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La Mendel

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Posts posted by La Mendel

  1. It's just an easy "point the finger" option.

    Aek66 has pointed out the lack of other options and if anyone remembers the game, out front 3 of Samaras-Mitroglou-Salpigidis were super flat & lazy with 0 off the ball runs.

     

    Was he the only option, a player with zero caps? Hilarious.

  2. Ranieri also tinkered the lineup and formation in every single game, hence his nickname "the tinker man". He was all over the place. There was no opportunity to build chemistry.

     

    + he cast our former defensive system aside.

  3. So far this can be seen (it isnt much): Tsanas doesnt lean exclusively on younger or experienced players. Not every older foreign-based player was called up (no Gekas or Avraam), nor will be there younger "options" who dont play for their club at all there (e. g. no Mavrias), but there are youngsters and more experienced guys in the squad too. This is a balanced squad so far (as for the ratio of youth vs experience). Of course, it is possible that the performance of the team and the results will be mediocre, we cant prognostize that now.

  4. He should have a new thread, he will remain the head coach for at least these two matches vs Finland and Romania.

     

    Tsanas about Santos: http://desporto.sapo.pt/futebol/seleccao/portugal/clube-portugal/artigo/2015/08/20/kostas-tsanas-sobre-fernando-santos-desejo-lhe-tudo-de-bom

     

    The title is: "Tsanas about Santos: I Wish You Good Luck". He praised (elogios) Santos in the interview, he is quoted to say: "He is a good man and a great coach. We had a good relationship. He knows what he wants, this can be seen in the way he manages the team." He wished Santos good luck to the qualification. The article mentions Benfica players Samaris and Mitroglou were called up by Tsanas.

  5. BVB won it eventually versus Odd Grenland. Seems it was an astonishing match. The Norwegian team scored in the first minute, after 22 minutes they were down with three goals, but Dortmund scored three times in the second half, and won by one goal (3-4). Sokratis was in the first half (when the enemy goals occurred) on the bench, during the break he replaced Castro (the right back). After he came on, they didnt concede a single goal in the 2nd half and eventually won.

     

    Odd Grenland -  Borussia Dortmund 3-4 (3-1): http://www.goal.com/en/match/odd-vs-borussia-dortmund/2134143/live-commentary

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  6. GrkCdn22 and 1789, to the problem you debate:

     

    I think, 1789, it wasnt only because of this (no 3 DMs, balanced midfield) that we looked better. After the half-time break the team always was for 15-20 minutes better than before at Euro 2012. Santos was great at this, he could correct the things before the second half (Poland - were better with ten man, an equalizer by Salpingidis after 10 minutes; Czech Rep - goal of Gekas after about ten minutes, Russia - our best quarter of a hour in that match, no great chances for the Russians, Germany - Samaras equalized in the 55 min). If I remember correctly he has said that he said to the players vs Germany: "If we score a goal the game could change" - it isnt the exact wording. He could manage that the team suddenly was galvanized into life after the break.

  7. @tantra129, Teamwork is not merely doing your job. That is what makes no sense. Was Holebas "doing his job" when he joined the rush in the first half against Ivory Coast and effectively transitioning to a CF when he hit the crossbar? Was Samaris "doing his job" when he decided to pinch in on a potentially unlikely interception when it would have been safer and more positionally sound to stay put? We know how that play ended. Was Sokratis "doing his job" when he, a CB (a CB!) made his way in Costa Rica's box in the dying minutes of the game? We know how that play ended as well.

     

    The fact remains that if Ninis simply stood in front of Lahm and didn't over-commit and let Lahm literally walk right up to a shooting chance, it would nullify the scenario altogether. That is my point. Santos started Ninis twice, and subbed him out at halftime twice. We were instantly better to start the second half. I have the game taped, and at halftime, they singled out Ninis for the goal as well. They must not know soccer either.

     

    The Katsouranis Jesus nod was a little tasteless, re.

     

    As for you teaching this stuff in real life, to real people; among other things, I don't have time right now.

     

    Let me add if the two players on that picture would have been stayed where the arrows point to, I dont exactly know how would have been they able to prevent the goal of Lahm? It was fairly clear that Ninis made the great mistake.

     

    Teaching this to real people: first I wanted to write Im Trond Sollied.

     

    1789, Gekas and Fotakis was brought in at half-time, Lyberopoulos was subbed in in the 73th minute or so.

  8. We need to play more compact. Our defensive line must play higher and our center-backs must take more command of the midfielders so space and time isn't handed freely to the opposition.

     

    That would mean the same disaster as in the last 12 months, isnt it?
  9. "Every opponent now knows"? Before 2014 opponents didnt know Holebas cant defend or Spyropoulos and Zaradoukas are average players? Then they suddenly knew it? They must have known the fact our right flank is stronger in attacking and in defending too because of Torosidis, if they saw a video of a couple of our games. (See also what GrkCdn wrote above about Euro 2012 and Holebas.)

    Another thing:

     

    The former strategy doesn't work when opponents play our system against us. Competitive losses to Albania, Ukraine, Japan, Denmark, Turkey, Sweden, Korea, Czech, Colombia, Costa Rica, Romania, Northern Ireland and Faroe Islands are all clear cut examples of opponents out playing Greece using Greece's style of play.

     

    Romania, Northern Ireland and Faroe Islands arent a good example, we didnt use the former strategy. Would it have been so, FI and NI never would have win away against Greece. Albania (2 goals in 10 minutes), Korea (goal in the 9th minute), the Czech Republic (2 goals in 6 minutes) and Colombia (an early Armero goal) did not play our system at all, they scored an early goal, in modern football often a team sits back (at least for a while) after that and tries to hold an advantage. Some of the other examples are hilarious too (Sweden possession: 56% - that shows how well they copied our strategy, we always had the ball before 2014).

    For example Slovakia in 2013 did sit back against us (we scored one goal, although it was lucky indeed), and tried to counterattack, yet we stifled effectively their efforts. Playing the same strategy (defense first) could of course make us things more difficult (see Switzerland draw under Santos), but what you want to bring out of this, to wit, that when enemies of quality copied our strategy, they played us out, is clearly not true.

     

    Furthermore, you haven't answered the question. Like I said, in 2004 we were champions, in 2008 we were last place. Our left flank is now exposed, every opponent now knows that attacking that point will probably result in goals. What are your solutions? It sounds more like wishful thinking that it will just disappear by playing deeper and letting our opponents dictate the game. That doesn't address our problems on the left.

     

    Yes, this is the answer to your question. If we resort to former match strategy and seven or eight players concentrate on defending, our left flank will be less vulnerable. See our matches before WC and what I wrote about this above.

     

    The greatest proof of this came against Colombia. Colombia could have played against us the way Argentina, Germany or Bosnia played us, just like they did against  Ivory Coast and Japan, but they deliberately chose to play our style against us and beat us at our own game. Teams have figured out that it's the easiest bet at beating.

     

    NO. What did they figure out? They scored an early goal and they sat back then for a while. We tried to equalize but we couldnt, then in the second half they started another offensive (then we were more tired), etc. That game worked out in that way. Argentina scored only in the 77th minute (Demichelis committed a foul against Avraam just before he scored but thats another matter) - no wonder they didnt concentrate on the defense in the first half being a stronger team than us on paper. Germany in the QF and Bosnia (away loss) scored only after about 40 minutes, thats why they launched attack after attack before that. Do you think that if it would be the secure way to beat us (copy our tactics), Advocaat or L?w wouldnt tried that strategy against us? Things arent so simple.

     

    "One or even two" were my exact words.

     

    Trying to correct someone over the exact wording of some phrase after you quoted incorrectly what I wrote about you and the likes dreaming about an attacking team dominating the field is an intrinsically unfriendly thing.

     

    Their the ostensible future. Players occasionally have bad patches in form, get injured, or get so old they need to retire, meaning we'll need replacements at some point. I'm not sure what's nonsensical about having a future idea of what the team should look like or having some replacements handy.

     

    Especially Mavrias (who isnt a part of the Sunderland squad at 21, if I remember correctly) is a man of the future. The national team plays 10-12 matches in a year, a player who doesnt play for his team shouldnt be built up in the NT. We must start players who regularly play for their club.

  10. With the former tactics, the problems you mentioned didnt exist. Left backs wernt outstanding before WC 2014. In fact, before Euro 2012 Santos played Spyropoulos and even Zaradoukas as a left back in the qualifying matches, yet the team conceded only four goals in ten matches. Then they conceded four goals in ten matches again in WC qualification (this time Holebas, Spyropoulos, Tzavellas were the options). Our left was vulnerable right enough then too (due to the average fullbacks), but due to the overall strategy the chance of the enemy scoring were minimized.

    Nor was goal scoring a problem. Ethniki scored five goals in four matches at Euro 2012 against teams like Germany, Russia and the Czech Republic. Against Romania in 2013 they scored four times in two matches. It would have been impossible to qualify without a lot of goals. Greece with the former tactics managed to catch enemies off balance and score. Goal scoring is a problem now for the attacking-spirited team you wanted (two goals in eight matches, very few chances against stronger opponents).

    The former strategy of the NT (defending and counterattacks) meant that between 2010 and 2014 enemies had only a handful of chances to score, while we could score and win most of the matches.

  11. Maniatis has a heart and plays with passion. He is a mentally strong player and can support our defenders. It isnt by accident Santos nearly always played him.

    As for the others, Kyriakos Papadopoulos could be used as a defensive midfielder (it would be wasteful to have such a good player on the bench because we have other outstanding central defenders too), unfortunately he is injury prone. Samaris could develop at Benfica, two or three years he can gain international experience (European cups), possibly he can be ultimately a good player. Then we could have a Maniatis-Papadopoulos-Samaris midfield, but this is very far away now, I hope they will get along, but it is far from sure. For the moment, we have Maniatis who plays with heart&guts (that lifts him above most of our midfielders), some promising players and a lot of guys who are in the long run average footballers, technically gifted wingers who doesnt seem to be mentally strong and fail at great tournaments (Ninis, Fetfatzidis), glistening mediocrities in the Serie A like Tachtsidis or Christodoulopoulos, and not very talented defensive minded players like Tziolis and (perhaps) Petsos. I cant see how could we do without Maniatis now.

  12. Notwithstanding, we should have beaten the FI, Finland, Northern Ireland. Poor fitness & late season start cant explain the disaster that happened during and after Ranieris reign. That applies to the unexperienced new key players too. An idiotic coach is responsible for that, first of all.

    Certainly there are many problems in Greek football. That said, however, with a proper strategy (read proper coach) + players we should have earn one of the top 2 spots in the qualifying group.

    Yes, Fetfatzidis and Ninis didnt prove so far that they had outstanding talent. It is farcical however that any skilful Greek players should be hailed as a Messi/Ronaldo etc. Evidently they never were such good.

    Attackers. Karelis is one of the few younger players who at least showed a spark of talent in the past months. Yet Samaras is only 30, so he can play for Greece for 3-4 years (I would welcome such an event). Salpingidis could be used as a super sub or so.

    Midfielders. The main problem is that we should do well without any quality midfielders (for the moment). Guys like Karagounis, Zagorakis and Basinas are nowhere to be found now. Santos played 35-y-o Katsouranis because the other options STANK. Lazaros, Ninis, Tachtsidis, Fetfatzidis etc. are more or less glittering mediocrities. The former generation (Kara/Kats/Zagorakis/Tsiartas/Basinas/Giannakopoulos) were IMO better players who were underestimated in the world (especially Karagounis). Our midfielder pool is very limited. I would accept Maniatis and Tziolis over players like Tachtsidis, Lazaros etc. etc. At least Maniatis can fight even if he in other respects isnt outstanding. That puts him ahead practically all of our available midfielders. The others are average players, even if some of them belong to the shiny type (Tziolis clearly doesnt but he can do more dirty work).

    Because of this, and other reasons, we should return to our former system and concentrate on the defense. Central defenders are our strongest asset, we should capitalize this advantage and not dream about an attacking team dominating the field, perhaps playing tiki-taka which is an impossibility.

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