Dean97

Yeah but I think Fortounis is better thats my opinion. Mantalos should be 2nd choice. Fortounis is heaps better centrally.

That's true but we had our full team against Montenegro except one and that was Kpapadopoulos. I see what ur saying we need more practice with our main starters.

Fortounis would have destroyed Australia he is a type player who is ambitious and started become a real playmaker for our side. His finishing is above Mantalos even though it was a good finish by Mantalos.

Why isn't Mitroglou playing. He should be in the team. How come Samaris is playing it doesn't seem right. Sokratis is now in the team it goes to show you how much he cares for the national team. He and Torosidis are the only ones who actually care and Samaris aswell.

Fortounis is our attacking midfielder. I also think Fetfatzidis should be our back up. Pelkas needs another season to improve. Ninis I don't trust anymore he i s very inconsistent. There's a player that I think is not bad and I think in a few years he will be good and that's Orfanidis from Xanthi. Mantalos is obviously better behind the striker, but is also not bad as the 8ari as he plays at AEK.

No one is good enough to replace Torosidis. My opinion is Kitsiou can replace in the long run, Mavrias needs to play regularly especially at RB to be considered as a possible replacement. Bakakis is a possible option but also needs playing time especially if he is going to be playing in Europe. We need a player that can do the job and be better than Torosidis and at the moment no one is capable to do the job.

Does anyone know what happened to Salpingidis

http://www.phantis.com/content/greece-national-team-where-has-it-all-gone-wrong-how-can-it-be-solved#at_pco=smlrebv-1.0&at_si=570b9fa51c887b01&at_ab=per-4&at_pos=0&at_tot=auto Everyone should read this.

Tziolis provides nothing. Tachtsidis is slow and defensively is not that good. Samaris is good enough to be the 8ari. I agree about Maniatis. I like the idea about Torosidis and Holebas as wingbacks pushing forward alot. Also Petsos should be ahead of Tziolis. The real problem we have to worry about is Manolas. We all know how good he is and i am a fan this player. Sokratis is our best player. Kyriakos i can count on. He always turns it on for Greece. I think Manolas thinks his so good that he gets caught out when playing for Greece. I always wish the best for Greek players, i always want Greeks in anything to make us proud and do well and these past few years Manolas has been the most improved player out of all Greeks. Also in my opinion its safe to say Sokratis and Manolas are our World Class players. Im very patriotic and i am a very proud Greek and i want Greece to be a superpower not just in football but in everything thats how proud and patriotic i am. I can tell you in the 2014 World Cup Manolas suprised at how good he played and what he can do. This is my order of who made me think what a player they are. 1.Manolas ( Just shocked me at the way he defended and won so many areial duels but i knew what he was capable of from Olympiakos but at the World Cup he was king.) 2.Kone ( This guy looked way above everyone else in my opinion looked like the real spark for our team in attack.) 3.Lazaros/Samaris ( Lazaros showed everyone how well he can dribble past players.) Samaris completely shocked me with the way the goal he scored when he came on.) These 4 have serious talent and should be the players that should of carried this team in Euro Qualifiers. But they didnt. The only player that i can say that did well and was better than everyone else was Sokratis. He tried to carry this team by himself this shows you how much he cares and the passion he has for his country. All in all if Manolas does not pick up his NT form i say we give the spot to Papadopoulos.

In my opinion say what you want about Siovas but he saved us a couple of times. The score could have been more. Oikonomou looked like he couldn't win a header all game. Holebas passing is not good enough. Stafylidis is a better passer of the ball. I think Skibbe also wants Stafylidis somewhere on the team. Vellios looked good with his touches. Karelis and Fortounis are carrying this team in attack. Papazoglou has no place in the team. Petsos I believe is a good player. Overall the team looks promising. I also believe if we had one of Manolas, Sokratis or Papadopoulos starting we would have drew this match.

I know how you feel chriskiato. I wanted Ninis and Fetfatzidis to be in the starting 11 for a long time and it finally happened but for only 5 mins and that was in the WC qualifiers under Santos.

I agree that Karelis is short. Not that short but. He is strong and fast enough with the ball at his feet and looks the most hungriest player in attack. Him being on the wing I think would make him isolated and not get the ball as much. Him being striker is a better idea, but then again is he good enough in the air to score goals. It's also a good idea to try him CAM. Diamantakos I am a fan of, he plays with passion. Vellios has been a gun lately. I also wouldn't mind seeing both playing up top. In this match id like to see Fortounis, Petsos and Tachtsidis midfield. Especially Fortounis playing deeper which he can run through the middle because of his dynamic dribbling and create a possible goal scoring chance. Also this will be a better test and with 4 key players missing we should see...

I thought we played a good match. Sokratis was good, Fortounis was good. Manolas should have done better in the corner. Tzavellas played well also. Stafylidis showed he can be a big part to this team he shows great energy down the left and is good with the ball at his feet. Samaris was very average for me. Tachtsidis should take his place next game. We must play Petsos again. He was very good in his positioning, he is faster and more agile than Tachtsidis but Tachtsidis is technically better. Torosidis was average. Oikonomou looked good also. What a player Karelis is! he and Fortounis must play in the same line up, that was a good finish.

Samaris I know can handle big match situations.

That's true. Maniatis is better than Tziolis in all aspects of the game. But I still don't know if Tachtsidis is going help in the long term. Against minnow and average teams he is a very good player. But how will he be against the stronger teams and big match situations.

What a shame. This is becoming very annoying. He is a type of player that would save you the game. I believe he played better than Manolas all campaign. He is definitely needed in the Ethniki. Is there any news on Sokratis?

Everyone knows that Manolas, Papadopoulos and Sokratis have the CB position covered for the next 5-10 years. Siovas should not be there. Good thing that Vyntra did not get called up. I also noticed that Lazaros and Kone did not get called up.

I don't why Skibbe has called up 6cbs and 3Lbs. Also we have to many strikers. Kitsiou should have been called up.

It has always been tricky figuring out who should be in the starting 11 in my opinion the defensive midfield position is very thin and I believe only Samaris and Tachtsidis should be in there. I also believe that they are both level in ability. It's just one of them is faster than the other. They are both level In passing but I believe Tachtsidis plays more riskier passes, which is good. They are both tall, good in the air, strong and both a goal each. Maniatis is another option but is not as good as a distributor as the other 2. Petsos needs to be given a go. Bouchalakis and Kourbelis have long way especially the latter. K.Papadopoulos can be an option cause he is a strong tackler and in a 3 man midfield he can sit back and let the likes of Samaris, Tachtsidis, Fortounis, Mantalos and Pelkas create and support the forwards.

this is Tsilianidis.

I hope Kitsiou and Stafylidis improve their defence they need to be more physical and aggressive in their tackles. They are good at attacking. I also like the PAOK youth talent such as Kitsiou, Mystakidis, Pelkas, Charisis, Korovesis, I also heard good things about the new CB they bought. Im a Olympiakos fan and i believe PAOKs youth players they bring up are better than AEK, PAO and OLY. I also think Vellios should be playing ahead of Giannou in the pecking order. Even Iraklis youth players like Tsilianidis and Asteras Tripolis have Kourbelis. Ive heard good stuff about Panionios players such as Bakasetas. Im not sure what the coach is going to do with the team in the upcoming friendlies but players like Samaris, Sokratis, Manolas, and Mitroglou should not start give players like Pelkas, Gianniotas, Charisis, Diamantakos a go also let Kapino start and give K.Papadopoulos and Oikonomou a try as back ups.

i just want to point out something as i want to point it out here. In the 2014 world cup we all know the players that played well Samaris, Kone and Lazaros. We thought that these players after Karagounis, Katsouranis and Salpingidis were going to do the job and show leadership and take over from the old players. Im finding it very hard still that we didn't qualify for Euro 2016. i actually believed we would reach the semi's in Euro 16 with the way we played in the World Cup in 2014. I also thought we would demolish our group. Especially because we have a younger squad with faster players. The 1st game is understandable, but after the 3rd game i started to realise something and something was not right. Something was not right. I still cant figure it out only until a few weeks ago. Yes there were things like the players were not showing passion, energy or showing no interest. But i believe that was not true. i believe the team had this mentality that they could take it easy against the teams as they thought they were too good for them and underestimated them. But then again the second match against the Faroes proved to be something else as it was i feel a poor combination players and bad luck up the front. The only good games we played was against Romania and Hungary both home and away. those are the only 4 that i think we played good and showed character but even then there were bad points as is always the case with the National Team. I know there is another topic on this forum about the most dissapointing player but i am having hard time as to who i think was the most dissapointing player was. But i beleve our defence was most dissapointing all included. But if i had to choose a single player that dissapointed me i think it would have to have been either Samaris or Kone. I actually counted on these 2 to do the job for Greece. I knew Lazaros would be inconsistent, I also knew Mitroglou would be inconsistent. The only good player i think overall and shows a lot of promise is Karelis, he shocked me a couple of times. I also think Karnezis could have done better. I also think once Torosidis and Holebas stop playing and lose form we will be in trouble. Kitsiou and Stafylidis i believe are not strong to keep up with the stronger teams. I believe if we want to get better we need to utilise Holebas and Torosidis on the wings and make sure Mitroglou is on his game swell as others. I also believe Fortounis needs to start from here on out. Id like to know what everyone else thinks about what i have said and add what else was the cause and what needs to happen from now.

Thanks.

i hear a lot of things about Kourbelis on this forum what is he so good at i keep on hearing that he should have been chosen over Tziolis and stuff like that. What makes him a good player.