Faroe Islands-Greece(13 June 2015, Torsvollur, Torshavn)

[Greek Style]

And I thought when Ranieri was replaced, the EPO will do the right thing,  so they go and sign up a 73 yr old. Soon we will need to start again cause he also does not inspire young people.

 

And WTF is up with those sunglasses FFS.

Edited June 13, 2015 by Greek Style

[Original 21]

[val]

Bielsa was considered by the EPO and interviewed by the EPO but dropped at the last moment in favour of Ranieri.

 

Xolebas did not lie about being injured. He had a cracked rib. Was sent home by the EPO - correctly - Roma played him for 45 minutes the following week and he went off at half time in agony and missed the next weeks. 

 

Again the problem with our NT is the Clika and EPO. Greece produces players good enough to beat the Faroes, we just only saw around 6 of them on the pitch today instead of 11.  Again, Bielsa and his team watch games - that is how they select players. If Markarian did the same, Kone, Lazaros, Tziolis etc would not have even made the squad. 

 

Bielsa is adamant on his style of play, it demands the right players. Just consider the sides he has coached in the past.

 

You throw a few names around that you believe shouldn't have made the squad but bar holebas, you fail to list the other replacements. You need to accept that the current national pool is flawed. It doesn't matter who gets the call and who doesn't, the outcome will still be the same.

 

Only solution is to fix the grassroots. It might take a decade, but it's the only way.

 

Just read this article. http://www.theguardian.com/football/2013/may/23/germany-bust-boom-talent

[Dikefale11]

The players lack passion.

 

Pre-2004 the players we had at our disposal the majority played in Greece, for Greek teams and understood what it meant to play for the Ethniki. The players looked at these competitions as a way to get noticed and to somehow play on a bigger stage such a a european or world competition and to get noticed.

 

Now that some of the players play for medium to big teams across Europe they have lost that. They no longer possess the feeling of passion that their predecessors did when playing for the Ethniki. These lads are the modern Greek magka model wannabes who are afraid to get a piece of mud on their boots. 

 

Gone are the days of Dellas, Zagorakis, Basinas, Kapsis, Karagounis, Nikopolidis. These guys had passion, balls. Now we have Tachtsidis, Christodolopoulos, and Mitroglou.

 

Bring in a new coach with fresh new ideas and not some pre-historic creature who cant communicate with the players. Eleos.

[Asteras]

the faroe island players will be going to work on Monday ,our guys will be going to Mykonos and getting new tattoos.

[gyros]

LOL@Losing to the Faroe Islands.  I'm glad I wasn't at home to see this debacle today.

[CPAO]

In the past when were struggling to score we could always count on being able to keep a clean sheet or at the most give up 1 goal. Now there are way too many lapses defensively to count. Too many lost headers, too much ball watching, and a lack of closing down. I am upset we wont be playing in the next Euro but making the World Cup will make me forget all about that. We will definitely drop to at least Pot 2 maybe Pot 3. With that being said we seem to play up to the level of competition. It might not be a bad thing to have a powerhouse in our group. After all they don't just hand you spots in tournaments you have to earn them. We will have to prove we belong once again.

 

What I am worried about going forward is the lack of a tough midfielder. A player who is not afraid to get his hands dirty and regain possession. The set up today of Samaris , Kone and Lazaro was doomed from the beginning. We need 2 DM in our 3 man midfield end of story. Samaris should be one of the 2 I want to know who will be the other. 

 

Ninis if healthy and getting regularly playing time has to be the CAM end of story.

 

.............Karnezis,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

 

....Torosidis.....Manolas...Sokratis.... Staf......

 

.................Samaris....XXXX........................

 

......................Ninis...............................

 

.....XXXXX......Mitro........XXXXXX..............

 

That's what I think we truly have to work with going forward. The wide players I think should be based on form. Which is difficult given the status of Fetfa and others with their clubs. 

[Lefkaditis]

the faroe island players will be going to work on Monday ,our guys will be going to Mykonos and getting new tattoos.

A few of them have very nice tattoos, but they don't know how to play football. Kone is the finest example.

 

Credit to the Faroes team, even as part timers they deserved to win both matches.  

[CPAO]

Sokratis is not the player he was? He was poor today but come on....... not only is he a rock at the back he has also scored 2 of the last 3 goals this team has scored since last June 

[CPAO]

Sokratis is not the player he was? He was poor today but come on....... not only is he a rock at the back he has also scored 2 of the last 3 goals this team has scored since last June 

[Lefkaditis]

There is a reason why we have never had a proper top european player - let alone world class - and its not development...plenty of countries have s%$#! development but still produce exceptional players

So true. Portugal have Ronaldo, Wales have Bale, Sweden have Ibrahimovic, Czech Republic had Nedved, Romania had Hagi, Bulgaria had Stoichkov, Finland had Litmanen, Ukraine had Shevchenko, etc, etc, etc.

 

We've never had a world class player, and especially in the past few years not even one of European standard. Only a couple of average defenders, skill wise.......nobody. 

[Akritis_1944]

You think that the utter humiliation would do something to the pride of these players. Make them reevaluate their performances and at a minimum motivate them, I bet you they start getting all defensive the way Karagounis used to petulantly and sarcastically front the media.

These guys have to realise that they've done nothing for a year and the public, fans and those that want the best for the Ethniki deserve answers.

They need to roll up their sleaves against Poland or just retire. The campaign is over. They are playing for redemption now.

Show it against Poland or do honourable thing and quit.

[Greek Style]

11. Mitroglou - 5

 

Please tell me if you agree or not, would love to hear other opinions

 

I agree with most of that but I disagree with the Mitro rating. I thought he was really good and as I posted earlier, scored a cracker of a goal that was wrongfully disallowed.

[Asteras]

the curremt crop of greek players is spoilt and soft,i bet you none of them have ever had a job,it would do them the world of good to go and work in a warehouse or labouring to see how bread is put on the table,but they have been wrapped in cotton wool and spoon fed,their whole lives,and been told po po ti paixtara eisai and they start believing that rubbish,they don't know what its like to fight.

there was one European coach ,coaching in Greece and he wanted to schedule 6.30 am training sessions he had a revolt on his hands and the players won,the time was changed to 9.30.

mitroglou is the prime example he refuses to chase anything resembling a lost cause,pure laziness.

[paoboston]

My first post since the game ended. I managed to watch the first half. I've read all the comments from every page and there's not much more I can say that hasn't already been said. I do want to add this though.

Now, hopefully everyone can see why we needed the KKM, or at least the KK combo, since 2009. The majority have called for these current pukes to start and play regular roles on the team for the longest time and now they've shown how utterly shi*t they are. The key to our success for the longest time was plain and simple hard work. The boys would strap on their work boots and put forth gritty performance after performance. It wasn't usually pretty, but it was effective and at the end of the day, the objective of the sport is the same: score more goals than your opponent by the end of 90 minutes. The key to our success was outworking our opponents and playing with heart, and never ever backing down.

Guys like Salpingidis, Samaras, Karagounis, Katsouranis, Maniatis, etc. wouldn't usually put on the prettiest of performances, but would work their asses off in both ends of the pitch. We also had solid leadership that has ultimately proved to be irreplaceable, at least for the time being.

I dreaded this day. It did occur to me at times, though, that we could be on a downhill after guys like Karagounis, Katsouranis, Salpingidis, Samaras and co. inevitably leave the fold. Of course, I never thought it would reach this low. Now it's just proven that these current pukes were successful for Greece when they were role players or played a part within the already in-place system. The moment that the aforementioned players left the fold, these players were unable to play in main, go-to roles and become leaders.

Christodoulopoulos: shi*t

Kone: shi*t

Samaris: shi*t

Mitroglou: shi*t

Fetfatzidis: shi*t

Ninis: shi*t

Stafylidis: shi*t

And Manolas is slowly starting to piss me off too. Samaris rubs me off as a guy who got a big transfer after the World Cup and now the Ethniki is his morning frappe, but Manolas would keep his roots alive. He hasn't been anything close to spectacular after the World Cup, and certainly not like many of his performances for Roma.

I'm certain to get comments heavily opposing my current view of Ninis and Fetfatzidis but at the end of the day, while each has had some good performances for Greece, they were never big time game changers and cracked under pressure in each of their respective starts in tournaments. There's a reason why hard working Salpingidis was favored over both of them for the longest time.

The biggest problem is that we lack an identity. We're not fast, not defensive, not offensive, can't pass, can't cross, lack of target men that can actually head the ball, etc. At least the former crop knew their deficiencies and worked to their strengths. Also, I always felt comfortable winning a foul or even a corner (even though our corners weren't as effective as during the Otto days) until after the World Cup. No matter what, Karagounis was usually always very reliable for us. Defense, counter-attacking and set-pieces were our bread and butter. I felt 0 confidence with any of those since the World Cup.

That's it for now.

Spot on. This is EXACTLY how I feel as well. This team has no identity and no leadership.

[J1078]

No identity no leadership no skill bluh bluh bluh, at the end of the day we are going to be the only team in this group to lose to the Faroe Islands, this team is in fourth with 6 points thanks to us, I don't care how bad the players form is or how bad our system is, we should have been able to play 2nd division players and beat the Faroe Islands, there is something deeper and more troublesome going on here. All we had to to was beat this team twice and we would be sitting with 8 points, here is the problem as I see it, we looked at this group and we changed or system we decided to try and play a more offensive style because it a weak group, news flash that's not our style we don't have a world class forward, we needed to play the style that fits us which is pure rock solid defense and attack on the counter, that was our system why we ever got away from it I will never know. Now our defense sucks our midfield sucks or offense sucks and we have no system. This my friends is our problem we have changed what has made us who we were, that was a brick wall of a defense that can catch you on the counter.

[Omonoia9]

While Mitro didn't play that well, at least he was sort of a threat. Really, the only bright spot was Ninis. The defense was porous, the midfield generally lacked imagination, Mitro I think will come around up front, but I'd like to see Samaras up there too. In goal, I think Karnezis is still the best we have, I don't think it's really his fault. These guys better play hard against Poland, or expect other players to be called up instead.

[Redunk]

I say in our next qualifier we start samaras gekas salpi kats and tziolis and I guarantee we get a 1-0 win lol

[paoboston]

While Mitro didn't play that well, at least he was sort of a threat. Really, the only bright spot was Ninis. The defense was porous, the midfield generally lacked imagination, Mitro I think will come around up front, but I'd like to see Samaras up there too. In goal, I think Karnezis is still the best we have, I don't think it's really his fault. These guys better play hard against Poland, or expect other players to be called up instead.

Sort of a threat? As in a threat to muff every ball that came to him? The guy hasn't been the same since his knee injury. He's damaged goods at this point.

[Greek Style]

While Mitro didn't play that well, at least he was sort of a threat. Really, the only bright spot was Ninis. The defense was porous, the midfield generally lacked imagination, Mitro I think will come around up front, but I'd like to see Samaras up there too. In goal, I think Karnezis is still the best we have, I don't think it's really his fault. These guys better play hard against Poland, or expect other players to be called up instead.

 

Karneizs beaten at his near post though.....almost criminal.

[levendis]

These guys better play hard against Poland, or expect other players to be called up instead.

 

I seriously doubt they fear that. History has shown them they have no reason to.

[ausgreek]

Are you serious Asteras, the players refused to train at 6:30 and revolted??? The more I read,  the more I find out about the ethnici's attitude problem, the more the underlying reasons for the performances become increasingly evident. They can't just blame anyone else but themselves now. They must learn humility cause they are not  buying in with this coach either.

Sergio must schedule  6:30 training sessions as standard from now, and which ever player opens his mouth to remotely criticize this change, to be told to pack his bags and piss off!  Certain coaching staff too if necessary! Do it to four or five of them and make a statement! Serg does this, and he will get them to buy in, they should start to dread  preparations for the ethnici cause they see this opportunity for party when picked in the ethnici.

Strict conditions would weed out the lazy bastards. Till this happens and they get results, they should wear a green jersey, not to further hyjack the blue and white of Greece, when they play.  

   

[Lefkaditis]

Send them all to the army 

[J1078]

Teams with more points then Greece so far

-Azebijian-4

-FYE Macedonia-3

-Georgia-3

-Lithuania-3

-Liechtenstein-3

-Faroe Islands-6

-Finland-4

-Estonia-7

-Belarus-4

Bottom 7 teams

-Gibraltor-0

-San Marino-1

-GREECE-2

-Maldiva-1

-Malta-1

-Armania-1

-Serbia-1

Look at what the F*** we have become?? embarrassment, we have officially hit rock bottom.

-

-

[CPAO]

That was our lineup against Ivory Coast

•  
  
• 01 Karnezis 
  
• 15 Torosidis
  
• 20 Holebas
  
• 10 Karagounis 
  
• 04 Manolas
  
• 19 Papastathopoulos
  
• 14 Salpingidis
  
• 02 Maniatis
  
• 07 Samaras
  
• 08 Kone - Samaris
  
• 16 Christodoulopoulos
  

 

In bold are those no longer playing

 

Holebas - Is a huge upgrade over Stafylidis going forward so I can see him having an effect on our play being worse

Maniatis - I never rated him and think his role can be filled

Karagounis - While his play declined over the years he was the heart and soul of the team so his absence can be understandable

Salpigidis- Was never more then an extra RB and figured a more attacking player would be an upgrade @RW

Samaras - As lazy as he looked at times did well at holding the ball up and was able to awkwardly dribble past defenders at times 

 

I want to see Holebas back going forward. We need a player who will do the dirty work like Maniatis but offers more going forward. Papadopoulos perhaps can fill this role if he can stay healthy. I think it will also make Samaris a better player as well. You can never replace the influence Karagounis had on this team but an inform Fortounis getting time week in and week for Olympiakos and games in Europe can offer the same in the CAM role. Same goes for Ninis. I know we can find a more offensive minded RW to replace Salpi. It is going to take the right coach though at the end of the day to put it all together and player to our strengths.