Suggested Call Ups, Starting 11

[georgelaz]

Currently hoping for this lineup in the upcoming qualifiers, with Mantalos replacing Kone if the latter keeps riding the bench in Italy. Another prospect I find very interesting for the midfield is Charisis, as well as Villafanez if he gets a Greek passport.

 

not my favourite but pretty realistic. definitely creative which I give you props for

 

 

I'd like to see Mitroglou & Karelis on at the same time cause they provide different things up on the pitch.

 

I only think we should put in 3 cb's if we have sokratis/manolas/kyriakos in there. tzvellas is a good squad player but I don't like the idea of starting him as apposed to starting Mantalos or Karelis.

 

I'd rather keep the squad ethnic greek unless it's a no brainer. Zeca isn't significantly better/equal/worse to Maniatis/Tachtsidis/Petsos to warrant a call up now. I'd rate him our fourth CM behind Samaris, Tachtsidis, Maniatis.

 

I'm also sure at least one of Ninis / Fetfa / Mantalos / Pelkas will be in good form this year.

Edited August 1, 2016 by georgelaz

[Dean97]

Whenever he is injury free he should be in the team. If I was coach going into a tournament and I had to choose between a player and Papadopoulos I'd choose Papadopoulos. Its worth gambling on him. I would never choose Oikonomou and Siovas over Papadopoulos is what I'm trying to say.

[Dean97]

He is too driven of a player and passionate. Let alone of his well known abilities.

[georgelaz]

I'm a fan of Siovas as a squad player for the NT. Left footed, can play CDM too. If he's good enough for Oly in round of 16 cl, I think he's good enough to be at least squad.

 

to me, even if kpaps only can start one game, he's worth that slot. he's a game changer when he's on the field.

Edited August 1, 2016 by georgelaz

[georgelaz]

My dream Greek attack team right now lol

 

          Karelis  Mitroglou

  Holebas Fortounis   Fetfatzidis

        Tachtsidis  Samaris

      Sokratis  Kpaps Manolas

                Karnezis

 

My arguements for Fetfa

1. he'll have fresh legs

2. saudi league is about equal to MLS

3. We need good wing play, we can't just remove that element from the game, that's like playing without a CB almost

 

My arguements for Tachtsidis

1. he's a dud a lot of times, but his through balls can win a game 1/4 times, which is good enough for me not other CM option offers that, they offer mediocrity besides Samaris who is more of a defensive outlet and will come in hand to patch up space in the 3 cb formation

 

 

I could be wrong cause I haven't watched a lot of him, but isn't Zeca basically the same kind of player as Samaris? A not as good Samaris?

Edited August 3, 2016 by georgelaz

[Nikod]

any team with half decent wingers would destroy that lineup

[kbxk508]

Sorry mods. I deleted as it was in the wrong topic.  

Edited August 4, 2016 by kbxk508

[Bananas]

My dream Greek attack team right now lol

 

          Karelis  Mitroglou

  Holebas Fortounis   Fetfatzidis

        Tachtsidis  Samaris

      Sokratis  Kpaps Manolas

                Karnezis

 

My arguements for Fetfa

1. he'll have fresh legs

2. saudi league is about equal to MLS

3. We need good wing play, we can't just remove that element from the game, that's like playing without a CB almost

 

My arguements for Tachtsidis

1. he's a dud a lot of times, but his through balls can win a game 1/4 times, which is good enough for me not other CM option offers that, they offer mediocrity besides Samaris who is more of a defensive outlet and will come in hand to patch up space in the 3 cb formation

 

 

I could be wrong cause I haven't watched a lot of him, but isn't Zeca basically the same kind of player as Samaris? A not as good Samaris?

 

It's not just about the formation, but also about your opponent.  Against a team weaker than Greece, that formation is probably ok.  Against Belgium, we're conceding 4.

[georgelaz]

yeah I was thinking the same thing. I think we should play something like that for everyone and then for belgium stack 3cb's there and 3 defensive mids samaris, maniatis, petsos.

 

and just prey to panagia that fortouni and mr. mykonos can pull some magic lol

[maggica]

Mitroglou

Karelis Fortounis mandalos

Tachtsidis samaris

Holebas sokratis manolas torosidis

Karnezis

4-2-3-1 formation.

We lack wingers, so I'd play mandalos and karelis out of position there. Off the bench, I'd consider bringing in bakasetas,gianniotas, fetfa, and mystakidis.

I'm not a huge fan of tachtsidis, but he can help generate chances with his passing and vision. He needs to be more consistent, be more active defensively, and get more playing time with his club. He is still better than maniatis, Tziolis, and petsos, though.

Aside from that, my other selections are straight forward. We have a good starting lineup, but not much depth.

Bench: kapino, glykos, Tzavellas, stafylidis, siovas, charisis, maniatis, petsos, kone,kyriakos,ninis,Klaus, diamantakos, vellios plus 4 wingers I mentioned.

Edited August 8, 2016 by maggica

[Nikitas]

^playing mandalos and karelis(or other players) as wingers or out of position hasnt do us any good last year. we better play with 2 attacking midfielders who can switch positions instead of that. so or 2 forwards with mitro as deepest or with 2 attacking midfielders and 1 forward if we play with 4 defenders.

[georgelaz]

yeah I'd play the same players maggica

 

just put them in position tho Karelis as CF behind Mitro a bit (basically the way Mitro plays with Jonas at Benfica)

and Mantalos as RCAM and Fortounis as LCAM

 

If kpaps is available I'd put him over Tachtsi and make it 3 cb's otherwise Tachtsi

 

very few teams are better than us if we play our best players in position.

Edited August 8, 2016 by georgelaz

[maggica]

You guys are right, karelis is more effective as a cf behind mitroglou.

4-2-2-1-1 formation with the same players. Lcam fortounis and rcam mandalos. I'd keep tachtsidis over the technically limited kpaps in defensive midfield.

Why is it a good idea to play with a 4-3-3 formation against the Dutch?

[Rockafeller Skank]

because we ll literally play 3 defensivewise midfielders because we ll need them.
Dutch defence is a meme, bet even with just Fortounis Karelis Mitroglou up front and 7 CBs we can score.

[Tzatziki]

We have quality cb's using a formation with 3 of them makes sense.

[Dean97]

I know what your trying to say but I've come to realise how good Papadopoulos actually is. Even if Oikonomou is in good form I'd still choose Papadopoulos. I believe Oikonomou can't do what Papadopoulos can do. Such as tackling, heading, strength and the will to win.

[Dean97]

Apparently this is the team for the friendly and premier against Netherlands and Gibraltar.

https://gre-365.com/2016/08/07/%ce%b7-%cf%80%ce%b9%ce%b8%ce%b1%ce%bd%ce%ae-23%ce%ac%ce%b4%ce%b1-%cf%84%ce%bf%cf%85-%cf%83%ce%ba%ce%af%ce%bc%cf%80%ce%b5-%ce%b3%ce%b9%ce%b1-%cf%84%ce%b7%ce%bd-%cf%80%cf%81%ce%b5%ce%bc%ce%b9%ce%ad/

[Akritis_1944]

This is just a possible list. The article is speculating.

[georgelaz]

Holebas shouldn't be in the black. He's been our best player in all the friendlys lately.

People gotta stop questioning the guy and let him do his magic.

He's much better than staf

Edited August 16, 2016 by georgelaz

[Makynia]

Agreed Holebas absolute must start as he is starting every game at Watford as well. Ninis is apparently our most in form Greek player right now. Must be in blue. Why Christodoulopoulos and

Maniatis? They don't have teams at the moment I believe?

[Rockafeller Skank]

Holebas in his current team is playing as a left midfielder on a 3-5-2 system. Why are we arguying about which of the stafylidis/holebas should play? We don't really have anyone else as a left mid/winger, so since he spent all his proetoimasia playing in that position , the real question is this: Why don't we field both?

 

- - - - - - - - - - -Karnezis- - - - - - - - - - -

-Torosidis-Manolas-Sokratis-Stafylidis-

- - - - Tachtsidis- - - - Samaris- - - - - - -

Gianniotas- - - Fortounis - - -Fast Guy with bad attitude

- - - - - - - - - Mitroglou - -  - - - - - - - - -

 

Everyone apart from Torosidis and Tachtsidis seems to be a starter for their club (Samaris a bit left behind as well at Benfica but probably due to rumours of him being sold?).

It would be nice to be able to fit other players like Mantalos and Karelis in this but we only get 11 players. To be honest, if Tachtsidis doesn't play regularly (doesn't have to start) we could swap him for Mantalos/Petsos and put Samaris as a 6th(DM) and one of the above at the 8(CM) position.

 

Its funny how in a one month period I changed my mind on weather we should have wingers or not. Even when saying we can't play with wingers I was aware of the fact that modern football is all about pace and

[Bananas]

Stafyllidis is still young. Considering where Holebas was at Stafyllidis' age, Stafyllidis has shown better progress at that age. I personally like both, but Holebas for me is the more obvious choice.

 

Holebas is definitely a much more complete player.  In simple terms, Holebas is a man, and Stafylidis is still a boy.  Stafylidis is still young at 22, and he's playing at a decent level as well.  Importantly, he plays regularly ie. he's not a bench warmer.  Hopefully he develops over the next few seasons.

[georgelaz]

fortounis is pretty comfy on his own hybrid version of LW/LCAM. Pretty much almost double footed as well.

Is it optimal? Not sure. But he does look really good there for Olympiakos.

 

I think we should play to our strengths. Much like the spain dominated era where they played without a striker for so long. I think we should play with a diminished midfield instead of trying to force it. Use that extra man to focus on our strength, defense.

 

Our defense is our strength so play with 5 at the back. 3 Midfields (Samaris, Fortounis, Best Third Option Tachtsidis/Manatalos/Kone.ninis, and 2 forwards (Karelis/Mitroglou)

 

The fact that besides Samaris and Fortounis are clear but our third option in midfield isn't clear already should sound alarms that this is the way to go.

Edited August 20, 2016 by georgelaz

[Rockafeller Skank]

Although I used to agree with you, there is no team who is aiming high in the current era football , that does not have wingers . even the whole Left/Right Midfielders literally nowadays means winger. Holebas has been playing as a winger if you watch his games with watford.
Gianniotas came out of nowhere, a good career for such a young age and we have noone else. Fetfatzidis also an option since playing teams like Estonia , Cyprus, Gibraltar isn't anything more than the defenders he has to face at Saudi Arabia. Bosnia Defense also breaks easily.

Greece Squad has been fuller than ever. Two complete strikers in the names of Mitroglou and Karelis, an upcomming (hopefully) talent like Vellios and Bakasetas for strikers.
Gianniotas proving he is worthy of Champions League (even if biggest part of APOEL isn't - it would be nice if he manages to progress and show the big stage what he can do) , Fetfatzidis still existing and breaking ancles , proving he is really the Greek Messi with bad guidace and poor life choices (could rename him to Mess-y?) and Holebas being our most skilled and probably fast player proving how much of a waste becoming a professional Left Back is.
10th position Fortounis, Mantalos , Kone , an upcomming Winger/10 Pelkas.

 

Defence stayed as good as always, and probably upgraded (defensivewise), but we still lack a Karagounis/Katsouranis didumo and are hoping to find it in the faces of Samaris/Tachtsi/Kone/Manitais/Petsos.
samaras missing too.
These young players need correct guidance. I wish EPO could actually give their own agents to these players so they don't get wasted in a team their playtime will last less than me in sex.

 

All players mentioned , no matter if it was offence,defence,midfield would be starters for any other NT of pot 3, the pot we ended up, and probably half of the pot 2 teams.

 

all we need is the winner mentality.

[georgelaz]

the fact that everyone is using the same system is not reason enough to follow suit.

I think above trends we need to play to our strengths. We only have 2 clear midfields, fortounis, and samaris. everyone else is a question mark.

by playing to our strengths, yes our attack will be disabled, but it will also be almost impossible for the opposition to score on us. This is why Otto and Santos were so successful. We were essentially what Spain was to midfield, to defense. Albeit to a lesser degree.