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I think Holebas would have helped and is playing very well from what I have seen of him this season. Anyways the way that whole situation went down is a shame. Holebas in the World Cup match vs Costa Rica was one of our best players defending and his runs forward delivered a beautiful cross to Salpi which Navas made a great save to keep the game level. With respects to Fortounis playing in a deeper role that would greatly benefit us as he has the vision to pick out a pass. Zeca is a our destroyer CDM running allover the pitch and making great challenges in the mid similar to a Gattuso.

Holebas would have helped big time trying to get to the Euros so it’s a shame but on the other hand the fact the coaching staff even reached out to him is a positive sign and maybe they will make smart choices when choosing the starting 11 and call ups.. Something Skibbe couldn’t get right..

Rumours of an offer coming for Hatzeridi from Ukraine. I find it hard to believe any club would be interested in him.

Expensive? Maybe, maybe not, but I like the idea of bringing younger players of 24/25 with experience at World Cups instead of 30+ like we used to. The latter have no transfer value after 3 years. How many players left us without even a fee? Too much players and thus more expensive. Bring those kind of guys. They bring us to another level and then sell them to a club that pays 10 mil. Win-win-situation.

In Dutch maths I count 3.5 Greeks. Or is one of Paschalakis, Kitsiou and Limnios suddenly from another country? In the lineup Blackhawk there are 3.5 too. But on a serious level. Teams with more than a few homegrown players are rare these days. Players with two passports, EU-rules that allow a citizen to work (read: play football) in all the other EU-members without permits or whatsoever. General globalisation. Arsenal has played games against Spanish opponents with more Spaniards then the Spanish team. If you can not afford foreigners you stick to players from your country. On another global forum there is a guy “bragging” every week that Pana again played with x Greek players. We know that this has nothing to do with patriotism or willing to lift the level of Greek players or a new adapted vision. They to this because the are ordered to and are on short rations.

Making the room up now.

2.5 greeks. god, i hate seeing that. : (

Yeah man. Free transfers were the norm for a long long time. And any wages over 100K were for the few best players in the team. And next time I'm in Melbourne you're paying, because your bank balance is healthier than mine.

This article has been up for a while in Greece. I think we all knew this about Holebas. I do believe he would’ve added something special for us. But our main problem is very much to do with CDM/CM, ST and RB. Torosidis is ageing and Bakakis can be very inconsistent as seen in the past. Then in the middle we have Zeca and Kourbelis who I don’t mind as they are our starters. But they are known mostly at doing the dirty work. They can run and run. They tackle well and mark dangerous opponents. But what about going forward? They have proven to be very average at best in building up play. That’s why I have always been saying here we lack and that we need a proper CM. I’ve been advocating for Fortounis to play a deeper free role. Where he would play sort of a Xavi like role. Pick up the ball, look up and play. Someone who can control the midfield and someone who can effectively link midfield to attack accurately and wisely. Pelkas or Mantalos can be that SS or CAM further forward. We can have 1 destroyer (CDM) who can win most of the ball back and cut out the opposing teams attacking play. Zeca fits that role just like Maniatis did back then. We need a go to guy who can take control of the tempo our team plays and I can’t think of anyone better than Fortounis. Androutsos is also that type of player but has fallen out of favour with Martins. Whether we play a 4-3-3 or 4-4-2 we need someone deeper to create a play going forward. If you see in the past both Kourbelis and Zeca want to play forward but don’t have the forwards to make the correct option. Then make a wrong pass or inaccurate pass. This is what happens when you play players out of position and especially roles that don’t suit them. Our attack is anything that should spoken about on a later date. Greece’s players in all honesty are average in terms of world football. Our ranking does not help that statement. But the majority of this team plays in the GSL or unknown teams in Belgium or Holland. We need to use our players properly and understand where they are most effective.

Great result for Stefanos. He can challenge Roger now. Difficult but not impossible. He has beaten a lot of top 10 players last year. Even 4 of them in just one week in Toronto. And in the Hopman Cup he just lost with two tie-breaks against Federer and beated him with Sakkari in the mixed doubles. Sakkari’s opponent is strong. I incidentally saw her last week playing the final in Hobart. No need to be ashamed of this result. On the contrary: this must give confidence.

Wow, it looks like Josip heard the best joke ever just before taking that photo.

A great vid indeed. What surprises me is that the goal of the Greek philosophers is clear off side. One would think that the guys from Monty Python, coming from the birthplace of football, would have made another chapter in arguing about that.

Cracks me every time I watch this video: