paokarag4

Good for us that Levi Garcia is out, even if Baba seemed to handle him well a few weeks back. I expect a cagey match, the 3-4-3 Garcia has reverted to will hold us in good stead. In terms of the team I expect Ingason to come in for Michalidis and not sure if it'll be Tzolis or Warda for the injured El Kaddouri. Garcia likes El Kaddouri to drift into the middle and support the midfielders and Warda is more suited to playing that sort of role.

Loving these early times for us, really does feel like a holiday!

Tsitsipas has kept up his superb form from Monte-Carlo and has made the Barcelona final which is to be played tonight against Nadal. Stefanos is yet to drop a set in Spain this week and he has dispatched of 3 seeds in his run to the final.

No plans for a new episode at this stage unfortunately! Hopefully we are able to get together some stage and do another one, maybe a Cup final preview (if we make it) or a end of season review.

Top 3 is a must, I don't want to leave us making Europe in the hands of other teams. Although there is no difference between 2 and 3 in terms of Europe, as you say. I don't think Olympiacos are going to have an easy time against PAS, even if I do believe they will make the final in the end.

What do we think will Garcia stick with the 3-4-3 moving forward, or was it a one off to match up with Olympiacos system? Apart from the first 15-20 mins when it was obvious the players were still working out what they were doing, the formation worked quite well. A loss here and we can just about kiss 2nd spot goodbye, must win if we want to have a chance of catching Aris. Will be a tough we know they are always up for the fight against us, say what you like about them but Aris has been the most consistent of the top 6 this season, outside Olympiakos obviously.

And he wins his first ever Masters title blowing Rublev away 6-3, 6-3!! The first Greek ever to win a Masters title, bravo Stefane!!!

Anyone want to try guess what's going on with this formation? My best guest is that we are going to see Vieirinha on the wing, Rodrigo at right back and El-Kadouri back in midfield. Unless Garcia is trying something really left-field ?‍♂️ EDIT: On 2nd thought, it looks like he is trying to match Olympiacos by playing a 3-4-3 like they are. I don't mind a coach mixing it up and trying and catch the other team off guard, but Vierinha at center back? I'm not sure I believe, but I guess we'll find out soon enough.

Warda likely to be dropped, I think Garcia will favour the 3 man midfield of Schwab, El Kaddouri and Augusto against Olympiacos. I would personally start Warda, especially since they will be missing Ba and Semedo it looks like Avraam Papadopoulos(Yes he is still around) will start. Good opportunity for us to expose them and grab some goals.

Nice chunk of change coming our way for Giannoulis, let's how the off-field team reinvests that money lord knows we need at least 3-4 starters coming through the door in the summer. In terms of Giannoulis, I'm excited to see him in the Premier League. Not sure how he'll go but I'm sure he'll shine in an attacking sense as he always does. It will be tough for Norwich to stay up, they are notorious for going up and coming right back down the following season.

Another disappointing result, we played ok in patches but overall not well enough to get the win. I can't even say defensive woes cost us, it just seems teams score against us on their first foray into our box.

Warda unlucky there. Again frustrating, they have created close to nothing yet they have equalised it's a trend that we concede when the opponent creates half a chance. I'd say we will see Kremncik soon, probably in a 4-4-2

Nice goal Swiderski! Showing us his worth with a goal, well deserved for him bravo

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