Rockafeller Skank

Skibbe probably has a personal beef with Holebas. It feels weird to end up playing with Kyriakos as a RB and having Tzavellas as a starter , while Holebas is a world class counter attack flanker with average defensive duties. And yes, average defensive duties, he is nothing super, but how many levels up from Tzavellas is he? Skibbe has a beef with him so he is disrespected. Skibbe could just sit down and talk with him, but instead continues benching him. Maybe he had in mind to use him for bigger games, but he should have said it. I am totally 100% with Holebas on this. There were 2 options for him, since its obvious he doesn't want to play under the current manager: A) He refuses National Team call ups, which is considered disrespectful to your country/EPO- something similar has happened before so i dont think he has any more chances to do it. B) He gets called and just keeps getting angrier and angrier seeing our Left Flank being every opponent's favorite becauze Tzav is slow and can't offer much up front. It would ruin the climate in the changing rooms, so partially, his removal is better than that. However not deserved. One of the best in WC 14.

Tziolis only comes on in finished matches. 83' in a 2-0 vs a bad Estonia , in Gibraltar with a nonexistent opponent. Its obvious that he is vusmatias and thats the only reason he is here for. If he was needed he would be joining against Cyprus, who Skibbe was still afraid of equalizing and utilized all his 3 subs. On the one hand this is good since it proves Skibbe is not as brainless as we believe, calling Tziolis like he needs it.

Klavan man to man excellent. Got Centerback experience and what took my interest from the opponents is Klavan beating Mitroglou & Mantalos(bcz people forget he stopped Mantalos 1 on 1 like 4 times, cancelling a counterattack for us-yet everyone bashing Mitroglou for it, but praising Mantalos hmmm). Can't really judge from this game. We were terrible but honestly xD our Right Back is our 3rd choice Centerback. Our Centerback is out 5th choice Centerback. Also Fortounis, our main source of smart/fatasy plays missing. Stafylidis not only goal but also good running dog. God exposed once or twice however.

Agreed on everything except Tachtsidis. Guy is a footballing genius but noone can follow up (ex: him leaving hte ball for Mitroglou behind, who just wasnt there to take it). Didnt see him lose ball so often. Made a few high through balls at the beginning as well, but when he noticed that the Greeks can't take it(Only gianniotas can probably run that fast and smell such a long ball) he stopped. The fact that he stopped his own game to coexist with the team proves he is a very decent player. And im taking all my words back about him not being a starter, coz I was one of the people not up for it , since so many coaches αδιαφόρησαν for him.

Where were the motherf*ckers complaining when we only scored 4 to Gibraltar? Could ve been more but Vellios selfishness. Belgium scored 6, guess they suck lol.

ΠΑΡΤΕ ΤΗΝ ΠΟΥΤΣ@ ΤΟΥ HATERS. STAFYLIDIS ESTONIAN DADDY

I dont really think we can judge the game. Until minute 10 when we were complete we saw our team literally stomping them. 2 πυλώνες of our defence out and we look really bad. Cant judge when Fortounis Sokratis and Torosidis are missing. 3 of our key players. Tachtsidis works great also his big body helps dominate midfield, but team is literally playing "get the ball away from the defence" because not even they trust themselves enough. Getting the 3pointer with this defence will be godlike. Stop bashing Stafylidis. Karelis is pour and he is alone on the wing.

Stafylidis is playing great. Karelis isnt and that makes Stafylidis run up and down. Karelis on a very bad day. He has literally forgotten how to play winger. Wasted on the wings and probably this is the reason we re not seeing him there. At least Bakasetas didnt sell the ball so easily.

Well our attack isnt Belgium or Bosnia but Mitroglou Gianniotas Holebas Karelis and Mantalos should deal with your defence. Fortounis smart passes will be missing however.

We are not Bosnia mate. 2 goals will be fine. We were never an offensive side, not under ranieri not under Santos. Why everyone expecting from one coach to literally change the team and its roster? Im going with 0-2 or 1-2 as a possible scoreline. Estonia is far worse than Cyprus, can't expect them to do anything other than some lucky counterattack or a personal mistake/penalty from one of our defenders (shiet happens).

Is it me or is this stadium the size of an 8x8? We re gonna struggle if they go 11 defenders mode.

Bosnia has always been a bad side despite their beliefs. Their defence is old and easily disorganized, very prone to counter attacks (despite belgium not playing with counterattacks which still beat them 4-0). They were just lucky that Dzeko and Pjanic came in the same period of time, along maybe Spahic and Lulic who are nothing better but can cope with weaker opposition. The only reason we lost vs them at Bosnia 3 years ago is our team not being well organized against set pieces. I think we conceded 2 from set piece and another from a penalty return. We re not at our best, but at the end of the day, Qualifying for the Euro 16 is what mattered, and we both failed. I don't get their fuss. Faroe Islands proved to be a solid weakling by drawing Hungary (Euro R16 participant) and Winning Latvia away.

Now its Skibbe, before it was Markarian and Tsanas, before all of them it was Fernando Santos. It can't be that everyone is wrong. It doesnt have to be the player, it might be the chemistry.

Fortounis Mantalos and flanking Toro/Jolebas have enough fantasy/skill/precission to pass the ball to Mitroglou to score or score a goal themselves. Alongside Bakasetas dog running up and down creating arithmitical advantage both in defence and offence should be enough to press any defence in this group. Yes, even the Belgium defence which is nothing serious can be disorganized a few times by the names i listed. So why should our defensive minded and focused players run up and press a weaker side like Cyprus with counterattack mentality? Weaker opposition means the goal will probably come, so why risk it? Also, let me ask u another thing. Considering the ball from Karnezis I think, which got to Fortounis who with a magic dribble and a good pare vale assist gave it to Mitroglou who shot terribly - was scored. Would we be talking about a totally different game, not only due to the scoreline 3-0 instead of 2-0 but for also how well the team worked on the counter attack? Can someone come out and say we played badly (while defensively we were only threatened twice) if we won 3-0 and that chance was delivered? What happens if Bosnia narrowly wins/draws/even loses from Cyprus? Which has happened before. Do we look at this match from another point of view? Do we talk about a threat we didn't struggly taking the 3 points from?

I expect just Mantalos to go CAM who is if not equally but also a very good attacking midfielder. So his spot probably gets left for Gianniotas. I also expect Holebas starting over Tzavellas. These are the only changes I expect. Bad thing no player got called instead of Diamantakos and Fortounis and Tzavellas , but I think it's also disrespectful for a player to call him only when the ones you had planned calling for these matches are unable to play. The problem you guys dont really understand is that Tachtsidis good vision and high balls must be accompanied with fast wingers. Without Karelis and Gianniotas Tachtsidis just throws a ball in open areas where noone can really chase. Maybe we do see a totally different line up with Gianniotas Karelis and Tachtsidis finally making his official debut under skibbe.

Another episode of NiNisLand

I know im repeating myself but: You know what's funny? The Greek NT has been playing slow football with minimum possession since lik 2002 and suddently just because this didn't happen at a match against Hungary,Netherlands and Romania over the last 3-4 years it's Skibbe fault. We ve only played fast in 3 matches why is everyone taking this for granted? Our football is to give possession and hit on the counter attack. We made 3 successfull counter attacks which ended in 2 goals( well one was gifted but the whole thing was stealing the ball and running up from El Tzavello) and one bad finishing from Mitroglou. Cyprus might be pot 4-5 whateve they are but I don't believe it deflects their efforts and results. They were 1 breath away from reaching Euro Qualification PlayOffs.

Foul at a cypriot player while a handball at the cypriot area had occured seconds before. One excludes the other "not typically" but that's how it is. Can' blame ref when he hasnt given a penalty against you can you?

I only talked about call ups no starters or players who played. You are right but you missunderstood my comments. Im not talking about who should start. I have a different opinion with skibbe as well.

How clear are we that it's Skibbe not willing to call Kone and not the EPO? I assume this is the talent you are talking about, since from all the players possible (Maybe Siopis too but he is very young) Kone was the midfielder missing and could be key to transition from a successfull defense to scoring. I am pretty sure many players who were part of the campaign for Euro literally lost interest (and showed so) in the National Team. You obviously can't let this go like "Hey, remember us? We back at winning , wanna come?" Judging from how easily Kone preferred Greece over Albania (due to bigger possibilities to make it to the bigger stage I can pressume - and a fair careerwise option if you ask me) Id say it would be that easy to ditch it when it's a No-Go. Who else do you have in mind as more talented player who did not get a call up? Don't start with the Ninis thing. His most efficient position right now is AMF and we have Fortounis and Mantalos there. Just doesn't fit. Pelkas same. Fetfatzidis bad league and recently saw a pic of him being fatty. Siopis too young to be able to judge. Also playing with a very strong side in a small league which can possibly hide his weaknesses. Possible call up in my opinion if he keeps up. Our Defenders/Attacking Midfielders/Forwards are those who really deserve to be called. Our Midfield was/is/has been and probably will be a goddamn problem. If Zeca doesn't get Nationality we really have noone to pair Samaris with. 3 Coaches did not prefer Tachtsidis. 3 fcking coaches of our NT didn't want him to be a starter. There can be something wrong with chemistry, but yeah, you guys play Fifa and u know that since tachtsidis has 80(random number) and maniatis has 72 Skibbe must be so bad he doesnt even know basic αριθμητική. Moreover since you like bashing Skibbe so much, this is the first official "tough" match we had. You didnt want Tziolis, You didnt see Tziolis. So since we saw Maniatis. That means the player has something me/you dont understand. He is a defending running machine. Case closed. He had a bad game. This is something we can agree at. Remember him at the World Cup? Samaris - Maniatis duo literally very strong in all 3 games (Colombia ripped us apart so yeah not gonna talk about it-still that 3-0 wasnt exactly the match picture). So instead of hoping Skibbe ditches him and brings on someone else, Id suggest you start putting all your positive avra and yin yang and shiet into hoping he finds a team. ALSO: For everyone saying they didnt like how the team played: Under Santos we were playing twice as bad and still getting every damn result we wanted (Ex: Greece-Bosnia 0-0 , Slovakia-Greece 0-1 , Liechtenstein-Greece 0-1). If you compare the team from 2013 to this one and find this one more problematic, you niga need an ofthalmiatro. Im not saying we are Barcelona.

I partly agree with you mate. Stafylidis wasn't really exposed since there was no hard work for him to do(The cypriots only attacked from the wings). But saying he didn't play well while running his asss up and down to cover for their counter attacks which was done pretty well and adding an extra UNNEEDED pressure shows not only his physical/talent/will, but also the thirst the whole team has for success after the last campaign. I WOULD agree with you, but as a human being who likes fair critics , I can't ditch his efforts for trying and eventually successfully (even at minimum) playing off position. I can't bring up Zagorakis and Katsouranis and Basinas , some defensive midfielders to note how bad a young Left back (or today's 3RD OPTION CDMF) is. Long story short: His speed/defensive mentality helped in his defensive roles. His brain helped in pressuring. He was a complete player and in my humble opinion one underrated by everyone. Could be just me.

Stafylidis : Running up and down not allowing fast forwards to take the ball. Was the one pressuring the pass in the defence at the first goal. Rated 5.5 from you. No real football awareness. Bakasetas: Running up and down the Left Flank to cover for stupid Tzavellas who lost the ball just too much. Did successfull pressuring alongside Mitroglou and Mantalos (both goals came from pressure which means he partly takes credit). Rated 5 and as Anonymous from you. No real football awareness. K. Pap: This includes everyone honestly. Came on when the key Cypriots are tired. Is praised as a god. To be fair he had no mistake, and Im sure if he was a started he'd be just as solid.

Yes he is sloppy. The only chance they made was by his mistake. Like Gibraltar. I don't think well make it to Russia with Tzavellas as a starter. Honestly. Like Stafylidis DMF , u can't use him as a starter vs Belgium or Bosnia.

@Nikod @Amorgos in reply to both of u. they have made 1 good classic chance. Stafylidis pressing gave us hte first goal. The guy is legit, at least against worse teams like Cyprus and Estonia, when we need aggressive play. Tzavellas I agree. Maniatis I agree, but also playing his usual RUNNING DOG role, which is pretty helpful.

Tzavellas still looking sloppy. Kudos to him though for not letting that ball go out and us ending up in 2-0. Ref is tired of Cypriot diving and he is not giving them fouls. This is good. Also I think Tzavellas did sort of foul at our 1-0, but there was a handball previously so no point to cry about it. Defender fell too easily so made it look like a dive.