paokarag4

The Tsitsipas slide continues, he is bundled out in 4 sets to the unseeded American Michelsen. His form over the last 12 months suddenly and quickly dropped off at an alarming rate. He is already ranked outside the top 10, with this form he will easily find himself out of the top 20-25 in the coming months. I hope he can get it together again and become relevant in terms of potentially winning a Grand Slam, but right now that seems a world away. He needs to arrest this form-slide and start by beating the guys he should be taking care of.

Double post

No. Do you see a team dripping with quality in CB's and CM's? Or do you see a squad with glaring holes in it that hasn't replaced some quality players who departed? I see the latter. You've been trying to get the "I told ya so" moment on Lucescu for years now. It is not his fault that the club didn't adequately replace Koulierakis despite knowing for months he was on his way out or that they didn't replace Meite at all. Are you so desperate to be proven right about our all time best manager that you choose to overlook the key issues that the team faces? Have a whiskey and go have a lie down! Lucescu is far from our biggest problem. Being left with an incomplete squad has left him working with one hand tied behind his back.

I am more concerned that something will happen off the field leading to a points deduction like the good old days. Tensions are super high between both teams and while Toumba has been on its best behaviour the last 5-6 years, I don't think a team has come to visit so soon after an event filled match. As to the game itself, I just hope football is played and if we are to lose it is on the pitch during the 90 minutes. At the same time, there is a bit of pressure on the team. 2 straight losses, both in derbies. If there is a third to follow the natives will definitely begin to become restless. Baba out is a blow, it means we will see Otto at left-back and Sastre at right-back. I don't know who starts next to Kedziora as our 2nd CB, none of the other 3 fill me with confidence for one reason or another. Konstantelias returning (hopefully he gets over this flu) will be helpful.

It is exhausting for sure mate. This is just a part of Greek football but it is easy to become disenchanted with the whole thing when incidents like this occur semi-regularly. Here is the video. If you can be bothered there are shorter clips on YouTube taken from the POV of the 3 AEK malakes and you can see and hear what is said in the first few seconds as the bus door opens. The three clearly s%$#! themselves, and hopefully they think twice about yapping away and taunting in future. Regardless of their stupidness it does not excuse our squads reaction, unfortunately.

That is a wild ban, especially when you consider Iliopoulos essientally got a warning. Lucescu has clearly rubbed EPO and Athens the wrong way for years, and he isn't completely innocent in all of it. He does like to provoke and stir things, it is his style. I have previously compared him to Jose Mourinho in regards to his touchline antics and press conferences. The issue I have is that there appears to be a double standard when it comes to punishing teams and managers. An opposition president just should not be allowed to enter the other team's dressing room, unless invited. Clearly that didn't happen here. A reprimand is a joke. Plenty of other coaches (Almeyda amongst them) have made obscene gestures in Greece and have not received anywhere near the same amount of media scrutiny/punishment. Our whole squad F***ed up by getting off the bus, it was stupid and childish to respond to the bate being thrown out by 3 AEK fans. They weren't in physical danger, there is no excuse for a team full of professionals to pour off the bus to physically retaliate to verbal abuse. The footage makes for tough viewing. Now practically what it means for us on the pitch this season, it is hard to see us winning the league considering Lucescu will be in the stands until the end of April. We saw the poor run of form we had when he was banned for 20 or so days a couple of months back. Our record was as follows: Τα παιχνίδια που έδωσε ο ΠΑΟΚ χωρίς τον Λουτσέσκου στην προηγούμενη ποινή ΠΑΟΚ - ΟΦΗ 1-2 Αιγάλεω - ΠΑΟΚ 0-3 Λαμία - ΠΑΟΚ 1-2 ΠΑΟΚ - Ολυμπιακός 2-3

Agree we need someone who can come in and impact right away. Tahirovic (if he is signed) doesn't solve this problem, he has only played 125 minutes this season. Lucescu isn't a manager who allows new signings near the starting 11 at the best of times, let alone when they have had limited minutes. We probably need 2 CMs, so given Tahirovic is young and highly rated there is no problem with him being one of the 2 potentially signed. But there is no doubt we need a CM that is ready to come in and be a starter immediately.

Apparently the newest President on the block and man of the people Illopoulos made his way into our dressing room to verbally abuse Lucescu. This stuff never gets old in Greece. Illopoulos has been acting like a clown all season though trying to win the AEK fans over and this is just another part of that. There is no other country in Europe where the owner of the club is as visible as they are in Greece, it is honestly cringeworthy.

I have heard that rumour too on sports radio. Apparently the issue is it was the night before a game (at least in Lovren's case per the radio). This seems to happen an awful lot with PAOK players, I remember the rumours about Jaba being found passed out on a park bench after a night-out and similar stories with Stoch, Z.Zivkovic amongst others. Is the Thessaloniki nightlife that intoxicating that no one can resist? Or are these just rumours created to justify why a players form has dipped/why he is being sacked from the team. Because you obviously hear similar stories from other countries, but it just seems that every year there is at least one PAOK player who is out all hours. So either other teams are sweeping it under the rug (I am sure this happens worldwide) or I have to doubt the validity of these rumours.

Agree. After his error against Steaua it was clear he wasn't up to the level. Lucescu keeps playing him because he is the best CB with the ball at his feet. Colley and Lovren he doesn't trust with the ball, even if they are better defensively. This issue is compounded by never replacing Meite, our midfield is paper thing and it is slim pickings beyond Camara and Ozdoev. Regardless Michailidis isn't the answer. Really it highlights the poor organisation from PAE, there was rumours from last January that Koulierakis was on his way out in the summer. They had so much time to line up a replacement. Instead we left it late and signed Colley in late August and Lovren as a free agent in September. WE NEED to bring in a starting level CB next month, along with at least one central midfielder. Good win despite the average showing. Panetolikos is having a good season and has been a hard nut to crack for plenty of teams. We stay in touch with the top of the table and are one game closer to hopefully signing a new quality CB.

Preach @pash!!! Although, I got motion sickness watching that video. Man is acting like he'll die if he stands still.

12 minutes in and we lead a 1-0, thanks to an own goal. Plenty of PAOK fans in the stands!

Aris apparently about to sack Mantzios (again). John Van't Schip, former Ethniki manager is being lined up to replace him. https://www.sport24.gr/football/aris-teleionei-o-mantzios-pro-ton-pylon-o-fan-sip.10425079.html

I wonder who starts next to Kedziora at CB. Michailidis is super error prone and Colley is not good with the ball at his feet. Pick your poison I guess, both haven't been convincing for different reasons. I have a feeling it will be Michailidis and Colley may get the nod midweek in the do or die clash against Ferencvaros.

Only caught the 2nd half, we really do look like a team completely devoid of any sort of confidence. It's like once we went 2-1 up, the whole team was playing scared and waiting for the equaliser to come.

Good to finally get off the mark in Europe with a win. First half we were sloppy, thankfully we had scored early. Much better in the 2nd half, as others have said we really could have scored more. A 3 or 4-0 would not have looked out of place. Must win our next 2 European games, both of which are at our cursed Toumba. Starting with Ferencvarosi in 2 weeks. They battered our old friends Malmo 4-1 today. They have picked up 3 wins and sit on 9 points so far in the Europa League. Will be tough no doubt, they are probably a 50-50 prospect at this stage for us, but it is hard to forget our awful performances recently at home. Especially in Europe against Plzen and Steaua.

The point of the Nations League was exactly that. UEFA's goal was to give the smaller nations in League C and D a path to qualify for a major tournament. Something which has been almost impossible to achieve in the past. Hence we've seen Georgia and Skopia amongst the the countries making their debut at the last 2 Euros. Whether it is right or not is a different conversation. But that was always UEFA's goal by forming the play-offs through the NL. Euro qualifying is different as all the playoff participants come from the NL but World Cup qualification allows only for 4 NL group winners to participate. With the other 12 playoff participants being the runners-up from the WC qualification groups. So it is bad luck for Greece that we were a League B runner-up during a WC cycle. If it was a Euro cycle we would have almost certainly been handed a playoff birth. If we were to be promoted to League A, then regardless of where we finish in our group, we would again almost be guaranteed a playoff spot. For reference, in the 2 playoffs for Euro qualification since the NL was introduced, by virtue of almost all of the League A teams qualifying directly, the League A teams left behind have all taken part in the playoffs. In 2024 that was Poland and Wales and in 2021 (Euro 2020) it was Iceland.

We've been drawn to face Scotland in the play-offs for the Nations League. First leg in Greece, return in Scotland a few days later.

Guess we are looking at a Ozdoev/Camara central midfield pairing, which has been our best CM pairing this season. Thymianis will have to provide cover off the bench, which was on the cards anyway given Bakayoko's form/injury. It will be good to get a look at him, who knows he maybe a solid contributor and worst case he can't be worse than what Bakayoko has produced for us.

Yeah seems that is the way it shakes out unfortunately. So we need to come top 2 in our qualifying group. Top is automatic qualification and 2nd guarantees us a play-off spot. Despite this expanded WC format from 2026 onwards, it is still tough to qualify from Europe. UEFA's allocation only increased from 13 to 16, which means it is still a tough road and good teams will miss out on the WC coming from Europe.

Important we finish off a with a win, even if top spot is out of our hands. 15 points would surely have us in a position to almost certainly be involved in the playoffs if we don't qualify for the WC via the qualifiers proper. And hopefully Ireland can do us a solid in the local derby over there in the UK. Ioannidis has been ruled out of this one after pulling something during the England game. We will most likely see Pavlidis leading the line once again.

Apparently Lucescu is going to have a press-conference sometime during the international break (most likely this coming Friday), to give some "answers". Not sure an impromptu press-conference is necessary because of a few bad results, but the reaction in Thessaloniki to the teams form has been an intense one. ΠΑΟΚ: Απαντήσεις για όλα από τον Ραζβάν Λουτσέσκου σε έκτακτη συνέντευξη Τύπου https://www.sport24.gr/football/paok-apantiseis-gia-ola-apo-ton-razvan-loytseskoy-se-ektakti-synenteyxi-typoy.10412054.html

8 players have pulled out of the England squad with various injuries. Amongst them are: Alexander-Arnold, Saka, Foden and Declan Rice. The 4 mentioned there are regular starters. So England won't be at full strength come game-time. They still obviously have quality all over the pitch, but it should make getting a result a touch easier. Remember a draw is enough to guarantee us top spot, with one game to spare.

Hahaha, I was always sober my Warda loving friend. Happy to provide the logic and sober counter arguments to your drunken thoughts anytime though!😉

100% agree with you today. Starting Bakayoko was insanity. He has looked below the level in every game he has played so far, so I am not sure what the thinking was in starting him today in a derby. Our midfield after the first 10 minutes, was non-existent. Olympiakos blew through the middle of the pitch like they were training and dominated until the final few minutes of the 1st half. The subs at HT helped, but we were chasing our tail because of our poor start and it was too much in the end. Camara and Konstantelias were good when subbed on, I can't believe Mady didn't start over Bakayoko. Fatigued or not, he is clearly our best midfielder and I would question as to why he was given a full game 10 or so days ago against Aigelio in the Cup. Especially when he had this run of matches on the horizon. I also feel the absence of Koulierakis was really felt today. We were not able to play the ball out of our back third, with the midfield poor it was left to our CBs a lot of the time. Lovren and Colley could not bring the ball out from the back with any sort of purpose or accuracy. Instead they generally resorted to huffing it long, which mainly resulted in us losing possession. Again, this isn't all on the defence. The midfielders have a lot to answer for in not presenting an option/having any sort of control in the middle of the park. This was somewhat remedied by Camara and Konstantelias but again, we conceded the 2nd goal early in the 2nd half and so the game turned into a chaotic up and down fest with no chance for us to really gain control again.