Friendly: Greece - Italy (7 June 2026 22:00 EEST, Pankritio Stadium, Iraklio)

[kolokotronis99tripoli]

Before everyone says that you need defense to make tournaments… why have we failed to qualify in over 10 yrs for a tournament ? We got results against the big teams in our groups. Spain a couple years ago comes to mind, but you know what costed us? NOT SCORING AND GETTING 3 POINTS AGAINST THE WEAKER TEAMS. Time and time again. In the current expanded euro and World Cup formats we just need second in a qualifying group. That’ means scoring and beating the Lithuania’s, Finland’s, kosovos of the lot. If we lose 4-1 to the pot A team in our group so be it. Better than stealing a draw from a France only to then tie to Gibraltar and lose even more points. 

[HellasLEAF]

6 hours ago, kolokotronis99tripoli said:

I just don’t think I can agree with this. Yes Mouzakitis and played bad but between him Zaferies we have some young decent midfielders. I’m not saying great, but better than the last 10 years of midfielders. Are they Karagounis level? No but the biggest problem we have is defense. We don’t have the players to revert back to a defensive mindset. Our best defender got relegated in the Prem this year. Tsimakas sometimes plays for Roma, koulorakis may become something but still. We don’t have Socrates, Manolas, torosidis back there. For the first time in our nations history we have attacking creative players. We need a coach that can emphasize that. When you put a kourbelis, bouckalakis, Masouras, Mantalos on the field they make the rest of the creative players around them worse and stifle them. We need to clean house player wise and get a creative coach. 

Yes we are much improved, and there are in fact a number of good young players in the mix right now which is positive.  Perhaps I was being overly negative in the display but in truth I was referring to a midfield player who can create and unlock defences for our strikers.  Yes a maestro.  Smaller nations have produced better players in this position.  To get the ball to our forwards and to take the ball and calm the play down.  Too often we are overrun in the midfield there is not enough presence there at the moment.  Hopefully Karetsas and others can show in the coming Nations League and Euro Qualifying.  

[Brklyngrk]

From an attacking standpoint, we have enough talent - Tzolis/Delias/Karetsas will be stars. Pavlidis/Teteh/Kostoulas are good.  We have Tzimas as well how got hurt or would have been called up.  Midfield is challenging. Mouzakitis just won young player of the  year. Zafeiris is good, but putting him and Mouzakitis creates a small lineup.  The back four - Tzimikas/Giannoulis are fine. Mavropanos/Kouliarakis/Retos should be more than solid. Rota/Vaggianidis are average at best. With this lineup, we should be getting results.  Where we have a problem is at CDM/RB. 

[kolokotronis99tripoli]

18 hours ago, HellasLEAF said:

Yes we are much improved, and there are in fact a number of good young players in the mix right now which is positive.  Perhaps I was being overly negative in the display but in truth I was referring to a midfield player who can create and unlock defences for our strikers.  Yes a maestro.  Smaller nations have produced better players in this position.  To get the ball to our forwards and to take the ball and calm the play down.  Too often we are overrun in the midfield there is not enough presence there at the moment.  Hopefully Karetsas and others can show in the coming Nations League and Euro Qualifying.  

That’s very true. Hopefully someone grows into that role. They need a leader in the middle of the pitch who also has the skills to back it up. 

[kolokotronis99tripoli]

4 hours ago, Brklyngrk said:

From an attacking standpoint, we have enough talent - Tzolis/Delias/Karetsas will be stars. Pavlidis/Teteh/Kostoulas are good.  We have Tzimas as well how got hurt or would have been called up.  Midfield is challenging. Mouzakitis just won young player of the  year. Zafeiris is good, but putting him and Mouzakitis creates a small lineup.  The back four - Tzimikas/Giannoulis are fine. Mavropanos/Kouliarakis/Retos should be more than solid. Rota/Vaggianidis are average at best. With this lineup, we should be getting results.  Where we have a problem is at CDM/RB. 

Are they solid? I hate to keep sounding negative but a CB who just got relegated with West Ham and another who plays in the Danish league is not my idea of solid.  I know we don’t have much better but still. Tough to see what the answer is.