Dean97

Can you imagine Lazaros dribbling towards the defence and Donis making a run through the wing. Talking about creating chances, with Fortounis in the mix we could look dangerous in attack. All we need is for Mitroglou to perform and the midfielders to do their job.

He soon won't be. He probably will sign for Panathinaikos. That's if OFI make it to the Superleague.

So let's just play out of form 2nd division bench warmers who can't play well even when given a chance by Skibbe. By the way I'm talking about Vellios and Diamantakos. Might as well give an inform player a chance. Inform players are Pelkas, Kourbelis, Manolas, Retsos, Paschalakis, Bakakis, Manos, Kyriakopoulos, Papadopoulos and Tsimikas. These players should be given the chance this time around.

Now it's time that we call up inform players and none of this closed club mentality. We need our best players possible. The Ethniki is one big family so all Greeks need to be taken in consideration. Dimitris Manos who plays in the Greek second division is in hot form for OFI and has scored 10 goals with 4 assists. He is clinical. We are very thin in the strikers position. Diamantakos and Vellios don't seem to cut it this season.

The question is what does Lykogiannis offer that Stafylidis doesn't. Stafylidis is a bit faster. But they have good shots on them. Does that mean Lykogiannis replaces Torosidis at right back? And where does Bakakis fit in all this?

Our matches start in September. So the question is how many friendlies will we have coming up to September? We need to be playing games in order to find new a way of gelling as a team. First thing Skibbe should do is to let go of Tziolis, Maniatis and Tzavellas. He needs to also start playing Kourbelis, Bakakis and Pelkas. He should also keep an eye on Fetfatzidis now that Mantalos and Karelis are sidelined. Hopefully Donis can not be the only one carrying the team in attack, so Fortounis and Mitroglou need to lift their socks up and combine with Donis to create and score goals.

Haven't heard of him. Asteras have a few good young players. Douvikas looks like he is doing well also. Emmanoulidis is an up and coming winger to look out for.

Isn't there another friendly against Egypt?

I guess you think Fetfatzidis is done as well when in reality he would put all our attackers on show.

By the way Ninis is having trouble with his club in Israel and is probably going to leave this transfer window. He will then not be able to play for another team in Europe until next season. He has strong ambitions to play in Europe and being in the national team again. I hope he play in the national team again because he has glimpses of greatness.

Do you seem to still favour Mystakidis over him pash?

He Is good enough for RW or LW. We could still use him as a attacking midfielder. By the way I am a Olympiakos fan.

I agree. But does anyone actually think that the u21s will be better than our current group of players later in 2-3 years? Or is it wishful thinking?

Bottom line is we have to replace Tziolis, Maniatis and Tzavellas. We cannot go through another campaign and seee these players. Bakakis, Kourbelis and Siopis should be good enough to start playing for this team.

I'm also referring to what Skibbe said about the friendlies in March about how he doesn't need to play Sokratis and Mitroglou.

I agree. Bakasetas can score. Donis needs to be in this team no matter what position. His best position is LW. Now that Mitroglou and Karelis are out Donis has to be the striker we go with in a 4-2-3-1. We could experiment with a 3-5-2 but who knows what Skibbe has in mind. I also wouldn't count out PAOK.

Yeah he did. Kone is more agile in my opinion. He is more flexible. Bakasetas is not that fast but is still capable. They play similar positions. With our friendlies coming up this could be the chance to try Donis as the striker.

I've always wondered how Bakasetas would do as number 8. He has a very good shot and works hard defensively. Maybe Skibbe can use his brain and put him there. We have no one in our midfield who can shoot like the way he does. Bouchalakis has also got a powerful shot.

I would have not expect him to play the way he did before his injury. That knee injury was very serious and no wonder he was out for 9 months. If anything he needs time to regain that form he had.

I would give Bakasetas another chance if he can continue like this. He has played decent in other matches before this one as well. Players like Stafylidis, Kourbelis, Kapino, Pelkas, Lykogiannis and Bakasetas look like they are late bloomers. They all played together in the youth teams and they are getting better by age. I believe we will see even better performances from them when they hit 27 or even 26.

He is not a winger either but he played their and did well. He started off as a striker earlier in his career.

He played very well against Panaitolikos. I hope he can keep this form going.

I wouldn't mind that line up in March. But we score most of our goals from set pieces and the lack of height in that team could cost us. This team looks like it would do well with nice passes and strikers running into space. Defensively it looks safe especially with Siopis in the middle running everywhere but again we need some tall players to defend and attack set pieces.

Kitsiou I rated a long time ago. Bakakis and Lykogiannis need to be tried. Koutris has a future. We have leftbacks we also have some right backs. By the biggest issue and the reason why this topic is here is that we will probably not have a decent enough replacement for Mitroglou. Old strikers such as Charisteas, Gekas, Vryzas, Nikolaidis and Salpingidis are all legends and have retired. Now we have Karelis who is injury prone and Donis who is currently injured. I believe in the future we will have midfielders than can pass a ball unlike Tziolis and have more of a brain unlike Samaris and Tziolis. Samaras was very good in that sole striker position. Mitroglou is very slow. I know he is a target man but with our current midfield like Samaris, Tachtisidis and Tziolis where will the goals come from. These midfielders mentioned play very one dimensional at times and with a static striker like Mitroglou it's very easy for opposing defenders to close down. We need to fix this problem as we will not score and therefore not be in major tournaments. The full back position is the least of our problems.

We all have the same idea about our current line up. I'd like to know what suggestions or predictions we have on this forum for our future national team. At the moment players like Fortounis, Sokratis, Manolas, Zeca, Mantalos and Mitroglou have their positions covered for the next 5-6 years. But alot of things can happen. I am very optimistic and proud of our nation as I want our players to be at their best and keep on improving. I want the best for our players and I'm sure everyone agrees. At first I didn't think Mavropanos had what it takes to make it big one day. But now I'm starting to want the best for him as he signed with Arsenal. I rated Hatzidiakos and Nikolaou higher than him and it came as a surprise that he was bought from Arsenal. I believe with the talent and depth that we have at Centre back we are secure for the next 10-15 years. I wish I could say the same for our strikers. Even at the Goalkeeping position we look like we will have good depth. So I have decided to make a starting 11 for the future. Say in 5 or 6 years we could see this team. Kapino/Barkas Retsos Mavropanos Manolas Stafylidis Kourbelis Galanopoulos Fortounis Pelkas/Kampetsis Donis. Douvikas Other players: Gianniotis, Mandas, Tsintotas, Risvanis, Papadopoulos, Siopis, L.Lamprou, Karelis, Nikolaou, Masouras, Manthatis, Limnios, Mantalos, Emmanoulidis, P.Selkos (look him up), Androutsos, Vrakas, Tsimikas, Goutas, Tzanetopoulos, Giannoulis, Bakasetas. This is based on my prediction and also suggestions for our future teams. There some players from the u20s league and also players who play for u19s national team. Sokratis can still be around as well as Tachtsidis. Samaris can also be in the team as well as Bakakis, Lykogiannis and Koutris. There will probably be more players from Oly, Pao, Aek and Paok youth players coming up. There are also young players playing in Atromitos as rotational players as well.