Yiankos Posted July 25, 2019 Share Posted July 25, 2019 Είμαστε καλά! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pash Posted July 25, 2019 Author Share Posted July 25, 2019 Yiannaki mou, you've been very quiet. Has Florida sunk yet? Tell me what you think of Esiti; I miss you dearly! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yiankos Posted July 25, 2019 Share Posted July 25, 2019 I am in Vermont right now for a festival, it's been a month, that's why I am quite! Esiti, I haven't seen videos, but sounds a good case. I am happy with the team as it is and also with the coach. At first I got scared with the 4-4-2 formation, but the way it works is not that different from last year. I think we will do really well. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nilaul Posted July 25, 2019 Share Posted July 25, 2019 I think Esiti; is a better player then Olivera and all the other midfielders we've been looking at, hes the glue we needed between the attack and the defence. Someone who doesn't mindlessly kick the ball away or runs ahead like a mindless chicken. Definitely a positive addition. Cant wait to see our future moves. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
teke817 Posted July 26, 2019 Share Posted July 26, 2019 18 hours ago, Nilaul said: I think Esiti; is a better player then Olivera and all the other midfielders we've been looking at, hes the glue we needed between the attack and the defence. Someone who doesn't mindlessly kick the ball away or runs ahead like a mindless chicken. Definitely a positive addition. Cant wait to see our future moves. I think you mean better suited to our needs (?) since they are completely different players. Esiti is a classic "6" and Oliveira an "8" who looks to pass the ball forward and stay at the edge of the box for the odd long shot. Esiti is not a great passer, never scored a goal in Portugal or Belgium (with his size not banging in a single header on a set piece is shocking). He even said in the Gazetta interview (paraphrasing) 'my game is to demolish opposing midfielders and play quick, short passes to our midfielders' .. Based purely on the coverage at training camp and what you see out of the friendlies, Esiti's is probably destined to provide cover in front of the CBs if not sit deep as a central defender with Varela and Crespo splitting out wide to cover counterattacks down the flanks, since our fullbacks look like they will be making frequent overlaps and pushing far up the flank - even more so than under Razvan. Purely my meaningless, untrained, ill equipped to comment, opinion. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pash Posted July 26, 2019 Author Share Posted July 26, 2019 This could well be true. Ferreira likes the 3-4-3 in attack, which so far (and from what I saw in vids of his previous seasons) has been accomplished by dropping one fullback back while the other runs forward. If Esiti can handle that third defender job, then it stands to reason Matos and Giannoulis will both be farther up. This would leave us short a man in the middle, however - against a team like Ajax I would question the logic of this. Augusto has a nice distance shot in him, but El Kaddouri will almost certainly need to play with Esiti for this to be effective. I haven't seen much creativity from Augusto yet, while El Kaddouri is best when trying to be creative. Add to that Pelkas dropping back a little bit (who knows, maybe interchanging with Omar?) and you could have the creativity you need there in the middle. Would still be better if we had Oliveira next to him though. Oliveira would be much better defensively than El Kaddouri, I feel. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
teke817 Posted July 26, 2019 Share Posted July 26, 2019 (edited) @pash Agree Oliveira fills a huge need as a true 8 and better suited than Augusto next to Omar but I have not seen enough to judge his full skill set. I think when you see this style one of the wide mids drifts inside toward the center of the field - Limnios would be well suited to the role when he plays (imo his future is as a modern attacking RB). The other wide mid gets high and cuts inside to act like a second striker (almost exactly what Biseswar does anyway when he plays as a LM). Pelkas would drop a bit behind them and play the '10' and your fullbacks become your wide midfielders. Assuming Fereira does ANY of this, then it could look similar to Gregg Berhalter's system from the Columbus Crew and now USMNT. This tactical analysis could be pretty close: https://www.massivereport.com/2017/8/23/16191846/tactical-preview-la-galaxy-faces-crew-sc .. If Vierinha comes back 100% he and Matos are perfect for this attacking style. Would work against many teams but I agree, not convinced it works against Ajax. Edited July 26, 2019 by teke817 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blackhawk Posted July 26, 2019 Share Posted July 26, 2019 Chatziisaias bids goodbye to PAOK fans: 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nilaul Posted July 26, 2019 Share Posted July 26, 2019 (edited) 3 hours ago, teke817 said: I think you mean better suited to our needs (?) since they are completely different players. Esiti is a classic "6" and Oliveira an "8" who looks to pass the ball forward and stay at the edge of the box for the odd long shot. Esiti is not a great passer, never scored a goal in Portugal or Belgium (with his size not banging in a single header on a set piece is shocking). He even said in the Gazetta interview (paraphrasing) 'my game is to demolish opposing midfielders and play quick, short passes to our midfielders' .. Based purely on the coverage at training camp and what you see out of the friendlies, Esiti's is probably destined to provide cover in front of the CBs if not sit deep as a central defender with Varela and Crespo splitting out wide to cover counterattacks down the flanks, since our fullbacks look like they will be making frequent overlaps and pushing far up the flank - even more so than under Razvan. Purely my meaningless, untrained, ill equipped to comment, opinion. He doesn't need to score a goal or to have amazing through balls but to me from what I saw from the vids.. he's able to hold the ball.. in the midfield and defense, and our midfield was being chocked even with Oliviera around against low league teams. Those low league teams couldn't punish us especially with Pashalaki guarding us.. but imagine playing against someone stronger in the champions league. Sure we could have a contest who scores more goals but that is not the way to go. So I do think he's better suited to our needs. Of course I do still think that getting another more offensive midfielder wouldn't be a bad idea. Somebody who has a good through ball, stamina and has a good shot too. Edited July 26, 2019 by Nilaul 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dutch Eagle Posted July 29, 2019 Share Posted July 29, 2019 Next supposed target: 27 year old Argentinian forward Gustavo Blanco from Shakhtar Donetsk. Has played for Arsenal Sarandi (Argentina), Anzhi (Russia), Widad (Morocco), Assiriska (Sweden), Karpathy Lviv (Ukraine), Shakhtar (Ukraine) and Malaga (Spain - on loan base). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Athens4 Posted July 29, 2019 Share Posted July 29, 2019 Why? We have two strikers. Surely for the third spot we should be giving a youngster a chance. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pash Posted July 29, 2019 Author Share Posted July 29, 2019 I agree, this would be a stupid move. He's no world-beater, and we don't have room for him. Esiti will already require one of our Brazilians to leave (what do you want to bet Henrique is not injured?). Maybe - MAYBE - if we have a sale pending for Jaba, will we also get this guy. Keep in mind we were "strongly linked" with a guy from Germany last week as well. That dropped out of the news cycle pretty fast. I think Akpom and Swiderski are absolutely good enough for the Champions League. It's our midfield that needs strengthening, not our CFs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pash Posted July 29, 2019 Author Share Posted July 29, 2019 (edited) They're also pushin' this guy: https://inpaok.com/583269/albornoz-en-drasi-videos/ Recently relegated to 2 Bundesliga -edit- I should clarify he's a left back Edited July 29, 2019 by pash Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VinnieJones Posted July 29, 2019 Share Posted July 29, 2019 Imo, if we are really looking for a striker, we should put Komlichenko on the top of the list. Same profile as Prijovic, impressive in Czech League, and very affordable (less than 3M according to reports). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pash Posted July 29, 2019 Author Share Posted July 29, 2019 Hello twitter friend ? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VinnieJones Posted July 29, 2019 Share Posted July 29, 2019 12 minutes ago, pash said: Hello twitter friend ? Hey ! Who are u on there ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PAOKSYD Posted July 30, 2019 Share Posted July 30, 2019 Good article for me, I was critical in previous post about how Branco who is responsible for the transfers bad the aggressive attitude when he hasn't done his job..... yet he was ok to for me drop excuses........ https://www.sportime.gr/bloggers/nikos-toskitsis/paok-den-ekane-afto-pou-eprepe-stis-metagrafes/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pash Posted July 31, 2019 Author Share Posted July 31, 2019 (edited) Pfft. Branco 4 lyfe West Ham reportedly interested in Akpom. I say we delay until we know where we will play this season; if they offer stupid money for him then let him go. -edit- it seems this originated from the daily mail; I wouldn't put much stock in what they say Edited July 31, 2019 by pash Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BostonThanatos Posted July 31, 2019 Share Posted July 31, 2019 His buyout is 7.5M Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pash Posted July 31, 2019 Author Share Posted July 31, 2019 Heard it was 10mm with a 20% fee, which would net us 8? Either way it's decent money, but we should not rush to give West Ham a deal. I'm sure they'll try to lowball us with an initial offer that we can reject, so there is time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dutch Eagle Posted July 31, 2019 Share Posted July 31, 2019 We should not indeed. It is the Hammers that must rush. The deadline for PL-clubs to buy is August 8. If they want him so bad, they must pay the price. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BostonThanatos Posted July 31, 2019 Share Posted July 31, 2019 Who knows....either way, if they meet the price, it's out of our hands but, like you mentioned, probably just smoke. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yiankos Posted July 31, 2019 Share Posted July 31, 2019 If Akpom healthy he is going to score 20 goals this season and definitely going to be sold for 10 million next summer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pash Posted July 31, 2019 Author Share Posted July 31, 2019 If he makes it through this transfer window, who knows...maybe we'll sign him to a better contract. Though I prefer us being able to sell players for big money; 10mm would be a great return on the investment already. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nilaul Posted July 31, 2019 Share Posted July 31, 2019 (edited) Yeah but we gonna lose more money if selling Akpom will be reason why we don't qualify past Ajax. We need to keep him for now, not enough time to find a substitute. I do reckon we'd offer him a better a contract. I consider 10 million meh, we live in a time where average players go for more on the international market. Edited July 31, 2019 by Nilaul Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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