Leaderboard

Boys let’s not forget all of the coaches we have had since our last World Cup appearance and with Manolas, Socratis and Mitro we lost to the minnows of the world on more then one occasion and didn’t qualify for a single tournament. Now that we have a coach that finally is playing some attractive football we want to question his decision making?? Obviously there is a problem with those guys or else they would have been called up and the coach would have Incorporated them into the lineup around the younger players. Based on all of JVS articles you can read between the lines these guys think they’re bigger then NT and they need to run the show.. I’m completely fine with seeing how far JVS can take this team who is still rebuilding and building on chemistry and attitude in the dressing room which was clearly lacking on the team. If you bring these guys back right now, all that hard work that has been done to turn this team around can be gone right away especially with this lay off so I don’t think JVS wants to take the chance on bringing in bad attitudes.

So far JVS has done a good job even though it’s a small sample size. He has the NT playing attractive attacking football and getting results in the process. Even in Italy the team played well and defensively held Italy to no shots on target for the 1st half and we were not lucky to go ahead after Koulouris missed a sitter. I am eager to see how he does vs a top quality side in World Cup qualifying. I think he will recall Manolas out of necessity to help the backline.

No doubt Manolas and Sokratis are at the highest level of all Greek players. But sometimes just because they are good doesn’t mean they are good for the team. Both had problems with Anastasiadis and EPO. We don’t know what happens behind the scenes but with these guys we haven’t got anywhere since Karagounis and Katsouranis retired. We started playing better football without them. They are not bigger than the team. Hatzidiakos has convinced me that he can take Sokratis spot and do an even better job. The problem lies with Stafylidis at CB and Bakakis at RB. Both of these guys aren’t great defenders and with them in the same backline we could be asking for trouble. Manolas or Mavropanos have to take Stafylidis spot. At RB we need to find a more capable replacement in my opinion. Mitroglou is washed up. Time to move on. Samaris hasn’t been influential for Greece for the past 4-5 years. With Vasiliadis in the team I think Zeca’s days are numbered. I am assuming JVS is trying to find a replacement for Kourbelis. That’s if Kiomourtzoglou decides to play for Greece. I think he likes Hatzidiakos, Galanopoulos, Pavlidis and Limnios. They all played well.