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3 hours ago, J1078 said:

It’s now rumoured the leader for the job for the national team is former Aek coach Manolo Jimenez… What are everyone’s thoughts if this is the direction the EPO goes?

Personally I am not a big fan of Jimenez. My preferred order out of the names thrown around is Valverde, Donis, Santos. 

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3 hours ago, Blackhawk said:

Makes sense since today's EPO is controlled by Melissanidis and AEK.

Worst possible selection in my opinion. Can't decide if it would he would be worse than Gatuzzo.

Is his name in the mix? Gatuzzo was a warrior as a player a pit-bull in the midfield and was a key piece to Italy wcup winning squad. As a manager I would say no thanks. To much off a side show. 

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An article in Sport24 today is saying Jimenez name is in the forefront for the NT job. The other options are Donis, Dellas, Ouzounidis and Anastasiou. EPO want to hire a coach in the next few weeks and Santos is considered to be a real long shot at this point as is Valverde. If those are only options I would take Donis. 

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1 hour ago, Ellada2004 said:

An article in Sport24 today is saying Jimenez name is in the forefront for the NT job. The other options are Donis, Dellas, Ouzounidis and Anastasiou. EPO want to hire a coach in the next few weeks and Santos is considered to be a real long shot at this point as is Valverde. If those are only options I would take Donis. 

I read that article today, they also said they only have about $500,000 to spend on a coach so right there you can forget about any big name coach coming for that kind of money.

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2 hours ago, J1078 said:

I read that article today, they also said they only have about $500,000 to spend on a coach so right there you can forget about any big name coach coming for that kind of money.

Santos currently gets 2.6 mil to coach Portugal so unless the EPO are willing to spend huge on him it wont happen. I am surprised that they are going after him unless he is willing to take a huge discount. I think they will likely go for one of the guys I listed. I heard on Greek radio that Donis would take the job for even less than that amount as they said Donis has already done pretty well financially. 

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On 12/1/2021 at 1:49 AM, J1078 said:

That's what concerns me. With Portugal he had some great attackers and played more defensive but a team like Portugal who can capitalize on a few chance's can make them successful but with Greece our shots on target to goal ratio is very bad so playing defensive and only creating a couple chances a game will make it difficult for us. Obviously results are the most important thing at the end of the day but i don't want to go back to watching Greece line up heavy in the back and just protect the net until they get one or two chances a game to counter. Santos style was successful with the players he had for us at that time but i cant see that style being successful with this generation of players.

Guys it's this kind of attitude that got us into this situation in the first place. We all thought we should play more attacking/had better players etc and wanted Santos gone so the NT could blossom. Look what happened!

Maybe Santos and Otto they understand Greek football and our talent levels better than anyone (including us). Maybe that's why they are such successful coaches.

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On 12/2/2021 at 10:07 PM, Greek Style said:

Guys it's this kind of attitude that got us into this situation in the first place. We all thought we should play more attacking/had better players etc and wanted Santos gone so the NT could blossom. Look what happened!

Maybe Santos and Otto they understand Greek football and our talent levels better than anyone (including us). Maybe that's why they are such successful coaches.

I've thought of that as well, but its hard to tell if it was the guys retiring that was the downfall of this team or if it was the coaches coming in who changed the system. Skibbe did play more of a defensive style and we still didn't succeed. Also we can't ignore the fact that the older coaches like Santos didn't prepare the younger players for the eventual transition to the team when the older guys retire. But regardless Santos wont come here as we only have a budget of $500,000 to spend on a coach as per the EPO and right now Santos makes almost 4x that,  plus the EPO wants to select a coach this month i believe. Lets see what happens as i think non of us here can take another failed campaign.

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Good points from both of you. JVS came in with the attacking & high press tactics but during these qualifiers we only saw Greece play that way for the game vs Sweden in Athens and the reverse fixture in Sweden where we took it to too Sweden in the 1st half but were unlucky to find a goal. The matches vs Kosovo and Georgia JVS for some reason had the team playing in a defensive shell and we sat back in Kosovo with a lead and instead of going to finish them off he subs of Douvikas our goal scorer & biggest threat and we sit back and they equalize. Say Santos had overseen this qualification campaign Greece would have taken max points vs these teams all be it with 1nil score lines. We gave away 3 leads late in those games to those two countries. 6 Points gone that would have taken us above Sweden who for me were underwhelming during this qualification if you go back and watch some of their games they were fortunate to get results were they got outplayed and got some very fortunate calls by the refs. If the Ethniki had Santos at minimum he would have gotten us to 2nd place in this group.

JVS never learned from his mistakes by constantly playing players out of position like having Bakasetas in the #10 role, having Tsimikas play CB and calling up guys like Mavrias for example that had no business being on the NT let alone on the pitch and costing us points! 

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36 minutes ago, nasl said:

Dusan Bajevic

 

Any opinions on this guy 

 

This guy has a ton of experience in greece

I don’t know much about him. But I think our best option is Valverde, he’s coached in Greece and he’s coached at higher levels in Spain with Barcelona. We need to bring in someone who will play our best players. Something we haven’t done with JVS. 

 

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14 hours ago, Ellada2004 said:

Good points from both of you. JVS came in with the attacking & high press tactics but during these qualifiers we only saw Greece play that way for the game vs Sweden in Athens and the reverse fixture in Sweden where we took it to too Sweden in the 1st half but were unlucky to find a goal. The matches vs Kosovo and Georgia JVS for some reason had the team playing in a defensive shell and we sat back in Kosovo with a lead and instead of going to finish them off he subs of Douvikas our goal scorer & biggest threat and we sit back and they equalize. Say Santos had overseen this qualification campaign Greece would have taken max points vs these teams all be it with 1nil score lines. We gave away 3 leads late in those games to those two countries. 6 Points gone that would have taken us above Sweden who for me were underwhelming during this qualification if you go back and watch some of their games they were fortunate to get results were they got outplayed and got some very fortunate calls by the refs. If the Ethniki had Santos at minimum he would have gotten us to 2nd place in this group.

JVS never learned from his mistakes by constantly playing players out of position like having Bakasetas in the #10 role, having Tsimikas play CB and calling up guys like Mavrias for example that had no business being on the NT let alone on the pitch and costing us points! 

You make great points. JVS for me didn’t have a plan since the start of the nations league. Firstly, why would he play 2 CDMs against teams like Kosovo and Georgia… we needed someone in midfield who can play nice long passes and threaten there defence. Kourbelis and Zeca failed offensively.  All there running meant nothing. We still came 2nd in a really easy group. 

Bakasetas for me is the reason we didn’t qualify. Yes he go that goal against Sweden but what he has had big shockers in like 20 other games. For me he isn’t good enough to be captain and starting. I wouldn’t even have him on the bench. We need someone more skillful in that position. Fortounis was good enough to play there.

We have RBs and CBs but he failed to use them. You can’t use a LB at CB and you can’t ignore RBs who are decent like Kitsiou and Kotsiras. They would’ve for sure have been better than Mavrias or Bakakis. What’s the point of not selecting Manolas/Siovas/Sokratis and putting LBs as there replacements. Greece have a tonne of good CBs to choose from.

The way he handled Fetfatzidis and Siovas was appalling. 2 players that can make a difference for this team. These were the things that he failed in. 

I’m happy he’s given opportunities to Galanopoulos, Mavropanos, Androutsos and Pavlidis as they are our future. Pavlidis has been a bit disappointing but I hope this experience makes him better.

This team here right now I think is our best team:

Vlachodimos

G.Masouras Mavropanos Manolas Tsimikas 

Alexandropoulos Ninis

Fetfa Fortounis Tzolis

Douvikas 

For me is Bouchalakis any better than Ninis? No, Ninis has still got what it takes. He’s an excellent passes and great positioning sense. He can tackle too. Alexandropoulos has got it all and is by far better than Kourbelis and Zeca. 

Douvikas I think is better than Pavlidis. It’s a close call though. Fortounis is our best 10. Tzolis and Fetfa can change a game in the blink of an eye. I don’t want to hear from people that Fetfa is playing in the Middle East. He only left Aris because he knew that JVS wasn’t going to call him up after being a little late to come down and train. Also to get good money since he isn’t liked by the Greek media or JVS.

Giannis Masouras who isn’t like here for some reason, is talented and is playing in Holland at the moment. He’s by far our fastest player and is great going forward. Defensively he’s good but is known to be better going forward. His style of play would’ve helped this team in my opinion. 

Edited by Dean97
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10 hours ago, nasl said:

Dusan Bajevic

 

Any opinions on this guy 

 

This guy has a ton of experience in greece

He knows Greek football well and has Greek citizenship. He has coached Olympiakos, AEK. PAOK and Aris. I remember him last coaching Bosnia for Euro qualifying were he took over during NL and for the Euro playoff were they lost on penalties to North Ireland. 

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9 hours ago, Dean97 said:

You make great points. JVS for me didn’t have a plan since the start of the nations league. Firstly, why would he play 2 CDMs against teams like Kosovo and Georgia… we needed someone in midfield who can play nice long passes and threaten there defence. Kourbelis and Zeca failed offensively.  All there running meant nothing. We still came 2nd in a really easy group. 

Bakasetas for me is the reason we didn’t qualify. Yes he go that goal against Sweden but what he has had big shockers in like 20 other games. For me he isn’t good enough to be captain and starting. I wouldn’t even have him on the bench. We need someone more skillful in that position. Fortounis was good enough to play there.

We have RBs and CBs but he failed to use them. You can’t use a LB at CB and you can’t ignore RBs who are decent like Kitsiou and Kotsiras. They would’ve for sure have been better than Mavrias or Bakakis. What’s the point of not selecting Manolas/Siovas/Sokratis and putting LBs as there replacements. Greece have a tonne of good CBs to choose from.

The way he handled Fetfatzidis and Siovas was appalling. 2 players that can make a difference for this team. These were the things that he failed in. 

I’m happy he’s given opportunities to Galanopoulos, Mavropanos, Androutsos and Pavlidis as they are our future. Pavlidis has been a bit disappointing but I hope this experience makes him better.

This team here right now I think is our best team:

Vlachodimos

G.Masouras Mavropanos Manolas Tsimikas 

Alexandropoulos Ninis

Fetfa Fortounis Tzolis

Douvikas 

For me is Bouchalakis any better than Ninis? No, Ninis has still got what it takes. He’s an excellent passes and great positioning sense. He can tackle too. Alexandropoulos has got it all and is by far better than Kourbelis and Zeca. 

Douvikas I think is better than Pavlidis. It’s a close call though. Fortounis is our best 10. Tzolis and Fetfa can change a game in the blink of an eye. I don’t want to hear from people that Fetfa is playing in the Middle East. He only left Aris because he knew that JVS wasn’t going to call him up after being a little late to come down and train. Also to get good money since he isn’t liked by the Greek media or JVS.

Giannis Masouras who isn’t like here for some reason, is talented and is playing in Holland at the moment. He’s by far our fastest player and is great going forward. Defensively he’s good but is known to be better going forward. His style of play would’ve helped this team in my opinion. 

Dean great break down. JVS played scared against Georgia in that game in Greece we did not go and attack them and sat back and they dictated the play. We got up on a lucky OG and should have locked up the win but he had Mavrias playing RB and he gets turned inside out on the goal from the skillful Georgian winger. As for Bakasetas he is a decent player who had a few good games like the game vs Sweden but he cant play the #10 role he lacks the vision and distribution. I still cant understand how JVS put all his trust in this player. Even if Fortounis had been healthy and in form JVS still would have gone with Bakasetas which is mind boggling.

Like you said Greece have talented players at our disposal like Fetfa who can do things with the ball at his feet that not many others can and yet he is left out by JVS? As for the banned players I can understand if he did not want to call back Sokratis because he had a go at Ange publicly but Manolas had to be there how could JVS with EPO not sit down with him and bring him back to the NT. It is crazy. Though JVS says he called him and would keep him in his plans? Psemeta! Looking back the way he got rid of Siovas it was criminal just for saying that having Sokratis & Manolas  on the NT too help the team on the pitch and mentor Svarnas and the other younger players. 

JVS did bring in some younger players to the NT but why the heck did he not play Alexandropoulos in the game vs Spain we could have used him in the mid to hold the ball when we won possesion. Even worse he did NOT start or play him vs Kosovo! 

Looking back I wish EPO would have sacked JVS after the NL failure and not trusted this guy with our World Cup hopes in his hands.

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Just posting this here. The nations league group rankings... So embarrassing for us.

 

GROUP A

France (2021 Finals)
Spain (2021 Finals)
Italy (2021 Finals)
Belgium (2021 Finals)
Portugal
Netherlands
Denmark
Germany
England
Poland
Switzerland
Croatia
Wales (promoted)
Austria (promoted)
Czech Republic (promoted)
Hungary (promoted)

League B

Ukraine (relegated)
Sweden (relegated)
Bosnia and Herzegovina (relegated)
Iceland (relegated)
Finland
Norway
Scotland
Russia
Israel
Romania
Serbia
Republic of Ireland
Slovenia (promoted)
Montenegro (promoted)
Albania (promoted)
Armenia (promoted)

League C

Turkey (relegated)
Slovakia (relegated)
Bulgaria (relegated)
Northern Ireland (relegated)
Greece
Belarus
Luxembourg
North Macedonia
Lithuania
Georgia
Azerbaijan
Kosovo
(2 play-out winners tbc in March 2022)
Gibraltar (promoted)
Faroe Islands (promoted)

League C or D (2020/21 play-outs)

Kazakstan
Cyprus
Estonia
Moldova 

League D

(2 play-out losers tbc in March 2022)
Liechtenstein
Malta
Latvia
San Marino
Andorra

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12 hours ago, Ellada2004 said:

Dean great break down. JVS played scared against Georgia in that game in Greece we did not go and attack them and sat back and they dictated the play. We got up on a lucky OG and should have locked up the win but he had Mavrias playing RB and he gets turned inside out on the goal from the skillful Georgian winger. As for Bakasetas he is a decent player who had a few good games like the game vs Sweden but he cant play the #10 role he lacks the vision and distribution. I still cant understand how JVS put all his trust in this player. Even if Fortounis had been healthy and in form JVS still would have gone with Bakasetas which is mind boggling.

Like you said Greece have talented players at our disposal like Fetfa who can do things with the ball at his feet that not many others can and yet he is left out by JVS? As for the banned players I can understand if he did not want to call back Sokratis because he had a go at Ange publicly but Manolas had to be there how could JVS with EPO not sit down with him and bring him back to the NT. It is crazy. Though JVS says he called him and would keep him in his plans? Psemeta! Looking back the way he got rid of Siovas it was criminal just for saying that having Sokratis & Manolas  on the NT too help the team on the pitch and mentor Svarnas and the other younger players. 

JVS did bring in some younger players to the NT but why the heck did he not play Alexandropoulos in the game vs Spain we could have used him in the mid to hold the ball when we won possesion. Even worse he did NOT start or play him vs Kosovo! 

Looking back I wish EPO would have sacked JVS after the NL failure and not trusted this guy with our World Cup hopes in his hands.

I agree with you. He made too many errors. He knew we had problems in scoring and he played players that didn’t improve this. How can Zeca, Bakasetas and Bouchalakis create for this team they can’t. Then you have others who miss golden opportunities. He didn’t fix our problems and he was scared when we played against Kosovo and Georgia  by sitting back which didn’t make sense. You are supposed to take control in these games. 

A Ninis in the midfield would’ve created something for our attackers and most likely put them through on goal. I also wonder why he didn’t give Vasiliadis a chance, since he wanted him to be involved. 

I also think anywhere you put Bakasetas he’s be useless. I’ve seen so many games where he’s lost the ball and wrecked our forward play. Crazy to think he was trusted so much and named captain. Also Tzolis was the lost inform winger and never gave him a proper chance. Look at when he came on against Sweden, it took 5 minutes to assist Pavlidis to make it 2-0. 

Anyways hopefully a decent manager like Valverde can come in and start playing our best players and actually have a plan to win games.

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I heard an interview on Sport FM with Donis and he said now is not the time for him to coach the NT but he would love one day to coach the NT. He said Karagounis approached him about the job a few years back just before they hired Markarian. He said he was disappointed how Zagorakis left due to EPO not giving him the power to run the Ethniki as president. He stated that EPO can not have a fan color either red, green or yellow.

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Zagorakis did not have the support because he was forced upon EPO by the New Democracy government acting on behalf of Evaggelos Marinakis who wanted to regain control of EPO from AEK. He was basically a puppet and when their trick did not work he resigned.

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Nations League draw this Thursday. Here are the pots for group C. it seems Greece will have either Turkey, Slovakia, Bulgaria or Northern Ireland as the top seed in there group.

 

GROUP C

POT 1: Turkey , Slovakia , Bulgaria, Northern Ireland 

POT 2: Greece, Belarus, Luxemburg, North Macedonia

POT 3: Lithuania, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Kosovo

POT 4: Kazakhstan/Moldova,  Cypress/Estonia, Gibraltar, Faroe Islands,

 

I may be the only one to say this but i want the toughest possible teams out of this group, I don't want the easiest possible draw. if i had a choice i would want the following.

Turkey

Greece

Kosovo

Cypress

 

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2 hours ago, J1078 said:

Nations League draw this Thursday. Here are the pots for group C. it seems Greece will have either Turkey, Slovakia, Bulgaria or Northern Ireland as the top seed in there group.

 

GROUP C

POT 1: Turkey , Slovakia , Bulgaria, Northern Ireland 

POT 2: Greece, Belarus, Luxemburg, North Macedonia

POT 3: Lithuania, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Kosovo

POT 4: Kazakhstan/Moldova,  Cypress/Estonia, Gibraltar, Faroe Islands,

 

I may be the only one to say this but i want the toughest possible teams out of this group, I don't want the easiest possible draw. if i had a choice i would want the following.

Turkey

Greece

Kosovo

Cypress

 

I want Turkey too! They will be really intense fixtures and that is what this team needs. I wish the Skopians were not a Pot 2 team so Greece could get them as well. I would like us to get the Faroes and go and blast them as we should have when that useless over hyped coach Ranieri was in charge. Greece have to TOP whatever group they get.

Bulgaria is a Pot 1 team ahead off us. Oh my God. We have to get back on track its crazy how we have got to this point.

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Greece can play attacking football and we saw that when JVS took over initially, we had a period of success from 03-10 which was quite defensive because we had world class defenders and that continued to 2014 cause we had players like Samaras, Salpigidis and Mitroglou that could create and score.

We dont have these players anymore, we need to get on with it with the new guys we have, they are talented but really lack big game experience as we saw in the meltdown with Sweden away. JVS for what ever reason, decided to drop his play, when we played good football and we had to watch a horrible 5-3-2 which worked on couple of occasions, the first in the last 30 mins vs Sweden in Athens and the first 45 mins vs Sweden away from home. For the rest of it, it was just a fail.

Reverting back to defensive schemes of Otto and Santos days wont bring the success we once had, we need a smart coach that can play to our abilities in all facets and, we hopefully find a good central midfield combo.

Bajevic has not coached much recently... I wouldn't be looking at him

Edited by Alphonse
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Well put Alphonse. I just want to add that we also had Ninis and Karagounis also creating for us and we did won most games in the past qualifiers. Now we have Bakasetas, Bouchalakis and Zeca as our midfielders. They aren’t national team level. 

We have decent wingers like Limnios, Tzolis and Masouras who can create and score but JVS put other players around them that they can’t work with. We have young strikers now in Pavlidis and Douvikas who are still developing and are promising. But they are not like Mitroglou, Charisteas and Gekas of the past… They need time.

As for the midfield it needs a total revamp. I’m tired of seeing players like Bakasetas and Zeca not have a clue in playing forward passes and putting players onto goal. They are limited players. Galanopoulos showed glimpses of improving the midfield but still isn’t the answer. We need try something different like Alexandropoulos, Vasiliadis, Papanikolaou and even Ninis who still has what it takes to produce a good performance. 

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