georgelaz

yeah I was thinking. We should definitely keep Holebas and Torosidis as fullbacks for this campaign but we HAVE to have wingers for the attacking half of the pitch. we can't expect them to run up and down the field for 90 minutes much longer. Holebas plays like he's 25 somehow though, probably because of his late start? Less atrophy I suppose.

i'm with ellas. with the weaker sides, we gotta play super aggressively but maintain a firm defense. with belgium and possibly bosnia. we got to shut them down defensively and make every break, chance count.

he get's a lot of yellow cards. picked up one in 68 in the 4-0 win against tondela. aggression can be good though if he doesn't accumulate reds.

I didn't mind Katsouranis at all. If we didn't botch the Euro campaign I would be down for him to play 30-60 minutes a game as a starter or super-sub. I think his handling during the campaign was pretty disrespectful since he was almost as important to us as Karagounis IMO. Karagounis being a bit more important but still HUGE for us. A CDM has a longer shelf life than a RB like Seitaridis. Seitaridis in his prime was stellar, nevertheless. We probably should have groomed him to be a CB in a more disciplined way. Like Ramos or Lahm as CDM (he'd be a CB if he was bigger/stronger)

your lineup might actually work great panatha bit dicey to leave out Manolas & Samaris two of our best players hands down. admittedly they have been s%$#! for the ethniki

lol this isn't our best squad but in terms of raw speed would be fun to see once basically our fastest players for each position Diamantakos Klaus Klonaridis Pelkas Fetfa Maniatis Holebas Manolas Sokratis Marinos Karnezis

fortounis should start over ninis if anything. ninis vs. pelkas is more debatable but even still i'm slightly for pelkas ninis as a sub for sure though. I don't get the Siovas? CB pecking order 1. Sokratis 2. Manolas 3. Kpaps 4. Siovas IMO

No way. Ethniki should have only one venue and the best venue. England = Wembely. It should be synonymous with the ethniki. Right now it seems to be karaiskakis. It's not gunna feel like home with a constant switch up

I would love to see Mitroglou blast a goal or two against the Turks, but I'm probably dreaming.

Turkey is really in form. So I would love to beat them convincingly.

I was hoping he would be our new Gilberto Silva... anyone know whatsup with him? Will he play a game? Cisse played amazing for us and earned back a call up for France with his form. This was AFTER two broken legs!

The Sweden game Ottos plan was basically to nullify Ibra via big tall centre backs - hence 3 centrebacks (including Antzas at 6'5) by nullifying Ibra, and being proficient in set plays, pop a goal of a corner or free kick via karagounis. it wasn't our night though

From the info I've seen, not very happy about this. Ranieri had a better pedigree. As did Santos, and Otto. But hey, I'd love to be proven wrong. He's a young manager, so hopefully he has a chip on his shoulder or his best days will be with the ethiniki.

dudes I really wish we just stuck with Ranieri, at least till after the euro campaign. He's a good manager. Perhaps there is something better that lies for our future though.

What made Torosidis so great was his pace coming up. Almost as fast as Salpingidis in his early Olympiakos days. He still has great tackling, crossing, and aggression though!

The EPL is death to Greek Talent. The West Bromich move is what made him lose momentum. He needs to go to AEK, or Italy, pronto.

He should stay in the Greek League till 26-27 and just dominate, grow, and create huge buzz in Europe then move to Italy / Germany / Spain. (Similar to Torosidis) Torosidis should be the template for every Greek footballer IMO. (maybe excluding star CB's eg) Sokratis/Manolas are rated highly worldwide) Rather than move with potential left on the table (eg). Ninis / Fetfatzidis) Most top quality european leagues do not have the patience to groom potential. At Olympiakos, he is both good enough to start, and grow via Champions League. Never the premier league.

If we're only starting 2 CB's I'd rather Manolas at the moment. I think he's finally surpassed Kpaps in the pecking order because of the formers injuries. Ethnikos that lineup is pretty similar to the 4-3 hungary. It's good attack wise but Staf and Kits don't leave me confident on the wings. Against the minnows I think this would be a fun lineup to move towards (after Torosidis retires move Holebas up to winger for one last tourny.) Mitroglou Kone Holebas Fortounis Fetfa Samaris Tachtsi Manolas Sokratis Kpaps Karnezis For extra attack juice subs Pelkas for Fourtounis Karelis for Holebas Klaus for Kone I think our Ethniki personally plays best with an average age of 28-29. Slightly above the typical high performing average (27). Much like Italy, who won the world cup with an average age of 30. Greeks generally blossom later, they rely on football IQ more than raw athleticism.

Gekas was a really good striker in his prime. He stopped being super productive for us after 2010, but still he was the best we had in many circumstances. He was a world cup 2010 top scorer (qualifiers), bundesliga top scorer, and greek league top scorer. dude was effective as F***

For Mitroglou, Holebas, and Petsos, I think it's their first language.

At the moment, I would love to see this lineup played. I think it's our best players at this moment in time. It looks highly defensive but Mitro, Kone, Fortounis, Tachtsi, Holebas are attack oriented & Samaris + Torosidis can too. So it's actually quite balanced. Mitroglou - Kone Fortounis Samaris - Tachtsi holebas - Manolas - Sokratis - Kpaps - Torosidis Karnezis Subs Kapino Karelis (Chasing a goal) Pelkas (Chasing a goal) Ninis (Chasing a goal) Klaus (Chasing a goal) Maniatis (Protecting a lead) Siovas (Protecting a lead) Notable Reserves Moras Lazaros Fetfatzidis Oikonomou Klonaridis

Karnezis was playing with an injury after the Japan game though. Keep that in mind. He's arguebly as good, if not better than Nikopolidis in his prime at the moment. I think we really need to groom one of our CAM into a winger, because we are seriously lacking options there. The ideal would be Pelkas, because he has the pace and he's still young enough to acclimate to the new position. i admit, I haven't seen him play much, so someone might no better than I if that's a good idea. `

Huge win. Shame Arsenal beat Bayern, though. That makes me extremely anxious for Olympiakos. Luckily. We have the lions share in home games coming.

Nice to see that the Italians can pronounce his name, too.

^ Karelis is kinda like a young Salpingindis IMO. He has a place on the team. Right now I think as our first bench sub if we need another offensive outlet. I like that he's a courageous player. He makes difficult runs, trys to beat defenders, takes difficult shots (sometimes too difficult). It's a quality problem though, because the majority of our ethniki wasn't taking shots unless it was a beautiful chance.