paokarag4

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.

Agree Blackhawk, we were good for a goal at least and a result. Perhaps expectedly, we perform better against the bigger names in Europe. Today's game and the one in Turkey were both solid performances where a little luck would have seen us a get a result. Meanwhile against the more evenly matched Steaua and Plzen we had awful showings. If Ozdoev was 25, that performance would have seen him signed to one of the 5 big leagues. He was immense and was everywhere. I think most players can hold their head high, everyone played pretty well especially defensively, all the boys put in a good shift.

Reports are saying Lucescu will go with this starting line-up ---------Kotarski---- Otto----Kedziora----Colley---Baba -----Schwab----Ozdoev Zivkovic---Camara---Taison ---------Tissoudali---- Must say I like the idea of that midfield for this game. Keep it tight and compact with three box-to-box mids and hit a vulnerable United on the counter. Lucescu's hand has been forced with Konstantelias out and Murg not able to play in Europe, so I think he is improvising with Camara as a 10 but I think for this game it might be our ticket to a result.

Important win! Especially since all dropped points last week, this week all of AEK, PAO, Aris and Olympiacos won, so it was key that we stay in touch with the pack. Subs helped which is always nice when they can come off the bench and actually impact. Now for a massive week, Manchester United away in the EL and a crucial derby against Olympiacos before the international break.

Conspiracy time!!! When PAOK rejected RB Salzburg's offer in the summer, the word was that the board/Savvidis promised Konstantelias a new contract with a bigger wage to compensate him for turning down RB's bigger offer. Rumours are that he is on around 500k with us. That was around July (I think), and here we are now in November and there is still no revised contract that has been presented to the Konstantelias camp. So the young man has taken matters into his own hands and is getting "sick" every 2nd week to express his extreme dissatisfaction at the unfulfilled promise.

The only saving grace is that all the other title contenders dropped points. No big team is in good form and have all dropped a huge amount of points considering we are only 9 games in. Aris have probably been the most consistent and that is why they sit on top of the table. Still a long way to go, but I wonder if this is the year we see something crazy happen in terms of who wins the title.... Unlikely I know, but I don't recall a season where all of us, Olympiacos, AEK and PAO had 2 losses each 9 games into the league.

This part I agree with. It isn't uncommon in Greek football to have that trait come out unfortunately but I too am not a fan. The way I see it, Lucescu has similarities to Mourinho in that aspect. Both say outrageous things in the media that drives opposition fans and clubs up the wall, while ultimately deflecting pressure and attention from his team's performance and results. Everyone spends the week talking about what Lucescu said and not about how PAOK churned out an average performance. I am sure if we ever got Razvan on the pod(bring it back?), he would acknowledge that his goal. In terms of being a "saviour" I mean do we need saving? How many trophies do you want before you are convinced he has already saved us by winning one third of our titles in our history.

You really have had it out for Lucescu ever since he booted your boy Warda to the curb for good. Comfortably our most successful coach ever, if he ain't it then I don't think any available and willing manager could come in and lift this team to better results. Also for the record we are equal top in the league. Yes Europe so far has been disappointing, especially the last 2 games but as @Bananas pointed out this is a step up in competition/level and the whole squad hasn't been able to adjust (coaches and players alike). I do realise that you were probably half joking, but I also know you have never been Lucescu's biggest fan. I would point to Pana as an example of a club who knee-jerked into sacking their coach (Jovanovic) off the back of a poor European campaign. Almost a year later they are still chasing their tail and are teetering on the brink of sacking a 3rd coach in less than 12 months. Perspective is also key, we are a Greek club. If Razvan is moved on, I don't think Jurgen Klopp is banging down the door to take the reigns. We have a good coach who understands the club and the landscape of Greek football, as well as having a proven track record of winning trophies. He is by no means untouchable, but he has more than earnt the right to steady the ship.

Tzimas with another 2 goals for Nurnberg in a 4-0 win. Seems he and Nurnberg are starting to find their feet. Exciting for us and hopefully Tzimas can carry on with this form!

We are looking good to be in pot 2 for World Cup Qualifying. The draw for that is on the 13th of December.

Extremely tragic and sad news. I have no idea how the NT and PAO players must be feeling, much less his family and friends. Football aside, he was far too young. RIP George.

Reports from Bulgaria that Despodov is unhappy with his role/playing time and is getting his management to look around for a potential January move. We coughed up quite a bit of $ for him and he still has 3 years to run on his contract, so unless another club stumps up a decent amount of cash it maybe hard for him to get out.

Correct it will be Pavlidis, who has been starting for Benfica since his summer move so he has plenty of minutes in his legs. Jovanovic said that he won't be calling up anyone to replace Ioannidis and he is happy going into these 2 games with Pavlidis and Douvikas as the squads strikers. I guess that probably means it is almost NT career over for Giakoumakis. He hasn't been called up since his move to Mexico (which also coincided with the change in manager).