Dean97

He plays in the Netherlands now which is a better league than the Polish. He should’ve gotten more chances at Olympiakos as the current RB isn’t good enough. If players like Rota, Mavrias and Bakakis got chances then why not give Masouras a chance. As he is better than all of them in my opinion. We also have other untried players like Kitsiou and Kotsiras.

I have to agree with this. Giannis Masouras has been so overlooked it’s crazy. He has speed for days and can play some football. For me he should be our starting RB. I agree also with Androutsos as back up.

I hope so, I would like to know what he has to say.

I believe we have good players but most of the current players that JVS selected when he was in charge were not starting 11 material. If you have a handful of players that shouldn’t be anywhere near the 11 then your not going to succeed. On top of that there was no plan or philosophy in place. The determination and heart was there but the plan and tactics wasn’t. It all comes down to coaching. You need a coach who realises his mistakes or which players shouldn’t be there and correct it when necessary. Playing Bakasetas all the time cost us in my opinion. Some people would agree with that and some wouldn’t. In modern football you can’t afford to have 1 weak player. We’ve had at least 3 in the 11. I’ve said in the past Greece hasn’t got players of top quality like Spain or Italy but if you want to succeed I believe you need to pick players that have speed and skill and take it from there. We’ve always had slow midfielders since 2004. We’ve always had questionable call ups too. Also why would you play 2 DMs against teams like Armenia and Lichtenstein? Maybe it’s time put someone like Mantalos who has lost his speed but still fast enough in a more deeper role in midfield. It might help us transition better in attack. Also Alexandropoulos who is a natural box to box player who can carry the ball well and is fast. We also need to give the banned players another chance. We need as much as possible. Also playing players in there correct positions will be a good start. If I was coach I would sort out the midfield and RB spot immediately.

It will be if he has done what the other 6 coaches have done in the past which was picking the wrong players, weird tactics/selections, poor 11s, and awful excuses… We’ve always handicapped ourselves with poor coaching and a federation who doesn’t care about the team. What do you expect when the budget is 500k for a coach? Your not going to get anyone special with that type of money. I’m willing to give Poyet a chance, as the first team selection will say everything. It doesn’t matter what he has or hasn’t achieved in the past, we were never going to get anyone of the highest caliber. At least Poyet has some sort of name in football and like I said, that first team selection he selects will say a lot.

I say that Poyet needs to focus on fixing our attack and bring everyone back to the team. That would be a great start. We need all the talent we can get, we can’t further limit ourselves since our talent pool is already limited. We need everyone available for us to succeed. Nothing has worked the last 10 years, I hope we get it right this time. I really hope this happens with us.

Spot on. You are correct in everything you said. I don’t think the EPO have any footballing knowledge, so Konstantinidis and Fyssas have been given the task of finding a coach. Seems like they are looking for an Italian coach. Just wondering why does it have to be Italian? We have 2 decent free agent managers in Michel and Valverde… Both Spaniards and would probably help Greece succeed. You can’t really go wrong. But people at the EPO have to know what direction they want to go in. Can’t just pick randoms again. Might aswell pick a Greek than pick a random foreigner who’s hasn’t done much in his career.

Well he’s coached in high quality leagues like la liga and serie A so I think he would know about good talent unlike JVS. But his overall win percentage is awful at only 30%. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gianni_De_Biasi We need someone who knows how to make this team win and score goals. We can’t score for the life of us, we have players that score for there clubs but we need them to do the same for Greece. Part of the problem is our midfield in my opinion.

Yeah your right but if you remember, the 2 seasons after that he wasn’t the same player and he had no injuries. He was still good but he wasn’t as consistent. I think he reached his peak that season in my opinion.

Yeah Fortounis work rate is an issue but he is by far our best midfielder we have. He can score goals too. His passing and dribbling is great. I remember one season which was I think the 2015/2016 season where he scored like 20+ goals and 15 assists. He was tremendous that season. That’s was the season Olympiakos beat Arsenal. In that season he was very consistent, he ran a lot and defended when needed. He was very active. His best season he’s ever had in my opinion. He also was impressive in the champions league. Every season after that he’s been good but in my opinion nothing compares to that 2015/2016 season he had.

You have a point but if we are comparing Fortounis to Bakasetas than I’d make Fortounis captain and starter over him. One player can’t carry a team but as we saw with his goal in that video where he took on the whole defence and keeper to score he can’t be ignored in the starting line up. Not many players can do that. Only Fetfa and Ninis have done something similar.

It’s outrageous that Bakasetas plays over him. Fortounis should be the captain and starting number 10 for Greece every time.

Can someone remind me what the actual problem was with Sokratis, Manolas and EPO. All I remember is that Manolas and Sokratis didn’t want Anastasiadis as coach. Did they feel betrayed by the EPO for sacking Skibbe at the time. When have the players called the shots? My opinion is that for a team like Greece who haven’t got world class and established players they need to do everything they can to have the best players on the field. That means that the coach and EPO have to work with these top players and keep them satisfied. Manolas and Sokratis know that the EPO aren’t running the team properly and they know that the team are not playing and being managed to it’s true potential. That’s what I got from it.

Well put Alphonse. I just want to add that we also had Ninis and Karagounis also creating for us and we did won most games in the past qualifiers. Now we have Bakasetas, Bouchalakis and Zeca as our midfielders. They aren’t national team level. We have decent wingers like Limnios, Tzolis and Masouras who can create and score but JVS put other players around them that they can’t work with. We have young strikers now in Pavlidis and Douvikas who are still developing and are promising. But they are not like Mitroglou, Charisteas and Gekas of the past… They need time. As for the midfield it needs a total revamp. I’m tired of seeing players like Bakasetas and Zeca not have a clue in playing forward passes and putting players onto goal. They are limited players. Galanopoulos showed glimpses of improving the midfield but still isn’t the answer. We need try something different like Alexandropoulos, Vasiliadis, Papanikolaou and even Ninis who still has what it takes to produce a good performance.

I agree with you. He made too many errors. He knew we had problems in scoring and he played players that didn’t improve this. How can Zeca, Bakasetas and Bouchalakis create for this team they can’t. Then you have others who miss golden opportunities. He didn’t fix our problems and he was scared when we played against Kosovo and Georgia by sitting back which didn’t make sense. You are supposed to take control in these games. A Ninis in the midfield would’ve created something for our attackers and most likely put them through on goal. I also wonder why he didn’t give Vasiliadis a chance, since he wanted him to be involved. I also think anywhere you put Bakasetas he’s be useless. I’ve seen so many games where he’s lost the ball and wrecked our forward play. Crazy to think he was trusted so much and named captain. Also Tzolis was the lost inform winger and never gave him a proper chance. Look at when he came on against Sweden, it took 5 minutes to assist Pavlidis to make it 2-0. Anyways hopefully a decent manager like Valverde can come in and start playing our best players and actually have a plan to win games.

https://youtu.be/yUg5U40mQIk

You make great points. JVS for me didn’t have a plan since the start of the nations league. Firstly, why would he play 2 CDMs against teams like Kosovo and Georgia… we needed someone in midfield who can play nice long passes and threaten there defence. Kourbelis and Zeca failed offensively. All there running meant nothing. We still came 2nd in a really easy group. Bakasetas for me is the reason we didn’t qualify. Yes he go that goal against Sweden but what he has had big shockers in like 20 other games. For me he isn’t good enough to be captain and starting. I wouldn’t even have him on the bench. We need someone more skillful in that position. Fortounis was good enough to play there. We have RBs and CBs but he failed to use them. You can’t use a LB at CB and you can’t ignore RBs who are decent like Kitsiou and Kotsiras. They would’ve for sure have been better than Mavrias or Bakakis. What’s the point of not selecting Manolas/Siovas/Sokratis and putting LBs as there replacements. Greece have a tonne of good CBs to choose from. The way he handled Fetfatzidis and Siovas was appalling. 2 players that can make a difference for this team. These were the things that he failed in. I’m happy he’s given opportunities to Galanopoulos, Mavropanos, Androutsos and Pavlidis as they are our future. Pavlidis has been a bit disappointing but I hope this experience makes him better. This team here right now I think is our best team: Vlachodimos G.Masouras Mavropanos Manolas Tsimikas Alexandropoulos Ninis Fetfa Fortounis Tzolis Douvikas For me is Bouchalakis any better than Ninis? No, Ninis has still got what it takes. He’s an excellent passes and great positioning sense. He can tackle too. Alexandropoulos has got it all and is by far better than Kourbelis and Zeca. Douvikas I think is better than Pavlidis. It’s a close call though. Fortounis is our best 10. Tzolis and Fetfa can change a game in the blink of an eye. I don’t want to hear from people that Fetfa is playing in the Middle East. He only left Aris because he knew that JVS wasn’t going to call him up after being a little late to come down and train. Also to get good money since he isn’t liked by the Greek media or JVS. Giannis Masouras who isn’t like here for some reason, is talented and is playing in Holland at the moment. He’s by far our fastest player and is great going forward. Defensively he’s good but is known to be better going forward. His style of play would’ve helped this team in my opinion.

I don’t know much about him. But I think our best option is Valverde, he’s coached in Greece and he’s coached at higher levels in Spain with Barcelona. We need to bring in someone who will play our best players. Something we haven’t done with JVS.

I’m not so sure Santos and Otto ran the team there way totally. Maybe Otto did but I think some of Santos selections were questionable. The core of Santos team were Samaras, Salpingidis, Karagounis, Katsouranis, Torosidis and Sokratis. Everyone else were mixed up. I appreciated how he integrated Fetfa and Ninis a lot. With JVS, there are a lot of questionable call ups and most of our talented players aren’t there anymore. Players like Svarnas, Bakakis, Bakasetas, Bouchalakis, Rota and Mavrias aren’t really good enough on the international stage. Something tells me they paid a lot of money to get in. Wouldn’t be surprising as there is heaps of corruption in Greek football.

I never thought he would come. Valverde seems more realistic but I even think he won’t come. I’m hoping he does though…

Any coach that comes in should have total control. I don’t think JVS has full control. The EPO decided to sabotage the national team after 2014 and look at what has happened.

Valverde would be a step above Santos. I remember Santos had us playing defensive, boring football. Not willing to go back to that. Greece can play attacking football. They just need the right players and the right system for it. Also the correct coaching and Valverde would be perfect for the job. He loves Greece aswell. Hopefully we get him.

I’d rather Valverde. He’s more accomplished.

It’s time for JVS to go. He’s had his time. We’ve gone downhill since he took over. These group of players are good enough in my opinion to go to a tournament. A player like Pelkas proved he is better than Bakasetas. Mantalos has regressed so much I can’t believe it. Bouchalakis is too slow. He didn’t play Alexandropoulos who is by far our best CM and JVS doesn’t know it. Tzolis is by far our best attacking player and only gets 30 minutes. Give these 2 a few full 90 minute games and see what happens. But no he has to stick to Bakasetas, Bouchalakis etc. How can he not pick a proper more experienced RB like Kitsiou or Kotsiras. Even though they aren’t the greatest they are RBs who can do the job. Androutsos should be playing CM and be used as a player than be put in any position and a reliable player to cover most positions of need be. He’s good. How can you play 3 or 5 man defence against teams like this. Play 4 at the back from the start and start Limnios, Tzolis and Alexandropoulos. Even though we had a few players out there’s no excuse in not beating these type of teams like Kosovo. JVS has failed. JVS out for me…

The core of players he has chosen haven’t gotten us over the line. Bakasetas, Zeca, Bakakis, Kourbelis, Pavlidis and Tzavellas haven’t lead this team to success. These are the guys that have had the most caps under JVS… This is what happens when you don’t take care of your best players and work with them like Fetfatzidis, Manolas and Fortounis. International football is different, you can’t work with different tactics and players every week. So you should pick your best players and hopefully the tactics and formations will work for you on the day. You need all you can get and JVS and EPO have limited the team with excluding it’s best players. But not just that, it’s the core of players JVS has relied on and the tactics he has put in. We dropped points against Georgia and Kosovo with that core. We got lucky with the draw against Spain and now we lost recently to Spain and Sweden. If we were to at least hold on and beat Kosovo and Georgia we wouldn’t be in the position we are at the moment. The coach is to blame for the poor performances. In my opinion get rid of that core of players entirely, except Pavlidis and bring in a new core like Manolas, Fortounis, Fetfatzidis, Fountas, Alexandropoulos… and a manager at a decent level and watch this team transform into a successful team.