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Ok here comes the long post analysis from Skank: I will not rate our defence. We can't rate it because it's simple. We played a 2-2-2-3-1 system with Torosidis and Tzavellas higher than Samaris and Maniatis most of the time. I won't even rate the mistake passes of Sokratis and Samaris. The team was anxious as fukc. Anyone not understanding it needs to check the first minutes again. Skibbe wants the fast pass, something that Greece never had, but he is good to demand it. This is 2016 boys, we can't be playing the 2004 version of football, it's outdated. So, why did so many mistaken passes happen from defensive players? Because they were trying to make a super fast transition from defence to offence to πιάσουν the Gibraltar guys sleeping. But even with 2 defenders, our defence could handle it most of the time, with only 1 good attempt on target (the goal scoring is a personal misake of Tzavellas I don't rate it as a defensive error i ll mention it later). Would these players (Sokratis,Samaris) be more causious when having clearly defensive duties and be aware that their opponent is a PROFESSIONAL FOOTBALLER? I think yes, but I could just be optimistic. We did 21 total attempts with 9 on target. Can we say we were kinda unlucky as well, with some good saves from a keeper who "shouldn't have done that on his level". I think yes, but I could just be optimistic. Mantalos, Fortounis, Mitroglou seem to be working as a triplet. I like Gianniotas as well, and I think he has what it takes to be a starter instead of Bakasetas. Skibbe saw bakasetas against Australia as we,, he did nothing. Gianniotas ran his asss up. Gianniotas played 20 minutes while Bakasetas played 90. Gianniotas highlights are far more than Bakasetas, I think Skibbe, although not accepting it publicly, saw the Gibraltar match as another opportunity to test some stuff like Bakasetas Winger/10 , Mandalos Winger/10 and Tzavellas, but I could just be optimistic. Lets hope he realised this Gianniotas kid needs to start and this Bakasetas boy needs to show big character in derbyes this year in order to be called again. The whole "try-out" thing is obvious because one of our best players since he started joining the NT , Holebas, didn't play either. Which could mean Skibbe was still testing. Karelis, our second in form striker and Diamantakos , a guy who I can't judge because he is playing in the 2nd German League , have both scored this year. And instead we see Vellios instead. I think this is another Skibbe's test. But really , couldn't score vs Aus, couldn't score vs Neds, couldn't score vs Gibraltar. Fck this man Vellios and Bakasetas are on the same group. They both seemed extremely selfish at some point but Especially Bakasetas seemed off game. Vellios wasn't he greedy could have ended up in 1-2 more goals. Either they don't get picked/called/played again unless EVERYONE ELSE is injured and we see some football, or I could just be optimistic. Tzavellas. This ugy needs a whole paragraph for himself. He is getting older, he is getting used to being a Centerback. He is getting tired. His plays were mostly bad. Especially after 70 when he was climbing up front all the time, I saw like 5 or 6 crosses for Gianniotas end up in a Gibraltar Centerback. What was he trying to do? Injure them from headers so we play versus 10? Bad overall, The goal was a personal mistake of his, just like Cholevas personal handball cost us our first match with Romania 2-3 years ago. However, the guy had an excellent match versus Netherlands. That can't and won't go away from Skibbe's mind. It could be a bad game. It could be anxiety. It could be that chasing down the hollish sonic heroes tired him too much. I don't know. I don't think we have anyone else anyways and since he can play both CB and LB he probably will be picked. I believe he can have better games, or I could just be optimistic (too optimistic for this guy to be honest). Tziolis, the fact that he was picked and played to get the buyers interest was too obvious. We were winning 1-4 what could go wrong. Maniatis didn't show much more yesterday so why don't sub a mediocre guy for another mediocre. Maniatis on the other hand seems totally exhausted, probably anxious about not finding a team as well. It's gotten into him as well. I don't know maybe he got called for the same reason. Tziolis - I don't think he ll be blown the f*ck away from the NT. Simply because he has a vusma. I just hope he doesn't cost us much. To be honest he is not bad defensively. He is a strongand a big guy which helps in set pieces. But the guy doesn't play ball. Can't create can't play fast can't use vision. The team has done well with off form players like Katsouranis, Lazaros, Kone quite a few times and I think a couple of subs in hte last minutes being Maniatis and Tziolis might not hurt, but will also not help either. Either that , or im just too optimistic. So what I believe: The rest of the group's teams are better than Gibraltar, might give us the chance to play defensively, a part at which we are good at. Players like Gianniotas, Fortounis , Mandalos will prove golden in counterattacks. Having our mind in defence first, and then in offence, like we had under Fernando Santos, in one of our most productive football eras-resultwise- is what we need. I just hope Skibbe realises this as well. And , I believe Skibbe made a mistake for the LB Position. Both Tzavellas and Stafylidis are not the best defenders. But since he wanted someone to climb up front, someone with fast returns and someone who can help set up a goal, why did he not pick the wingerback stafylidis, but he picked a guy who plays CB instead? As for whoever is talking about Fetfatzidis recall. Look at this pic and tell me who the fatty is near Fuster: http://www.sport24.gr/football/diethnes-podosfairo/antamwsan-meta-apo-xronia-foyster-kai-fetfatzidhs.4183893.html

It's going somewhere at least... At first we didn't think that he would get charged with any but he was charged with 5 1)ένταξη και διεύθυνση σε εγκληματική οργάνωση, 2) ηθική αυτουργία σε απόπειρα εκβίασης με απειλή βλάβης δραστηριότητας που ασκεί ο εξαναγκαζόμενος από υπαίτιο που διαπράττει τέτοιες πράξεις από συνήθεια, κατ’ επάγγελμα και κατ’ εξακολούθηση, 3) ηθική αυτουργία σε έκρηξη από την οποία μπορούσε να προκύψει κίνδυνος για άνθρωπο, 4) ηθική αυτουργία σε κατά συναυτουργία και κατ’ εξακολούθηση δωροδοκία-δωροληψία για αλλοίωση αποτελέσματος αγώνα που περιλαμβάνεται σε στοιχηματικές διοργανώσεις, από την οποία επιτεύχθηκε ο σκοπός που επιδίωκε ο δράστης και 5) απάτη κατά συναυτουργία και κατ’ εξακολούθηση. Then we thought that he was not going to get any punishment but he did. Small fine, report to the police twice a month and was told not to be involved with soccer again :p Then we thought he was never going to be prosecuted for trial but it seems like this will happen Now, I guess, we don't think he will be convicted by the court, he will not get punished and the corrupt club of soft will not suffer any losses I hope the latter follows the preceding 3

Our defense is extremely thin. Lost papazoglou this past weekend for the season in a friendly against ael, our best defensive player. Our other cb Rodriguez just returned to practice today after being out for a month. Kousas will most likely get the nod in defense where any and every paok player will run laps around. Our counter attacks have been solid these past few friendlies. If we get a goal against you guys I think it will be on the counter but it will be difficult as everything offensively goes through amr warda. Shut him down and you shut us down. Extremely excited and anxious for this one.

The front page of every Greek newspaper for the past few days...

If this side can expose you, you can only imagine what will happen against belgium. Sokratis has regressed. This ain't the same guy that was playing at aek. Manolas was never that great to begin with, just recently that porto attacker goes past him untroubled. Our biggest problems though stems from the midfield. Samaris and maniatis are slow as F*** and offer nothing from an attacking perspective. Replace them with two decent mobile midfielders and both sokratis and manolas will fair much better.

Vellios has the makings of a very good striker. It is so disappointing that he struggles in the NT.

It is if you consider that the last time you faced a pot 5-6 team (idk how the pots go) you lost to it twice. A 4-1 against Gibraltar is not an amazing performance, but adding two friendly wins over Australia (who is an average team just like Greece and Bosnia) and Netherlands (a top team on a bad era) then this is amazing performance overall. Skibbe could have also played carefully the Iceland game to win it, instead of just testing-testing-testing and losing after a 2-0 lead. This would totally build confidence. The EPO could have also cared with the Giannou issue, as the draw with a Turkey on its good days would also build confidence, despite the fact that we were getting stomped in the field. All these teams(no gibraltar obviously) are far better than Finland,Ireland, Faroe and even Romania,there I said it. Of course this is not the NT we were used to , being in the top 20 nations and winning every match 1-0 (that's gotten better now to be honest), but it's beginning to be more self concious. I will be quite happy if we get 4 points in our 2 upcomming matches. Cyprus team is not bad, and if they play with 5 in the back like Gibraltar did, we ll get anxious if we dont score and we ll see similar results like yesterday's (sloppy plays-bad passes from the last men).

we take the 3 points and move on. Nice that we have won 3 in a row , but still alot of hard work to be done to move forward. Also i have nothing against Velios but with karelis available , i also think he makes more sense. My last point is , is there any reason Ninis or Fetfatzidis cant aleast sit on the bench as these guys have the ability to take the ball and control it and frustrate the opponents a bit.

Great result. Yeah Gibraltar could have scored 3 more. I hear you wieners. We could have and should have scored 5 more. Fact is we scored 4 goals. we usually score 1 against weak teams. we just need to build on this. phil watched the game.

At times they looked good, but also a bit one dimensional in attack. Nearly every attacking play was down to the winger to put the cross in, nothing came from in the middle where Gibraltar looked pretty exposed. We should take the points and focus on the next game, after the last campaign the real objective was not to embarrass ourselves in the first game. On a side note, Vellios is completely out of his depth. I'm not sure what he brings to the team, he's slow, his touch is off, he can't hold up the ball and his link up play is atrocious.

I'm not that fussed. Take the win. Learn from it and then stop dwelling too much. On a night where Belarus drew France 0-0, Bulgaria at home scraped Luxembourg, our old Killers Faroes drawing against Hungary and super coach Santos' Euro Champs lost away 2-0 to Switzerland let's agree we we should have scored 5 more in the second half.

We should of scored 3 more and our D worries the s%$#! out of me... we looked exposed at times and the thought of playing stronger teams scares me... mitroglou had a great day. Beautiful goal and assist on the Fourtounis goal..

should have been holebas instead of tzavellas and gianniotas instead of bakasetas.

The scripts have been released.... This spells massive trouble for all involved I can't see Gavro getting out of this one.... If there is a just world, then they will be relegated to G' ethniki and banned from Euro competition for 5 years Atromito/Levadiako/Veria may follow suit This is HUGE