Galatasaray - Panathinaikos

[Kojak]

Offside #14 on Cisse

.....sorry cant help it....kolisa!

[cyberfish]

^^^ :LOL:

[cyberfish]

Well, I would not say the players were uninterested on showed no urgency. I don't think we could come out and corner Galata. I think we looked composed and patient, and probably this was appropriate given Galata's talent pool and the way they took the pitch pressing like crazy.

We had problems again moving from midfield to offense. I don't like this three midfielders together. If Katsouranis can play well then it would be one thing but he was very flat today with no spring on his legs. An opponent gets the ball and Simao or Gilberto, bam, they are on their face pushing them around. Katsouranis has very bad technique defending.

I thought Cisse and Roukavina played well together and if they had a little more support from midfield it would be a different game. We lost once again from a ball that was bouncing around our box. Bad lack on that but we didn't have solutions after that.

Ninis breathed some life in that department but it was too late at the end.

I hope Ten Cate wrote this note to self: if we are losing with three DMs, mind as well lose with three AMs.

[adonis]

i would say (generally speaking not only referring to this game) that we need more width in our play

and this is highlighted when we dont play with a natural left footer (ie leto) in the AM positions

and there either must be direct instructions from 10kate to the midfielders to find and search for cisse in behind the defence....he was called offside a million times and some of the decisions particularly by katsou and gilberto were horrendous today (and on sunday)

often theres a player hugging the touchline who coulfd receive the ball and whip and cross in but they would rather play a killer ball which never succeeded

but i say this also bc i prefer more width in my approach to the game (im an expect football manager player lol)

id say an ivantschitz would of been good in this game and a good type of left foter to hug the touchline

ten kate really needs to start building his team around ninis

result was expected so im not really pissed off

in fact im pleasantly surprised the margin wasnt larger

final point - im really happy tzorvas is our no1 keeper - his doing a great job imo

[Kojak]

I hope Ten Cate wrote this note to self: if we are losing with three DMs, mind as well lose with three AMs.

that is 100% correct, in fairness to ten cate though, hes working with what he's got, and what hes allowed to have. We dont exactly have pure AM's in the squad that he can use apart from ninis. nobody mention christo..cause hes hopeless..

The problem with today was, Simao and Gilberto are fantastic DM's,win the ball, keep running etc. however add katsouranis to that pair, who definetly is no Attacking Mid, and you have 3 defensive players. On top of that add karagounis who when starved of the ball drops deeper and deeper to get a touch, you effectively have four players in holding midfield roles......

So 4 midfielders in your own half, who are ball winners not ball players, then defenders who panic on the ball and only see cisse's shiny head as a beacon to give long balls to.. and poor cisse and rukavina are run ragged trying to play as strikers and wingers both at the same time.

It is clear we have the players to win the greek league, no doubt. However we lack in every position apart from DM's to do anything worth while or respectable in Europe.

And on a side note, sack antoniou....this technical director position is nothing but a massive hindrance to any coach/manager to work under.