We don’t really deserve to be this low. Our players are not that bad. The problem is we are not creative and dont support each other enough. We could be worse in my opinion if we were without Sokratis, Manolas and Fortounis.
Mantalos, Pelkas, Kourbelis, Bouchalakis, Koutris and some others are either not consistent or not giving enough. Siopis and Masouras did well in my opinion but it is not enough. Siopis energy helps us and Masouras determination helps us. But still that isn’t going to help if you don’t have proper structure and game plan and that’s where the coach comes in.
Samaris in my opinion should not get anymore chances. I’ve had enough of him. We are relying on him to do more than what he knows. We can’t expect him to dribble pass players and shoot from distance or give the ball on the plate for our striker. He isn’t that good to be doing that. He hasn’t got the energy either. In my opinion Bouchalakis would be better for this. Better on the ball and can support the attack better. He isn’t the answer you our problems but a slight improvement. Give him a run for the next few games. Zeca can stay. We’ve seen Samaris for 4 years now and we haven’t gone anywhere in fact we are worse.
Our defence is not what it used to be. Sokratis is still needed. But he has to do better as well. Manolas aswell. I think our players lack the toughness to win and get the job done. We had alpha males like Karagounis, Salpingidis, Katsouranis, Torosidis, Dellas, Kapsis, Charisteas and so on who got good experience abroad but also relied on their toughness to get the job done.
Players today have talent in my opinion. They don’t have the mental toughness to get over the line. They don’t take the game by the balls they do what they can to get by instead of going the extra mile. The way the national team is constructed is a joke. The EPO are a joke. The facilities are not good enough. They never were. We were lucky to have coaches like Rehaggel and Santos. They knew our limitations and what needed to be done to win. These days the game has been taken to a new level and is tactically advanced. We need more than an organised defence and gritty play. We need creativity and speed. We need players who can hold the ball and play balls through the gaps.
We haven’t adapted. We need a coach to slowly build us to play great attacking football. Start by organising the back then organise the midfield and so on. A good coach should organise the team better and know who to play in attack. The players in the middle are the one that will get organised moving forward.
I don’t know what the actual answer is for this team but if we can implentment more toughness and bravery to our players than we will get somewhere.
Also to add we have the talent to beat teams like Armenia, Estonia etc. We can even hold our own against teams level with us in talent like Bosnia for example. We can also give a good fight to teams better than us such as Belgium.