georgelaz

I've met knocks outs in every ethnicity. Mitroglou works well with ninis & kone and they're doing decent right now. He also used to work well with Salpingidis but his ethniki days seem over.

CB's and GK's have a longer shelf life, generally.

Your comparison of using Cisse, Kats, Leto, Silva, Karagounis = Berg, Zeca, Ninis, Karelis, Essien We had a pretty s%$#! defense when we won the title last time too. (Boumsung was our best in the backline for example ?) Sanchez is much better. It's mostly likely that Olympiakos will take this title again BUT it's still comletely in our cards to win the title - it won't be easy but we can squeeze by 1st place by 3 points over the gauvroi.

I agree with Pash. Mitroglou is still a weapon if he's getting good service. ninis works really well with him. I also wouldn't mind Samaras getting a dig. That's what I'm saying tho, if we make our 3 subs midfielders in the 60th minute, we can make up for our shitty midfield through the power of fresh legs. One of the problems that we've overlooked is that our subs have been very bad Katsouranis in while, chasing a goal for example?

this to me seems to be our best lineup. these subs in brackets would be good replacements if a particular unit is doing bad. Holebas - Manolas - Sokratis - Manolas - Torosidis (Subs Moras / Siovas / Stafilidis) Samaris Maniatis (Subs Tachtsidis / Petsos) feftfa - Ninis - Karelis (Subs Kone / Fortounis / Lazaros) Mitroglou (Subs Klaus) Greece is still in my opinion a top 20 side, pound for pound, talent wise. we gotta start acting like it. I know a lot of people are Maniatis haters, but he does a lot of the dirty work that Samaris doesn't do. He's a decent engine. Also, if you look at the suitable subs in the attacking midfield, that may be where our problem is. We don't have any clear cut starters as we've shuffled these guys around so much. We got quantity, but not the same quality that we do have in the defense. Therefore, almost always our subs should probably be attacking, the fresh legs and different offensive angles that each of our AM offer can be made up for in quantity rather than quality. Turn the weakness into strength! my 2 cents

Magath creeps me out. We need someone who understands both Greek & World football - much like Santos.

Highlights are here. don't know how long they will remain up though... we had +5 chances that would have been sheer goals - just a matter of inches. (as sokratis said, we had very bad luck) I would've appreciated less audacious attempts and at least test the keeper a bit instead of going for the highlight real at first though.. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qrhNe61Cgmc

Didn't see that one coming. Wacky starting lineup. Despite the injuries I'd started Manolas still as CB kpaps as cdm Playing feftfa would've been good too. It's hard to pinpoint this campaigns failure on a major thing - it's many little things that accumulate to make our squad rubbish. 2 things that come to mind is we need to enhance team chemistry. 2nd we need to try to play ballsy attacking football. MAX 1 DM the rest forwards. We might as well start doing this now that we're out as an experiment.

I predict 2-0 Greece. Mitroglou & Aravidis to score. Let's see.

Yes. I get it. But the question is, who else on our NT can do what he does? On that RW. No one else naturally fits there. I guess I'd slot Ninis in there if anything besides Fefta. His move to the Saudi League is very unorthodox for a 24 year old footballer with so much potential. He probably has his reasons though (the car crash near death experience / family needing funds back in greece etc.)

Fortounis gives me more confidence atm. Ninis is so inconsistent. You can tell that Fortounis leveled up this season. It's not just form.

I really like that lineup ^ Karelis is the new salpingidis. Fefta is still the best Greek for his position and still has a place with us on our team. If Messi went to play in saudi arabia right now for shits and giggles would he not still have a place for Argentina? I think, of course he would. Class is class. Feftazidis isn't in Arabia because of decline, but rather economical. It's different.

AEK is and always will be a top 4 superleague team. the relegation did ruin a lot of our confidence in selecting their players... this year I predict AEK will finish 3rd. 1) Oly 2) Pao 3) Aek 4 Paok 5 ) Atromitos / take your pick I'm PAO btw. . Let's not be naive and forget that AEK isn't a big name in Greek Soccer.

We missed a lot of very good chances by inches. 3-4 posts/crossbars? I think we were just very unlucky on this game.

I'd prefer if 80% of our players on the pitch are defense oriented and 20% attack oriented. At 60th minute use subs for attacking fresh legs. Clean sheets will return to be the norm for us and that'll give our attackers the confidence to be more creative. Karnezis Holebas Manolas Sokratis Toro Kyriakos Samaris Tachtsidis Karelis Ninis Mitroglou Subs Fortounis Kone Fetfa/Klaus/Samaras/Lazaros/Gekas?

I have a hunch that Greece is going to play the last 4 games very very well. Giving Tsanas a chance to be the head coach into world cup. Everything seems to be aligning. Mitroglou seems to be back. Holebas has a chip on his shoulder. Our 3 Cb stars are finally all healthy. etc. etc.

That's the beauty of Kpaps in midfield. He can patch up the space Holebas leaves when he goes up.

The ultimate euro comeback?!?

i love that lineup 1789. I doubt anybody in the group will score against us with it. That will also give our attackers the confidence to be creative. The subs can be used to just replace attackers to rotate them and see which forward will have his day.

Aravidis popped a goal against Sevilla yesterday. (A very very good team imo). Djebour & him seem to be playing together so his playing time will likely be unhindered! He popped one against olympiakos during the cup too. He's proving little by little his dominance isn't just because he was in 2nd division Greece. Hopefully he has a breakout season again with Aek in the superleague. He would easily be one of the most passionate in the 11ada he's 28 but some players are just late bloomers like Holebas. Similarly in basketball, Steve Nash became good in his 30s and was an all-star till about 35ish. (Basketball & Soccer players have about the same life span in professional level). Anyways, Aravidis, really like the guy right now.

My heart felt we would win. My brain knew a defeat was likely. Our win at home was way too scrappy of a win to give me the confidence of winning away.

I'm for evolution, not revolution. If we update the squad by 4-5 players each euro & world cup we'll have a fresh new squad every 4 years. That's sufficient to adhere to overall class & let the lads get experience under their belts. The 4-5 players that we need to phase in to the starting 11 I would say are Samaris Tachtsidis Karelis Ninis Fefta ? Get these dudes to 40-50 caps. Next euro we can create a new wave. it's too soon to tell now but diamantakos might be on the list since we'll need a striker.

Ninis played really well with Cisse in 2010. amazing chemistry. He also seems to be bubbling this up with Berg, and a more mild chemistry with Mitroglou. In essence, pure strikers + ninis = winning combo. Parma only really has Cassano, who is a CF, not quite the same type of player as the lads above. I think that was one of the many reasons his Italian campaign was abysmal. Mark my words, if he stays healthy. Ninis will be huuuge for Pao this season.

If Greece wasn't in shambles economically the players would be best to return to the patrida to get their legs back. Mitroglou, Ninis, and others in the past are getting their mojo back doing this. The Saudi league economically pays extremely generously, and perhaps he sees it as an opportunity to help his family. Samaras might even go to PAOK? I'd be extremely surprised though. His father urged him from very young to never play in Greece. Though, I can't say that playing for Celtic is better than the top 3 teams in the Greek league, but I digress.

skondras, siovas, stafilidis, lazaros, klaus (form dependin) I'd consider on that list as well