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Suggested Call Ups, Starting 11


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We got to keep in mind that we lost badly to Italy 3-0 at home with players like Sokratis, Manolas and Samaris. The 2nd time around we gave them a real headache with a new team. We honestly could’ve drew that game. That 1st half they couldn’t do anything.
 

Usually against teams like Armenia and Finland we would lose or draw with Sokratis and Manolas. Even worse we lost and drew against the Faroes and Lichtenstein with them in the side. We lost to Faroes twice. 
 

We now play good football and everyone has a part to play. From the goalkeeper all the way down to the striker. Also we are actually winning against sides that we should be beating. 

I find it hard to understand with world class players like Manolas and Sokratis why they can’t transition from defence as good as Hatzidiakos for example. Defensively they are solid but they can’t start attacks from the back as good. 
 

I can’t comment what has happened behind the scenes all I know is that they are not wanted in the team anymore and that their talent isn’t the reason. It’s much deeper than that and the only answer would be something to do with their attitudes. The result is what matters at the end of the day and of the team is winning then what else can we ask for.

We will probably never agree with some selections I would’ve wanted a few other players myself but these call ups were fine from the availability we have.

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I also think that Sokrates and Manolas did the right thing by saying what they did against the previous coach.  It was the only way that EPO listened.  As a professional, you want to have professional coaches.  To not even game plan against Italy was negligent.  To have them do a position which they never practiced in is absurd, changing only after Siovas said he was comfortable playing there as he never did it before (which by the way he told him for the first time on the pitch!!)

Not saying they were not a problem but their complaints were valid. No one can deny that we have been playing better now.

 

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You bring as an example a game vs Italy where freaking Anastasiadis used a player like Siovas (around 2m tall CB, rather slow) as a DEFENSIVE MIDFIELDER.

And you acutally think that Sokratis and Manolas are the ones to blame for a defeat in which we had like 1 shot on target?

🤦‍♂️

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Well were they to blame against the Faroes and Lichtenstein? We can all blame this and that but at the end of the day players like Tachtsidis, Samaris, Sokratis, Manolas, Mitroglou, Kone, Lazaros and others couldn’t even put away the Faroes. You can blame bad coaching or poor attacking but against teams like them you shouldn’t really have a hard time. Or even concede.
 

Now with Van’t Schip we are playing better football. Which tells me that the coaching were the problem for all this happening. He has come and sort of laid down the law so to speak. He made tough decisions and started a rebuild. He and his team don’t accept arrogance and egos in the team. 

Also saying that we had Siovas as the CDM should mean that we shouldn’t concede with an extra CB. Also we had 2 actual CDMs in Kourbelis and Samaris next to him. How are we supposed to attack properly with these guys in midfield? What’s the excuse for Sokratis and Manolas not to concede? The had an extra CB in front of them and 2 DMs. Fortounis played striker that game aswell which made it even harder for us to start attacking. Those were poor decisions made by Anastasiadis. Tactics were all over the place. 
 

To conclude, there’s no excuse that we lacked talent in the team. We just didn’t have players who wanted to bleed for the shirt instead we had Mykonos fc and players blaming others for their mistakes. The team weren’t a team and seemed like there were a lot of egos. 

There’s also a debate as to whether Sokratis and Manolas got complacent and didn’t even try 100%. As they knew that they were irreplaceable. Same can be said about Mitroglou to a certain extent. 

Edited by Dean97
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I wasn't saying that they were the problem. I was saying that I believe that they were justified in speaking out.  I think that our tactics for a long time have been counter productive.  Manolas/Sokratis are the reason we did well in the WC are few years ago.  They are both gifted (Sokratis has regressed since then but still a solid player). 

I also believe that we have played more attacking football since they both left and we have looked like more of a team.  Is that because of the coach or because they were excluded, who knows.  The coach may think they have too strong a personality and may take away from everyone else. Time will tell and if we keep playing well, no one will care.

 

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Van't Schip's excluding Fetfa follows the Sokratis/Manolas model. Their relationship appears fractured since Fetfa was late for a team meeting prior to the Italy game last year. Apparently Fetfa was offended in the next round of qualifiers (vs Armenia and Finland) when he wasn't given any playing time.

I for one am 100% backing JVS and his handling of the squad, we can't afford to have these type of personalities around the squad. Self-entilted guys who demand playing time, it's toxic and rubs off on the rest of the team. 

 Fetfatzidis is a good player, and has a role to play with the Ethniki but you don't have the right to dictate to the coach when you should play. This type of behaviour has brought us down in the past, as has been discussed already. It'll be interesting to see if he gets a call-up in future, but I won't be losing any sleep if he doesn't. 

You can read about it here https://www.novasports.gr/podosfairo/nations-league/article/1806708/gi-auto-den-klithike-o-fetfatzidis

Edited by paokarag4
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5 hours ago, paokarag4 said:

Van't Schip's excluding Fetfa follows the Sokratis/Manolas model. Their relationship appears fractured since Fetfa was late for a team meeting prior to the Italy game last year. Apparently Fetfa was offended in the next round of qualifiers (vs Armenia and Finland) when he wasn't given any playing time.

I for one am 100% backing JVS and his handling of the squad, we can't afford to have these type of personalities around the squad. Self-entilted guys who demand playing time, it's toxic and rubs off on the rest of the team. 

 Fetfatzidis is a good player, and has a role to play with the Ethniki but you don't have the right to dictate to the coach when you should play. This type of behaviour has brought us down in the past, as has been discussed already. It'll be interesting to see if he gets a call-up in future, but I won't be losing any sleep if he doesn't. 

You can read about it here https://www.novasports.gr/podosfairo/nations-league/article/1806708/gi-auto-den-klithike-o-fetfatzidis

Well said. No one deserves a spot you have to earn it. Fetfatzidis as talented as he is shouldn’t be demanding or expecting to play if he isn’t following the rules. I’m saying this as a fan of his. 

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Seriously who the FCK is Fetfa to think he can complain about playing time?? does he think he's a superstar?? I totally agree JVS as well, who gives a s%$#! what you bring to the team if you put yourself before the team and make it about you then I am glad JVS has cut these guys. We have gone through this for to many years where players dictate who plays and when with the Ethniki. Time for a coach to take control of this team and kick all these hard headed players that make it about themselves off the team for good. Good on JVS

Edited by J1078
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Vlachodimos missing is obsurd.
I can understand Sokratis/Manolas reasons missing, but when the ones called instead are Lampropoulos / Svarnas even Siovas for fuq sake I cannot comprehend the reasons behind this.

I also have no idea why Koulouris is here and Donis is not instead.

Tzolis was expected to be here. Michailidis not, and especially with so many Left Footed defenders (Stafylidis Tsimikas Giannoulis). 

Rota was also expected to be in the team. The reason is simple. We have noone else other than Bakakis as a Right Back.

Slovenia away and Kosovo away are our first two matches and the hardest ones. I cannot understand why the coach had to do such a big chemistry change in the defence.

 

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^Thank you....

 If we think this is a hard group then we better not even show up for the World cup Qualifiers. I agree we need to get over this mentality that we are the same quality of these type of teams. Our results over the last few years may suggest other wise but come on guys we should dominate this group. I think in the past with those humiliating losses i strongly believe it wasn't due to lack of talent but rather we became a fragile team that lost its confidence, No one can sit here and say the Faroe Islands, Hungary and the rest of the garbage teams we lost to was because they had superior players. It was the mentality and the egos on the team that caused this horrible transition after our last world cup. The team needs to get its confidence back and start thinking we can beat anyone anytime and i think JVS is starting to build that mentality with the team especially the young players transitioning to the NT..

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Koulouris being called up is puzzling. He hasn’t played. But I’m thinking that we don’t have other strikers to back up Pavlidis. Fountas is the other option. I think Greece have made us fans a bit insecure with how the the team will perform because of what’s happened in the past. We should be beating these teams though and we should top the table. 

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UEFA created Nations League mainly to replace the useless friendly games that used to be played. as a result it appears that our coach is using these games to rebuild the national team. That is the reason for the youngsters that he is calling up. At the same time he cleans house of the saboteurs that used to cause trouble. His goal is to have a solid team to enter the WC qualifying campaign. 

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1 hour ago, J1078 said:

I think in the past with those humiliating losses i strongly believe it wasn't due to lack of talent but rather we became a fragile team that lost its confidence

Back in the Santos days, people here in the US would ask me why Greece's play looked so ugly, particularly when I would point out to them that the USMNT was a decidedly worse team. My response was that the US played with balls because they didn't understand that they were underdogs. Meanwhile, Greece played like babies because they didn't believe they weren't. I don't think that mentality has changed all that much, to be honest.

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3 hours ago, Rockafeller Skank said:

Vlachodimos missing is obsurd.
I can understand Sokratis/Manolas reasons missing, but when the ones called instead are Lampropoulos / Svarnas even Siovas for fuq sake I cannot comprehend the reasons behind this.

I also have no idea why Koulouris is here and Donis is not instead.

Tzolis was expected to be here. Michailidis not, and especially with so many Left Footed defenders (Stafylidis Tsimikas Giannoulis). 

Rota was also expected to be in the team. The reason is simple. We have noone else other than Bakakis as a Right Back.

Slovenia away and Kosovo away are our first two matches and the hardest ones. I cannot understand why the coach had to do such a big chemistry change in the defence.

 

Finally, thank you.

Stafylidis' career has been in the downfall, Lykogiannis should be there instead of him. Also I just find it amazing they are doing nothing in order to give the passport to Baldock who is a premier league starter. Playing with Mpakakis who is the epitome of mediocrity and someone like Rota there makes me sick.

Sokratis and Manolas are good enough to be the starting CB duo in Napoli and compete against the likes of Juventus, Inter, Roma etc every weekend but not good enough to make the Greek NT squad in front of Svarnas, Lampropoulos and Michailidis?

Paschalakis and Dioudis in front of Vlachodimos rather shows the coach is not the only one deciding who's gonna get an invitation in the squad.

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17 hours ago, pash said:

Hardest ones? Every team in this group is garbage. Christ, we've really developed a small-team mentality around here.

We should be beating a lot of people after the 2014 WC. Its been 6 years and we ve barely beat any of the ones htat we should. The audacity of believing these are easy matches is insane. We ll both be here tomorrow to commentate on how we barely won/ had a bad result bro. Be patient.

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16 hours ago, Blackhawk said:

UEFA created Nations League mainly to replace the useless friendly games that used to be played. as a result it appears that our coach is using these games to rebuild the national team. That is the reason for the youngsters that he is calling up. At the same time he cleans house of the saboteurs that used to cause trouble. His goal is to have a solid team to enter the WC qualifying campaign. 

He’s using the next 4 months to try and build a solid team like you said. If we keep on winning then Manolas and the rest won’t come back. We have like 10 or so matches coming up for the rest of the year. We’re going to use these matches to see who is capable of playing for the team. With Van’t Schip rebuilding the team he must also get results otherwise he will lose his job. So I expect to see more of the same like the last 4 matches we’ve played, which is aggressive in defence and with a strong intent to attack.

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2 hours ago, Rockafeller Skank said:

We should be beating a lot of people after the 2014 WC. Its been 6 years and we ve barely beat any of the ones htat we should. The audacity of believing these are easy matches is insane. We ll both be here tomorrow to commentate on how we barely won/ had a bad result bro. Be patient.

I'm audacious as fuuuuuck baby!

If we struggle against them it only confirms what I'm saying - none of the teams in this group are good. Hint hint.

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^ I'm reminded of when a cousin of mine here in the US got his Greek passport. It took 8 months of him calling the consulate every day for them to move his handwritten document (by requirement) from one to-do bin to another. So even with the inappropriate meddling of a sports team with normal government processes, you gotta assume this s%$#! takes time.

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Yep bureaucracy in Greece can be like nails on a chalkboard, just painful. I recall reading that because Baldock's yiayia has passed away there were going to be some additional issues for him to get his passport. If he and EPO want it to happen it will, but we maybe waiting a while. 

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