Suggested Call Ups, Starting 11

[georgelaz]

On 11/18/2017 at 3:31 PM, Dean97 said:

he

kone apparently looked good in europa coming on as a sub. don't let the 2-2 fool u. Aek nearly made it 4-2

 

[georgelaz]

holebas is 33 and plays like he's 25. Wonder if him taking time off of football prolonged is shelf life or something...

fetfa should be in the squad. imagine him and donis on the wings. we'd be dangerous.

zeca and kourbelis dm

right now i'm really feeling

 

             mitro

 Fetfa Fortounis Donis

       Kourbelis Zeca

Holebas Sokratis Manolas Toro

              Karnezis

 

Tachtsidis instead of Kourbelis when playing smaller teams.

 

notable mentions

gianniotas as bench winger

mantalos as a CAM only

Karelis when Mitro unavailable

Kpaps if any of our 2 are injured

Samaris if he gets his form back

Staf the obvious option as we probably won't see holebas back

Retsos wouldn't mind doing 3atb but we don't have the fullbacks

Villafanez. Can play as a winger effectively even tho he's a 10 and he has a greek grandfather so he can do it up.

 

the actual big black spot is RB when toro retires. Guess Bakakis is next best thing and AEK is doing great that season.

Aek holding Milan 0-0 twice this season and leading the league. hopefully they can keep form cuz they field the most greek players out of the big four right now.

 

torosidis had big praises for galanopoulos... anyone seen him play? worth a look?

 

aek is gunna regularly be playing mantalos laz kone bakasetas galanopoulos klonaridis anestis bakakis

Edited November 24, 2017 by georgelaz

[ausgreek]

22 minutes ago, georgelaz said:

holebas is 33 and plays like he's 25. Wonder if him taking time off of football prolonged is shelf life or something...

fetfa should be in the squad. imagine him and donis on the wings. we'd be dangerous.

zeca and kourbelis dm

right now i'm really feeling

 

             mitro

 Fetfa Fortounis Donis

       Kourbelis Zeca

Holebas Sokratis Manolas Toro

              Karnezis

 

Tachtsidis instead of Kourbelis when playing smaller teams.

 

notable mentions

gianniotas as bench winger

mantalos as a CAM only

Karelis when Mitro unavailable

Kpaps if any of our 2 are injured

Samaris if he gets his form back

Staf the obvious option as we probably won't see holebas back

Retsos wouldn't mind doing 3atb but we don't have the fullbacks

Villafanez. Can play as a winger effectively even tho he's a 10 and he has a greek grandfather so he can do it up.

 

the actual big black spot is RB when toro retires. Guess Bakakis is next best thing and AEK is doing great that season.

Aek holding Milan 0-0 twice this season and leading the league. hopefully they can keep form cuz they field the most greek players out of the big four right now.

 

torosidis had big praises for galanopoulos... anyone seen him play? worth a look?

 

aek is gunna regularly be playing mantalos laz kone bakasetas galanopoulos klonaridis anestis bakakis

What about starting Mantalos, with Pelkas and Villafanez as AM/Wing back-ups. Fortounis is stuck in first gear I think Laz.

Anestis keeper and Lyko or Koutris as LB.

Does Retsos overtake K Paps or not quite?

Besides the obvious Donis, as CF back-up along with Karelis,  Karamanos could also be an option as a squaddie.

[Boxou]

forget about cholebas and fetfatzidis. the first decided to retire because of skibbe and the latter choose to play football in saudi arabia. 

i posted what our 23-man squad should be going on to the euros.

goalkeepers; karnezis, kapino, anestis

side backs; torosidis, stafylidis, lykogiannis, koutris

center backs; sokratis, manolas, retsos, papadopoulos, mpakakis

midfielders; samaris, kourmpelis, tachtsidis, zeca, fortounis, mantalos, pelkas

attackers; mitroglou, donis, karelis, lazaros

the best i can think at the moment.

 

[Boxou]

id like to have siovas around but with this idiot i think kolovetsios will be getting called up instead.

also we're going to fill the midfield with USELESS defensive midfielders like maniatis and tziolis while pelkas will be getting ignored and as usual along with our lethargic 4-2-3-1 there's nobody who can carry the ball on.

also vellios and diamantakos, 2 strikers worse than our super league ones with no playing time in their clubs and an awful goal/caps ratio, will be locks as well as tzavellas over koutris. 

that's what skibbe means. but epo couldn't realise it. happy failure and καλη δυναμη to all of us. 

[ausgreek]

 

Could consider Siopis instead of Samaris;

One less CB (Retsos/Siovas even), so to have another CM like Galanopoulos or Charisis; We would find that Pelkas plays the Giannota back up right Wing role and not at Midfield anyway, with this coach.

What formation as Skibbe or any previous coach would never consider 3 at the back so 4 2 3 1 is all there is. 4 3 3 is too ballsy and he isn't, with the team formation aspect. Possibly a 4 5 1.

Edited November 24, 2017 by ausgreek

[Dean97]

I would love to have Kone back. But where would you play him? What can he do as 30-31 year old? Be provided experience for sure and if he plays regularly from now on and gets in form then why not call him up. Him alongside Lazaros, Karnezis, Torosidis and Sokratis can be the experienced players of our team. 

[La Mendel]

Guys, our hey-days are over. Possibly Pelkas and Kourbelis and Siopis could be better than some of our present midfielders (Samaris), but that doesnt make yet a successful team. Siopis is on loan. Pelkas and Kourbelis look more promising. Retsos is a really great talent. Lamprou, Limnios etc. have not proven their worth yet. (Think of Ballas, Koutsianikoulis, Fountas, Kolovos, Vellios etc.) Without a coach like Rehhagel or Santos, without Karagounis, our leader and with the present group of players it would have been a miracle if we could have somehow qualify for the World Cup.

[La Mendel]

2 minutes ago, Dean97 said:

I would love to have Kone back. But where would you play him? What can he do as 30-31 year old? [my bolds - LM] Be provided experience for sure and if he plays regularly from now on and gets in form then why not call him up. Him alongside Lazaros, Karnezis, Torosidis and Sokratis can be the experienced players of our team. 

Eternal question of fans. How could ANY footballer who is over 29 do ANYTHING for a national team? They have no place in a national team, and they should retire from Ethniki. Fans always want young talents like Limnios and Koulouris, and an attacking-minded team.

I said it again and again: This is NT, the best players should play in every position, no matter if they are well over 30. We are not like Brazil, Argentina, Spain who have always a lot of great talents, in every generation. Certain players can keep their position in our starting eleven until they wholly fade away (Salpingidis, Samaras) because of lack of real, younger talents.

1. Karagounis and Katsouranis played for us until they were well over 30 and after their departure the team rapidly deteriorated. 2. How many 30-y-o or older players were in that Portugal squad that won Euro 2016? (I can remember only Pepe, Eliseu, Bruno Alves, Ricardo Carvalho, Rui Patricio, Quaresma and backup keeper Eduardo now.)

As for Kone, yes, I would like to have him back. I am glad he begins to play for AEK, his constant absence has been getting more and more alarming. And AEK does a great work in EL, they save so far the honor of Greek club football.

Sorry for being possibly rude.

[Dean97]

Yes I agree with playing the best players in each position. Kone can be a dangerous player when he wants to be. Mantalos is injured now so Kone can get the chances now. 

What I was saying was can Kone be the same player he was leading up to the world in 2014 and the World Cup itself. If he can then welcome back. If he has regressed and it shows then we have better options. 

As you said we need the best players possible.

Edited November 25, 2017 by Dean97

[Boxou]

11 hours ago, ausgreek said:

 

Could consider Siopis instead of Samaris;

One less CB (Retsos/Siovas even), so to have another CM like Galanopoulos or Charisis; We would find that Pelkas plays the Giannota back up right Wing role and not at Midfield anyway, with this coach.

What formation as Skibbe or any previous coach would never consider 3 at the back so 4 2 3 1 is all there is. 4 3 3 is too ballsy and he isn't, with the team formation aspect. Possibly a 4 5 1.

let's be real for once and stop hating on samaris. also him and siopis are not the same kind of player. samaris is an '8' while siopis is a '6'. and our '8' options are samaris and tachtsidis, while our '6' options are zeca and kourmpelis. 

my formation is based on a 3-man defence so 5 cbs is a fair amount, as well as the side backs. 

gianniotas is not included in my squad, simply because there's no room for him. 

3-4-1-2 is one of the best formations for this team because it allows us to utilize our weapons (depth at cb, both mitroglou and donis in the line-up) and also minimizes the lack of wingers we have. so in order not to play mantalos, stafylidis or zeca out of position we're starting 2 full backs, a position where we also have depth. 

galanopoulos it's still too early to consider, while as much as i think charisis could be proved useful i'd like to see what he's able to do with paok in a higher level than sint truiden, his team in belgium

Edited November 25, 2017 by Boxou

[ausgreek]

58 minutes ago, Boxou said:

let's be real for once and stop hating on samaris. also him and siopis are not the same kind of player. samaris is an '8' while siopis is a '6'. and our '8' options are samaris and tachtsidis, while our '6' options are zeca and kourmpelis. 

my formation is based on a 3-man defence so 5 cbs is a fair amount, as well as the side backs. 

gianniotas is not included in my squad, simply because there's no room for him. 

3-4-1-2 is one of the best formations for this team because it allows us to utilize our weapons (depth at cb, both mitroglou and donis in the line-up) and also minimizes the lack of wingers we have. so in order not to play mantalos, stafylidis or zeca out of position we're starting 2 full backs, a position where we also have depth. 

galanopoulos it's still too early to consider, while as much as i think charisis could be proved useful i'd like to see what he's able to do with paok in a higher level than sint truiden, his team in belgium

Nothing personal against Samaris, good person infact. He just is average and has mainly been played as our 6, this is why I went for Siopis. Zeca has been played as an 8, a Winger and now is being touted as our 6, hopefully for Tzioli.

Galanopoulos or Charisis or someone else as one more CM would be fine. Skibbe will never play 3 CB's. I don't mind the idea personally.

[Boxou]

he did play 3 cbs in the away game against croatia but it was doomed to fail with maniatis as a full back(..), tzavellas as a cb(..) and tziolis in the midfield(..)

sokratis-manolas-retsos can be great, with stafylidis and lykogiannis being our full backs, samaris and zeca in the midfield, fortounis ahead of them and mitroglou with donis up front. 

[georgelaz]

i remember when playing colombia the colombian players said that kone was the only player they feared... he was on some crazy form circa 2014. we might have gotten way further if he didn't get injured world cup...

holebas speaks english quite well, surprised. watford is 8th in premier league and he's a key player. such a shame he's gone.

 

[Dean97]

14 hours ago, Boxou said:

let's be real for once and stop hating on samaris. also him and siopis are not the same kind of player. samaris is an '8' while siopis is a '6'. and our '8' options are samaris and tachtsidis, while our '6' options are zeca and kourmpelis. 

my formation is based on a 3-man defence so 5 cbs is a fair amount, as well as the side backs. 

gianniotas is not included in my squad, simply because there's no room for him. 

3-4-1-2 is one of the best formations for this team because it allows us to utilize our weapons (depth at cb, both mitroglou and donis in the line-up) and also minimizes the lack of wingers we have. so in order not to play mantalos, stafylidis or zeca out of position we're starting 2 full backs, a position where we also have depth. 

galanopoulos it's still too early to consider, while as much as i think charisis could be proved useful i'd like to see what he's able to do with paok in a higher level than sint truiden, his team in belgium

I think Siopis is more of an 8 than a 6. Samaris has been playing as a 6 for 3 years now. I also do believe though he should be an 8. Zeca and Kourbelis are a 6 for sure. Tachtsidis should be behind the 10. He is not an attacking midfielder. 

[georgelaz]

Samaris, if he can get his form back, is on paper our best cdm.

We really shouldn't be playing out of form players.

I think one of the biggest sticking points to our NT past years as we can never get an 11 that's in form.

euro campaign Mitro was out of form for most of it.

this campaign fortounis, and samaris out of form for most of it.

If anything, we should just play starts from the big 4 in the superleague rather than playing out of form players in the bigger leagues.

eg) pelkas, kourbelis, bakakis

what ever happened to petsos? lol

 

kone hit the post for aek last play. bakasetas with a header goal

http://superleaguegreece.novasports.gr/VideoId/48429/

Edited November 29, 2017 by georgelaz

[Dean97]

Absolutely agree. Kourbelis has earned a start for some time now. At least a sub option. Bakasetas scoring for AEK but not for the national team is an ongoing problem with every other Greek that plays in our national team.

We can surely replace Tziolis with Tachtsidis or Samaris. Same height and good in the air and obviously they are both better creatively and defensively. 

We have a problem I believe in our attack. All our players are not that tall for example. Donis 5ft10, Karelis 5ft8, Pelkas and Gianniotas are 5ft8 even Mantalos 5ft9. Christodoulopoulos, Manthatis and Fortounis are 6ft which is good. 

So we need to keep that in mind, so that we can have multiple scoring chances when a cross comes into the box and the winger coming in last second for a header. 

It's also good to have tall midfielders. We probably will see less of Galanopoulos and Siopis because of this. 

[Dean97]

2 hours ago, georgelaz said:

what ever happened to petsos? lol

 

I'd like to know aswell. He looked alright against Montenegro. 

[Argy]

7 hours ago, Dean97 said:

Absolutely agree. Kourbelis has earned a start for some time now. At least a sub option. Bakasetas scoring for AEK but not for the national team is an ongoing problem with every other Greek that plays in our national team.

We can surely replace Tziolis with Tachtsidis or Samaris. Same height and good in the air and obviously they are both better creatively and defensively. 

We have a problem I believe in our attack. All our players are not that tall for example. Donis 5ft10, Karelis 5ft8, Pelkas and Gianniotas are 5ft8 even Mantalos 5ft9. Christodoulopoulos, Manthatis and Fortounis are 6ft which is good. 

So we need to keep that in mind, so that we can have multiple scoring chances when a cross comes into the box and the winger coming in last second for a header. 

It's also good to have tall midfielders. We probably will see less of Galanopoulos and Siopis because of this. 

Lazaro is no more than 5'10

[Boxou]

11 hours ago, Dean97 said:

I'd like to know aswell. He looked alright against Montenegro. 

he's an irregular starter in rapid wien, where's he's been playing on loan from werder. i don't get why maniatis and tziolis are getting picked over him, probably another skibbe's stupidity.

[Boxou]

talking about petsos..he got a red card today and cost his team's victory.

[Bihti]

Would love to see a few more of the boys playing in Belgium top league looked at. Karelis is the only one that has been looked at in recent times until he was injured. Players like Harisis should be given a go. Our midfield needs to be improved also if Kolovos gets back to full fitness give him some game time for the Ethniki

[Boxou]

nah i don't think kolovos has to be there. he simply doesn't cut it. but i agree about charisis and im looking forward to watch him either with paok next year or with sint truiden if they decide to use his buy out clause. 

[Bihti]

if getting regular game time wld rather players playing in top flight Belgium than Greece; Bad career move for the Ethniki anyway when Taxi signed with Oly. Also Fortounis needs to go to a better league and improve on the player he is so to Mantalos. IMO Spanish, German, France, Italy, England, Dutch, Belgium and Portugal top flight regulars get priority over the rest. Would only look at rest if we had nothing else available. Our failure to qualify for WC is down to 2 things. 1 Croatia has a cracking group of players and 2 some of our key players either made some untimely or poor career moves or got injured/ unavailability at wrong time for the Ethniki. No issue with Premier league but Karnezis was regular in Italy. That moved killed us. Kapino to Oly has not worked for individual or the NT. Mitro injury and moved to France killed us. Agree about Tsiolis, Maniatis etc should not be playing for Ethniki. Manolas suspension sucked. Siovas should have also been picked in the squad. Plays in the best comp in the world and a regular. Plays against monster forwards every week and yet not even in the squad. Am very passionate about the NT. Love them and have for many years. We can be better than where we are in the rankings.

[Boxou]

i do agree about the last sentence first of all.

tachtsidis wanted to move to greece for personal reasons. and i also rate olympiakos higher than calgiari where he was playing so nothing wrong with that. 

also one of the reasons why im sick with olympiakos is because they don't play kapino. instead they start a 35yo silvio proto. what's the benefit on that? football department has made me sick over the years with such decisions. i hope kapino moves to udinese that were targeting him on summer but olympiakos rejected their offer. 

also karnezis moved to watford because udinese decided to invest on a project. he's on loan there so he will be back on summer. but i'd rather have napoli which were also interested in him. sucks that he's out of form now.