Dean97

In my opinion Giannoulis is a solid back up to Tsimikas. If Tsimikas is not available then Giannoulis should be playing. I like Giannoulis, non stop running with and without the ball and excellent crossing. He needs to work on his defensive side to his game which i don’t think is that bad, but he’s just as good as Tsimikas going forward. I would rather play actual wingers than having a LB play there. Tzolis is our most inform winger and the coach shouldn’t ignore him. He has scored and assisted more than our other wingers. I actually think we have great wingers and LBs who are consistently playing well. Chatzigiovannis is playing well lately, Masouras is scoring and Tzolis is on fire. Limnios needs to start scoring and assisting for his club as I think he is either been unlucky or slacking off lately for his club and even the last couple of Ethniki games. My main concern is who we play at RB, CBs, CDM/CM/CAM. These positions need to be sorted out. Keeper should be Vlachodimos and at ST anyone who is the most inform.

I’d rather start Mantalos or Pelkas at 10. If that’s not working then bring Fortounis on to do some damage. The opposition would be more tired as the game goes on and Fortounis would have a good amount of energy for 60 or so minutes to do some damage. Maybe Fortounis shouldn’t start. He doesn’t run enough and looks lazy at times. He is easy to mark out of a game as he isn’t that fast (as seen in the game against Porto.) Think about it, he is our star player and teams know that. Bringing him on off the bench maybe the right approach. Especially against better opposition. Against teams like Georgia he should start. In any case Bakasetas shouldn’t be starting let alone be in the team. That’s just my opinion. We have 3 more talented, faster and skilful CAMs and yet JVS decides to play our slowest and most unskillful CAM. I may be harsh about Bakasetas, but too many times I’ve seen him destroy our momentum in attack because of his uncoordinated and slow style he brings. He is very limited. The only positive in my opinion is his left foot shot. Even then, most of the time is off target. Others like Bakakis, Mavrias, Kourbelis, Stafylidis, Tzavellas, Svarnas and Bouchalakis aren’t good enough and won’t take us far in a tournament either. I hope JVS knows this.

What’s happened to Donis? Also Pavlidis to me needs more time. There’s something there with him. He does well in the Netherlands. It doesn’t help when you have a very limited player like Bakasetas behind him. That position is very important in helping the team in scoring and creating. Need someone with skill, some pace and intelligence. I don’t know why he plays him. Especially when you got 2 other midfielders who aren’t great passers of the ball and who I think are only ball winners and not ball technicians. On top of that every other player is playing out of position like Fortounis at LW and Hatzidiakos at RB. Mavrias who is also very average to bad. He isn’t the solution. So we are shooting ourselves in the foot in terms of trying to score goals. We are not giving ourselves the best chance to score in my opinion. Yes we are attacking way more than before and we are keeping the ball but when it comes to the final third we aren’t executing effectively. If we play actual inform wingers (Tzolis) with a better CAM (Fortounis) then there is a higher chance that we can score goals. Lastly our biggest problem I think is that we don’t have good enough depth. What I’ve noticed also in the past and currently with this team is that we always have the better players on the bench. We play players who are limited to start off with instead of starting with our best players. I think that’s because we don’t have a strong enough talent pool and by starting our best players our bench would be much weaker so by bringing on a weaker player wouldn’t make sense if your trying to improve the team. For example starting Fortounis and Tzolis and then subbing them off for less talented players like Bakasetas and say Mantalos wouldn’t improve us or help us win the game. If that makes any sense... See if we had strong enough depth and consistency in our talent pool then who we sub in or out wouldn’t be make such a difference.

Hopefully he starts gaining momentum. I know he’s been without a club for a while and is hitting 31, but he still offers something after the few games I’ve seen him play. He has a lot to do still to get a call up but what have Bouchalakis/Kourbelis/Zeca done so special for us? We need an 8 who is technical and someone who can spray nice passes with vision. Who can do it the way he can? Your not going to get that from our current CMs. We should be desperate to find someone who can offer these things...if not him or Mantalos then who is it going to be? Galanopoulos hasn’t got enough vision I think to properly dominate the 8 position. He’s only slightly more technical and creative than Zeca and Kourbelis in my opinion...

I’m open to playing at Rizoupoli. I don’t know when fans will be back but for now Rizoupoli seems fine. I just hope the pitch is fine to play on.

I agree file. Mantalos being played deep can help us more in attack. He is no left winger. He is more of a technical dribbler. Not a speed dribble rwho has the speed to take the ball the down the line past defenders like a Limnios, Chatzigiovannis and Donis can. He seems someone like Fortounis that can get out of tight spaces and put in a good through ball. That’s why Mantalos is better off at CAM or deeper at CM. Ive seen him at AEK a bit play deeper and he looked good. Same thing can be said about Ninis. He played CM against Olympiakos and put in a great performance. Tackled well, passing was very good and almost scored a wonderful solo goal when he played a 1-2 with Douvikas. Also speaking about Douvikas, he could and should be another option for striker.

JVS has to think about his line ups going forward. We can’t be playing Bakasetas at CAM. Bakakis/Mavrias is not the answer at RB. Also Kourbelis shouldn’t be an automatic starter. We need to find the right replacements. Tzavellas and Svarnas will get destroyed against Spain and Sweden. Kosovo weren’t that easy when played against them. He has to seriously look into the talent pool and find the replacements. Manolas and Siovas can’t be ignored. Even Ninis who had a great game against Olympiakos shouldn’t be ignored. Tzolis who is the most inform Greek attacker at the moment should be starting. Fortounis also should at least go back in at CAM. If we go into this qualification with the same line ups as the nations league, don’t expect us to get 2nd. We’ve played good football against teams that we should be beating like Moldova and Kosovo. We just beat these teams in reality and we couldn’t beat Slovenia twice. This shows we have a finishing problem. Also those teams don’t have world class attackers like Spain and Sweden do. In any case it’s a must win against Kosovo and Georgia. No losses or draws. Against Spain we should hope we get a draw in one of the two games we play them. Against Sweden we should hopefully get a win and a draw. All games should be focused on winning each game but if these results that I just mentioned happen, it will be enough to get 2nd. From then on anything can happen. This will be a big task for our team. JVS better be wise with his selections...

Thank you for your reply. Can you please refresh my memory as I don’t think I’ve ever seen Mantalos play as an 8 for the national team... Most of the time he’s played at left wing (which he hasn’t been the most effective in my opinion)and very rarely at CAM. He should be playing his natural position at CAM.

I agree we need to play 1 defensive midfielder at all times. We should shift Mantalos as an 8. He’s not good on the left wing and isn’t our best CAM at the same time. He doesn’t score a lot so moving him deeper in midfield to give an attacking spark might be the solution. Bouchalakis is too slow, Kourbelis isn’t good on the ball and lacks vision. Zeca is just a workhorse and that’s about it. Regarding Galanopoulos, I’d take him over any of those 3 I just mentioned. He’s still young and can improve even more. After seeing Olympiakos play against Marseille, I think Fortounis isn’t as great as we think he is. I do agree that he’s our best CAM but he’s very inconsistent.

I really want to see him play for Greece. It’s long overdue and his injuries haven’t helped. I really think he can be a good addition to the team.

Yeah so did I.

I don’t know if he’s the answer. We’ve had a disastrous 6 years with him being in the 11. He didn’t show up when we needed him. Kourbelis and Bouchalakis aren’t any better. We have a serious problem at CM. I think we will be seeing Zeca as the number 6 going forward.

This is our best 11 in my opinion. If everyone is fit and healthy: Vlachodimos Masoura Mavropano Manola Tsimi Zeca Mantalos Limnios Fortounis Tzolis Fountas/Giakoumakis We need to try Mantalos as an 8. Zeca can stay as a 6. Fortounis in his natural position. Fountas I think out of all of our strikers is our best. But I’m not completely satisfied with our strikers. We need someone better. Subs - Donis (when fit and healthy) Vasiliadis, Galanopoulos, Pavlidis, Masouras, Barkas, Retsos To be dropped completely - Bakasetas, Svarnas, Kourbelis, Mavrias, Tzavellas and Koulouris and Bakakis. We haven’t in a long time played our BEST team possible. Mavropanos I think is better than Sokratis, Hatzidiakos and Retsos. Manolas is self explanatory. He is our best CB hands down. They also could work well together. Giannis Masouras is very underrated and has loads of pace. He can even score with his weak foot. He should be playing at RB. Against any strong or weak side this should be the 11 as much as possible. If you notice each player is the best in there position. I think Vasiliadis could be our best 8 but he hasn’t been given a chance yet.

I agree.

Tzavellas should be no where near the national team for me. We have better CBs. Kyriakopoulos isn’t as special as Tsimikas, Giannoulis or even Koutris. He still has to prove himself, especially for Greece. Fortounis is our best player.

There are many different types of 6s these days. Some are workhorses and shield the defence like Kourbelis and Zeca. Some are more known to be a deep lying playmaker like Tachtsidis, Bouchalakis and Samaris. An 8 should be able to do it all. Defend, vision, pace, skill, stamina intelligence, creativity, shooting, passing, dribbling and tackling. Bouchalakis and Samaris don’t fit in the 8 position. Most 8s in the modern game have pace and skill. Samaris and Bouchalakis aren’t fast and don’t have enough skill.

Bouchalakis isn’t an 8. He is more of a 6 and so is Samaris. Zeca the same. Vasiliadis is an 8. Mantalos can play as an 8 in my opinion. We should’ve played 1 DM and 2AMs in a 4-3-3 like we did against Cyprus.

Your not wrong he along with Bakasetas kill our attacks.

He is really bad...

Same could be said about Androutsos. He has also been mishandled.

I think I’d start Siopis next to Bouchalakis. I want to see Pelkas as the 10 to start off with to see what he can do. I rate Pavlidis more than Giakoumakis but Giakoumakis has been in great form. So let’s see what he can do for Greece. Wouldn’t mind seeing Hatzidiakos and Michailidis together at CB.

Don’t know. I think Masouras or Tzolis should start on the left wing. He should call Chatzigiovannis up to see what he’s got.

Tsimikas should replace him.

Relax he was just joking... Have a sense of humour. You don’t have to take it personal. There’s no need for name calling. The reason why Mavrias is in the team is because of his agent. His agent must’ve made a good deal with the EPO. I can’t seem to understand how Anastasiadis and Van’t Schip seem to like him. Both have called him up. There’s no way they think he is a good player or good RB. If they do then they simply don’t know much about football. I’ve recently listed 6 players better than him that actually play. We all have our opinions about the coach and team selections but there’s no need to get personal and start calling people names...

I agree 100%. He knows how to run the team when we are with the ball and takes on more responsibility. When Ninis used to be in form he made Greece look more dangerous. Fortounis does the same but when both are in form Ninis to me is a better player. But now that Fortounis has currently made a name for himself he should be automatically our 1st choice CAM.