georgelaz

this team has so many questions marks. part of me thinks we can even make it to a world cup quarter final. the other part of me is fearful that we might even flop this qualifying. I haven't seen any convincing changes made to the team since our botched euro campaign.

lol I remember a poster in the old greeksoccer forums stating Katsouranis is 'the Greek Pirlo'. It was kinda jokes but he is in a way. Or the Greek Gerrard. If England started Gerrard I think they would have faired better. Despite him playing in MLS

The Zikos exclusion is the most confusing for sure. In retrospect our 2004 team was a dream team. Still having a great squad without Zikos, Stoltidis, Georgiadis, and an injured Tsiartsas in the final. "Katsouranis is one of the best players I ever trained in my professional career" - Fernando Santos (football coach) about Katsouranis.[34] Renato Sanchez I think gets the 'exception to the rule pass'. He started over Samaris in the champions league knock out rounds to Bayern at 18. That speaks volumes right there.

his contract is until 2017 at Roma. I think he gets a lot of unnecessary flak on this forum. Yes his skills aren't as good as say when he was 25 but he's still the best we got at that position. Being a squad player at Roma ain't too shabby.

exactly. Santos has no fear in playing a 32 year old winger in Queresma & a 38 CB in Carvalho. He's using the same strategy is he did with Greece. Putting experience at a premium. This + he has the luxury of the best players in the world. Santos is the perfect international manager. He's contrarian. Stoic. And values winning in the big picture. I think Portugal MIGHT get blown out in the final like 2-0 but I still stand by that.

there's no luck here. Croatia beat Spain the defending champs, which Portugal beat. Wales beat Belgium a heavy favour to win the whole thing. Portugal basically beat Belgium and Spain by beating the people who beat them in a way. It depends on your perspective, but their success is not mostly because of luck. It's because Santos is one of the best international managers, RONALDO, a golden generation, and chemistry.

international games is a man's game not a boy game. I said I had a good feelings about Portugal this tourny because their players are in that 27-32 sweet spot range for international success. England played 19 years olds (Ali) and early 20s (Kane, Dier). And the choked. The pressure that every game counts take an experienced player and the portugese have been the same team for while now so their chemistry is uncanny. much like portugal, we should stick to our tried and true unless someone is a no-brainer eg) the 19 year old ronaldo in euro 2004. if santos was still our coach we'd still have Katsouranis, Maniatis, Gekas, Samaras starting and playing most minutes. Along with Holebas, Torosidis, Sokratis, Karnezis, Mitroglou, Samaris. Fortounis would have been the new addition. People would bitch and complain that we're playing old-timers but we would make it to euro 2016 and possibly get to a quarter or semi final. that's the thing, is was too many key changes. we had a winning formula and if you want to improve a winning formula you gotta be careful not to F*** up the success you already have! The only switch that should've been made was Kone/Fortounis for Karagounis in retrospect. Katsouranis and Gekas were fully intending on making euro 2016 their retirement tourny but Ranieri came and tried to revolutionize something that was already working and left our team in shambles.

Holevas as a lw is a waste to me. He has good strength to defend and he was the pace to get into LW position when he sees fit. He doesn't need to be lodged up there. When his pace begins to decline tho, might be a good idea to move him from LB to LW cause his offensive abilities are savage.

what do you guys think of klonaridis? He's got pace in spades, and a good finisher too. Loves playing on the wings too. I saw 4-5 games of his which he performed well. Can't judge his whole season performance though. him and gianniotas/fetfatzidis can be our wingers in time if they get their s%$#! together. whatever happened to Kaltas? He fizzled at PAO but was killing it at his previous club. It seems we have great wingers/attacking mids at a young level that never bloom as much as our defensive players. I blame Europe personally for this. They view the Greek DNA as defensive so they only invest in our defense for the most part. Whereas they look to South American DNA for attack eg) Brazil, Argentina.

good post just nitpicking. you realize that only Kone(28) all the other players are 25 and under? lol

yup I agree with that lineup pretty much. just as soon as kpaps becomes available I'd start him over petsos.

Fortounis often plays on the left wing for olympiakos. He's almost double footed and loves to cut in. I think him and Mantalos should shift from CAM to Wingers as the game sees fit.

I would take Santos back with open arms. Mavrias & Tzavellas seem to be next runners up for RB/LB in my mind as well. Fortounis is automatic starter now, it's not just a form thing, he's hit a new level, and it was obvious he's been a class above our other CAM's for a year or two now. Karnezis Torosidis---Manolas-- KPaps---Sokratis---Holebas Samaris Fortounis---Mantalos Karelis -- Mitroglou I'd do the above for now. 5-3-2. No one is going to score on us with that D and we can scrap at least a goal or two with that attack. Subs Maniatis (RB/CDM) , Kone (CAM/CF), Tzavella (LB/CB) These subs have great utility because they can play great in two or more positions. If we're playing a five star team like a Belgium I'd reserve Karelis on the bench and put Maniatis in there too frustrate their midfield. Other than than that, our D is pretty robust without 2 CDM's if we have 3 CB's Torisidis captain. Sokratis vice captain. Samaris 3rd captain,

Greeks tend to turn it up when they're underdogs. I think we get arrogant when we're in the drivers seat. Even if you look at history we've historically been better as underdogs eg) Spartans vs. Persians. As apposed to being considered the favourites eg) Byzantium vs. Turkish Tribes. Cyprus's edge is they're pretty much destined to always but underdogs barring a match against Gilbatrar.

yeah I feel the same way. Two things that have me optimistic 1. Fortounis being a starter. 2. The chances are slim that are luck will be THAT bad to repeat our euro 2016 campaign. If we do bad, it'll probably be a 3rd or 4th place finish.

Mitroglou is more a low work rate striker. He's almost a heavyweight at 6'2 200lbs. He works best when he bides his energy and get into good positions. Hence why we keep saying he needs a good attacking mid. If you want a runner, that's where Karelis comes in. He has a high work rate but lower potency than Mitroglou aka Mr. Mykonos lol

Mr. Mykonos XD dead lol. With Holevas on LW that'd be a good feeder for him. They have great chemistry.

yeah? would love to watch the full second game if it becomes available lol

The Australian commentators were class. 1) the mentioned the individual quality of our players and we need to solve the puzzle. 2) they mentioned that the culture in Greek soccer needs to be fixed because it's not the individual players as they succeed abroad at top clubs. 3) they pronounced the greek names properly (being around tons of Greeks helps) 4) they mentioned how greece should be winning games against Cyprus 9/10 times and Faroe Islands 10/10 times. The english don't bother me much. they have a culture of banter. historically they are pretty much friends. just a peg down france.

man that sucks. people underestimate the damage that footballers endure. kicks are 5x more powerful than punches but it's easy to underestimate the impact. really proud to have Samaris on the ethiniki. Pure class and I feel very comfortable with him in the CDM role.

Mantalos is quality. Just as I said we just need a quality CAM in there like Mantalos, Fortounis, Ninis, Fetfa and we have a chance to beat anyone really. I wish we could've played our best 11ada so we could've smoked them 3-0.

sometimes I feel he gets into the squad because he has 'good looking guy' points. the importance that Greek men are good looking is important for international politics. Whilst salpigids and Gekas are effective, there is a bit of shame attached to them not being as handsome. Whereas blokes like Tziolis, Samaris show the aesthetic potential of a Greek man lol

my current fifa lineup ---------- Mitroglou ------ Gekas ----------- Fortounis ---------- ---------- --------- Fetfatzidis --------- KPaps --------- Samaris --------- Holebas -- Manolas --- Sokratis --- Torosidis --------- --------- --- Karnezis --- --------- --------- Bench Tachtsidis Kone Lazaros Maniatis Klaus Ninis Kapino

If we suddenly starts dominating and moves up to the MLS (not improbable) I can see him come back to the NT. Dellas was thought to be finished by doing to Cyprus, but when he returned to AEK he also returned to the NT. He's actually playing and we're still talking about him. Unlike Salpingidis who basically disappeared after he couldn't get a PAOK contract.

I really like the picks overall. My guess is Gianniotas & Fetfa called so we can experiment with having two good LW & RW. If the Aussie's are gunna start Giannou playing in China, might as well play Fetfa playing in Arabia. Fetfa should be playing in the Portugese or French league IMO. He'd be a key player for a team there. In Italy he tends to get drowned out in the noise. England, Spain, Germany would be even worse.