val

Anyone else noticed a change in berg? The guy looks out of it at the moment. What irritates me though, is just like leto and cisse before him , we are over reliant on these guys and assuming they can't bail us out, there is no one else able to step up.

^^^Really se xalaei o tavlaridis? If anything i feel for him playing in this team. And how quickly we forget how much of a formidable partnership he formed with gordon last season... I like risvanis, but i'll tell you right now if he was playing on this side, we would've crucified him by now. Defenders like him need protection, and he was hardly tested yesterday.

Truth be told the players are not responding. First and foremost you have to have the players on your side, and if that is no loner the case, then there isn't much point complicating the issue any further. We had to wait and see the response in this one. The performance wasn't there, and at the risk of losing further points, we might just have to go a new direction. Regarding players, there are too many too name that are not worthy so let's not use the croats as scapegoats. Comes next summer, we need to get the broom out and rid of all the dead wood.

Seems like we have used up Petric (can't lie that this has been on my mind for a while), just doesn't have the legs and is degrading physically by the day. I put this on the management and their failure to pick this up, or their naivety to not sign a suitable replacement. Pranjic can give you more minutes, and actually ran harder than anyone in our earlier games. But again, he is at the age were you start to feel it a lot more. He was never defensively solid, but the system didn't do him justice as well. I said it before the game that he needs to justify his selection. He hasn't done that again today, as his performances continue to drop. Overall though, the croats gave to this side and have been unfairly criticized in the past. Footballers slow down though, and it's up to the management to keep updating the roster. It's not the croats fault, management has acted unsustainably.

Zero to low urgency for the most part. Haven't looked at the stats, but we lost a lot of midfield duels today which is very unlike this side. Struggled to create chances yet again, which has been a problem all pre-season. We have seen anastasiou change it up on numerous occasions, without success. As a result, the players seem frustrated and rather helpless. When you struggle in the final third, it affects other aspects of your game as well, to a point where you don't feel like chasing the ball. A lot of sides are also figuring us out early on in games, not to mention exposing our weaknesses. Also the lack of a plan b is obvious. For instance we don't have natural wingers that can come on change games. Especially against sides that sit, all the space is on the flanks...I don't know if anastasiou is too blame for the lack of proper depth but this current rombo is far too predictable, not too mention physically demanding. When anastasiou first came to the club, he was a breath of fresh air. There was a sense of enthusiasm and excitement which seems all but gone at the moment. As a squad, we are not without our flaws, but we are better than this and it almost feels that we need an injection of confidence. With the elimination from europe, the hope was that the side can focus their efforts towards the league but with this latest performance, it's obvious that not everyone is on the same page. Perhaps a few wanted to play europe, who knows? The ball is in alafouzos court now. He has been very loyal to anastasiou and rightly so because the guy hasn't been a bad manager for the most part, but after this showing he might just have to do what's right for the team.

^^^Hold on guys, the guy doesn't have a right back. As soon as he moved moved marinakis there, the attacker passes him as if he wasn't there. I agree we need zeca's running in the midfield but that is not the reason we are losing. Zero chemistry and chance creation. Zeca doesn't create.

Ball took a wicked bounce to be fair, but im sure he'll be disappointed. For the most part though we have stunk it up. Midfield is broken. Lagos sitting deep, petric doesn't have the legs, abeid still trying to settle in, pranjic not showing any leadership. It's no wonder we have lost possession and against this mob that could get relegated.....We look like a small side out there. Very disappointing. Let's hope we can scrap it because it's unlikely we see any good football from us any time soon. .

Xanthi proving to be ballbreakers yet again...

Agreed paoboston. No ball retainer makes it hard to keep the ball...only lagos and the baby elephant. Going to need a big effort abeid and pranjic needs to justify his selection. Might have to drop berg a little deeper to have us create from the middle, otherwise utilize nano and zeca on the flanks.

vidal will make him his bitch

^^In training?

More like chori 1 goal and 1 pare-vale. It's laughable how much you hype fortounis.

This guy :D

I can't say if magath can take us to greener pastures. He is a fitness freak, so expect him to rid of all the drop kicks unless they shape up. Mitroglou found that out personally. As for bielsa, he knows his stuff but he is a nutter. It will be a shock to the system for most of the squad. Anyway i don't think he can play his brand of football with this lot. My advise would be to go with someone that appreciates defensive minded/ reactive football but is also flexible. Offcourse you are thinking we had santos, but we need better as that guy can't set up a side to attack to save his life. Just consider his current portugal side.

:lol: In his defense, the guy is from lyon. It must be hard to be an athlete and watch your weight over there.

Perhaps or essien whenever if he is fit to take the field. I reckon we might see ajagajun. Also we have already started looking for another right back to sign comes January.

No thanks

Another

:D I told you guys not to worry, al afouz has got our back.

The reason to believe is not because we have a good enough roster, far from it. The reason to believe is because, those that we are playing against are just as bad. That and we can now focus 100% on the league. Offcourse it remains to be seen how good of a side oly put out, not to mention the calls will always be skewed towards them.

^ When you come over and don't perform from the word go, you are deemed not worthy. For one reason or another we couldn't unlock their potential. Some players just need to find their niche.

That night he became vyntrinio :lol: I don't buy ronny's performance though that night, must have been out partying the night before

Vyntra has a very good agent, just like samaris :P All jokes a side, anyone that has ever played the game would understand why vyntra gets so much love from his managers. He is a coaches player. Managing individuals, is no easy feat. When you have someone like vyntra out there, you can trust that he will carry out your instructions. These guys are usually level headed and as greekaus mentioned they give it their all. For the manager, it's like having part of themselves on the pitch.

@freezer Question is whether anastasiou has adopted such a strategy because this is what he truly believes in or has resulted to this approach because he doesn't have players of this quality. The other thing worth noting, is that gianni was the type of player that lacked technique. Now i'm not saying that he doesn't appreciate natural ability when he sees it, but many former players that go on to manage adopt a style that resembled them as players. We have seen this with guardiola who was a passing CM and simeoni who played with mental toughness and contributed to multiple phases of the game. Regardless of any system, i truly believe you need balance. You need guys like zeca with preferably a little more technique on the ball, just as much as you need difference makers like equi and leto. Say we had chori on this side, you wouldn't ask him to waste energy chasing the ball but rather conserve his energy to go to work with the ball. Not everyone has to run. It's this idea which has killed the game today and victimized the more creative guys, the same guys which bail you out against resilient opposition. I don't see why a side can't defend with say seven players back, after all keeping a few players up front, in turn makes the opposition think twice about committing more players forward. As for vokolo going to brazil, i can't remember us ever having great players from brazil. Our love affair has always been with Argentina.

^^So what you're are saying is that anastasiou can't manage them? Because both leto and equi were both hot heads and yet via good management, any emotion was channeled in a positive result. Also when you talk about flair and wit, i think you are referring to the players from the past. You find that even the southamerican these days are swaying away from their traditional style and producing guys that are all about grit and determination. Why they do they do this? To sell to their european clients. Mind you their national sides suffer as a result. This by no means should discourage any potential recruitment from this region. There must be still some old coaches over there preaching the importance of football fundamentals.