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Merry Christmas and Happy Name Day to all who are celebrating. Xronia Polla!

Merry Christmas to all!!

That’s true especially about Pelkas. He is not the issue. We have plenty of defensive midfielders. Creative midfielders we don’t have enough of. I think Taxi was more of a deep lying playmaker. Pelkas can be box to box. He is also more creative in the middle. We also have lacked a midfield general since Karagounis or Zagorakis. We need someone with passion and energy that can be reliable defensively and score goal here and there. We won’t do much with defensive midfielders such as Zeca and Kourbelis. Yes they help in ball winning and running everywhere but won’t do much for us in terms of vision. We need that CM that is willing to do everything and capable of doing everything. That’s why all teams should have balance in a team. Pelkas and Zeca would be an ideal partnership. Balance. You can’t have to many midfield maestros and you can’t have to many midfield engines. I would like to see Pelkas and Kourbelis behind Fortounis. It would be better in a 4-3-3 with. Kourbelis holding and doing the dirty work with Pelkas and Fortounis higher up and creating for our forwards. A modern day midfielder needs to be like a pit bull, fast and they should know how to read the game. A mix of an engine and a maestro is ideal. Pelkas isn’t afraid to get into challenges and can carry the ball and has a bit of a mongrel about him. We haven’t got a deep lying playmaker CM, were better off playing a DM who can win the ball and a good tackler (Kourbelis) next to a creator and box to box (Pelkas). Fetfatzidis is the type that can create something out of nowhere. He would suit CAM but would still be effective outwide. He has the intelligence on the ball and has great ball control. Every time he has worn the Greece jersey in the past he hasn’t dissapointed. Consistency is key but there is no doubt he should be part of our national teams plans.

Some can play in the center and on the wings, and some don't. Mantalos can't. Not in AEK, and not for the Ethniki. Pelkas however is not the issue in our national team at all. Him on the left or right side is not ideal, but it is not the main issue Greece has. It's the lack of good DMs or CMs in general. And Pelkas could be a good option right next to someone like Zeca (or someone better, if we had one). Fetfatzidis has never done anything for us. EVER! He should try and play more consistent from now on. He is one of the guys who can have a great match (like against Milan) and then disappear for the next 10 games. There is a reason he only got to be a starter in Saudi Arabia, and nowhere else.

Yes that’s true... What I also meant was that Pelkas and Mantalos should atleast do the job on the wing and they don’t. I think they are better than what they are showing. I truly believe that but they are not proving it. Whether they are really not good enough or they have regressed as players. That is the problem. We need to start playing a system where we would get the most out of our players. We had Samaris and Taxi as our midfielders and are now are not playing and not good enough for their teams. We now play Kourbelis and Zeca where one is the captain for a suprisingly impressive team and other is killing it and also captain for his team abroad. But yet they are CDMs that don’t offer much in attack and are useful for running and shielding the defence. We need a runner with the ball that creates and is a jack of all trades. Like a Pogba, Modric, Iniesta, Vidal and so on. We haven’t really got a true number 8 apart from Androutsos. In order for us to achieve anything we have to attack. I know some don’t think we should do that but if you play the right players in the right positions and with the correct approach we can score goals. Maybe play 3-5-2 formation or a 4-4-2 diamond. I’m over having 1 striker we need 2 in the box at all times from now on. Koulouris and Donis should be the players going forward. Mitroglou is too slow and is inconsistent. If we want to play with actual wingers and we do have them, then those players need to make the correct runs and deliver accurate crosses. If you also think about it too, other younger players aren’t setting the GSL on fire aswell. Chatzigiovannis, Bouzoukis, Galanopoulos and even Pelkas are not even showing standout performances against teams like Aris, PAOK, Olympiakos and so on. They only seem outstanding against the “smaller teams” We don’t even have good attacking options from abroad apart from Donis. I believe Donis, Retsos, Sokratis, Siovas, K.Papadopoulos, Manolas, Vlachodimos and maybe 1 or 2 from the GSL are truly our best players currently. I would probably put Fortounis and Koutris in that list too.

Thats what I meant, thank you! And let me add that Mantalos, Pelkas and the other "useful" players do not play in their normal position while playing for the Ethniki because theyre not good enough. They wouldnt play on the wing if they could squeeze out Fortounis. Their abilities are in fact limited. They can shine in the Super League against Lamia but cannot make a difference against an Estonia national team. Such players shouldnt be called up at all, but as Laputan remarked we had not too much successful players. Some of our midfielders are necessarily filler material nowadays for we havent eight decent (by NT standards) Greek midfielders.