georgelaz

I don't like the philosophy of players adapting to the coaches playing style. I prefer the coach adjusting his playing style to the player. Playing style is often limited to talent. You can't just say go play like Ronaldo does on the wing. Coaches SUPPORT Ronaldo's talent not make him play a certain style. Pavlidis Donis Fortounis Limnios/Fetfa Zeca Kourbelis Tsimikas Sokratis Manolas Bakakis Vlacho Staf at CB not good enough. Bakasetas not good enough. Mantalos is our bench CAM at best not on the wing. Galanopoulos is not ready. Only players van schipp likes as regulars that are newish are Limnios and Pavlidis. Retsos is better then Bakakis when he's fit and in form and more defensively sound. Bakakis though has stamania to bomb the field but defensive liability. Kourbelis on the right though can patch up Bakakis bombing up because Kourbelis can double as a CB so I like that. OR we could have Siovas in the back as well and possibly try Fortounis and Zeca midfield but i'm not sure how good Fortounis's long passing is to be that deep. I think he could do it though.

probably sokratis still.

Pavlidis Donis Fortounis Fetfa/Limnios Zeca Kourbelis Tsimikas Sok Manolas ??? Vlacho I'd probably want to see this now. I actually rate Bakakis since he's engine but if Retsos gets form he's a class above. I also really like Limnios on the wings. We look so much better with proper wingers not CAM playing as wings like Mantalos/Bakasetas. M

wingers are usually not known for immense strength it's their bursts of pace and creativity which opens up space. Obvious exceptions like CR7. Rotating Limnios/Fetfa/Donis we'd have actual wings and to a lesser extent Masouras who has pace and can head the ball alright laz was okay as a supersub after his AEK double but he's getting up there in age for a winger and will he even be the same coming back not sure! missing out on Mitroglou's form in 2013 for the NT and then he got injured and benched at Fulham slowed him down a lot he had potential to be one of the best strikers. Double footed, great head and strength. Similar to Ibra a bit?

Haven't seen a game where we had so many shots on target that must've been the main objective and main weakness. Pavlidis was impressive. Great movement/runs/ and awareness of his team mates. Seeing Limnios and Fetfatzidis on the wings showed a way we could've played had we played true wingers instead of CAM on the wings. The pace, creativity on the counter attack made a constant threat. The defenders were dynamic and afford very little space. I would've like to see Limnios,Fetfa or Donis both play on the wings same time. His selections still worry me though putting both Mantalos and Bakasetas in there. Bakasetas must be a keener in practice or something becauses Coaches always love playing him. One of the things that saddens me is that this kind of performance does basically show that the problem with our team was a mentality one. This was far from our best 11 on paper without Fortounis, Manolas, Sokratis and possible a few others Mitroglou, Zeca, Donis Vlacho playing. But everyone seemed focused, tenacious, and looking to take the game to a Win.

fetfa fortounis and donis would be a great front 3 and we've never seen it with a striker which people are saying Pavlidis is good

they don't seem to care. for example Manolas letting Salinovic or whatever outpace him despite Manolas clocking one of the fastest sprint speed makes no sense unless he deliver doesn't care. It's like broken glass, I think after letting Faroe Islands beat us it's very easy to just let all pride slip away. We lost our pride as a football nation after that loss. After the Euro win we were highly competitive because we built ourselves a bit of reputation but eventually it got to our heads and we lost something along the way about what got us there.

think we might get smacked now lol

statistically speaking we dominate the games we are supposed to dominate barring top 10 opposition. The problem is just that we lack finishing. Our strikers are not the best and/or not in best form. Goals win games. So if we're going to go for Mitroglou we need to play attackers that can feed him properly. IE) Torosidis = crossing into him. Tsimikas = crossing into him. Fortounis = through ball splitting the defense. If we're going to start Koulouris, crossing is out of the question because he's not good in the air. We need to focus on ground balls. Again, Fortounis = through ball splitting the defense. Fetfazidis = ground balls from the wings (cut backs), Tsimikas = pinpoint ground ball cutbacks. Basically Koulours = cut backs or a split of the defense through centre. Mitroglou = aerial balls. Could also do a double striker diamond formation so we can get mitro in air and koulouris to bury the ground balls. Koulouris can also assist decently I think maybe. Mitroglou is left footed and Koulouris right footed so could work. Mitroglou Koulouris Donis Fortounis Fetfa Zeca Tsimikas Sok Man Torosidis Vlacho CM looks very thin with this not sure Zeca could do all the work just an idea. or cater to your striker. If we play koulouris we must play fetfa. Shame that holebas isn't on the team though as he's the finest crosser and has chem with Mitroglou. They're good friends german greek connection and party together in mykonos. Maybe they could come up with some plays while sipping Frappe. Honestly doubt mentality has to do with this I think it's just we've lacked potency in the attacking third. The desire is there. You need to cater to your striker.

This is why Samaras was so good for us. He was able to create something all by himself and often isolated as a quasi LM/ST. I do think we have good players but finding the right formula of players and avoiding injuries is getting the thread in the eye of the needle. I think Mourinho would be an amazing coach for Greece but it's below his pay grade. Zeca should've definitely started. Guy always puts 110% shifts in there. His stamina is world class. Tsimikas is in form as hell and instead he starts Stafylidis who's dissapeared for 2 years. These coaches have made Fernando Santos look like a genius in retrospect but Santos understood Greek football having lived there for years and was foreign enough to be detached enough to make selections. Our defense was relatively solid but goals win games. If you're going to play Koulouris you have to drill the attacking mid on how to feed him. That's ground through balls and get the ball to him near the 6 yard box not hail mary lobs from the half way line (I've seen this done 5x times this game)

Koulouris rarely scores from headers or aerial. Most of his goals come from good runs on his part and low ground through balls. Players like Tachtsidis, Fetfatzidis, Donis can provide that kind of service. Both of his goals in France so far have been on the ground.

Koulouris seems like he's better on the ground. So someone like fetfa would've been perfect to feed him through balls but alas

Tsimikas should've started. He's been in great form for champions league olympiakos also, we didn't start our 4 best attacking third palyers Donis, Mitroglou, Fetfatzidis, Fortounis (Injury). Mitroglou Donis Fortounis Fetfa Kourbelis Zeca Tsimikas Manolas Sokratis Torosidis Vlachodimos I what I would've done. Since Fortounis was injured I'd just slot Vrousai or Pelkas in there as the CAM. Mitroglou can make something out of nothing as he's shown at PSV 2 goals playing on 15 minutes + target man / strength. pelkas I think is decent when playing central but I think he was put out wide again.

just be honest. she might initially be offended but because you were honest it will also build trust. double edged sword though if she's a dumby might just choose to be offended. high risk high reward, baby!

working like someone is trying to steal their girlfriends lmao that's a quote and a half

Good point that they probably do care but they're going about it the completely wrong way in my opinion. I'm sure Zikos and Georgatos cared too but their attitude wasn't good for the locker room

yeah seems they have heavy ego. They're like we play in top clubs in Europe, who's this little super league coach think he knows better than me. Not realizing that a lot of the reason why they're great players is because they are part of great clubs. The great clubs of Arsenal and Roma are able to mask the ego. This is different to our top class players before. They were more humble and did whatever needed to be done for the NT and never gave up. IE Salpingidis, Karagounis, Zagorakis. Hard working and humble players. Sokratis is a sore loser. Not captain material at all. Actually the only player who I think mentally is strong and a good example is Zeca. In all honesty Zeca should probably be captain. Sad. A non-Greek but he plays harder and hustles harder then any other Greek I can think of in the 11. The other ones waste precious energy getting frustrated. Zeca puts his head down and WORKS. We only have to beat Finland twice guys and we're back in it. It's not the hugest mountain to climb. (As well as win our other games and the Italy game can probably be lost/drawn. This is probably why Otto kicked out Zikos and Georgatos even though they were clearly part of the best 11 talent wise. Their mentality was cancer. A hard working player like Zeca increases the team exponentially. Maybe we should even play with our under 21s. Bring in Chatzigiovannis, Bouzoukis etc. I never thought I'd say that but yeah I finally see these guys are prima donnas. maybe something like this Koulouris Donis Bouzoukis Chatzigiovannis zeca(c) kourbelis koutris siovas retsos bakakis odysseas not sure. Sokratis very suspect though and it sucks because he's our best player but what he's saying is just so wrong. Kastouranis is friends with him and needs to knock some sense into him. I like Bakakis, Koutris, Zeca, Chatzi, Bouzoukis because they're very hard workers. Retsos and Donis also give me the vibe as well. I think Koulouris would feed off of that as well. I think Siovas is solid as well and elphantos who knows them says he has more brains than Sokratis/Manolas Odysseas I'm not sure on I mean he plays for Benfica but maybe even pasxalakis. Zeca and Kourbelis have good chemistry from the pao days even with this line up I think we should be able to beat Finland provided the cancer mentality dies a captain should motivate the other players and the only player I think that does that is Zeca for us.

Sokratis's saying that we can't make it is loser mentality. Sorry. I'm from kalamata like him so I have a soft spot for him but that's a loser mentality. Not captain material and diva behaviour. He's good in the good times and a baby in the bad times. We've lost to Albania in qualifiers and some other minnows before. You gotta have a never say die attitude. This shows one of the main problems with the NT. The psychology is off. The talent is there because we're clearly better than Armenia. We're . underperforming. Team should invest in sports psychologists and some Tony Robbins seminars, seriously..

Otto started making weird selections before he stopped being our coach. Like Charisteas on the wing. Euro 2004 had a lot of things going for it. Lotsa in form players playing in top leagues.

I liked the fight at the end nearly tied it at 3-3 with sokratis cross bar header. We're not dark ages but we're a team that battles for that last qualifier spot. We also were missing two of our best attackers in Mitroglou and Donis. Torosidis out is also a loss. We can still do this. If we came back against Bosnia away then we can win every game. The Italy game is the only game on paper we should lose. Bosnia took a massive blow by us and we still have to face Finland. Finland had our number in nations league though so that's the key match up. I'm less optimistic about the NT though for sure finally.

I haven't payed attention enough to the game but it seems we're playing a very high line. whenever greece played well we played deep heart attack defensive football. we should perhaps return to that. i understand we got speed with manolas and sokratis but we should just tighten up the back and just take our shots rather then play possession style and do nothing. I'd take a classic 1-0 or 0-0 then copping 2 goals to Northern Ireland and Armenia

pretty sure we lost like 5 keys player after world cup 2014 + new coach. No Kastouranis, Samaras, Karagounis, Salpingidis, Gekas. Huge hole was left that campaign. The last euro we were okay. We gave Belgium a run for their money and they were top 4 and got knocked by Croatia who was in the final. The other tournys were we qualified we got in by 2nd and knock out rounds to Ukraine and Romania. A lot of things lined up.

is Bakakis not available? Should just start him. He's an engine a key player for a competitive AEK. He's no prime Toro or Seitaridis but he's the most in form RB we got and battle proven the past 5 years or so.

I'd take a draw. the real matches to be won are against finland / bosnia. will be very interesting how we match up against the italians though. I have always felt that from the teams often in top 10 discussions that they're the ones we can take the most. we have similar playing styles. They have more skill in the attacking third, whereas we have more size/strength in the defensive third.

Bakakis is okay as RB. He has great stamina and decent crossing. We just been blessed with great RB's in Torosidis and Seitaridis over the years. Left flank looks better though with Staf, Tsimikas, Koutris hopefully Mitroglou can be there. his strength and ability to score on very few chances like he did against Belgium is invaluable to the NT.