paokarag4

Seeing most of this game has done nothing to convince limnios should be anywhere near the starting XI. His touch is pretty poor and it's always 50-50 when the ball is passed to him if its gonna stick or not. In this 2nd half, he's had numerous 1V1's against a defender and has not beaten anyone. Still a loooong way to go before he's starting material IMO

I take anything a Greek journalist says as completely wrong and inaccurate, so looks like he's out for a month ? Seriously though, hopefully it's nothing and he's right to go for the first leg v Basel. Such an important player

Oh no, Varela down.... Take him off F*** this EDIT: He's just been carried off by the doctors, wasn't putting any weight on his right leg. God I hope it's nothing serious

Apparently Stuttgart rejected a 10 million euro offer from an English club for Donis. http://www.contra.gr/Columns/to-evaggelio/article5261985.ece Big season coming up for him, really needs to get some regular minutes and be a starter

Could be a load of kaka pash (not the Brazilian maestro)

Probably not a huge worry, looked like most of the team that played was a second team/depth players. Not sure about who got subbed on I'd expect tomorrow we'd see a first team play

Apparently we are locked in a battle with Olympiakos to sign Flamengo midfielder Willian Arao http://www.contra.gr/Soccer/Hellas/Superleague/metagrafes/paizei-ta-resta-toy-o-paok-gia-goyilian-tha-ta-dei-o-olympiakos.5260998.html

pash re that 6-7 scoreline was on penalties ? you golden boy you

I agree with @Yiankos a good left back is key. I can't help but think Vieirinha has more to offer higher up the pitch as a winger.

IMO that's flawed logic if that's why Lucescu isn't going to start Khacheridi. If he has seen some things he hasn't liked, he hasn't clicked with Varela etc then fair enough. But I would've thought games against Basel is exactly the reason Khacheridi was brought in. Loads of experience played in the group stage of the Champions league, knockout stage of the Europa league. haha your boy mysta is in with as good a shot as everyone else to potentially get a start on that wing heading into the Basel games. The other three probably have a slight edge, but as you said all 3 all have their question marks. Is another alternative if El Kaddouri is fit and he slots Pelkas onto the wing? Not that I want 2 no.10's on the wings but just thinking it's maybe another way Lucescu could go if he doesn't trust Limnios/Lambrou/Jaba

Basically the same line-up as what we saw at the tail end of last season. Perhaps Jaba to start on the wing? I'm not a fan of Limnios (at least what I saw last season, haven't seen him play this pre-season) He has some work to do before he's starting IMO. Haven't seen much of Jaba/Lamprou but they could potentially be in the running. Another interesting thing to note, Lucescu seems to be favouring Crespo over Khacheridi despite the latter's signing being a "bam". We don't know if that will be the case come the Basel games, or the start of the league season. But for the moment, for whatever reason he's favouring the old firm

Yep a little surprised with Henrique. He has bucket loads of attacking talent but he seems to lack the all round side to his game, doesn't play in a system well/track back. I guess this is further proven by the type of teams he has gone to/is about to off head to on loan.

Agree Jaba has looked solid, hasn't tried to over do it and is playing the easy pass which at times is the best option. He also seems to have some nice touches EDIT: WOW! what a run and finish by Jaba! beat 3 players, very well done. 1-0

Seems El Kaddouri felt some pain in the warm-up and he won't take any part today. Pelkas has taken his place

You got any sauce with that? @pash

he did well, was always gonna be tough v Isner who is such a big and consistent server. Had one bad service game in the first set which allowed Isner to break and take out the set. Took him to 2 tiebreakers after that. No shame in his performance, he's had a brilliant run and there should be another nice little jump for him in the rankings. Hopefully he can carry this form into the US hardcourt season

Warda I believe caught the same flight with the team out of Thessaloniki. Prijo is currently on route to link up with them in Holland. The Warda v Henrique battle for the final "xeno" spot on the squad will have to be decided in the coming weeks. Unless of course Warda is on his way out then no decision to be made

Kourbelis/Kone are players that should be given a go. Galanopoulos I haven't seen play much, so I can't really comment on his ability These same arguments were happening pre World Cup 2014, people were calling for Samaris and Taxi to start, now they aren't wanted. All I'm saying is you don't know how young players are going to develop. That needs to be done at club level. Fundamentally we are in agreement on this issue, I just can't justify giving caps to players who are still unproven at club level just because "it can't be worse than what we currently have" The same things were said leading into the Euro 16 qualifiers (I was one of them) and we all know how that turned out

While I agree that Tziolis and maniati (think he's okay for depth) aren't the way forward, we can't be penciling in guys like Androutos who aren't starters at club level. He played a total of 521 mins last season. The reality of the situation is we are going to see Samaris(who I know had minimal mins this past season as well but coaches will defer to "experience") and Taxi for a while, until these younger guys start to perform at a good level at their clubs. "Bouchalakis can shoot" is not enough to justify him starting for the ethniki. I understand people want to see something change, which is fair enough but you can't just throw guys in for the sake of it.

Apparently it's only a one year contract? I know he's 33 next week but still, surely he was worth a 2 year deal at least Edit: Reading on contra it's actually a 3 year deal with an option for one more year. I got the info of the one year contract from an italian website, not sure who to believe here ? http://www.contra.gr/Columns/to-evaggelio/napolitana-4-5-ekat-gia-ton-oresth.5252138.html

He's through in 5 sets!! Onto the 3rd round for Tsitsipas, where he will have Italian qualifier Fabbiano, who took out Wawrinka in straight sets (2 tie breakers) His side of the draw has opened up with Dimitrov being dumped out in the first round. 4th round very much within touching distance and then a potential match up with the big serving but not unbeatable Isner. One match at a time though I suppose

The Lazaros and AEK break up was never going to be a clean break, much saltiness All salt no pepper

I saw it was 3-4 Donaldon's way in the 4th set with Stefano just having had his serve broken?

Donaldson is a tricky match up, hopefully Stefano can get the better of him. Waiting potentially in the 3rd round is the very dangerous and unseeded Wawrinka, who took out Dimitrov in the first round.

Great and in-depth interview with Manolas. He covers everything, from why he's no longer an AEK fan and will only play for Olympiakos if he comes back to Greece. Talks the ethniki and not qualifying for the World Cup, that goal against Barca and heaps more! He's very honest in his assessment of Greek football and his ego (and believe me if you read the whole interview you'll see he clearly has one) http://www.sport24.gr/Columns/longform/h-eksomologhsh-o-kwstas-manwlas-egine-aytokratoras-ths-rwmhs-gia-mia-hmera.5242990.html