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He looks way better on the wing than Mantalos or Bakasetas. He would give us something different because he is a natural winger. 

I dont know why Siopis hasnt been given a chance yet. He looks better when passing the ball forward and dosent stop covering ground. Zeca looks like he has declined a bit. Kourbelis not giving enough going forward. Decent defensively but dosent offer an extra spark going forward. Galanopoulos is like Siopis. Id take one of them. They are both similar in style and stature. 

Back then we had Samaras and Salpinigids who were not natural wingers and were mainly strikers. They still did the job on the wing during our more successful period. We have plenty of wingers in the u21s.

- Lamprou

- Chatzigiovanis

- Limnios

- Manthatis

- Also we have Donis and Fetfatzidis. Lazaros can be in the mix. So there is no excuse that we dont have wingers. There is no need to have Pelkas and Mantalos their. There not doing the job. Bakasetas is completely useless unfortunately. 

Upfront and CM is our biggest problem. If we can get someone to breakout in these positions we are set.

Vlachodimos

Torosidis Manolas Sokratis Koutris

Galanopoulos  Bouzoukis

Limnios Fetfatzidis Chatzigiovannis

Donis

We need to move on from Mitroglou. Very inconsistent... Maybe Donis can take over in that spot. While we push for Lazaros or Chatzigiovanis on the right. I want to see 2 different players in the CMs. Galanopoulos is a strong candidate. Hasnt been given a proper chance yet and is young. Samaris, Kourbelis, Zeca, Taxi and Bouchalakis are not the answer moving forward. they cant create enough for us and are technically limited.

SO, Galanopoulos should be tested as a 6. With another up and coming player. Bouzoukis can play that role as an 8. Fetfa at 10. He would of destroyed Estonia's backline with his trickery and vision. His shooting abilities are questionable but would give us something different to our attack. This team needs replacements from midfield to striker. This would mean the team would be going througa rebuiding phase. You want massive changes this is we should start. As fas as the EPO go i dont care. Start playing different players all the time its the only way to find out this team true potential. Instead of keeping the same old and not getting anywhere. Fortounis is talented for sure but for now he should be on the bench. Pelkas too.

At least the younger generation will give you all they have rather than having complacency  like most of our players. 

 

 

Edited by Dean97
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 It doesn't matter who we start as long as there is no leadership no passion then we will continue to drop further and further...We have no game plan no system whatsoever so guys that get called up and start don't fit in. We have a bunch of players that all look like they are playing independently from each other.. No one can sit here and say that Finland or Hungary or Estonia and so one have better players then us because they don't.. We lack speedy wingers and we lack a system that everyone understands and everyone buys into..When we were good pre 2014 everyone on the field had a role and we knew we would defend like hell first and then when we got an opportunity we would attack on the counter. We were also so much better on set pieces and had a few different looks to throw at teams. Even those days we would never blow anyone out and we scrambled to beat teams like Lithuania and company by 1-0 scores but at least we had an identity and a system that everyone bought into.. This current group is confused on whether they wont to play defence or offence and look lost most of the time. I have no clue what style of play our team is known for..  This is going to take a coach that preaches a certain style of play and makes everyone accountable to play the same way.. They also need vocal leaders on and off the field.. Its also pretty difficult to be passionate when you go on the road and see fans supporting their team and then you come back home to play and no one shows up to support the team.. We literally have no home field advantage.. 

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thing about salpi and samaras even though they were more strikers than out and out wingers, these guys had pace so were lethal on counters.

bakasetas and mantalos are not pacey. we need pace up top to counter after we absorb attacks. donis being injured is a huge loss for this. 

lazaros isn't as fast as he used to be but still hell of a lot better of a choice then baka and mantalos. 

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That's right we have no style of play the last 4 years. We used to be built around great defending and when we grabbed a 1-0 lead it would be nearly impossible for the opponent to score an equalizer as the team would stifle the opponent and run down the clock. It wasn't pretty but the results were wins. Even when the team would fall behind or need a goal like in the World Cup we got it from Samaras late in stoppage time to Ivory Coast and vs Costa Rica the team was fighting hard and Sokratis of all the guys puts in the equalizer for his 1st international goal to send the game to extra time. Now its seems like the guys are just out there with no plan and some are not even giving a crap about there performance they just seem interested in getting an appearance.                                                                                 On the home atmosphere it has been lacking of late but there was enthusiasm in the matches vs Belgium and Bosnia I think that will be evident again in the next campaign, hosting the Nations League games at OAKA didn't help with so many empty seats visible they should have kept it at the Karaiskakis stadium.

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1 hour ago, georgelaz said:

yeah still had great moments too. nearly beating belgium 1-0. and the belgium equalizer 1-1 till we caved. also the bosnia 1-1 in 90th. group stages are really just 3 games anyways too.

That's right George that match in Belgium is the most complete performance the NT has had since the 2014 World Cup. Belgium had a couple chances in the first half but the team worked hard defensively and in the 2nd half Mitroglou finished off his chance in clinical fashion. The team was then under pressure when Tachtsidis got the red card in the 65th and Belgium were coming in waves. Lukaku equalized in the 90th to rescue them a point but I was still happy with the overall performance and Greece could have won if not for being down to 10 men and Belgium has not lost a competitive home match since 2011 I believe. If they would have won that game it would have made Belgium sweat for first in the group. 

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Funny thing is we have never smashed minnow teams. We just scrape through. I’m talking about back then. Now we either just scrape through or lose. I don’t think there was a lack of passion or effort. They were all trying in the nations league. 

I hate to think that our players are garbage. I really do. But it could be a reality. I’m not just talking about Bakasetas. Other players like Fortounis aswell. Even Sokratis. Other teams look like they play more fluid. We look like we are lost and panic. Also afraid to make a mistake.

Thats why we need players who have balls. The players have to these qualities in order to represent their country.

1. Talent. You have to be able to make a pass. Hold possession well. Control the ball. Have some skills. Mostly the basics. Some of our players struggle with this. 

2. Passion/Drive/Love. Our players have to want to play for their country and be excited about that. Also have the drive to play your best game and also have ambitions. They have to really and deeply love their country and be passionate about it. Be like I’m doing this for my country and I will got to war with my fellow brothers. They have to love and be proud of their country. 

3. Team spirit. Our players should have each other’s back. They should be working for each other and helping as much as possible. Like a war but in football. Give encouragement to each other which then gives your players the confidence. Start being good friends, throw out the club mentality because when you are playing for your country that’s when it should all count. 

4. Confidence/Courage. These go hand in hand. Just like before when I was talking about having the balls to do things. They have to have the belief and courage in the game. Especially when your playing for your country. Take chances. Believe you are the best and show it. Make that long pass, don’t think twice. Shoot when you are supposed to and so on and so on.

5. Lastly work ethics/Taking action. We need our players moving. Can’t be static and wait for things to happen. Move, run, tackle, sweat, yell and show leadership. We are lacking real commanding leader. This is a problem. But if our players can lead by example as 1 and take responsibility then we should look dominant and dangerous. 

These are the qualities that our players need to have. If they don’t have most then they shouldn’t be called up. They are all really equally important. 

In my opinion we need work in all aspects. It looks like they are trying but it’s not enough. The  confidence and courage is not there at all. Also some player are not that talented. Not all have the same drive and passion aswell. I don’t really care if someone is playing in Israel (Ninis) or if someone is playing in Portugal (Samaris). If your the right person for the job then you should be in. That’s why I put talent at no.1. 

 

 

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20 hours ago, Dean97 said:

Funny thing is we have never smashed minnow teams. We just scrape through. I’m talking about back then. Now we either just scrape through or lose. I don’t think there was a lack of passion or effort. They were all trying in the nations league. 

I hate to think that our players are garbage. I really do. But it could be a reality. I’m not just talking about Bakasetas. Other players like Fortounis aswell. Even Sokratis. Other teams look like they play more fluid. We look like we are lost and panic. Also afraid to make a mistake.

Thats why we need players who have balls. The players have to these qualities in order to represent their country.

1. Talent. You have to be able to make a pass. Hold possession well. Control the ball. Have some skills. Mostly the basics. Some of our players struggle with this. 

2. Passion/Drive/Love. Our players have to want to play for their country and be excited about that. Also have the drive to play your best game and also have ambitions. They have to really and deeply love their country and be passionate about it. Be like I’m doing this for my country and I will got to war with my fellow brothers. They have to love and be proud of their country. 

3. Team spirit. Our players should have each other’s back. They should be working for each other and helping as much as possible. Like a war but in football. Give encouragement to each other which then gives your players the confidence. Start being good friends, throw out the club mentality because when you are playing for your country that’s when it should all count. 

4. Confidence/Courage. These go hand in hand. Just like before when I was talking about having the balls to do things. They have to have the belief and courage in the game. Especially when your playing for your country. Take chances. Believe you are the best and show it. Make that long pass, don’t think twice. Shoot when you are supposed to and so on and so on.

5. Lastly work ethics/Taking action. We need our players moving. Can’t be static and wait for things to happen. Move, run, tackle, sweat, yell and show leadership. We are lacking real commanding leader. This is a problem. But if our players can lead by example as 1 and take responsibility then we should look dominant and dangerous. 

These are the qualities that our players need to have. If they don’t have most then they shouldn’t be called up. They are all really equally important. 

In my opinion we need work in all aspects. It looks like they are trying but it’s not enough. The  confidence and courage is not there at all. Also some player are not that talented. Not all have the same drive and passion aswell. I don’t really care if someone is playing in Israel (Ninis) or if someone is playing in Portugal (Samaris). If your the right person for the job then you should be in. That’s why I put talent at no.1. 

 

 

Good assessment, Greece should be winning comfortably vs Estonia, Faroes, Luxembourg etc. We scrape out 1-0 wins when they should be 3 goal spreads. Going back to the 2014 World Cup qualifying we had the same issue not putting up big wins vs the lightweights and Bosnia did and they beat us out for top spot on goal differential. The larger problem now in the last 4 years is that we are losing or drawing games to these minnows at the very least Greece should be getting wins. This has to change. First thing Ange has to do is call up our best players and put them in there correct positions. Ange made 9 changes to the starting 11 vs Estonia to experiment and thinking the team was going to get the easy win. I am all for some changes but not that many and you cant do that in your 2nd match in charge when you are looking to get wins to build momentum and to move up the rankings. 

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1 hour ago, Ellada2004 said:

Good assessment, Greece should be winning comfortably vs Estonia, Faroes, Luxembourg etc. We scrape out 1-0 wins when they should be 3 goal spreads. Going back to the 2014 World Cup qualifying we had the same issue not putting up big wins vs the lightweights and Bosnia did and they beat us out for top spot on goal differential. The larger problem now in the last 4 years is that we are losing or drawing games to these minnows at the very least Greece should be getting wins. This has to change. First thing Ange has to do is call up our best players and put them in there correct positions. Ange made 9 changes to the starting 11 vs Estonia to experiment and thinking the team was going to get the easy win. I am all for some changes but not that many and you cant do that in your 2nd match in charge when you are looking to get wins to build momentum and to move up the rankings. 

The problem is Ang didn't do his homework in my opinion, If he would have watched what Skibbe did in the world cup qualifier with the line up he fielded that ended up with us drawing Estonia and almost costing us 2nd then he would have known better.. I also think the changes he made were to many at one time and he should have realized the importance of the match.. Even though he got us a positive win in his first match losing to Estonia is so demoralizing to the players psyche and could easily shatter any confidence they had in a new coach and that can carry over.. Going forward we need Donis heathy FOR ONCE as he gets a spot on the wing which will eliminate the duo of Pelkas and Mantalos/Bakasetas.. I'm hoping he stays true to his word and implements a few of the young guys in this line up as I really would like to see what some of them can do like Chatzigiovannis  and Tsimkas.  Ether way this coach and his staff have a lot of work to do in the next few months so lets hope these guys get it right.. Lets just hope we don't get the best teams from the first 3 pots in Decembers draw..

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4 hours ago, J1078 said:

The problem is Ang didn't do his homework in my opinion, If he would have watched what Skibbe did in the world cup qualifier with the line up he fielded that ended up with us drawing Estonia and almost costing us 2nd then he would have known better.. I also think the changes he made were to many at one time and he should have realized the importance of the match.. Even though he got us a positive win in his first match losing to Estonia is so demoralizing to the players psyche and could easily shatter any confidence they had in a new coach and that can carry over.. Going forward we need Donis heathy FOR ONCE as he gets a spot on the wing which will eliminate the duo of Pelkas and Mantalos/Bakasetas.. I'm hoping he stays true to his word and implements a few of the young guys in this line up as I really would like to see what some of them can do like Chatzigiovannis  and Tsimkas.  Ether way this coach and his staff have a lot of work to do in the next few months so lets hope these guys get it right.. Lets just hope we don't get the best teams from the first 3 pots in Decembers draw..

Yes, Ange should have seen that when Skibbe made changes in the game vs Estonia. That draw almost costed Greece the playoff spot if Belgium would have lost at Bosnia. Anyways we are not Belgium and cant make so many changes to the starting 11 and expect to win, its not going to happen.

Lets hope Donis is healthy and stays healthy I think he can really help the NT, he was fantastic vs Belgium with nice dribbling skills 1 v1 and has good vision. We have to hope all our key players stay injury free unlike the last few campaigns. What happened to K Paps? Is he still out? Im so friging nervous about this draw ever since we missed out on capturing top spot in the Nations League, how they managed to screw up that opportunity, I still cant believe it. Gotta get a nice draw cant stand the thought of missing another EURO and having to wait until Qatar 2022.

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@Ellada2004 and @J1078 you both bring up good points. What I am starting realise though is that we weren’t happy with Tziolis and Tzavellas and now they are gone. Which is good. We are now complaining (myself included) that Mantalos and Bakasetas are crap. Whose next after them? I’m not saying anyone is wrong but it looks we keep targeting certain players for our downfall. 

In my opinion they are not wingers and shouldn’t play there. But I know so many other CAMs that can do the job on the wing that are not Greek. It’s better to have natural wingers, ofcourse. 

I definitely agree that we need to have Donis fully fit. I believe he adds something that most of our players aren’t able to do. His pace is a big advantage for us. His grit and determination is one of the best in the team if not the best. 

I was hoping that Tachtsidis would be that CDM that pulls the strings and dictates the play in the middle. But he hasn’t lived up to it. In his best form he has incredible vision and passing. He has always been slow. I just don’t know what has happened to him the last couple of years. Everyone would like to have that Modric or Xavi type player but we haven’t got that. We are better off having CDM that hangs back (Kourbelis) with a runner next to him like Pelkas or someone with a bit of creativity going forward. Your not going to get anywhere with playing 2 holding players that don’t know how to dictate play. 

We really haven’t got that one superstar that can do things for us in attack. Our attack is very bad and I mean that. I really believe without Manolas and Sokratis we would really have it tough. These 2 are really our saving grace. Mitroglou could be another but is useless at times. This team needs to connect and bond as a team and care about each other and have the same determination. 

I am actually now hoping we get the good teams in the Euro qualification because against better teams we show up. Against weaker teams we don’t. Look at the Belgium games for example. 

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6 hours ago, AchillesHeel said:

Playing players out of position in the case of the NT creates holes and weaknesses that are unnecessary. We play with 2 DMs in a 3 man midfield so why put Bouxalakis in when we can put in Mantalos, Pelkas or Fortounis playing further back between the DMs to play that creative role....its not like any of them are lighting it up playing further up the pitch and none of the three are good enough to warrant a guaranteed place in the starting 11.I've said  before that Mantalos seems to not have recovered the speed that he had before his latest injury (hoping its not the case but....).

Playing with wingers only works if they have the speed and skill necessary to beat opponents otherwise we get what we've seen with Pelkas/Mantalos/Bakasetas, etc. Donis still has plenty to prove before we start looking at him as the messiah and Fetfa seems to be content with being Fetfa....he seems to do stuff but there's little if any substance to his game even in the GSL. Mitroglou is also a totally one dimensional player who refuses to contribute any effort in pressing and making runs off the ball. 

All in all, Anastasiades has his work cut out if he's going to do anything with this bunch...good luck to him.

Yeah I don’t know why we don’t play someone with creativity further back. It’s like our coaches don’t have faith in putting them there thinking that we would get beaten easily in the midfield. Why not give it a chance? Pelkas or Fortounis can play deeper and the other can play behind the striker. Fetfa gets too much criticism in my opinion. We need to give him a chance also. I have no doubt Donis would be a massive difference when he plays. He will only get better and better.

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I really like Fetfa but I watched OLY game today and he was average when he came in the 73rd minute, Fortounis gave him a nice through ball into the box and he totally muffed his shot. He has to be better and be in the starting 11 for OLY to start getting called up to the NT. 

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Ange A should therefore have these four wingmen; LW: Donis, Masouras; RW: Lamprou, Chatzigiovannis. Back the youth as the "others" are no better.

No, Antonis, Oikonomidis, Petratos and Aspropotamidis are not available for the Pirates squad.

Edited by ausgreek
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Yeah I’m for Masouras. See something special with him. I believe Manthatis has more potential due to his age but he is injured at the moment. Regardless of we want we will probably not get what we want as there are internal politics in the nt. The media have favourites also. Don’t tell me how the media influences the team, I don’t know. Players like Fetfa and Holebas are not liked by the media. They are our most creative players in my opinion are left out. The country of Greece is truly sabotaging this team.

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8 hours ago, ausgreek said:

Ange A should therefore have these four wingmen; LW: Donis, Masouras; RW: Lamprou, Chatzigiovannis. Back the youth as the "others" are no better.

No, Antonis, Oikonomidis, Petratos and Aspropotamidis are not available for the Pirates squad.

We (that is Skibbe) never considered Petratos at all. He was the sole Greek player who participated at the World Cup (even if he didnt play a single minute). I bet he would have been good enough for the Ethniki.

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I hope Holebas can patch things up with the new coach and maybe work his way back into the NT for the upcoming Euro qualifiers. At 34 he has a couple of good years left and I think he would help us. We could have used him in the last World Cup qualifiers especially in the playoff vs Croatia.  

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4 years ago everyone here wanted Holebas off the team when all the goals were conceded from his side. Now everyone wants him back. Lol. If he wants to come back, I’d say try it out. But if I’m the coach I won’t go begging for him to come back. He’s nothing special. 

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Holebas has improved drastically over the years. He looks like he gets better with age. But i do agree that we should have a younger team going forward. Build towards the future from now. 

5 hours ago, AchillesHeel said:

Masouras could have been called up last year based on his league play and lack of options up front. The whole media thing is bs....reporters don't influence selections, agents and owners do. I've never read anything negative about Fetfa or Xolebas in the papers or online.....Fetfa was playing in Saudi Arabia and since his return to the GSL has been less than ordinary, Xolebas quit on his own accord....has he reached out to let Anastasiades know that he wants to return? I don't think so....he's a good player playing at a high level but unless he himself comes out of international retirement no one is going to go begging for him to do so. Hopefully Manos gets some playing time at oly and takes advantage of the lack of form of the other oly strikers.

The country of Greece has bigger problems to deal with....football doesn't really matter when your country is falling apart so its only natural that people have lost interest in a bunch of underachievers.

Yeah im not to sure about the media thing. Let’s hope that with Anastasiadis there a big changes. I hope agents and owners don’t play apart with anything and let the coach do what’s best. Apparently I just read that AEK owner ostracised Simoes, Lampropoulos and Bakasetas. I guess they won’t be playing in AEK jersey for the rest of the year and could leave in January if they don’t sign contracts. You’d think with this information it would give us some optimism or excitement thinking that Bakasetas won’t play in the nt. Probably still won’t happen. I could think of a good replacement for him and that’s Bouzoukis. 

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Was at Meet thu Greek's in Brighton le Sands (in Sydney for the Canadians), the other night with Elena,. Moments before I made my move towards her thigh, I asked her which Ange was better suited to the Pirated team, as she has a keen interest in Football, I said Ange A or Ange P ? She said Ange C!! I thought who is Ange C then? She said it was Angelos Charisteas. She went a step further with, time to consider Donis or Koulouris as striker ahead of Mykonos too. I think I just scatched the surface! here!

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