paokarag4

Swiderski kills a potential counter with an awful pass despite having multiple options. If he's not scoring he offers nothing in the way of build up play. He had 2 guilt edged chances, which he should have buried that's his specialty scoring in the box. He was unlucky on the first one but that's his bread and butter.

Geez Paschalakis looks shaky, summer can't come quick enough for us to sign a keeper.

That's a pen, dumb by Crespo. I think we got away with one

Swiderski header off the crossbar, we are playing well but need to convert

Tough game to win, our record in Tripoli is horrendous over the years. Despite the win against AEK midweek our form has been poor, so we are going to need a big lift to produce a performance that can get us 3 points. Interesting to see if Garcia plays the midfield 3 of Schwab, Augusto and El Kaddouri or slips Wards back into the XI as a deakri. My guess is it'll be the former.

This is it for us, our season comes down to the Cup. AEK were embarrassed 5-1, so no doubt they will come out breathing fire. We need to get either a score draw or a lead to defend heading back to Toumba. I honestly expect this to be an arm wrestle, both coaches can't afford another heavy loss so I think both will set up defensively not push too many numbers forward. On the other hand you could say AEK is more of a shambles than us atm, so if we're not going to beat them comfortably in Athens now, when will we ever? Paschalakis had a shocker against PAO, I'd say he'll be dropped for this game.

Torosidis played at left back for the Ethniki since he debuted in 2007, long before he ever moved to Roma. He was 22 so I'm not sure your experience argument holds up. Toro was only moved to his natural right back once Rehhagel left and Santos took over post 2010 World Cup. We don't know if Tsimikas would fail or not at right back, there are challenges with playing on your opposite side as you have correctly pointed out. If JVS is going to insist on Mavrias as the no.2 right back and not consider other options, 10/10 times I would rather see Tsimikas playing on his weak side.

Honestly at this point I agree, right back is a massive problem and since JVS seems to have no interest in calling up and trying Kitsiou/G.Masouras (I haven't been crazy on G.Masouras getting a call-up but at least he's a starter) It's worth trying a left-back there at this stage, which just speaks to how poor we are at right back.....

I am very surprised that Swiderski started, I know Lewandowski is injured but still surprising. Anyway he was subbed off at HT, as was Tzolis. Ingason played the full 90 in Iceland's victory.

I am a fan of JVS and what he has done so far with the Ethniki but today he shot himself in the foot. The team was flat and was only pressing half assed, ok it happens you could hear JVS yelling "press" and "up" so the tactics didn't change, for whatever reason the players weren't able to execute. Understandable every team has those days, now let's take a look at JVS's managerial decisions that sealed our fate. You don't sub off Tzolis your biggest goal threat at HT. For an out of form and average Limnios none the less. Limnios is not half the player Tzolis is, Tzolis is direct, runs at defenders and has good goal sense. Limnios takes too many touches and keeps his head down when dribbling. Mistake number 1. JVS was too slow in pulling the trigger on Giakoumakis and Masouras, they should've been on earlier. At the latest on the hour mark, if not 55 mins in or so. Mistake number 2. Something that I think was worth trying was what we saw in the Cyprus friendly back in November, Bakaestas playing deeper with Fortounis as the dekari. We couldn't move the ball out of our half, it was worth dropping an attacking mid deeper to try move the ball out and get us going. Mistake number 3. A big issue for us was where we had our possession it was knocked between our CB's for large chunks, it was a throw back to the dark days of no creativity and desire to get forward. Yet when Georgia had their spells on the ball we allowed them into our half and to have the ball in dangerous areas (twice they nearly got through one on one, once was marginally offside the other the Georgian player couldn't get his foot to the ball) It wasn't a good night, you could tell early we were off and Georgia as many of us had suspected were no pushovers. JVS unfortunately did not help dig us out of the hole, it's his first real bad match as manager of the NT. Let's see how he and the squad bounce back.

I think you can add Zeca/Bouchalakis to that list, who were left out of the squad all together today along with Tzavellas.

Giannoulis on and into left back, we have shifted to a 4-3-3 with Kyriakopoulos moving into central midfield with Mantalos and Siopis. Limnios/Masouras on the wings and Douvikas leading the line

Double post

Is Pavlidis potentially playing his way into the starting XI for Wednesday's match?

Goal! Pavlidis with his second, nice header.

Liminos on for Fortounis Douvikas on for Tzolis Masouras on for Giakoumakis Probably means those 3 will start against Georgia, I'd think Giakoumakis and Fortounis are locks at least.

Looks like a 4-4-2 for this game. Don't mind a bit of experimentation with the formation. Will be interesting to see if Fortounis or Mantalos occupies the wing, I assume it'll be Fortounis. --------Dioudis Mavrias---Mavropanos---Svarnas---Kyriakopoulos Fortounis----Mantalos---Siopis-----Tzolis ----------Pavlidis-----Giakoumakis

I agree, Georgia seems to have improved they were one game away from qualifying for Euro 2020. They have never been easy beats like some other nations and for a team like us they always provide stern opposition. I just think back to Euro 2012 qualifying we equalised in the final 15 to get a 1-1 draw in Greece and had to score 2 late goals to beat them in the return match later in the campaign. Obviously we are talking 10 years ago, but always worth looking at recent meetings. Looking at the stats, they basically split possession (55-45) with the Swedes which is surprising, so we might not have as much of the ball as we might have anticipated. Regardless of their improved form, it is a game we simply must win. Expect to see us go back to the high pressing and trying to own the ball.

Exciting to be only a few days out from the start of another qualifying campaign! I think Tzolis must start, he proved for PAOK in Europe how damaging he can be on the counter. Give him space at your peril, he's got pace to burn, has a lethal right boot and gets into dangerous scoring positions. He will provide a headache for the Spanish going the other way, whether or not JVS trusts him to start a game like this is another issue. Also interested to see what JVS does at center back, early reports are saying Tzavellas will start and the other spot is between Kyriakos/Mavropanos. Does he go with Kyriakos who is the most talented CB in the squad but it's been well documented what injuries have done to his career. Despite the fact that he plays for the bottom side in Croatia I think he is still capable of a big performance. Or will he go with the younger and uncapped Mavropanos who has finally got his body right and is playing regular first team football in the Bundesliga.

Not sure what it was listed as but that match Greece played with 5 center backs on the pitch. A back 3 of Kyrgiakos/Moras/Avraam, Vyntra at right back and Sokratis man marking Messi. Essentially it was a 5-4-1 with no wingers and one striker on the pitch, it was one of the most defensive performances I've ever seen from a team and we literally had one decent chance to counter and snatch a goal. It's not so much the formation but how you counter when you win the ball back, do you break in numbers, or do you hoof a long ball to an isolated striker and hope for a miracle. Greece in 2010 did the latter, I suspect Greece in 2021 will be looking to counter with numbers and actually create something when given the opportunity.

Along with Misic!

Agree and to add to what you're saying, although Brugge may not be a glamorous move they are a team who consistently plays in Europe (played in the Champions league the last 3 seasons) and you would think he'd go there and be a starter. He only just turned 19 if his trajectory keeps trending upwards, he gets his "big" transfer at 21-22 and has plenty of football left in one of the big leagues. I understand why he might want to go to Germany (England is a big no no at this stage IMO) but I don't think Brugge would necessarily be a bad career move. From a PAOK point of view 15 mil + Krmencik (on a free, none of this reduced price crap) sounds like a good deal, if the club think they can get more $ out of a potential sale then great go for it, they obviously have a better feel of the market than we do.

You guys miss the point, no one is arguing that EPO isn't a rabble and unfortunately will continue to be. But when you play on a team and you're a leader, attitude is everything and when senior players do what they did it's toxic. What's to say if they were called back up they wouldn't sabotage again from the inside and same guys that are on here advocating for certain players to return would be crying out about why are we losing to the Georgia's of the world. Attitude is everything in team sports and a few bad apples CAN ruin the whole bunch. EPO is a rabble but saying something post-game isn't going to change that, in general players don't have the power to change the federation. They can force personnel change as Sokratis did and Manolas and JVS has done well up until now (without them) I know the NT in theory needs Manolas back but it needs a Manolas who is playing at 110% and has bought in to what the coach is building and is gonna keep his head down and work hard. Not a Manolas who's gonna come in and start whining about why he wasn't called up for over a year, and why his koumbaro (Siovas) has been banished. If reports are true and he is on the verge of a recall his attitude will determine whether he gets the call, not his playing ability because even blind Freddy can see he is good enough. Fans need to stop turning a blind eye to these things because it's stuff like this that was a massive contributing factor to the Ethniki's capitulation over the last 6-7 years. I don't care how good a player you are if you don't do right by the team and come with the sole intention of helping, then I'm all for keeping these players away, even if it means missing out quality.

The form Warda is in he won't be dropped. More likely Kagawa will continue to come off the bench or one of the two will be pushed out to the wing in order to play both. For example this week if Tzolis isn't fit to start we may see both in the starting line-up.

Who's your Baba?