RED SHERIFF

how much would the Cosmos pay him? what standard of football is it?

@1789 Oikonomou is an unknown junior prospect and Spanoudakis may not be 'greek' he may be 'german'?

Tziolis aside we had our best 10 footballers on the park in the 11 today... the only exception is Tziolis replacement? Mandalos/Kone/Pelkas/Ninis etc.... also moving forward the 3 at the back will no doubt be used v Belgium and Bosnia, but hopefully not v Cyprus and Estonia.. a lot will depend how quick and attacking minded is the Tziolis replacement in that 11.

sounds like a very typical Greek institution... I fail to see how this differs from any other part of modern greek life?

ok...I have an old box I used to watch ERT on.....is that an Android box? then what do I do? pre load? you lost me? is this legal?

good question amorgos? I'd be interested....although all this sounds a bit too technical for me...I am a technology moron...

I have also believed that the results v FI, NI, Luxe, Finland are very similar to the heart attack results over the previous years.. The two 1-0 wins in Malta, the 1-1 home v Georgia, the 1-0 and 2-0 v Liechtenstein, the 1-0 v Latvia, the 1-2 v Latvia and and Georgia.... 1-0 at Lithuania....all of these performances from a footballing sense were very similar to the disasters v Faroes, NI, Finland... I can't really say that we were any better or worse.....we were horrible at times pulling off those wins.... the game in Belfast is a classic case of had it been played pre 2014 and we scored from any of our first half chances we would have won it easily... yet the performance was still questionable... to me the players do not seem to have the right approach... i watched Sweden v Denmark this morning and the intensity that these guys were going at.... is on a different planet to what we have done in 10 years..

Is Kone even in the squad?? Karelis is in woeful form... Toro, Holebas, Sokratis, Manolas, Karnezis, Taxi, Fortounis are the core of this team..... Ninis, Mandalos, K.Pap, Mitro, Samaris, Kone, Pelkas, Maniatis, Petsos in the next bracket.... the others don't really matter at this stage...just fillers...

the lack of intensity by individuals is disturbing..,, Skibbe needs to work on this aspect... Vyntra, Tziolis and Moras have no place in this squad... They have come to an age that makes it irrational to select them, given the WC qualifiers start in 10 months.... not sure where Tziolis fits in to a midfield that includes options of Petsos, Kourbelis, Fortounis, Samaris, Taxi, Mandalos etc..

be wary of the Czech mafia? maybe they are related to Vyntra? that's why he always gets a NT call up..

NO doubt we have issues with in form strikers... but I think our options are very limited..... once salpi and samaras went off..and now Mitro being injured things got desperate... Bakasetas etc...are not the answer... where is Kaltsas today? interestingly people are calling out 'corruption' for the call ups of Tasoulis and Dinas etc...48-50 + players were called up... there is a clear case of the coaching staff being lost... I think it's easy to pull out the 'corruption' card... mostly our starting 11 will be one that generally we all agree with

ok... there is genuine belief that we only have two good strikers....Mitro and Klaus....(rightly or wrongly) based on reputation, achievements over the years, at club or NT(Mitro) or given that they play for 'higher profile clubs".. neither of them are in good form...Mitro is carrying an injury...... at the moment no NT coach would lead the attack with anyone other than Klaus or Mitro..in the belief/hope they will find form... Aravidis is simply living off the 'good work' he did with AEK....This will/may run out very soon...and he will go down the order where he was 2 years ago.. Vellios is paying for being lost for 3 years....2-3 goals for a poor Iraklis in a few games does not warrant a call up.. Bakasetas is in the same boat as Giannou....guys like this, playing for these types of clubs really need to earn their stripes over a long period to be considered.. I think we are still waiting for the next generation of Greek striker to emerge....Diamantakos is on the verge of falling off the cliff... Ioannidis and Vergos will either follow him off the cliff or do a 'Mitro' in the next 12-24 months...

I believe we are set to overtake Holland for a fleeting moment in the next year or so...as they are set to lose points from a big season... However long term and into the future Dutch clubs will more often than not accumulate more points than GSL clubs... Long term we have a greater chance of out performing Swiss/Belgian/Czech/Turkish clubs than Dutch... I think the Czechs are capable of doing a 'Romania'.....blowing out by August for a season or two...just like Scottish/Croat/Cypriot clubs.. The interesting thing about Holland is if you look at the ladder in the Dutch league... clubs with strong coefficient points like AZ , Twente, Heerneven are down the ladder....so if they don't make Europe the other clubs that do face the prospect of being unseeded in the qualifying rounds and therefore bowing out early..leaving PSV and Ajax yo carry the burden alone... if you look at the accumulation of UEFA coefficient points for the second tier nations.....a lot of the points gained come from good runs in Europa/UEFA by the second string clubs doing well for 2-3 seasons... similar to how Greece went up to 6th spot....AEK/PAO/Aris collecting points over consecutive years in a weak Uefa cup...

I think he will start the Turkey match with his best 11..we may see a variation for Luxembourg may use this as a warm for Turkey.. ........................Karnezis........................ Toro.............Sokratis.........Manolas........Holebas ..........................Samaris.............................. .................Fortounis.............Taxi................... Ninis....................................................Karelis ...........................Mitro.............................

by the same token I think the same can be said about Platellas, the lower divisions were very different... We need to be careful not to get carried away with players like this ans Dinas, Dounis etc....there are reasons why they have played lower league football in their mid 20s... to then elevate them to GSL status and NT is a huge ask... I have followed Aravidis thru Aris- Panionios days etc....and to me he still the same product he was in his early 20s... I think the NT has options in the midfield....and wide players that a better today... Samaris, Taxi, Mandalos, Fortounis, Kone are the standouts.... Ninis,Pelkas, Petsos,Lazaros,Fetfa can be good options too... I think if Skibbe can somehow blend Samaris- Taxi -Ninis- Fortounis - Mandalos- Kone we are on huge winner..

interesting to see what tactics Silva uses v Bayern and Arsenal. will he try and pack the midfield with hard type players to close down space... Luka- Cambiasso- Kasami- Chori- Fortounis or will he try and use the pace and width of Hernani - Seba I don't rate Hernani and Seba to me they are 'luxury' players..who can burn you at this level...we need Mirallas, Leto types in these positions..

you were chairman of the Aravidis appreciation society a few months ago? what happened to him? Is Platellas even playing? would he be better than Ninis, Pelkas, Karelis?

PAOK have been a bigger contributor today than in the times were ranked 6th.....yes PAOK had some good results back then...but over the 5 year cycle PAOK are doing better now.. PAO has been the let down....to a lesser degree Asteras has collected AEK's losses... also let's not forget at the time we were 6th...Russia and Ukraine were not big spenders....it was right at the cusp of when these two went nuts with the mafia dollars... The highest we can ever hope for is 9th or 10th... Spain England Germany Italy France Portugal Russia Holland will consistently be ahead of us.... then Ukraine, Turkey, Belgium we can mix it with...

i don't think trying to win 0-2 at Karaiskaki and then playing a r.16 tie in Feb.- March will severely impact their EPL chances.. we tend to over analyse this stuff....they will go for broke v Zagreb and at Karaiskaki.

Platellas???

I would love to know the 'degree of difficulty' of the opposition we have faced compared to PAO....Given we have essentially played in the last 18 seasons of UCL..... So does that mean the 'europanatha' myth has been deflated?

that game v CSKA is the one that got away...Salpi had a chance for 0-2...just after that bizarre goal for the 0-1... Sadly and realistically... I can't see this PAOK getting anything from this one..2-0 to the Russians...

the fact is.....not many European based NT's are able to assemble a squad for friendlies (and real games) much earlier... Club sides finish commitments Sunday - Monday....squads really can't get together earlier than the Tuesday... i assume the squad will be named on friday?

Arsenal will destroy Dinamo.....It won't be close...

nations league???? what a joke...they are friendlies