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Nations League - Game #5 - Greece V. Finland (Olympic Stadium, Athens) - November 15, 2018


Argy

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Selections have been made by new manager Anastasiadis for the upcoming Nations League matches. 

Goalkeepers: Vasilis Barkas (AEK), Alexandros Paschalakis (PAOK), Odysseas Vlachodimos (Benfica).

Defenders: Kostas Manolas (AS Roma), Sokratis Papastathopoulos (Arsenal), Dimitris Siovas (Leganes), Vasilis Lampropoulos (AEK), Michalis Bakakis (AEK), Vasilis Torosidis (Olympiacos), Leonardo Koutris (Olympiacos), Dimitris Giannoulis (Atromitos).

Midfielders: Andreas Samaris (Benfica), Andreas Bouchalakis (Olympiacos), Petros Mantalos (AEK), Dimitris Pelkas (PAOK), Anastasios Bakasetas (AEK), Konstantinos Fortounis (Olympiacos), Dimitris Kourbelis (Panathinaikos), Carlos Zeca (FC Copenhagen), Giorgos Masouras (Panionios).

Forwards: Konstantinos Mitroglou (Marseille), Efthymis Koulouris (Atromitos), Nikos Karelis (PAOK).

IMO:

Positives: New blood Vlachodimos and Koutris, Samaris and Siovas back, Tziolis and Tzavellas era done. 

Negatives: Bakasetas and Mantalos over Lazaros and Fetfatzidis, Karnezis excluded.

Key injuries: Retsos (activated by Leverkusen but not yet in game shape after lengthy injury), Donis, Papadopoulos, Stafylidis.

Note: Several notable talents left out in order for them to play in crucial U21 Euro Fixtures.

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IMO Karnezis doesn’t have to be there. We have a lot of depth in GK position. Don’t forget we also have Dioudis who is performing well. I would have like to see Gianniotas there instead of Paschalakis. 

I think Anastasiadis will play 3-5-2. He should allow the wingbacks to attack with freedom but they must come back. Mitroglou will probably play with Koulouris upfront. I am for playing 2 strikers but I don’t think Koulouris should be playing. He should be with the u21s. 

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Interested to see how the senior players in the squad respond to Angelos as manager. He is a very polarising person, I feel they'll either love him or hate him no in between. Hopefully it's the former and we can end the nations league on a high and go into Euro 2020 qualifying with a full head of steam. 

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Obviously form got Fetfa into the previous squad, so I'm scratching for two reasons. Firstly I'm itchy, secondly I cannot figure out why Ange A didn't pick him as its not Fetfa's form.

The Only reason that would be acceptable is that Ange A will play 3 at the back, with wingbacks. There is more chance of Socceroos winning the World Cup than me watching Hellas play with 3 at the back. Will Never happen. Not too fussed on the other omissions.

 

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I'd ideally want for this campaign

          mitro

donis fortounis fetfa

    zeca mantalos

holebas sok man bakakis

        vlacho

subs

toro

lazaros

pelkas

karelis

siovas/kpaps

barkas

 

holebas is probably a pipe dream now so either staf or tsimikas pending on who's available.

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I believe Fortounis and Mantalos should be our main CAMs in 4-2-3-1. With Fortounis as 1st choice. I want to see Pelkas either as an 8 or on the wing. Pelkas should have been trained to play on the wing in his career. If Pelkas and Zeca are in the middle I believe that we will see a lot of running in the middle and more creativity. With creativity being a priority. Zeca can hold and be the destroyer. 

Regarding Holebas I believe he won’t be back. He is 34 and looks as if he is done with Greece. Regardless that he is in form. Let’s give Koutris a chance. 

I’d go something like this:

Vlachodimos

Retsos Manolas Sokratis Koutris 

Zeca Pelkas/Kourbelis

Donis Fortounis/Mantalos Fetfa

Mitroglou

 

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A dutch guy is sueing to change his birth certificate from 69 to 49 so, Angelo A should grab Karagounis and Charisteas to change their birth certificates and make them younger by 20 years. Could work for the Ethniki.

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I'm surprised by laz or Fetfa not being called up either but I will give the new manager the benefit of the doubt and wont judge him until I see the team play for a bit... I will be disappointed if Bakasetas starts though..This first game against Finland may be a very different game style we play as we will be chasing goals.. I wonder if the coach will play an all out attack to try to get goals and stay alive in the Nations league or will he juts try to implement his style and get them ready for the Euros??? 

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kolouris honestly is proving to be a great striker in superleague. he might have the edge of karelis right now. scored against aek in 2-0 win and atromitos are top of the table. if the snap shot he shot against finland went in would've been insanely good goal. only missed by inches. strikers instinct. he has potential to be as good as mitro 8goals in 9 games

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I am very curious to see what formation he will play this game. If you look at the selections he has called up 4 cbs, 4 fbs, 4 dms, 4 ams and 3 out and out strikers. There are no natural wingers, Masouras I think is more of a striker than a winger. 

It wouldn’t be that shocking if he goes for a 3-5-2. I wouldn’t think he called Koulouris for no reason. I think there the formation should be the same for the Greek national teams too. That is what I think they will do. We could see a 4-2-3-1 for all the levels such as the u19s,21s and men’s. I think that’s what Basinas was referring to in the interview. It’s a good idea as it will be easier for the younger player moving up. 

Also how does Karelis deserve a spot? Bakasetas shouldn’t be there at all. While Pelkas and Mantalos are questionable. Fetfatzidis and Lazaros deserve to have a spot in this team but it is early days so we should rightfully give it time. 

With Euro qualifiacation in March we could see players like Chatzigiovanis in the team as Angelos is looking forward into integrating players from the 21s.

I would actually wouldn’t mind seeing a 3-5-2. Out defence is our strong point and you can’t go wrong with playing to your strengths. I do though at the same time would like us to be more dangerous in attack such as our build up. Also our finishing needs to improve aswell. 

 

Edited by Dean97
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You would think that the evidence is there for a 3 5 2 , with Siovas joining the squad, he along with Manolas and Sokratis would be the back three.  Mantalos and Pelkas as wingbacks. Yet I cannot see any coach have this formation to take through to u19 and u21 to copy. It won't be the formation that all ages will implement. Ange A's preferred style is...you guest it, 4 2 3 1. 

I actually was in tears after watching that first press conference, like I was when I watched Lassie, Black Beauty and the Rocky series a long time ago. With all the boxes Angelos ticks, he has a cross against as well for not picking wingers.

I remember Skibbe 's first howler was in a World Cup Qualifier early in his coaching days of the Greek team, I forget against who, but he brought on Tziolis for Fortounis  with 20 minutes to go, and he was on fire and it was still 0-0. Then Greece lost the match. Momentum killer.  Thats when my gut told me deep down that Skibbe's days were numbered.

This is a 7.5/10 start for Ange A, before a ball is kicked. Early days. 

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Why you boys have a love affair with Fetfa I will never understand.  The guy is so meek and fragile.  If he actually starts killing it in the GSL then fair enough, I will change my opinion, but right now I wouldn’t be selecting him either.  And no, I don’t believe in giving him a chance just because he has good technique.  That is not enough.

Koulouris on the other hand (who has 25% the technique of Fetfa) has *earned* the right to be given a chance due to his performances so far in the GSL.  And that’s the way it should be.

I sincerely hope Angel goes with 3-5-2 with Koulouris and Mitro up front.  Our Ethniki has been unable to score more than 1 goal a game for years now.  Simply put, we need more firepower.  And we need to apply more pressure on the opposition.

The 3 at the back are obvious.  I’d like to see Risvanis get selected and get some time off the bench.  I believe he’s earned it and would make a good rotation player for the NT.

In the middle I hope we only have one of Zeca or Kourbelis.  You can’t have more than one hacker in the team without destroying your attacking potential.  Zeca and the 3 at the back should be enough to defend with.  If you’re so afraid of conceding that you need to play 2 exaria then might as well pack up your bags and don’t even bother coming to the game.  I’m tired of watching this scaredy cat approach we have.  As to the other two midfielders.  Obviously one goes to Fortounis and the other I’d go Pelkas (for his running).  Then sub whoever isn’t performing with Mantalos.

GK not fussed.  I’d go with Vlach but happy with any of them.  They are all solid selections.  Nice to have depth there.

The wing backs is tricky.  Not sure who is best at this stage for these positions.

Edited by Bananas
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He needs to go with Mitroglou and koulouris up top. The Ethniki has to put the pressure on the Finland back line as last match they were barely threatened plus we need at least a 2 goal win to have a chance of getting first place. Go Ellada!! 

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I'd imagine from the selections he'll do this

                   mitro koulouris

                          fortounis

koutris    zeca mantalos /pelka         bakakis

             siovas sokratis manolas 

                 vlachodimos

 

bakakis and koutris are gunna have to run for days. which they're capable of doing I suppose but they're also not that great so would have been  better if we had full backs plus wingers to share the duty. defensively we'll be more robust in da middle

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10 hours ago, ausgreek said:

You would think that the evidence is there for a 3 5 2 , with Siovas joining the squad, he along with Manolas and Sokratis would be the back three.  Mantalos and Pelkas as wingbacks. 

 

If he plays either of these two as a wingback he should be fired immediately. 

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1 hour ago, georgelaz said:

I'd imagine from the selections he'll do this

                   mitro koulouris

                          fortounis

koutris    zeca mantalos /pelka         bakakis

             siovas sokratis manolas 

                 vlachodimos

 

bakakis and koutris are gunna have to run for days. which they're capable of doing I suppose but they're also not that great so would have been  better if we had full backs plus wingers to share the duty. defensively we'll be more robust in da middle

I would like to see this for sure. I’m sick of having 1 striker up top. It hasn’t done us anything. We are lucky to have Mitroglou but even he is not capable sometimes. Again why would you call up Koulouris if your not going to use him? 

8 hours ago, Bananas said:

Why you boys have a love affair with Fetfa I will never understand.  The guy is so meek and fragile.  If he actually starts killing it in the GSL then fair enough, I will change my opinion, but right now I wouldn’t be selecting him either.  And no, I don’t believe in giving him a chance just because he has good technique.  That is not enough.

Regarding Fetfa. Fetfa and Koulouris play 2 different positions file. What Fetfa can bring to the table is enough for this team. He can put the ball on the plate for our striker. He can take players on with speed. He has flair and skill. The only problem with him is he can’t finish. Koulouris on the other hand can. That is the only good thing with Koulouris is that he can score. His touches and passing aren’t at the level of say Fortounis or Fetfa but is definitely a poacher. He reminds me a bit of Gekas. He is still young and has an impressive tally so far. It depends what you mean by killing it in the GSL. Koulouris is killing by scoring goals but that’s it. If your looking at all round play then Fetfa is the man. Fetfa also had a very impressive game in the Europa League. 

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