Dean97

Fortounis, Mantalos and Pelkas are at their best when played centrally. Fetfatzidis is at his best at both positions. That's the type of talent he is. He is the best Greek player on the ball and is faster than Fortounis. If Fortounis was a faster player he would be playing somewhere in LA liga or Bundesliga by now.

I agree, Manthatis has talent and has the pace as well. I like the way you think by having Manthatis and Donis on the wings. Chatzigiovannis is another player who could make his way in the team... https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=2154374958217101&id=1598480473806555

Fetfatzidis can play CAM and on the wing. He is more of a winger than Pelkas and Mantalos. Also more skillful and can take on defenders better than Lazaros. Fetfatzidis is a natural winger. He can also play CAM. Do watch the matches in Europa League where Fetfatzidis was playing RW. That's how you play as a winger. Lazaros will soon be on the decline. So grooming Manthatis or Chatzigiovannis in the team wouldn't be a bad idea.

Yes @Alphonse I agree, but our national team is not gifted with strikers and we are very limited in that position. Karelis is injury prone and Donis is a winger. Who else have we got apart from Mitroglou. Vellios and Diamantakos had their chance. Why not give Manos a chance and see what he has got. Don't talk to me about how many minutes a player has because we all know it doesn't mean anything in this national team. Manos should have been loaned out to Atromitos or Panionios. You would then see the talent he has got. Same goes for other Greeks in the Olympiakos squad. Olympiakos wanted to be stacked in every position this season so they could go far in Europe and hopefully win the double. I believe if Manos get ls more chances he will prove himself more. Giannoulis is a random selection if you ask me. Not talented enough to be in the national team yet. Where is Lykogiannis? Also Koutris? Yes we have players injured in that position. Karelis has only played about 2 games for PAOK. But still gets selected. Manos has more talent than Vellios and Diamantakos in my opinion. I remember Mantalos was chosen a few years ago when he was playing in the second division with AEK and we had other options there as well.

I agree 1000%. Oikonomou and Kolovetsios shouldn't be on the national team. As back ups it should be Mavropanos and Retsos. I respectively disagree. Manos can deliver when given the chance it's just will the coach give him more opportunities. Manos is technically better than Koulouris and I believe if Manos was at Atromitos he would score the same or more goals than Koulouris in my opinion. Look at the way he has scored his goals in his career. He looks clinical. Long range, headers, 1v1 and close range. So far he had 1 game and 1 goal. Anyone with a football brain would be open minded to all selections. skibbe isn't. Charisis and Hatzidiakos need to be given chances and they haven't. Sokratis, Manolas, Holebas, Vlachodimos, Fortounis, Fetfatzidis and Zeca should be locks in this team in my opinion.

Absolutely. Also Galanopoulos, Koutris and Manos. We could have a very decent team in the future if everything plays out well.

That's what I'm waiting to find out as well. Does anyone know or have a link about Klonaridis and the Ethniki?

He should have been sacked before nation's league. Now we have to wait again to make a major tournament. The people EPO seem so clueless where the whole needs a revamp. I can't believe we missed an opportunity of hiring Schuster. Skibbe seemed like a last option if nothing else worked out. Its sickening. Koulouris, Giannoulis, Kolovetsios, Oikonomou, Tzavellas, Tziolis and Bakasetas don't deserve to be in the team especially when there are clear better options. Fetfatzidis is hands down the best we have on the ball, the things that he does all Greek players wish they could do. But no he is not looked at. Same with Siovas. Starts week in and week in the 2nd best league in the world for the past 2 years and Is only 29. Also look at Holebas. Koutris even deserves to be in this team. He has quality crosses and doesn't get beaten so easily in defence. What has Karelis done to deserve a spot? I like him and I think he is good but he hasn't played much. He should have called up Manos. Also why aren't Klonaridis and Vlachodimos in our plans? Everything is all over the place. I believe if we have a new manager and a new EPO we would see something like this. Vlachodimos Bakakis Manolas Sokratis Holebas Zeca Galanopoulos Fetfatzidis Fortounis Donis Mitroglou Koutris, Lazaros, Torosidis, Kourbelis, Pelkas, Mantalos, Karnezis, Gianniotis, Retsos, Siovas, Karelis, Gianniotas. This should be the current 23 man squad. Of some players are injured or out of form we also have: Paschalakis, Barkas, Papadopoulos, Bouchalakis, Lykogiannis, Stafylidis, Samaris, Tachtsidis, Manos, Androutsos and the rest of the u21s who are getting game time at senior level for their clubs. These are the players that should be in and around the national team. In the 23 man team you have at least 5 experienced players in their 30s that can still play and be leaders in the dressing room. You have also got players in their peak performing at a high level eg. Manolas, Fortounis, Mitroglou and Kourbelis. Also youngsters who deserve their place in the team eg. Galanopoulos. These names are more than enough to experiment and with no Tziolis, Koulouris and so on. The PAO youth players are more talented as well. It's not that hard to create the best team possible. We good enough players in our talent pool to create a competitive team. Again it's not that hard.

Bad call ups.

It's always 6 or 7 days before the game that it is announced. Hopefully no Tziolis and Tzavellas.

Interesting points by everyone. Donis is a special player. I agree with @AchillesHeel that Donis needs consistency and substance in his play. He is by far our best winger. Fetfatzidis as I said before needs to be in this team based on his skill and creativity. His ability to take on players as another key aspect to his game. Samaras could have had a better career for sure. But he did accomplish many things and was the reason we made the round of 16 for the first time in the world cup. I'm not looking forward to seeing Lazaros on the wing. For club he is good there but for country he can't get any rhythm going for some reason. I would play him central, maybe as a CAM or even ST. I do believe though our attack needs more focus, but the way Odysseus has been playing he should be capped. Karnezis I'd not trust 100%, Barkas is good but needs to develop more and Gianniotis is a confident keeper but at times can make a critical error. My team for the next game: Giannioits Bakakis Manolas Sokratis Lykogiannis Zeca Kourbelis Fetfatzidis Fortounis Pelkas Mitroglou Although I would like to replace Mitroglou, there is no one really who can replace him yet. Karelis is an option but needs more momentum and game time time in order to get the best out of him. Lazaros is better off the bench in my opinion. Mantalos can come on if things don't work.

Really unfortunate. I hope everyone understands what a blow it is. I believe he can our go to guy when we need a goal. He hasn't scored yet but can be our most dangerous player. Fortounis is another. Hopefully Fetfatzidis takes his place. Bakasetas should be on the list of former players of the national team like Diamantakos, Vellios and Maniatis. Players also like Siovas and Paschalakis would be in this team under any other manager. To me my biggest problem with Skibbe is player selections. I don't mind his tactics and playing players out of position. His player selections are very bizarre. I get a feeling he doesn't get a say in all of his selections. If he does he is a total moron as anyone could tell that Tziolis, Bakasetas and Tzavellas don't belong in a national team especially when there are clear better options.

What about Fortounis? I was hoping for Stafylidis or Retsos to be fit so we don't see Tzavellas there again. I also hope Lykogiannis is fine. Surely the u21s can win without Tsimikas. As the senior national team is more important obviously. I don't understand how Koutris hasn't got a cap yet. Player selections and starting lineups have always been a problem in the nt. We need to see Tachtsidis and Samaris in form and I mean at their very best so we don't see Tziolis in the team ever again.

Yeah don't forget Konstantopoulos and Sifakis aswell ??

I'm not too fussed either with Vlachodimos. We thought Karnezis was a gun but doesn't play that well for the nt. Gianniotis is a good keeper, Paschalakis hasn't been given a chance yet and Kapino is injured. Barkas is decent also. Vlachodimos won't be our savior. We need someone to save us in the midfield positions as well as upfront. We got keepers, centrebacks, attacking midfielders, left backs and a few wingers.

Without a doubt our best player in those aspects you mentioned. We are doing more harm by not playing him. Let's hope he continues this form and gets called up soon.

When will Retsos be back? I though his injury was 6 weeks and that's was before preseason... @georgelaz Fetfatzidis has started more now and the Olympiakos coach realises Lazaros is better off the bench. He is also more of a winger and we need him on the wing. I'm waiting for Tsimikas to get called up and play LB. Lykogiannis is decent defensively but hasn't got the pace to be effective in attack. Stafylidis is error prone I think and not a stable option yet. Tsimikas has shown to be effective in defence and attack. Give him a chance I say and he won't dissapoint. But all three are good enough options.

He should have for sure. No point in sitting on the bench. He is talented though and this was the only coach who doesn't want him. These things happen. Androutsos is still young and has time. I hope he doesn't end us up as Ninis situation. I don't think he will.

I don't know why Martins doesn't put more trust in Androutsos. He is better than Bouchalakis in my opinion. More technical, good passer, runs alot and is more of pure 8. Galanopoulos should of had 4 caps by now. It's pathetic that he only has 1. Androutsos and Galanopoulos are more talented and will be our future mids.

I like this idea of how Skibbe job is on the line. We can now play our best players going forward. The team will be on fire as well as Skibbe now has to win at all costs. No more Tziolis and Tzavellas.

Skibbe now has to play his best players going forward, no questions asked. It's crazy how many players he hasn't called up yet. Fetfatzidis, Siovas, Lampropoulos, Vasilakakis, Paschalakis and so on. Oikonomou to me is not better than Lampropoulos and certainly not better than Siovas. Bakasetas is not better than Fetfatzidis. Also what about Vlachodimos. I'm not sure but I don't know if Tzavellas and Tziolis will he called up again, I'm not betting against it though. EPO would want them called up because of the cash flow they receive from them. This has caused Holebas to retire and has sabotaged us like their is no tomorrow. There is no point in calling them up if your not going to play them. Look what happened against Hungary. Both goals were Tzavellas fault. It's a waste of 2 spots. But EPO won't see this because they are greedy. Also why would Koulouris be called up from the 21s? There are plenty of better players there and I would rather have Manias or Manos instead of Koulouris at the moment.

Skibbe should be fired right now. There is no point in holding onto him in my opinion. He should have been sacked after the 2018 qualifiers. He was never the right option to begin with. He was the only option after Schuster. Schuster didn't sign because he wasn't given enough freedom. I dont want to wait until we lose for him to get sacked. I don't want to lose but it will be the only way he gets fired. Again, EPO should fire him right now.

Our obvious strength is Cbs then it's Gk in my opinion. The positions we are most thin at are ST and CDM/CM. This is what we need to fix. In my opinion we don't have enough quality at CDM/CM. This is where Androutsos comes in as I hope he could be our answer in this position. I do believe we have enough wingers we are just not utilising them. CAM I feel good about I think we are set their for another 5-6 years. We have plenty of Lbs, RB is a bit of a concern. Bakakis is really our only hope for the next few years. Torosidis should be our back up for now.

I agree 100%. We need players in their correct position also. So if we have Fetfatzidis and Lazaros for right wing and Donis and Gianniotas for left than we are looking good. Pelkas, Mantalos and Fortounis hold the CAM position. I hope Gianniotas plays well with AEK because he should be in our team. I also don't mind Torosidis being our back up to Bakakis. I still think he deserves to be on the team. He is our captain!

All I know is that when we had the ball we didn't penetrate. We looked to play it safe and keep possession without playing a killer pass. Bouchalakis tried to play the 8 role but wasn't effective. I do think we have looked better with possession for quite a while. Playing Tzavellas had to do with corruption, no doubt about it. You can't drop Lykogiannis after he and the defence kept a clean sheet in the first match. We need actual wingers in my opinion. Lazaros doesn't cut it for the national team. I think he should be a back up striker for Mitroglou. We have plenty of other talented wingers such as Donis, Gianniotas, Fetfatzidis, Pelkas and Limnios (who should have been called up). I hear a lot of sites blaming Sokratis for being slow. I don't think so. Without him and Manolas we are doomed. Oikonomou is not good enough in my opinion. Mavropanos and Siovas are way better. Even Lampropoulos is better. We should play a 3-5-2. Mitroglou is too slow and needs that support of a faster striker to work with and that's Donis. Fortounis plays behind them. The wing backs should be Bakakis and Lykogiannis. Kourbelis and Zeca for the DM roles. Barkas in goals and Sokratis, Manolas and Papadopoulos in defence. With our team its like we don't want to score more than 1 goal. That's probably just luck because we had many opportunities in both games to score in big score lines.