Dean97

I think players like Lazaros,Kone, Samaras,Ninis and Fetfatzidis look like they are done with the national team. When it should be Tziolis. Fetfatzidis is a no brainer to be on this team. Also why hasn't Bouchalakis been given a chance yet? I know he doesn't play often but when he does he looks better than Maniatis. I hope Siopis surpasses Maniatis one day. I'd like to see Kone return to the team but I know Mantalos and Fortounis are more than capable of lifting this team. Ninis is out of form he needs to show how good he is again and show why nearly all of Greece rated him to be the next Messi. Lazaros has been in alright form and we need wingers but he is very in consistent, he also annoys me with the decisions he makes on the field. Just like Samaras. Fetfatzidis needs to be on this team. He has far better technique than Mantalos and Fortounis. He has the best technique in all of Greece. Manthatis looks promising for the wing position and I think Gianniotas needs to be given more chances. At the end of the day Greece's biggest strength is there defence. The two things Greece rely on is the defence and in form Mitroglou. If we can get this constantly and consistently we should be fine.

I understand and I agree with what you are saying. All I'm trying to say is it wouldn't hurt for Siopis and Kourbelis to score a few goals a season with good amount of assists. Bouchalakis when he gets a chance scores from outside the box. He has had a good left foot and powerful shots. He just needs more experience and game time. Maybe I'm asking for too much. I remember Samaris a holding midfielder who played for Panionios and scored at least 3-4 goals per season. Then he went to Olympiakos for one season and scored 3 or 4 goals with a decent amount of assists. This season Kourbelis and Siopis haven't scored once and had 0 assists each. They need to work on shooting and creating chances for themselves.

I love the optimism but dominated the league I don't think so. Siopis and Kourbelis have not scored goals and are very limited in assists aswell. Retsos has potential, but still needs experience. The last real Greek to dominate the Greek League was Fortounis last season. Before that it was Mitroglou. Although the future looks bright with players like Kyriakopoulos, Limnios, Risvanis and Barkas. They are still not their in terms of being in the national team. Or proving themselves to be the next Charisteas, Zagorakis or Basinas. They have some sort of talent. What I'm trying to say is that Ninis and Fetfatzidis were considered the next big thing at the age of 18. I don't see a player today who is like that. I also agree with Donis being a second striker in the national team just behind Mitroglou.

There is always limitations in this team. There arnt all rounders in this team. Samaris is the closest to an all rounder. Kone is an all rounder, he can pass, shoot, control the ball, tackle, good at delivering set pieces and can also get on the end of them. Maniatis can't pass, Tziolis is too slow and can't pass, Siopis is too short. Tachtsidis is slow and can get lazy but has amazing passes. Zeca and Maniatis are the right options to play against Bosnia. They run all day and help out the defence.

Ausgreek looks the more realistic one, but I like the idea of playing Gianniotas as ST. If Karelis was fit I would play him and Mantalos as strikers and Tachtsidis behind them as CAM in a friendly match. The reason being Mantalos and Karelis have good speed and Tachtsidis is decent in the air so when a cross comes in Tachtsidis will be there in time to header it in. Also from a counter attack Mantalos and Karelis can chase through balls because of their speed which will allow them to take more shots on goal. That's a tactic I would do. Also Mitroglou can play just behind the 2 fast strikers because he is good at holding up the ball. Also Fortounis should be tried out on the wing. He has good crosses. Tzavellas and Maniatis should be just bench options and should be put on if we need to slow the game down or put an extra man in defence. Players like Tachtsidis, Mantalos, Fortounis, Karelis, Siopis or even Pelkas should be on the same field due to their knowledge of the game and the massive amount of creativity that they have. Zeca, Maniatis,Tziolis, Oikonomou and Vellios would disrupt any free flowing attacking football. We would just see long balls to no one. Also I read somewhere that Skibbe is looking at calling up Risvanis. I don't know what to think of it. My first thought was it's a good Idea because he is a promising player but we have good enough depth in that position.

I believe Mantalos should go CAM against Bosnia. He is wasted on the wing. Stafylidis will be a key player for us. He has improved. I always thought he was good, I just think he can be a bit of a liability in big matches. He is only 23. He can be even better. As far as Lykogiannis, he should be given a chance in friendlies. He is not starting material for this team. I would have liked to see a Tachtsidis-Siopis midfield combo. Our biggest problem is keeping possession, and taking control of the midfield. We have seen Samaris, Maniatis, Tziolis and Tachtsidis been given chances as nothing seems to work. Androutsos should play in the Bosnia match, maybe come on in the 65th minute. I also think Zeca won't benefit us that much. There is literally no one else worthy enough to be in the midfield. Papadopoulos is a CB for me. Our other problem is that our defenders are the worst passers. Manolas and Sokratis misplaced passes a couple of times in the Belgium match. Tzavellas offered nothing but long balls forward to no one. Torosidis is not the player he used to be. But these players are very good defenders and that's it. They can't contribute much in going forward. They can only mark, win headers and tackle. Next thing is Fortounis better pick up his game or else we will suffer. He is very good he is just not showing like he was last season. Mitroglou is in the best form, as we need Fortounis to give him passes to score from. Tachtsidis is vital to this team. He is big, confident and very positive to the midfield. But his slowness is a problem and can get lazy at times and that annoys me because he is very good. Mitroglou has improved in this aspect. A player that will benefit this team is Manthatis. He is physical and skillful and also has good speed. Gianniotas should be given more opportunities. Also back to the defence Oikonomou and Siovas are very average they would have to have their game of their lives if they were to play against teams like Belgium to to keep a clean sheet even that would not be enough. We are lucky to have very fast and strong CBs like Manolas and Sokratis. Papadopoulos has the best strength and the best headers in the team. He is like Dellas. In the next match I believe we should have Fortounis come off the bench in the 70th minute as a winger. He has got a decent cross in him. Does anyone know if Karelis is back for the match against Bosnia? If he is it will be a huge boost. Also when we have a full team we are very dangerous. One thing that should be done is have Tziolis off this team. He is not good enough. Papadopoulos is a better defensive midfielder even though his position is CB.

I would not count on it. Tziolis looks like he will start next match.

Manolas did very well. So did Sokratis. Mitroglou has regained that confidence he had back in 2013. He looks like he is playing on another level. But his slowness holds him back to do even more damage. Papadopoulos is out next match. Stafylidis has improved but is still a liability.

I believe he can offer more in attack. Look what he did against Ivory Coast. Played higher up and scored, which Karagounis and Maniatis were the holding midfielders. Best game? Not sure about that. It was one of his best games defensively. I thought he was more solid in defence than attack. Some of his passes were very average today when I believe his passing is the best part of his game. I agree with you pash. I was thinking the same. We should have put Stafylidis LB with Gianniotas as LW. That would of done more damage to Belgium's right side of defence. I also believe Zeca should of came on earlier or Maniatis.

Samaris was very average for me today. Maybe I'm expecting him to play killer passes and try and create something further up the field. But I get what his job is, his job is to stay deep and help out the defence. Tachtsidis should have not gotten a second yellow. The foul wasn't that bad. We have 4 maybe 5 key players missing in our next big match against Bosnia. I also think Stafylidis is a liability in defence. You can't trip over yourself like that and he almost cost us an own goal. Positive of the match was we were focused and determined throughout the match. We were organised and pressed them well. I just hope we see the same in the next match. We were so close to a win, a win that would've helped us.

F***en ref. I'm also pissed off that Belgium equalized. We deserved much better today. We fought hard but can play better in attack. Imagine if we won. The win would of done a world of good for us.

The ref is so F***en stupid! Gives a red card to Tachtsidis. Samaris and Tzavellas miss the next game aswell. Now we have to see Tziolis-Maniatis midfield against Bosnia.

Mitroglou!

Tachtsidis is doing fine. Samaris needs to do better. So does Tzavellas.

I wonder what formation Skibbe is going to use in this match. If he goes 4-2-3-1 like normal we will have problems. In my opinion it needs to be 3-5-2 with wing backs. Also a midfield trio of Samaris, Zeca and Maniatis. Although I would not want this midfield it sure will be a safe midfield. Or even Siopis start over Zeca to have more of an edge in attack. We should keep a clean sheet the whole game and try and score in the end of the match. I am hoping for a win, it is likely we will draw. I don't want to lose! If it means parking the bus then so be it. I don't want to cop 5 goals. I want us to score at least 2 goals or more. Imagine if we beat Belgium this would be huge for our confidence going forward and a big boost against Bosnia. Also this match is on independence day. I hope they make us proud.

I wonder what this new Hellas is. It can't get any new than what it is. Unless your talking about bringing Retsos and Limnios in the team. They are both 18 and need more time to be considered. Androutsos is another player who looks like the real deal. I didn't mind how we have played lately in this campaign, all I care is that if we are winning. Can we play better, yes but we should be thankful that we are winning and not losing. We beat Cyprus and Estonia 2-0, usually we would be scraping 1-0 wins against these teams. The worst game I've seen us play was against Bosnia. That game was the worst game from us so far. Thank goodness for our defense otherwise we would of lost 3-1. We can't just rely on Fortounis and Mantalos. Mitroglou has to be on fire to have any chance of making it to the world cup.

This is the worst I've seen Olympiakos play. They played very sluggish and continuously losing possession. Cambiasso was the culprit. Romao should not play again. Retsos would of done a better job as a CDM. Retsos did well but was unfortunate to close down on the goal. Kapino needs to come back. This was also Fortounis worse game. He couldn't do anything special and was losing possession. Androutsos should have played. Things need to change as this is not the same Olympiakos from 5 years ago. No heart, boring and very sluggish.

We will most likely see that line up against Belgium with Mantalos starting instead of Gianniotas. But to be smart we should be playing 5-3-2, our defence is our strength. We haven't got enough options in attack. Especially now that Karelis is injured. Bakasetas and Diamantakos are options but what are they going to do in a big match like this.

That's true Salpingidis was a workhorse. He always helped Torosidis in defence and that's why I believe we did well in the past 2 tournaments. We had players who were disciplined in defence and the right speed on the counter for example Salpingidis and Samaras. I see something in Mavrias. I believe he can be useful for the national team. He has got some of Salpingidis passion and determination. I'd like to see how he plays as a right back or right wingback.

With the way things are going I can see us playing 5-3-1-1 turned into 3-5-2 in attack. Papadopoulos is out through suspension, and Karelis is injured. We will see the same players such as Maniatis, Diamantakos and Bakasetas being called up. I'd like to see a 4-2-3-1 but it can't happen as our midfielders can't do the job. I wonder how Mitroglou will do, also Fortounis. I think we will go for the draw and try and scrape through a 1-0 win. That is the best way you can do it with a team like ours.

Does anyone know how he is doing? Apparently he is starting most games.

Obviously. Having a packed stadium is also going to give them that extra push. Im worried about how we are going to do. As it's getting closer I'm having some doubts. But I'm not being negative. We can get a draw. A win would be miraculous. Anything is possible. We just need to work hard and not lose focus. They are very talented compared to us. Hazard, Fellaini, Naingolan, De Bryune, Courtois, Lukaku, Witsel just to name a few. These are elite to world class players. Most of the team is world class. Most of Greece's players are at the elite level. Sokratis and Manolas can't do everything. Samaris needs to step it up and Karnezis needs to be alert. We have no Papadopoulos or Karelis in this match. Mitroglou is our only hope. Also to mention Skibbe played a vital role in getting Maniatis to Atromitos. Skibbe is also eyeing Manthatis and Mystakidis. Kolovos is most likely to be called up. I believe we can get a draw. But I'm hoping for a win.

What about Glykos? The Giannina keeper looks impressive. Also Barkas should be given a shot.

Also, the upcoming match against Belgium is sold out. I wonder how we are going to do in a packed stadium against one of the favourites to win the world cup.

Manthatis should be given a chance.