Brklyngrk

Calling up 40 players to see what they have is not a bad thing. He gets to meet them and introduce himself.

I like the fact that we have 1 year trial with him. No more Stafylidis/Tsimikas at CB (hopefully). It's a clean slate and if we don't like what we see, we move on with no real financial implications.

Thanassis, Calathes, Spanoulis (not sure if he still plays for the national team).

It's a shitty way to get there but.....

We need the 15th place in order to get the extra CL spot.

I guess it depends on the role he sees for him. He has been scoring but I agree, the other two, along with Pavlidis have been doing better.

These games are so tough. The teams play with players who in all likelihood, would not represent them at the event. So you have countries like Serbia, Greece, Spain playing without major stars.

Tzimikas should be worth more than 10 million. Manolas 5m?? Tziolis' value should have dropped, had zero playing time this year.

It's going to be tough - PAOK needs to better the results from the teams behind them. Greece has an advantage with the Czeh republic as a win from PAOK would count for me points due to the fact we only had 4 teams as opposed to their 5.

They made it further than most teams - more competition is needed but they did get quite a few points for us this term. Having said that, they need to improve, the right back/wing OLY played kept getting beaten.

I think that is how it works in most countries, you have clout, things get expedited.

Haven't seen him play but if he is that good, why hasn't a bigger club picked him up already. An honest question.

I agree but it must be the right fit as well. We need our players to have the right attitude, pulling in the same direction. Not saying those three players are like that, just a general sentiment.

Hopefully they follow through...

Sokratis' time has passed, I would put Mavropanos instead of him. Also, Tzolis also doesn't get any game time, I could see Masouras on his side and Limnios sliding in on the right.

That striker though is one of the best strikers in the world.

The problem with Fortounis is that he doesn't hustle and his workrate leaves a lot to be desired. Talented - for sure, but if you remember, he has been reprimanded his entire career for not taking the extra step. One of his former teammates (I believe it was Podence) called him out for his lack of practice. Doesn't exactly scream captain material.

He needs to earn the captaincy. Come back and play at a high level. Has anyone else noticed that Bakasetas hasn't been starting for his team anymore?

I thought that Sok and Manolas called out Anastasiadis for his lack of preparation. They were annoyed on how he didn't get the team prepared to play against Italy. They had four weeks to prepare and they hadn't even scouted Italy at all. In fact, right before game time, he wanted Siovas to play as either a RB or LB (don't remember), a position he had never played before. Siovas had to convince Anastasiadis that he was not comfortable there for lack of experience so he reverted to a back 3 instead, right before gametime. That is my recollection of those two.

Should be a good tie - PAOK got a reasonable good draw, especially given the alternatives.

Santos got results but his soccer left alot to be desired, the things my Portuguese friends are saying about him is what I remember about him when we had him...

OLY guaranteed a few more games. Now up to PAOK to get through...

Was talking to one of my Portuguese friends about Santos. They like him but they think he plays too defensive. In the game against Serbia, they scored the first goal and then stopped trying to score. They just sat back absorbing pressure for the majority of the game. They didn't start attacking again until the last few minutes. May have won them the Euro but with the team they have, they should have qualified for the WC as the first place team.

That's right - so they are incentivized to win....

They have a real shot, Fernabahce can beat Franfurt and OLY can beat Antwerp.