J1078

You guys can say what you want about Santos, but having his team play solid defence and catch teams on the counter and in set pieces WON them the Euro with out Rinaldo. Portugal had no business winning this tournament. One thing I can say about Santos is that he he new what our weakness were so he played to our strengths just as he did with Portugal.

I don't understand the hate that Santos is getting. I to would take him over any coach we've had over the last two years, the one thing Santos was good for was getting the team to play to its strengths even though a lot of people thought it was to "boring" I also think Even with the lose of some of our veterans Santos would have build in our world cup success and we would have qualified for the euros. Even though I didn't agree with everything he did he still new how to get this team to suffocate opponents defensively and play inspired football. Those 3-1 games we lost to Irleand or the loss to Finland and the FI at worst would have been a draw in my opinion. I think everything hit this team like a ton of bricks Karagounis retiring then Samaras no longer on the team, Santos leaving, all these things that occurred left the team lost with no one to lead or inspire. To many changes all at once F***ED this team.

When it comes down to our last friendly against Netherlands if Skibbe does more tinkering and doesn't pick a line up that will replicate our line up at the WQ then he's truly an idiot and I will be so pissed off. As it stands now we are all still kind of scratching our heads to the potential line up and formation that skibbe wants to go with and we have imo wasted a lot of friendlies instead of trying to rebuild chemistry with the players we want to field at the WQ.

On another note take a look at our record and Bosnia's over the last 2 years BOSNIA. BOS 2 JAP 1 BOS 2 DENMARK 2 BOS 1 SPAIN 3 BOS 2 SWITZERLAND 0 BOS 3 LUXEMBOURG 0 BOS 0 REP OF IRL 2 BOS 1 REP OF IRL 1 BOS 3 CYPRUS 2 BOS 2 WHALES 0 BOS 3 ANDORRA 0 BOS 3 ISRAEL 1 BOS 1 AUSTRIA 1 BOS 3 ANDORRA 0 BOS 0 ISRAEL 3 BOS 1 BELGIUM 1 This included the Euro qualifiers and friendlies they still finished 3rd in a much tougher group then us and had 5w 2d 3L 17points Belgium 23pts Whales 21pts Bosnia 17pts Israel 13pts Cyprus 12pts Andorra 0pts Just for kicks we all no our results but when you put it side by side it's even scary then first thought. Gr 0 Romania 1 Gr 1 Finland 1 Gr 0 N Ireland 2 Gr 1 Faroe 2 Gr 0 Hungary 0 Gr 0 Finland 1 Gr 0 Poland 0 (no Lewandowski) Gr 0 Serbia 2 Gr 0 Romania 0 Gr 1 N Ireland 3 Gr 0 LUXEMBOURG 1 Gr 4 Hungary 3 Gr 0 Turkey 0 (turned out to be 3-0) Gr 2 Montenegro 1 Gr 0 Aus 1 Gr 2 Aus 1 N Ireland 21pts Romania 20pts Hungary 16pts Finland 12pt Faroe Islands 6pts Greece 6 Pts Bosnia would have easily qualified if theu were in our group. Can some please look at this and explain to me where we have "Turned the corner" and the he F*** do we expect to challenge Bosnia for a World Cup spot? Looking at me his leading up the September we might not be able to beat Cyprus. I was just st looking at this and I don't see a scenario where we qualify.

I don't think there is evidence that we have turned the corner, especially considering that the guys that started in the Australia games are not going to be the starters in the WQ, so realistically I don't see how we've changed yet.

^so we only have one friendly left before the WQ? That sucks.

Regardless of what the reason was or wasn't bottom line we STUNK and we still have not played a GREAT match since the EQ and that should concern us all as I fear this disaster is not over for us and will continue. I'm watching Belgium play Rep of Ireland right now and they are crushing them 3-0, can you imagine what this team is going to do to us. After watching a lot of these teams at the Euro even the so called s%$#! teams at least they all look like they are playing with passion and heart something our boys are clearly lacking. On paper we should be at the Euro but in reality we have fallen apart. I'm not sure there is enough time to fix this mess before the WQ.

Let's say this is true that there is only 5-7 players that have talent, This still doesn't make sense why we've been so bad, because if you look at the teams we played against in the EQ NON of those teams had 5-7 players on the field with Talent, so by that logic we still should have topped our group. If you can play a system with a team that has 5-7 talented players on the field you should be able to stay and compete in most games and you shouldn't lose to Fisherman or Shitty Northern Ireland/Finland and so on. I believe this team does have talent, I think the problem is getting them to buy into a system that works and finding the right leader on the field to lead this group, someone vocal and someone that guys respect.

^ I get that, but as you know the way our players have played they don't deserve time off from the NT at all. We can't afford it.

^Aus I love your optimism but it wasn't even our main players that played that game, and to be honest since Skibbe has taken over we still haven't seen a game played with our most likely starters. We don't need to build a chemistry with guys that aren't going to play we need to do it with our main starters because unfortunately they lack chemistry together. Skibbe did a good job in the last game but I'm Afraid he has wasted way to many friendlies experimenting instead of building a system with the players we know are going to be our starters. That concerns me a lot. Time and friendlies have been wasted with tinkering when it should have been practice and and adapting to the style he wants us to play.

^How does the team look like it has a good bond? Based on what? One win? The win we got was with 80% of our starters not even playing, so how is that a good bond? When was the last time you've seen a squad that will resemble a line up at the WQ and you said they look like they have chemistry?

^ is that our next friendly vs Holland?

Is it done?

How much time left

Did Australia score

Do we know what are line up is yet?

Another wasted line up the serves no purpose and does not prepare us for the WQ. BRAVO

What a wasted opportunity in these two games to field a line up that would somewhat resemble our World Cup line in October and get valuable practice time togethore..

Let's wait and see how we do in our friendliest leading up the the campaign because right now Bosnia is the clear favorites over us and there is no Garuntee we will even beat Cyprus. If the team comes together and starts playing like we think they can then I would expect to see us beat Cyprus and Estonia and maybe draw Bosnia.

Our first game in the campaign is just over a few months away, we should be using these games to prepare ourselves, no more call ups, no more experimenting to such a wide margin, a little tinkering is okay, and enough call ups like Tziolis and garbage players. Let's stick with our core players that we know we will field and tinker with a few sub options and that's it. Why do the Greek coaches and company have to make things so difficult. We are not dismantling the entire team.

Am I wrong to think we should be playing our team that we plan to field in the WC qualifiers? Shouldn't we use these games as preparation for what we think our starting line up will look like and try to build a game plan and some consistency with the players?? So far I'm very disappointed and pissed at Skibbe and he's selections so far.. WTF does he think he's all of a sudden going to field a line up that he hasn't got to work with at the W/C qualifiers and we are going to be successful?

^ I really hope this coach works out and gets this team back to where we all believe they should be. It's frustrating because on paper we are a lot better then the majority of the teams we lost to. I hope we can figure this out soon because it's so hard not watching this team play in major tournaments.

you would think on paper we should be better then them and yes we beat them in our last qualifier, but considering they made the Euros and haven't lost to garage teams consistently like we have I wouldn't say we are better then them until we can prove we are better then mediocre teams.

I like your enthusiasm but what gives you so much confidence in Skibbe? I understand he needs to try players out but I think his choices and his system was horrible versus Iceland. I also wouldn't be so confident that we have a better team then Iceland because to be honest with you we shouldn't really be saying we are better then anyone right now.

100% Bosnia is better then Greece right now and have a better chance then us to go through. Who ever disagrees must take a look at Bosnia last 10 matches and our last 10 matches and that should put this debate to rest.