think paok would have advanced to the playoff round. One criticism I have of soccer is that the refs have too much influence over the results. This is mostly because soccer only has 2-3 goals per match. One bullshit penalty, or one goal wrongfully called offside changes everything. It's very difficult to overcome that in a match between closely contested teams. Not only that, but when the refs are against you, it normally has a negative effect on the player's/team's psyche. So you might not play as well as you usually play. (Of course, some players/teams play better when the refs are against them, but those are the exceptions.) Basketball, on the other hand, has like 200+ points per match. Even if the refs grant a couple bullshit fouls or turnovers, the better team has a good chance of overcoming that. I could say something similar for baseball, which has 10+ runs per match...a couple strikes that should have been called balls can easily be overcome.

Tachtsidis got an assist as Genoa beat inter 1-0. He cleverly headed the ball across the 6 yard box for his teammate to tap it in.

Aside from siovas being subbed off for Tzavellas, I didn't like the substitutions. Fine, siovas was carrying a knock/injury. But why sub off fortounis, torosidis, and karelis? Those three were literally our best players. Stafylidis played pretty well in the first half, but he was visibly tired in the 2nd. Tziolis got worse as the game went on. These 2 players should have been subbed off instead. Also, papazoglou looked out of his element. ..he doesn't belong in the squad. He only has like 6-7 goals in the Belgian league. Athanasiadis and bakasetas are both better.

I hate to say I told you so, but...

I think it should be known that we don't have too much depth at the CB position. I don't mean to sound negative, but it's true. Sokratis, manolas, and k paps are clearly the top 3 But kpaps is error and injury prone. And he'll probably be injury prone for his entire career. 4th best is probably economou..he plays for bologna and he has been rotting the bench the last couple months. I watch a lot of serie A highlights, and he is partially or fully at fault for many of the goals they have conceded. He's young and pretty good, but let's not overhype the kid. After that? Maybe Tzavellas? Siovas? Chatziisaias (on paok)? Definitely not moras, he's terrible.

Lazaros has been playing lately and scored a goalara a couple weeks ago. He probably should have been called up. I would rather have maniatis called up instead of Tziolis. He played well a couple weeks ago against genk, so he should be match fit. He could be useful off the bench, since he has chemistry with samaris and fortounis. Maniatis would also stabilize things defensively.

Does anyone know why sokratis was subbed out in the 54' against totenham today? I hope he's not injured, apparently k paps is injured again too.

I'm very disappointed with the callups, I don't know where to begin. Why do we need 6 cbs and 5 strikers? Why do we only have 1 rb and 2 goalies? And where are the wingers? Siovas, moras, and Tziolis aren't good enough. The goalie lambrou should have been called up. An additional right back not named vyntra as well...perhaps kitsiou or bakakis? Lazaros and/or Kaltsas to have some wingers. Could someone tell me the type of player that bakasetas is? I mean, his playing style..

My gut feeling tells me that samaras will get back to a high level again. I just sense it in his character, I believe he can pull it off.

All in all, lazaros has had a poor nt career thus far. Only 1 goal in like 26 appearances. Like you guys said, he can dribble past players and create chances...but he has no final product. He does the difficult work, and then he fails to find his teammates. Or he screws up the shot...or he makes the wrong decision and we lose the ball. Still, if he gets playing time, he probably deserves a nt call up. This is by default, since we don't have too many competent wingers.

Samaris is playing well today against sporting Lisbon. Benicia is winning 1-0 so far

Greece up two spots and are currently ranked 39th. Expect Greece to drop heavily after euro 2016. The points they gained from world Cup 2014 will be devalued. Also, the points they got from euro 2012 will be completely gone (since the rankings only assess the last 4 years of games)

fair enough red sheriff. most of your points are valid. i think uefa rankings are somewhat credible; they definitely give you an idea of which leagues are strong/weak...ie spain england and germany are deservedly ranked the highest. the uefa rankings are also flawed...since they only assess the teams that actually qualify for european competition, which is misleading...i.e the portuguese league is ranked very high (like #5 in europe i think) since porto benfica and sporting usually perform well...however, the bottom-mid table teams in portugal are almost as poor as the midtable greek teams. therefore, from top to bottom, the portuguese league should not be ranked #5 in europe...the french and russian leagues, for example, are probably stronger. anyhow, im still not convinced with kapino. he just doesn't get enough playing time and seems shaky when he does play...ill admit he does have a lot of potential, so he should probably replace vellidis in the NT

am i the only one that thinks we should call up players from the belgian and dutch leagues more often? im talking about players like lambrou, galitsios, marinos etc...now karelis and ninis. if such players are getting playing time and are in good form, i don't see why not. those leagues are better than the greek league anyway. better training facilities, better uefa ranking etc... marinos and galitsios should probably not be considered for selection as of right now...but in the past couple seasons, when they were playing week in, week out, they should have AT LEAST been called up for a friendly match. But they were ignored, among other greeks playing regularly in the dutch and belgian leagues. or are players like tasoulis, karabelas, kolovos, and vellidis better? (they probably have better agents and corruption is involved- but that's a topic for another day :P) lastly, i would like lamprou to get a call up. we don't have a number 2 keeper set in place. Kapino rarely gets playing time. when he does play for club/country in the last couple seasons, he disappoints. He's not good enough to be greece's #2 keeper as of right now. vellidis has let in many soft goals for pas giannina this season and last. he's also had a shaky start since he joined paok. IF Karnezis gets injured, we may be in trouble. anyhow, id go with: karnezis,lambrou, vellidis. any other GK suggestions??

i think kone would be a great sub if we need a goal. maybe a starter if he's in form. he makes devastating runs into the box and scores quite often from that (i.e like that goal he scored against hungary). one of the reasons that greece does not score too many goals is because the midfielders don't make such runs and join the attack. i'd play him cam or cf (behind the striker) also, since we lack wingers, perhaps we should consider putting fortounis there? even kaltsas might deserve a call up soon.

Terrible game played by pao, we deserved to lose. Very toothless offense and panthrakikos were dangerous on the counter attack. Petric and abeid should have been subbed in much earlier, the coach screwed up here. Koutroubis did not deserve a red card. The second yellow in particular was laughable. The refs in this league are a joke. Still, we probably would have lost the match.

benfica beat braga 2-0 away yesterday. i saw the highlights- despite not scoring, mitro played well...he was drawing fouls, had chances, and showed lots of strength and skill to set up benfica's opening goal (although he was not credited with an assist for some reason)...he did a nice backheel pass to set up the first goal

according to goal.com, k paps is suspended for the champions league away match vs BATE

^georgelaz, i totally agree that samaris, holebas, and mitroglou were our best players...our worst were kpaps, vyntra, and tach for whatever reason, kpaps has been spared criticism. he's in terrible form for club and country, which is concerning. fine, he was good in the air...but he kept getting SCHOOLED by the players of luxembourg. he got nutmegged and beat so many times. also, the player he was marking ended up scoring that goal. terrible defending, i hope he doesn't play against turkey