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Holebas Stops With Greece National Team!


Greekaroos

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Shocking news. Greece has a small pool of talent and can ill afford losing players like Holebas as we try to rebuild. I can't understand not using Holebas in place of injured Tzavellas and Samaris. I can't understand why Scibbe persists with Maniatis and Tziolis and ignores Holebas. Makes no sense. 

I haven't seen the 2 matches with Cyprus and Estonia but while the results were good the display wasn't from all accounts.

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Holebas was getting regular game time for the national team when not playing regularly at club level & now that he has played in every minute of every EPL match for Watford this season he is 3rd choice left back behind Tzavellas & Stafylidis. More importantly Greece has too many conservative footballers & not enough flare & this will hurt Greece against the tough opponents like Bosnia-Herzegovina & Belgium.

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Otto kicked off Georgatos and Zikos. I guess Skibbe feels the same way about Holebas and his ego. But boy, the games against Cyprus and Bosnia really called for someone with his pace and willingness to attack defenders. I bagged him in 2012 but he really won me over, even if he's kind of a s%$#! defender.

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That's why Skibbes judgment continues to be questioned, don't kid yourselves and think the results changed because of Skibbe, bottom line is we were never as bad as the results were in the EQ, things were bound to start going our way with whoever was coach. From Raneri and Makaranian, Skibbe is definitely the worst when in regards to subs and staring line up. Skibbe thinks in big games against big team the likes of Tzavelas, Tziolis,maniatis is going to hold the fort? Is he serious? And now because of his personal issues with Holebas he mistreated him and now we are less one talented player which we can't afford to lose as we don't have many. How much better would our team be with Holebas in there and Ninis as bench option for fortounis if he gets injured and Kone as a bench option, now with those guys it gives some options and depth on the bench if certain players aren't clicking that day. As much as I want to be positive like some suggest it's very hard as this team is playing some ugly football against weak teams and it's going to get tiring fast watching teams dominate us all day on the field. say what you want about Bosnia I watched those games after and even they the beat Cyprus 2-0 late, they dominated them the entire game, and in the Estonia match I don't think Estonia had a shot on goal and I believe Bosnia beat them 5-0 so there defense held up as some suggest it's s%$#!, bottom line Bosnia loks way better then us on field to start the WQ. We need to change this fast.

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Nikod, when I saw he was stopping from the national team Georgatos, Zikos & Eleftheropoulos immediately came to mind after the 5-1 loss to Finland. If it was due to bad attitude towards the national team ok but it just seemed like a preference. Holebas is one my favorite players in the national team but if he quits so easy without trying to fight his way back into the start lineup, whether as a left winger/midfielder or left back it must not mean that much anymore & should stick to club football.

 

Edited by Greekaroos
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It's not like Greece have a Ronaldo, Messi or Suarez. These players are superstars for their national team. We haven't got that 'one player' who is that superstar, we got a team of equals and one is not that much better than the other. I look at Sokratis because he has got all the tools and plays for a big team. Then Manolas then it's Samaris and Mitroglou. The rest are talented players who have potential.

Edited by Dean97
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9 minutes ago, Reaper said:

He did the right thing. He will be no good to us in a bad mood watching Tzavellas and staf give the ball away 24/7. He was right to remove himself from the situation. His problem is that he is too passionate.

If he is too passionate he would stay and try to work things out with Skibbe and fight for the team. 

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6 hours ago, Reaper said:

Xolebas will be missed but primarily because he is a better defender than Staf (who cost us Euro qualification) and Tzavellas - who is a beta type of player. Xolebas also has more attack than them both. 

Seriously, you should let this obsession go.  You keep repeating this "Stafylidis cost us Euro qualification" line ad nauseum.  Even if it is the case that he played utterly terribly, what about the other 10 players on the pitch, what about the other players on the bench, what about the EPO, what about the coach ... or coaches, what about the tactics, what about Greece losing to fishermen and out of all this, all this, you point through the big piling mass of errors and shame and somehow single out one player, one lowly player at that, not even a player who is in the starting 11, a player who only gets a run when others are injured, not a key player, a player not expected to be a leader, and you point your finger at Stafylidis and say, "YOU cost us qualification".  Yep, everything else about the campaign was perfect, but that Stafylidis, he cost us qualification.

Jesus help me.

Edited by Bananas
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1 hour ago, Pana97 said:

I'm probably the only one that doesn't care about his retirement. He never gave a s%$#! and it was quite clear. Tzavellas and Staf are not bad. Holebas was good for forward play, but his defense was always bad. 

Defensively I would say Tzavellas is not quite as good as Holebas.  But that is counter balanced by the fact that Holebas gets forward a lot more, because well, he just has the instinct, which can leave us exposed at the back.  Tzavellas is more conservative in that regard.

In attack, Holebas is 3 times the player of Tzavellas.  Much more complete and just had that drive to make something happen out of nothing.

Stafylidis is still a work in progress but he is showing good signs.  If he keeps improving I can see him becoming our permanent left back in a couple of years.

Either way you slice it, Greece is the poorer for his having retired.

Edited by Bananas
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12 hours ago, Reaper said:

It is the case imo, maybe you didn't watch the WC quals or just want to forget them? The most goals we gave up were through Staf being beaten on the left side. He still often gets beaten on that side. I know when we get passionate it can be difficult to separate out criticism of a player - to satanic hate. So for those those I will clarify. 

Is Staf evil? Nope.

A good man? Probably yes.

Does anyone wish him bad? Maybe some lunatic somewhere! :confused: But I doubt it.

As a footballer - how is he as a RB? IMO 5/10.

Did he damage us in the Euro quals more than any other player? IMO undoubtedly - and I really disliked Tziolis as a player in those quals. Also Mitroglou's attitude stunk. However having a free route down our left-hand side was critical.

Was it his fault? Nope - it was the manager/s - he did not demand playing time the way K. Paps does.

Will we forget he cost us Euro qual? The minute his passes start meeting their target - 100%. The minute he positions himself properly and doesn't get out run.. yes. However his limitations - like with every player - are not out of spite - but due to natural weakness.

Does he have a future? 100%. The Greek media adores him unlike Xolebas for example. He has a long future for the NT.

Will those continue to comment when he has a bad game for the NT? Yip.

How can I stop people commenting when he has a bad game? Maybe learn to live with it.. unless he plays well - he doesn't need crusaders - he already has the Greek media in his pocket.

Where can I crusade if not in defence of Staf? Well Xolebas for example was never fully accepted by the Greek media due to his ancestry. Try and change that attitude. As the world becomes more global we will have far more players coming in the NT - far less talented than Xolebas - with far less Greek ancestry (look at Zeca) - and the Greek media will happily make them targets over someone like Tziolis.

Cool!  And here I was thinking that you just had a visceral hatred for the kid.  My bad.

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On 13/10/2016 at 10:24 AM, ELLAS75 said:

There is definitely animosity between him & Skibbe but I can see him making a return in 2017. We sure could use him as he is an asset for the team.

I hope your right but if Greece qualify for Russia 2018 the players replacing Holebas would of done the job & if they don't perform well & Greece don't qualify, Holebas will be 36 at Euro 2020.

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