Bananas

No idea who this Branco is. I’m kind of surprised the hand over wasn’t done at the end of the season. What’s the rush ? I can only assume Michel wanted out now. Overall Michel has been a very good TD. There’s been some so so signings especially this summer (none have really come good yet) but there’s also been some superb signings.

Can’t tell you for sure. It’s just a feeling. But I think they’re just going for someone new to start fresh. And honestly, I’ve *never* heard a bad word about Basinas. He’s always had that image of being a good honest guy that jut works hard. I liked the interview where Angel said he only needs one minute to sort a player out, ha ha. I hope he has the boys frothing at the mouth come game time.

Also, no idea why Karelia has been selected over Lazaros. Bizarre.

Why you boys have a love affair with Fetfa I will never understand. The guy is so meek and fragile. If he actually starts killing it in the GSL then fair enough, I will change my opinion, but right now I wouldn’t be selecting him either. And no, I don’t believe in giving him a chance just because he has good technique. That is not enough. Koulouris on the other hand (who has 25% the technique of Fetfa) has *earned* the right to be given a chance due to his performances so far in the GSL. And that’s the way it should be. I sincerely hope Angel goes with 3-5-2 with Koulouris and Mitro up front. Our Ethniki has been unable to score more than 1 goal a game for years now. Simply put, we need more firepower. And we need to apply more pressure on the opposition. The 3 at the back are obvious. I’d like to see Risvanis get selected and get some time off the bench. I believe he’s earned it and would make a good rotation player for the NT. In the middle I hope we only have one of Zeca or Kourbelis. You can’t have more than one hacker in the team without destroying your attacking potential. Zeca and the 3 at the back should be enough to defend with. If you’re so afraid of conceding that you need to play 2 exaria then might as well pack up your bags and don’t even bother coming to the game. I’m tired of watching this scaredy cat approach we have. As to the other two midfielders. Obviously one goes to Fortounis and the other I’d go Pelkas (for his running). Then sub whoever isn’t performing with Mantalos. GK not fussed. I’d go with Vlach but happy with any of them. They are all solid selections. Nice to have depth there. The wing backs is tricky. Not sure who is best at this stage for these positions.

Good to see Kitsiou play and play well. I dare say he played better than what Matos has been lately. Likewise Shakhov played half decent also. We need all players to step up when called upon if we want to win the title. All aboard ... choo choo.

How many games undefeated will it take before you admit PAOK has a half decent team ? We are at 10 now. If we get to 15 will that do it ? ?

Thanks champ. Interesting interview. Feeling positive about the two Angels.

Hell yeah man.

I'm more annoyed at the loss of coefficient points than anything else. We need (and Greece needs) every coefficient point we can get and these last 2 games have been a waste. I think that Lucescu is showing a lack of experience and nous in Europe. He's very good for the Greek League. He knows the league, its teams etc. But in Europe maybe he's not so good. Then again, we played so well in the qualifiers. Not I'm confused ha ha.

Sickos.

Just had a flash of inspiration. 3-5-2. Varela, Crespo and one of Tosca/Xatseridi at the back. Limnios and Warda as wing backs. Pelkas, Biseswar in the middle with one of Canas/Wernbloom. Akbom and Prijo up front. Yeah I know it ain’t gonna happen ha ha.

I’d be surprised if Lucescu messes with the Varela/Crespo pairing at CB. It’s finally working and purring like a well oiled machine. Even Yiankos has not been criticising Crespo of late and that goes to show you miracles do happen. ? Which leaves us with Kitsiou and Tosca. If Kitsiou doesn’t get a run this game then he’s done for. Let’s see what happens. I’m a bit annoyed with the club that they’ve left these two positions with no depth. Sure you can slot Crespo or Tosca there but they’re a band aid. They aren’t what we need. And at RB we have only Kitsiou who isn’t rated. If you don’t rate him get another player. If I was Savvidis and Lucescu told me “I don’t rate him” I’d be getting angry at Lucescu. He’s your pick papara. The only good thing is we don’t have difficult games in the GSL so the timing is all right. But it’s a concern that Lucescu keeps flogging Matos and Vieirinha. One more thing. If Lucescu really doesn’t want Kitsiou I’d be playing Limnios as RB in some of the easier GSL games. He’d be more than fine. Possibly better than Matos who is looking a bit burnt out. And bring back Giannoulis.

Yeah man I’m harsh ha ha. But regardless, for Mitroglou doesn’t work in our NT. When your NT lacks technically, you can make up for it through work rate and organisation. In other words, run mother f##ckers. That’s what the Germans and Italians have been doing for decades. In our NT you can maybe, and I mean maybe, have one player that doesn’t run like a trelo. And that slot goes to Fortounis. Everyone else has to be fitter and harder working to overcome our technical limitations. Having said that, that’s my philosophy or take on it. To each their own. But if I was the opposition coach playing against Greece and I see a lineup with Mitroglou up front, I ain’t worried much. As to who else to put up front, right now I’d be playing Koulouris if only to piss Mitroglou off and maybe get him angry enough that he ups his game ha ha. It’s kind of sad that have so few options up front.

As a side note, it’s interesting what’s happening with Panathinaikos this season. If they continue with their good run, I hope this inspires other teams (I’m looking at you Aris) to have some faith in their youth and give them a go. Added bonus is you don’t have to pay big wages. But, this takes having a very good manager who is given freedom and time to build. People forget when Alex Ferguson took over Man Utd he didn’t win jack for the first few years. Another thought. PAOK has good youth these days. If I was Aris I’d be raiding the best youth of not only PAOK but all teams in Greece. I think a lot of these players could be tempted if offered first team football and a professional contract.

Seems like a brain dead decision. Typical Greek mentality. So over this crap. Was the team in danger of being relegated ? That would be the only valid reason for even considering such a move. Let’s see who the replacement is. Hopefully there isn’t too much disruption. And all this because Aris lost to PAOK, AEK and Olympiakos. Did the president expect to beat these teams ? If so, he’s delusional. If anything, he should be happy because Aris played good solid football and now after these games you can identify where the team is lacking and reinforce accordingly. But hey, that would be logical.

I hope so man. Send the message from the beginning, long and loud and god damn f##king hard. Two major issues. The first is the complacency of the players. Too many keep getting selected when they shouldn’t be. The second is if he’ll change the system we play to suit the players we have. We don’t have wingers so why bother with a system that uses them. At least that’s what I reckon. Vlschodimos in goal. I’d be playing 3 at the back. 2 attacking wing backs that can run all day. Probably Limnios for the right wb or Bakakis. Left side the young kid that plays for Olympiakos. In the middle Zeca as the 6. Mantalos and Pelkas playing as 8’s. Pelkas for me is really an 8 anyway. The kid runs all day and doesn’t have the game to be a number 10. Up front Fourtounis and a striker. I say “a striker” because I wouldn’t be playing Mitroglou but I know there are many that would disagree. I don’t have time for lazy players. Besides, he hasn’t been interested in playing soccer since leaving Olympiacos. The guy has been more than happy to be a bench warmer and collect big pay checks for the last 3 years. Might as well stick him on the bench for the NT also.

Yes. Moments like these is where you kill the game off. P.S. This was the first game I watched live this season and our perfect start gets destroyed. Jinx. No more live games for me.

Only saw the second half. Thanks for link that was posted. We only really woke up after we conceded the goal (great finish). Why we even let them get into the last 3rd of the ground so easily I’m not sure. I assume we thought we’d get a goal easily on the break. Lazy soccer playing on auto pilot. A fair result all in all, even though we looked very much like scoring towards the end.

It’s no ones fault on this forum that half a dozen or so mongoloid Olympiacos fans are feral human beings with zero decency who would troll, heckle and just cause untold trouble on this and the old greeksoccer forum. Then when they get booted they act like they’ve been treated unfairly. May they enjoy their new site where they belong. It’s no ones fault on this forum that other posters got all frothing at the mouth over U.S. politics to the point that the forum became toxic. Every day right wing left wing blah blah. Yeah sure, Hillary or Trump is gonna save ya. Idiots. May they enjoy their new site. Maybe we’re paranoid ? Maybe we’re just normal. Maybe these people just don’t know how to have a conversation ? Maybe these people haven’t worked out what’s important in life.

I did consider subscribing to the site you’re referring to, because some good posters went there, but unfortunately I am a communist and I’m not allowed to join. I didn’t know I was communist but some of the fascists opened my eyes and showed me the truth.

I don't mind the Aris boys, but I like you more. xxx ooo The long posts, I'm not criticizing them. It just makes me laugh. The to and fro between yourself, Athens4 and the Ariani. It's like, ok, here we go again. To be fair, you've all behaved like gentlemen and haven't let it get personal (not that I've noticed) so there is that. I don't know (and it's probably good for my sanity) all the politics from the old days. And I'm not a Τούρκο, I'm a Βούλγαρακη.

Crazy kids.

@Emperor where do you get those statistics from ? Very cool. It looks like Football Manager on steroids.

One of my wet dreams has been to sign Stafylidis again. I’ll leave the others to your imagination. From time to time I’ll check on him to see how he’s going. I haven’t checked for this year and to my surprise he hasn’t even played 1 minute! Even worse, he hasn’t even been selected for any match squads. That was my first surprise. My second surprise is that his contract expires end of this season. So theoretically we could pre-sign him during this winter.

I can read Greek just fine. Except Yiankos posts that go for 1000 words ha ha. That can be a bit much ha ha. I don’t check out those sites. Mostly just sport24.gr and for a laugh I’ll watch some Raptopoulos, Alefantos and even sometimes Ante Gia. As for the grinia what can I say. Stupid people with stupid analysis. When you have players that have been together for 18 months already that is like a 1 goal advantage. A team like AEK or PAOK need only play good football for 10 or 15 minutes (and often that is all they do) because in that 10 or 15 minutes they can score the goal to get the win. They can defend well enough also because the same players have all been playing together and now know each others game and strengths and weaknesses. That stability counts for a lot but in Greece we like to do 15 metagrafes every summer and 4 in the winter. To be fair, with Aris it’s a bit different because they have to build a whole new team for A Ethniki so I understand why so many metagrafes. What I don’t understand is the grinia. Especially when there are so many positive signs compared to negative signs.