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pash

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Posts posted by pash

  1. Speaking as a PAOK fan, the only truly young prospects I see playing for my team these days are Konstantinidis and Koulouris. Maybe Pozoglou, although after a good start with the senior team, he's gotten absolutely no time yet (probably a sign of him not being as good as I like). I believe one of Koulouris and Pozoglou are banned as well, anyway.

     

    So that leaves Konstantinidis. Tzandaris had the benefit of lots of playing time with very low expectations, combined with an offense that was scoring for fun. I don't dislike him (he reminds me of a less aggressive Kace), but I think his mediocrity was covered up by those other points. He will end up in a midtable team, as Blackhawk used to say.

  2. i thought the people of crimea unanimously voted to become part of russia, like the people of montenegro did when they wanted independence.

     

    They most certainly did not. Those who were allowed to vote, however, were definitely overwhelmingly in support of it. Funny how that turns out.

  3. Kokoretsi is awesome, solid move. My grandparents let me know just yesterday that they've got a 35 pound lamb ready to go on the souvla.

     

    And melamatina is available in some places I've checked around here, but not nearly as uniquitous as kourtaki. I usually keep a bottle handy for when I'm watching PAOK, obvs.

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  4. Bingo.

     

    I'm a fan of Varoufakis, generally. But I never believed he'd be able to smash his way through the agreements and get a vastly different deal for Greece. What I expect, and hope for, are the aforementioned incremental changes to actually begin with this government. Tsipras needs to actually bring about the logical changes that previous governments agreed to but never bothered implementing - opening up industries to real competition, actually prosecuting tax cheats, and challenging the nepotism that truly forms the social and political backbone of the country.

     

    As far as Varoufakis - cutting the required primary surplus (I believe he was gunning for 1-1.5%?) would be a big step in the right direction. His push for repayments being tied to economic growth is attractive, but since we've already established that Greece cannot be relied upon to publish real numbers, the country and government needs to accept that large teams of auditors and accountants will have to set up semi-permanent shop in Greece.

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  5. Isn't Itandje on his way out? Giakoumis doesn't seem up for it, I can see him getting dropped, esp if we go for a new keeper as competition for Glykos.

     

    I still think Vitor is good, and his pairing with Insaurralde last season was, in my opinion, great. Costa has been a letdown, but I suppose you can't expect them to gel immediately. Papagiannopoulos seems fast, strong, and aggressive, and frankly has made a better showing of himself than Costa. We'll have him for a while too, so I'm sure he'll be getting a lot of playing time.

     

    So, right now, it looks like we have Vitor/Costa/Papagiannopoulos + whoever we have out on loan. Qose? Seems we need one more solid CB to even this out.

     

    I think our team is otherwise fine for a superleague season, but we have a serious lack of depth when we hit the midseason break and fatigue/etc takes its toll. Add in European + cup games, and we have a big problem. I don't think Skondras should be delegating for Rat, when he himself should be getting a *lot* of play time on the right. If Tzavellas is on the outs, or doesn't improve, we need to replace him (aren't we getting Korovesis this summer? Is he good enough to be backup?).

     

    Until recently I agreed with you on the CM/winger front. But look at who we have playing - Golasa rarely seems to start, and seems more comfortable in the center. We end up playing Pereyra on the wing much of the time, but he's also much more effective as a second striker/AM. If we are playing these two out of position at the best of times, it tells me that we do need another winger to offset Mak. And we all know Salpi isn't up to it anymore - any coach worth his salt will be playing him as a super sub.

     

    Do you think we'll be resigning Dpaps? It might not be a bad idea. I would rather us play Koulouris than hiring yet another striker. Or if he's not ready to play, then at least loan the guy out.

     

     

    My longwinded point - we have an adequate team, but an adequate team does not win championships. We need another 3 or 4 Naboa/Pereyra/Mak-level players to truly and fundamentally change PAOK.

  6. Russia's economy is in freefall and their army needs tow trucks to bring their armor to bear. This recent trip is very ill thought-out, even if it is only for posturing. Greece stands to gain little from dealing with an insipid dictatorship ruled by a pariah.

     

    Russia, on the other hand, might get some benefit out of playing Greece against its allies - you know, those countries that actually work together instead of annexing.

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  7. Katsikas, Spyropoulos, Tzandaris are all being released. If I had to guess, I'd say Tzavellas is going to be sold too (depending on who the new coach and technical director are).

     

    I believe Dpaps had a one-year contract, so he's out as well (and I doubt he'd be renewed). I think both Maduro and Martens have another year left on their contracts (although Martens will be on loan still, with us paying 50% of his wages).

  8. Tzavellas had a great chance to be the starter at PAOK last year, especially since Lino was atrocious for much of the (first half?) of the season. At this point, however, he is a shadow of the player that Rat is. He's a worthy backup (right now), but should not play CB. I can only assume he started the last match so that Costa/Papagiannopoulos could be rested for the playoffs.

     

    As far as the ethniki goes - as much as I dislike Holebas, I understand that we rely heavily upon our fullbacks to create chances and so on. It seems clear to me that similarly offensive-minded players are going to be used in the future (once Holebas declines) - mainly, Stafylidis.

     

    I should also note that Skondras, a RB, has also shown that he's a better LB than Tzavellas. A shame.

     

     

    Regarding this match - I watched the second half. We did all right, but we had the same problem we always have - we can't finish. DPaps has been doing better lately than Klaus (a LOT better), so thank goodness we had him there to score this brace. The goal against us was caused by a stupid, stupid mistake, as the defender was caught out very far up the field...

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