Greece V Cyprus: Oct. 7, 2016 World Cup Qualifier - Georgios Karaiskakis Stadium ( Piraeus )

[Omonoia9]

Greece 2-0 Cyprus  FT

 

The Greek in me loves this! The Cypriot in me not so much. The fatherland beats the motherland!

[Argy]

Disappointing to see such lack of urgency and imposition by the Greeks. They coasted for most of the match and played rather negative football considering they could taken more from this contest.

I said this after the Gibraltar match: We are expected to win these games. Credit for getting the three points, but these matches are also meant to build killer instinct and impose dominance on the group. The fact we were simply content with the scoreline and preferred easily attempted but rarely executed long range strikes to pressing and breaking the Cypriot backline, is not the most encouraging sign leading up to matches vs Bosnia and Belgium. 

Edited October 7, 2016 by Argy

[J1078]

There is a lot of negatives on here and I agree with some of them but the bright side is we won something we didn't do last campaign and finally held a clean sheet. This is something to build on. I still don't like Skibbes selections, why not start Holebas? Not a fan of Bask. Either.

[georgelaz]

a lot of people were paranoid we'd lose this, so to win by 2 is great.

the lineup was pretty good but instead of maniatis/tzavellas/staf = holebas/kpaps/karelis should've started.

also pretty nice considering we didn't have samaris, so we may only get stronger.

sad I didn't get to watch the game, can't wait for highlights

belgium is looking scary and bosnia seems to have fallen off. 2nd place is our to lose. we need the stars to align to get 1st

Edited October 7, 2016 by georgelaz

[Dean97]

• Mantalos played well.
• Fortounis did as well but can do better.
• Mitroglou looks like he is regaining his old form but can do better.
• Manolas i agree is a liablity and Sokratis was rock solid.
• Karnezis in this game improved.
• Torosidis was average and so was Stafylidis. 
• You could tell Maniatis and Tzavellas are at a lower level.
• Bakasetas needs more time.
• Holebas should start at left back and try Karelis at LW again as I believe they can combine well on the left.
• K.Papadopoulos needs to start.

 

Edited October 7, 2016 by Dean97

[J1078]

Belgium 4 Bosnia 0

Estonia 4 Gibraltor 0 ( Estonia scored the same amount as we did)

[Dean97]

All we need is 2 good midfielders than can shield the defence and a good LW and i believe we are sorted.

[Rockafeller Skank]

21 minutes ago, Nikod said:

Player ratings 

Karnezis: 6.5. Did he have a single save to make? Very solid on crosses

Toro: 6. Standard from him. Decent going forward, a couple good crosses and clearances but occasionally let the winger in behind him

Sokratis: 7. Solid at the back. Got forward well. Wish he could organized the back four a bit better but has no players shielding the defense

Manolas: 6.5. Good game. Silly decision on the trap shows why he's an occasional liability.

Tzavellas: 5. Get lost. Silly fouls, giveaways, poor crossing.

Staf: 5.5. Why is he playing in midfield? One good pass

Maniatis: 5. So many fouls. No ability to regulate tempo of game

Bakasetas: 5. Anonymous

Fortounis: 7. I like the chemistry he is developing with Mitro and Mantalos

Mantalos: 8. man of the match IMO, even playing out wide. Great finish, albeit from a gift

Mitro: 6.5. Great to get a goal but so many giveaways. Would be nice to see him and the other forward players running onto balls from a deep-lying playmaker.

Subs

K. Pap: 6.5. Beast mode

Holebas: 6. Needs to start. Has courage to take guys on. Still not a great defender tho.

karelis: N/A

 

 

 

Stafylidis : Running up and down not allowing fast forwards to take the ball. Was the one pressuring the pass in the defence at the first goal. Rated 5.5 from you. No real football awareness.

Bakasetas: Running up and down the Left Flank to cover for stupid Tzavellas who lost the ball just too much. Did successfull pressuring alongside Mitroglou and Mantalos (both goals came from pressure which means he partly takes credit). Rated 5 and as Anonymous from you. No real football awareness.

K. Pap: This includes everyone honestly. Came on when the key Cypriots are tired. Is praised as a god. To be fair he had no mistake, and Im sure if he was a started he'd be just as solid.

[Dean97]

I agree about Bakasetas he did contribute in this game by pressing and running back but on the ball didnt do much. He is more creative in the middle. Stafylidis is a decent player just cant put my finger on what he is missing.

[Original 21]

One big positive from this game: Tziolis didn't play. The negative is that he'll probably start the next game.

[Dean97]

We are so lucky we have Mantalos and Fortounis. They know how to play and create opportunities. 

21 minutes ago, The Taxman said:

I feel like we were in 4th gear all match.

I felt the same way i thought we could of done more with possession and creating and should been more careful and value the opportunities we had in the attacking third. I am happy we kept a clean sheet but we should done and scored more.

I also thought today Cyprus wanted to walk it in when they had possession instead of taking more shots, they just kept passing it around and overthinking it. Where we wanted to score screamers.

Kyriakos didnt have much to do just did his job and did not make a mistake. 

20 minutes ago, 1789 said:

Also, I'm not thrilled with Mantalos at RWF, but he and Fortounis play with a great deal of intelligence, so they moved freely at times, interchanging between the midfield and forward lines to good effect. I liked our movement and those to were always engineering our moves. Also Mantalos' position at RWF allowed him to capitalize on the Cypriot keeper's mistake to score. It was a very nice goal.

I agree with everything in this paragraph but who do you put at RW and LW? Mantalos and Fortounis work well together.

Edited October 7, 2016 by Dean97

[Nikod]

46 minutes ago, Rockafeller Skank said:

Stafylidis : Running up and down not allowing fast forwards to take the ball. Was the one pressuring the pass in the defence at the first goal. Rated 5.5 from you. No real football awareness.

Bakasetas: Running up and down the Left Flank to cover for stupid Tzavellas who lost the ball just too much. Did successfull pressuring alongside Mitroglou and Mantalos (both goals came from pressure which means he partly takes credit). Rated 5 and as Anonymous from you. No real football awareness.

K. Pap: This includes everyone honestly. Came on when the key Cypriots are tired. Is praised as a god. To be fair he had no mistake, and Im sure if he was a started he'd be just as solid.

Sorry that I expect a winger to do more than pressure our opponents off the bAll. And staf is a fish out of water in midfield. Did you ever see guys called Basinas, Zagorakis and Katsouranis play? That's how you shield a defense and move the ball forward. Staf ran. That's basic. That's why he gets a 5.5. He did the minimum.

[Nikod]

And look to be fair to your points, my picture was bad and I couldn't always see who was doing the hard work off the ball. But that s%$#! is basic. I'm glad Skibbe has he team doing it but it's the bare minimum you expect at the international level. What you really want to see are guys stepping up and taking this game by the scruff of the neck. That's what mantalos, fortounis and sokratis did and that's why I rated them the best.

i sympathize with the water carrier, your makelele, whatever and realize how crucial they are to a team. But staf is not that

[Nikod]

5 minutes ago, Reaper said:

Stafylidis and Maniatis (I know I know..they ran a lot in space) were the reason Cyprus had 54% of the possession the whole game combined.

Let me tell you what a successful  modern midfielder does is 2016. He closes down space, tackles and supports the attack with good passing, good positioning and good vision. Maniatis and Staf conceded the midfield to Cyrpus - not because they are brilliant - or ran a lot (?) or tried to trick Cyprus - we lost the midfield because they were not good enough. If you look at players like Cambiasso - he is 36 now. He is still 20 times the midfielder Maniatis is (forget Staf - he didn't even know what he was doing).. Cambiasso is like a dynamo - he is fast, passes fast - he makes the engine of the team run alive. He is there right up in the attacks and there right in defence blocking shots. He is a modern midfielder - he passes and moves. Bento knows Maniatis doesn't do this so kicked him out the squad the same way Ivic did with Tziolis.  Maniatis, Staf, Tziolis - are not suited to the modern game - they pass and walk... and point to the player they pass to where he should pass like Katsouranis used to do.  They are suited to the 1990s.

 

This is what I was trying to say. But said much better. Thank you 

[Akritis_1944]

I was the one worried about this match because the players can't motivate themselves for these types of matches albeit Cyprus is better than a Faroes Islands (anyone see how they beat Latvia away 0-2 today) or Luxembourg.

Again a shut out in the 2nd half. We have seen this way too often of late. The team looks off the pace and spent after 45 minutes. This is where Skibbe needs to use his substitutes to better impact. Man we can go on about Tzavellas, Maniaitis and an out of position Stafylidis all day.

Let's see what we do against Estonia away.

[val]

54 minutes ago, Reaper said:

Stafylidis and Maniatis (I know I know..they ran a lot in space) were the reason Cyprus had 54% of the possession the whole game combined.

Let me tell you what a successful  modern midfielder does is 2016. He closes down space, tackles and supports the attack with good passing, good positioning and good vision. Maniatis and Staf conceded the midfield to Cyprus - not because they are brilliant - or ran a lot (?) or tried to trick Cyprus - we lost the midfield because they were not good enough. They needed to own the midfield tonight and couldn't. 

 

When has maniatis ever owned the midfield? These are not footballers we have. At least at club level you see some foreigners that offer some value. 

[J1078]

Even though we got the 3 points and kept a clean sheet which is what truly counts,I can honestly say now with no doubt in my mind that Skibbe is a useless coach with horrible vision with a terrible judgement on players. He's continuing to put players in starting roles that have no business even being on the bench.  His decision to turn around a game by makeing the right sub at the right time and his neglect to call up much better talent is mind blowing. If he continues field line ups like this it will eventually catch up to us and bite us in the ass. I have nothing positive to say about this coach.

[J1078]

^No question I'm happy with the result but we won't know how good we can actually be unless we field our best possible players and play them on a constant basis, because how bad our last qualifier was that's what makes this even more concerning. How does it make sense playing guys that don't have a team and all they do is run around and foul everyone that gets in there way.  Or not starting Holebas on a consistent basis, keep playing bask over giannatos, not calling up Ninis and maybe Kone, always has Tziolis as his go to option. These are wrong choices and we are not fielding our best possible line ups. Skibbe brings in Giannoatos he scores a huge winner against Netherlands and then hardly sees the field again. Holebas has played 10 minutes in his last 3 games. Maybe I'm wrong but his choice of players is not right at all.

[PAOmelbourne]

Sorry if it's been answered already, but did they play the anthem twice??

[Rockafeller Skank]

2 hours ago, Nikod said:

And look to be fair to your points, my picture was bad and I couldn't always see who was doing the hard work off the ball. But that s%$#! is basic. I'm glad Skibbe has he team doing it but it's the bare minimum you expect at the international level. What you really want to see are guys stepping up and taking this game by the scruff of the neck. That's what mantalos, fortounis and sokratis did and that's why I rated them the best.

i sympathize with the water carrier, your makelele, whatever and realize how crucial they are to a team. But staf is not that

 

I partly agree with you mate. Stafylidis wasn't really exposed since there was no hard work for him to do(The cypriots only attacked from the wings). But saying he didn't play well while running his asss up and down to cover for their counter attacks which was done pretty well and adding an extra UNNEEDED pressure shows not only his physical/talent/will, but also the thirst the whole team has for success after the last campaign. 

 

2 hours ago, Nikod said:

Sorry that I expect a winger to do more than pressure our opponents off the bAll. And staf is a fish out of water in midfield. Did you ever see guys called Basinas, Zagorakis and Katsouranis play? That's how you shield a defense and move the ball forward. Staf ran. That's basic. That's why he gets a 5.5. He did the minimum.

 

I WOULD agree with you, but as a human being who likes fair critics , I can't ditch his efforts for trying and eventually successfully (even at minimum) playing off position. I can't bring up Zagorakis and Katsouranis and Basinas , some defensive midfielders to note how bad a young Left back (or today's 3RD OPTION CDMF) is.

 

Long story short: His speed/defensive mentality helped in his defensive roles. His brain helped in pressuring. He was a complete player and in my humble opinion one underrated by everyone. Could be just me.

[OFI-mtl]

1 hour ago, NickTheGreek said:

Well said. Surely common sense prevails and we see Tachtsidis over Stafylidis in Estonia. Stafylidis could turn out to be a decent LB but I don't get the fascination with playing players out of position. Maniatis has no club ffs!!!!!!!!! That should say it all. Appalled both he and Tziolis keep receiving call ups.

Any coach any sport will not tinker with a winning lineup..unless Maniatis and Stafy miss the plane they will start..Skibbe does not rate Tachtsidis in 2 games he has played 2 guys with no clubs Tziolis Maniatis a LB Stafilidis and CD KPaps...I agree a player like Tachtsidis can cut teams open with his long range passing but this coach does not think so.

[OFI-mtl]

Just now, Amorgos said:

OFI mate, that is not a winning line up that we saw today... against a decent team we get dominated

OK a lineup that won #coachspeak

[Rockafeller Skank]

1 hour ago, J1078 said:

Even though we got the 3 points and kept a clean sheet which is what truly counts,I can honestly say now with no doubt in my mind that Skibbe is a useless coach with horrible vision with a terrible judgement on players. He's continuing to put players in starting roles that have no business even being on the bench.  His decision to turn around a game by makeing the right sub at the right time and his neglect to call up much better talent is mind blowing. If he continues field line ups like this it will eventually catch up to us and bite us in the ass. I have nothing positive to say about this coach.

 

How clear are we that it's Skibbe not willing to call Kone and not the EPO? I assume this is the talent you are talking about, since from all the players possible (Maybe Siopis too but he is very young) Kone was the midfielder missing and could be key to transition from a successfull defense to scoring. I am pretty sure many players who were part of the campaign for Euro literally lost interest (and showed so) in the National Team. You obviously can't let this go like "Hey, remember us? We back at winning , wanna come?" Judging from how easily Kone preferred Greece over Albania (due to bigger possibilities to make it to the bigger stage I can pressume - and a fair careerwise option if you ask me) Id say it would be that easy to ditch it when it's a No-Go.

 

Who else do you have in mind as more talented player who did not get a call up?

Don't start with the Ninis thing. His most efficient position right now is AMF and we have Fortounis and Mantalos there. Just doesn't fit.

Pelkas same.

Fetfatzidis bad league and recently saw a pic of him being fatty.

Siopis too young to be able to judge. Also playing with a very strong side in a small league which can possibly hide his weaknesses. Possible call up in my opinion if he keeps up.

Our Defenders/Attacking Midfielders/Forwards are those who really deserve to be called. Our Midfield was/is/has been and probably will be a goddamn problem. If Zeca doesn't get Nationality we really have noone to pair Samaris with. 3 Coaches did not prefer Tachtsidis. 3 fcking coaches of our NT didn't want him to be a starter. There can be something wrong with chemistry, but yeah, you guys play Fifa and u know that since tachtsidis has 80(random number) and maniatis has 72 Skibbe must be so bad he doesnt even know basic αριθμητική.

 

Moreover since you like bashing Skibbe so much, this is the first official "tough" match we had. You didnt want Tziolis, You didnt see Tziolis. So since we saw Maniatis. That means the player has something me/you dont understand. He is a defending running machine. Case closed. He had a bad game. This is something we can agree at. Remember him at the World Cup? Samaris - Maniatis duo literally very strong in all 3 games (Colombia ripped us apart so yeah not gonna talk about it-still that 3-0 wasnt exactly the match picture).

So instead of hoping Skibbe ditches him and brings on someone else, Id suggest you start putting all your positive avra and yin yang and shiet into hoping he finds a team. 

 

 

ALSO: For everyone saying they didnt like how the team played:
Under Santos we were playing twice as bad and still getting every damn result we wanted (Ex: Greece-Bosnia 0-0 , Slovakia-Greece 0-1 , Liechtenstein-Greece 0-1). If you compare the team from 2013 to this one and find this one more problematic, you niga need an ofthalmiatro. Im not saying we are Barcelona.

Edited October 8, 2016 by Rockafeller Skank

[PAOKSYD]

If Greece beats Belgium i will send flowers to that greekfreezer guy na mathi na min ipotima ton ellina. 

 

Really looking forward to our battles against these receptionists of the EU

Edited October 8, 2016 by PAOKSYD

[PAOmelbourne]

37 minutes ago, PAOmelbourne said:

Sorry if it's been answered already, but did they play the anthem twice??

???