Rockafeller Skank

Gianniotas gave speed to the team kept the ball. Vellios doesn't cut it. He has had his chances against teams like Australia Gibraltar and Belarus and the guy can't score for this team. At least not at this age, maybe if he matures and gets experience he can. We played without a 10 until Fortounis came in the game, and the fun fact is that only when he came in game(20minutes) it felt like we made more and better chances (and even won lots of corners) than without him. Totally ok with trying new people and such, but it gets me wondering. Its obvious that at 2nd half we tried to score and maybe even win. Why put 4 Centerbacks on the back if you are trying to hunt for a goal. Fullbacks make the agressive play, and we had none. Hope Stafylidis proved once more how good of a player he is. Tachtsidis dominating midfield without a problem. Only reason Tziolis played was this game being a friendly. Totally innvisible, even his teammates looked like they didnt wanna pass to him.

People cry about no creative play and "bad football" and scoring from questionable chances. Asking for a nothing more but a creative machine in the field, and suddently everyone is saying he is not good enough. Stop Bashing Bakasetas then. This is what you deserve. Fetfatzidis Fortounis Gianniotasand Tachtsidis vision. This hsould be the NT of 2016. Sadly. It ain't. Karnezis Torosidis Sokratis Manolas Stafylidis(Holebas u gonn be missed senpai) Tachtsidis Maniatis (yes m*therf*ckers he does something noone else can so he is needed) Fetfatzidis Fortounis Gianniotas Mitroglou any other player starting instead is inferior. Mantalos deserves a starting spot but really the boy is no winger so he is an exception. Kyriakos Papadopoulos exception as well.

http://www.transfermarkt.com/vasilis-torosidis/verletzungen/spieler/24977 According to this Torosidis is viable right now. It was just muscle fatigue so I expect him to be totally fit in 10 days when we playing re playing the friendly. None of the Fortounis, Mantalos have any injury problems, and Fortounis has had games as a starter under his belt for Olympiakos. Samaris also returned and even played , Mitroglou Starter. Tachtsidis Starting. Karelis also scoring. Kyriakos not injured (how come lol). CBs fine. Karnezis rolling. All our Main players are fine. Why would anyone be pessimistic. I wanna see this Line up - - - - - - - - - -Karnezis- - - - - -- - - - Torosidis Sokratis Manolas Stafylidis - - - - -Tachtsidis - - Samaris - - - - - Giannioas - Fortounis - Mantalos - - - - - - -- -Mitroglou - - - - - -- - - - But sadly this is not gonna happen for some reasons I understand Bakasetas helps a lot defensively on our weak side, so he is gonna needed at a match where a draw is TECHNICALLY fine, or we can get away with a goal if we manage to handle the pressure. So he is gonna start as LW. This means Gianniotas gets kicked from RW and Mantalos goes RW, because he is very productive with the NT, and deserves a starting spot. Tachtsidis is useless without proper Wingers who can read his mind. Only Fortounis can do that from this 11 and there is no point to put such a slow player in the midfield if there is noone else to continue the transition fast to produce a decent counter attack. We ll see Maniatis, a defensive midfielder who runs all the time. I ve heard Maniatis has been recalled to the squad of oly, but he is not being called to the αποστολές for the matches. Id wish a Siopis/Korbos would appear but Panionios lost 2 games in a row from small teams, so Im not sure if Skibbe can consider them options yet. Not good to experiment with younglings at such a crucial match. Moreover, a team that wins , mustn't change. (Excluding Tzavellas from this Rule- this dude better be changed.) With Holebas leaving , I dont know if he is any good, but young boy Retsos has been a starter for Olympiakos for quite a while. Not sure if he is good or not, But could be considered a possibility, since every other big Greek team has no Greek LB. Charalambos Mavrias also became a starter at Karlsruher easily. Maybe another winger option?

Dzeko is Mitroglou? That's sorta funny.

Cant understand if you re sarcastic, or really really sarcastic. They ve scored 3 past us in our good defensive years. We re nothing better than them thats the point. Game can go both ways.

I expect a draw saddly. 0-0 hopefully our defence steps up to its real worth.

because the only reason someone can see the euro expansion to 24 from 16 as bad is because minors that I named played totally defensive football to try and lock draws which can lead them to the R16. No other point to not like it as a football fan. More teams, more matches, more people more of everything.

An expansion to 40 teams from 32 will probably be close to Asia+1 Afrika +2 Oceania+1 South America +0,5 Europe +2 North America +1,5 Cant give more to south America because then qualifiers dont mean a thing. Cant give more to Asia because all their teams get knocked in the R16 max , unless refballs drag them higher. Africa is trying and also creating football talent, lots of big teams like Arsenal,West Ham, Paok and Dortmund have African star players. Not only that, but They ve stepped up their NT level.

Strongly disagree.What they did with Euro was splendid for some reasons that i ll list: A) Teams that would never make it to a 16 teams Euro can now dream. Albania, Turkey, Hungary, Romania Wales , N Ire, Ire even Greece in its current form : We re talking about mediocre teams that can make it or not, based on a lucky draw, lucky results and big teams kicking each other out in the qualification. Otherwise its only a dream. These teams and Nations can finally visit a Euro just for the experience. B) Competition has gone to the to. How many good teams, with roster capable to progres to the Euro are left outside for a few bad games? Serbia, Bosnia these teams have good rosters with good players who havent seen Euros for a while. Bigger competition -> More decent teams -> More teams worthy are left out of the tournament. C) The reason you hate this 24 team Euro is simple:Minnow teams defending against giant teams hoping that with 2 or 3 points they can make it as 3rd in the R16.Ye I see your point, not every team is playing to win but , what you in fact hate is defensive football. Why cant we reward a low budget team like Albania tryharding at its maximum to keep a giant like France from scoring? Why is defensive football considered anti football? And if you agree with that statement, why do you follow the National Team of Greece? Makes no sense. These 3 reasons are simply

Cant put players through long trips from Usa to Berlin (example trip), then back to Usa to play another National match, when the National Team breaks are like 10 days long. That's probably the reason FIFA gave qualification to each of he confederations. I also agree talentwise/teamwise/budgetwise and lot more, Europe and South America should be taking more spots, but that means we re literally writing off the rest confederations, which means the whole "WORLD" cup goes to the trash. Its fine, going to 40 team one (as was suggested some years ago) would be finer but more matches for the players? Shouldnt we think about them as well?

They had 2 good years in competition, whereas we ve had 2 very very bad years in competition. We ve done 5 wins in a row (2 of them in friendlies) and we ve climbed a total of 8 or 10 spots if i remember correctly. They deserve to be above us. Also i cant rate greece at the 15 mark. A 25 one would be both realistic and enough for pot 2. How sad can it be that from the top 30 teams, like at least 20 of them are European. And people cry about Europe taking too many spots in the WC draws. Edit: Just searched it. in the top 30 , 19 teams are European. Daymn I was spot on. Also just for the recored, in the top 50, 28 teams are European. 28 out of the 54 total European teams recognized by Fifa are in fact in the top 50. Thats more than half. And people are crying that Europe is taking so many spots. Like, rest of the world are you even trying?

its just about team friendlies. NT dont have games whenever they want. they can fit 2 matches in the National team break so why not. Besides its probably gonna be a win and we could use it to climb back to pot 2 at least. If I were Skibbe id keep defence th same, as not conceding boosts confidence, and change the wingers just to try and find a better composition. Also Tachtsidis starter to show what he got.

You cant win the midield with one player. Playing with 5 attackers for a team with a defensive mentality is impossible. skip the 2nd striker and put a Tachtsidis/K. Papss on the midfield. Also Id prefer to see Gianniotas on his prefered side and Mantalos who is not a winger on the weaker side, since he is literally just filling a winger spot. Personally, for the Bosnia away and Belgium Home match, matches we have chances of taking a draw Id field something like this: Karnezis Toro Manolas Sokratis Stafylidis Samaris Tachtsidis Maniatis Mantalos -Fortounis Mitroglou No wingers.

no platellas no koutroubis obviously not in the level of the NT, however you gotta reward the good playes for trying, otherwise you are literally asking for it to have no team maniatis and tziolis playing for this.

Really wondering who the extra person is going to be now that Holebas is off. After 2 goals against Larissa , if he continues his good apperanaces maybe we see Plattelas. A winger for a winger. Otherwise hoping Siopis.

BUT. Problem is that the fact that the best fullbacks Bosnians have are not even defenders but are actually wingers(aka they re playing with terrible players at the backline), A tachtsidis ball alongside a Gianniotas/Mantalos/Fortounis move could get the job done. Lets be realistic, chances are we re gonna lose in Bosnia, so we need a 3pointer here. I dont see Baka fitting saddly. 3 points here and a draw from Belgium in Athens literally secures 2nd spot. I expect Cyprus to give us the match as they wont have any hope to qualify and they cheer for Greece. Gibraltar in Athens we gonna roast em. Estonia in Athens gonna be tougher but we gonna roast em as well. Aka: 4 points in our 2 upcomming matches (although a draw vs Belgium gonna be easier in Athens/due ppl or Belgium already having secured 1st spot when they come here) have us for 2nd spot and tryharding for 1st.

I believe Koutroubis neets to be given time. Pao is getting results and Koutrou has been a defence leader (Ofc Moledo is the leader but I mean he s established himself as a worthy starter at PAO) at good and worse years. Zeca should be added to the squad. Why not. I believe Tachtsidis will be established as a starter, after SKibbe saw what he can do. Samaris Tachtsidis Fortounis midfield is the best we got. As for Bakaseta, I dont like repeating myself, but the fact that the boy wants to establish himself in the NT makes him run his assss off too much. His defensive duties are never left behind. Smart kid never forgetti, mama's spagetti.

Their coach has already said that they are (only) aiming for 2nd spot. To do that they needed wins against minors Estonia/Cyprus so a lax defence is somewhat expected. Belgium is Belgium, they dont have the defensive talent to actually stop them. If they really are aiming for 2nd spot, a draw here and a win at Bosnia secures it for them. So we might not see so lax defence from their side. On the other hand , our good defence can actually steal a point or two from Belgium, something that Bosnians probably can't do. If we win Bosnia at home and manage to draw Belgium orBosnia in our away games they ll be left too far behind.This means we need at least 4 points in our upcomming 4 matches. This is the only possible route to come out as 2nd in my opinion, as I doubt Bosnians will drop points to Gibraltar/Estonia/Cyprus. Once again I hope Cyprus gives us the 3pointer if that is the occasion.

I actually searched for it: WC qualifiers 2014: Greece-Latvia Attendance: 18k Greece-Liechtenstein Attendance: 18k Greece Lithuania attendance 21k While the good matches: Greece-Slovakia attendance: 21k Greece-Bosnia attendance: 26k Considering that with such a rain and the previous qualification campaign ~10k wouldnt seem bad. Lets see what happens on the bosnia match.

I dont believe we reached more than 15k on good weather playing teams like Latvia, Lithuania Liechtenstein in the past. So why would we fill more than that (considering that with better weather ~double the people would go to watch the match Live) against another pot 4,5,6 team like Cyprus? Most people have also stopped following the E8niki due o disappointment reasons. I expect more people in the BiH (which might prove to be the group winner/2nd place match) and Belgium matches.

I really believe there is a big chance that this is all to seek attention, high chances Holebas comes back to the NT soon, maybe not next game but the game after that.

Well I agree with both of u but we got only pressured for 10 minutes after the subs happened, while we were literally devastated pschologically, and after 2-0 , when they had nothing to lose, just went all in and we closed up in defence. We re good at that. And yet after 30 minutes of pure pressurethey had like 2 good chances? Bosnian defence is equal to the Estonian one in my opinion. If they pressure too much but without success, we might bring ourselves up to punish them. Really hope the Stadium will be full.

After some thought about it I ve came to some random conclusions: *Everyone b!tching about how poor we played after 2 starters already missing and 2 more comming on the way is completely retarded. *Everyone b!tching about no good offensive progression without Frtounis is completely retarded. He is way more talented than Mantalos and Bakasetas apparently, and his loss was crucial. Mantalos is also very good but I really rate Fortounis a lot higher than him. His pressing on the Right Flank is remarkable and needs a spot in the starting X1. *Everyone crying about why Bakasetas is played as a winger/wide AM and not Karelis just needs to watch this match to understand why. Karelis highlights: try to dribble past 1-2 guys and fail, some soft shots on the keeper, giving his hands to the Estonians after final blow. I like Bakasetas LW for only one thing, and that is: We know our Left flank is kinda bad defensively, even Holebas was no Defence god, Stafylidis and Tzavellas are also not that great. Bakasetas runs his bum up and down defending and then helping offence again. Guy is not very fast but his physical is enough. He is the Seba of our NT. And against Belgium/Bosnia, we re gonna need that extra man defending. -> Dont get me wrong, I rate Karelis as a CF, but only as that. *Did anyone look at that Wasiljev guy's hair? WTF man this is not 1980 no more. *Kyriakos as a RB is a MUST-NOT-HAPPEN-AGAIN. Forgot himself up front too much. That header should ve gone in mate. *I posted this before as well but here I go again: Stafylidis is Estonian daddy. All you h8ers go pray for ex-Paok Winger. *I honestly don't understand how people blame Tachtsidis. He did some remarkable stuff and most importantly keep the midfield not be a κέντρο διερχομένων. Did some really smart stuff throughout the game that seemed retarded for one simple reason: noone could read his mind. It is obvious that this player has not trained with this team and they don't know him well enough. Liked the fact that he tried with high through balls at first, but after watching how slow our attackers were he adapted to the team. Really seems like a situation where an unknown guy is brought to play to your 8x8 team because someone found a gf and there is no time for him to play. *Stop praising Karnezis for existing. I mean ok he stopped everything vs both Cyprus and Estonia, he is not a keeper to let a cheap goal come on. He is very talented, good Keeper (kinda problematic with penalties), but all the shots that were made on target were literally comming on him. This is in both matches. Also secure with his feet. After I saw Panayi of Cyprus I really felt some relief that we have Karnezis and Kapinos. * Cyprus you could ve done better. That -2 points would keep Bosnians 5 points behind us before the clash. Now if that ain't displeasent for them , I don't know what is. *Holebas Idgaf(i dont give a fak-for you old people) if he used the NT for fame and contracts. He was and is our best LB and played at his full potential.Proved to care despite eveyrone saying otherwise. And Skibbe mistreated him. That's on the coach. HOWEVER, had he stayed and there indeed existed a problem, that would mean the changing rooms would be lost and the team would return to the EURO16 path. On the one side, problematic behaviour players leaving (and willingly) is a bonus. But our other options are far inferior. *That translater after the match taking an interview from Skibbe. WTF man, why dont we find someone who knows about football?I mean ok that's really nothing serious but EPO seems full of trolls. *I honestly believe we are going to qualify for the play offs at least. Bosnia seems troubled. A player stated that"If we played like we played today(vs Cyp) in Greece we will take a result". Another player stated some minutes later "If we play like we played today(vs Cyp) in Greece we are going to have problems". Even they dont know if they played good or bad. So I guess its not just us. Its the whole Group's thing. If we go to the WC depends on who we meet.

It wasnt, he was forgotten up front at least twice in the dying minutes when he should just stick back and wait for the ref to blow in the end. Even at that perfect cross from the Estonian Right Back that found noone, he was missing. Had there been someone in the cross end to put it in , he would be charged with the goal. I believe Stafylidis should go Right Back and Cholebas to get subbed as Left Back when the whole Toro thing happened. This way only one of our defenders will be a B material, not 3. Stafylidis-Manolas-Kyriakos-Holebas. instead of Kyriakos-Manolas-Oikonomou-Stafylidis. By that I mean Kyriakos RB totally looked T-E-R-R-I-B-L-E.

http://imgur.com/a/pYp6n Just wondering. Of course we have Gibraltar , but Belgium beating it only with 2 more goals and BiH actually scoring 8 against Liechtenstein in the Last WC qualifiers makes me wondering if we might have slightly gotten any better offensively.