Hellas's new coach

[thrylos]

I think we can all agree that King Oto has done a great job with the Greek program. % years ago, nobody cared about the Ethniki. Now everyone has an opinion. King Oto showed faith and dedication to the players, the team and Greek soccer. I say if he decides to step down, let him choose his successor. He'll make a choice that he thinks best fits Greece. Someone he trusts and someone that will continue to build Greek soccer.

[evalagoal]

I think we can all agree that King Oto has done a great job with the Greek program. % years ago, nobody cared about the Ethniki. Now everyone has an opinion. King Oto showed faith and dedication to the players, the team and Greek soccer. I say if he decides to step down, let him choose his successor. He'll make a choice that he thinks best fits Greece. Someone he trusts and someone that will continue to build Greek soccer.

I have to disagree,

I believe that in this case we need him. Because of what he did I think that he can share this "spotlight" to the youth program and to young players in Greece. What we need in Greek soccer is youth. It's amazing to see all the National Teams and Club teams show up to play with sides averaging around 27-29 yr old players.

This is where we (Greece) needs to be, we need to look into the future and the future is the youth. We can still keep King Otto and we have him choose all new fresh players to play in the NT...

[Korisos]

keeping otto will not be the best solution, although i have to acknowledge his faith, after we qualified for euro otto promised to bring all the same players from the qualifiers to portugal and he kept his word but ever since then his faith in them has grown even more and it's hard for him to replace them despite poor form and i can understand that. however that's why we need a new coach with no sentimental ties who will field players that are in form and not keep on using the same out of form players.

i think if otto stays the only way he'll make changes is if the older players start retiring. that's not really building greek foot is it.

[Batigol]

I think you're right. Players will have to retire in order for Otto to make some concrete changes. And in all likelihood, those changes will be coming sooner rather than later. If you look at the line-up, it's fair to say that many players that were on the last WC qualifying squad won't be there in the future. And I think for the most part, these players know and understand their shelf life and will be pulling themselves from the squad soon enough.

Strikers

Vryzas- he's a smart guy, he'll pull himself off the team soon enough with guys like Charisteas, Gekas, Mantzios, Salpiggidis coming to the forefront.

Lymberopoulos- same thing I would think. He just doesn't have the speed anymore.

Midfielders

Zagorakis- This guy knows his time as Captain is coming to an end. He's grooming Katsouranis to take his spot and that'll be just fine.

Tsiartas- he's gone already.

Basinas- with no club play, he won't be playing in 2 years time.

Lakis- he's at the end of his career and he knows it. It was evident in England and he's come back to Greece to stretch it out another year or two.

Kafes- he's over-rated. There are better midfielders than him for sure.

Karagounis/Giannakopoulos- are two players who can still contribute quite a bit to the squad. But I wouldn't pin my hopes on them in 3 years time.

Defence

Kapsis, Dellas, Goumas, Anatolakis- thanks for the memories boys but I think it's time for Kyrgiakos, Tavlaridis, Vyntra, and Seitaridis to take over. Vyntra showed what he could do against Barca. I doesn't take a rocket scientist to know that he could take Dellas' or Kapsis' spot soon enough.

Goal

They are all, with the exception of Sifakis, at an age where they can no longer be considered a long term option. This is the one position that I'm really worried about.

[thrylos]

Vyntra is still young so the jury is still out on him. Does he have a place on the Ethniki, possibly. But he is not a center back which the Dellas and Kapsis are. Vyntra plays the same position as Seitaridis, who when in form is the 2nd best greek player today (after giannakopoulos)

[AEK-MTL]

I don't think Dellas is done yet. He's still got at least 2 years. As for Kapsis, just not sure. Kyrgiakos could easily come in and take his place. Seitaridis, when he's on, can be huge. Fyssas, same as Dellas, still at least 2 years.

In midfield, Zagorakis and Basinas I think are slowly on the way out. Unless Basinas finds himself a club, I don't see why he should be playing for the NT. Katsouranis is a good defensive CM. Giannakopoulos is there to stay. Karagounis I'm not so sure about. He seems overrated and he hasn't produced much in these last few games. Stoltidis deserves a shot, and Zikos should be brought back into the fold.

For the forwards, Vryzas is done; no question about it. Lybe, again, I had faith in him after he was on a hot streak with AEK but can now see that he's too slow. Charisteas can still play but definitely needs to be partnered with some fast forwards. Papadopoulos OR Gekas deserve to be in the starting 11 from now on (I'd go with Papadopoulos preferably). Mantzios is good but still a little young.

As for the goalies, Nikopolidis will play for another year or two and then retire from the national team. That means Sifakis will have to be ready to step up.