Kosovo v Greece UNL G2

[Dean97]

I agree with you Don. Especially with last 4 paragraphs. I thought Kourbelis was our worst player. Gave the ball away to many times and got dispossessed aswell. Zeca is no better. Kourbelis should be nothing more than a solid back up on the bench. I am convinced that he isn’t good enough. I think Galanopoulos made him look good in the past. A player like Androutsos or Galanopoulos should take his spot.

Bakakis sticks out like a sore thumb. He shouldn’t be even in the squad let alone start. That’s how bad our situation has become at RB. Commentator even said he defended better today but he seriously isn’t good enough for this level. He panicked and gave the ball away in a dangerous situation. I think a more talented and professional RB wouldn’t panic like that.

Fortounis did well for like 20 seconds and did nothing for the rest of the game. This guys seriously needs to wake up. He is very weak and holds the ball to long. At least Bakasetas doesn’t get outmuscled so easy. I also thought Bakasetas did nothing this game. I also don’t know why Van’t Schip played Fortounis and Mantalos at striker in the 2nd half.

I was actually impressed with Koulouris in some moments in the game. He actually can play smart. But I still think he lacks quality. I would keep him on the bench for now.

For some reason I thought didn’t work as well as they did in the first game. We lost possession a lot and some of our players passes weren’t good enough. I got to give to Van’t Schip he has made this play like a team again and is slowly taking this team to where it belongs. But I still question some of his selections. Koulouris and Stafylidis didn’t deserve to start. Fountas is most likely our most inform player and only played 10 minutes. How can Van’t Schip justify his selections when he says you will only play if your playing for your club. Needs to do better.

I thought Svarnas did well again. His height can be an issue but he did his job. I was sort of wrong about him. Would I pick him over Hatzidiakos, no. But he did well with no past experience.

I still think this team has a lot of work to do. I don’t think Bakasetas should be a definite lock in the starting 11. I think we need to utilise Mantalos better. He’s got great technique. He needs to be in the centre.

Our best players over the 2 games for me were Limnios and Giannoulis. Both are quality. Giannoulis is equally excellent in defence and attack. I still think he can improve a bit more defensively but he has been superb. Limnios is our best player. Still room for improvement but without him I don’t think we would win this game.

Im not fully satisfied as I got frustrated a lot but a win is a win.

[Reaper]

VS set up the team for failure imo.

Any coach - any coach on earth who has options but includes a naturally panicked Bakakis at RB and error prone LB Stafylidis in the back 4 is asking for problems. Add to that Barkas - who was flapping a crosses like some amateur...at this level..... a better team would have hided Greece. VS hamstrung the team both games before the first whistle. He is just another EPO stooge.

Kourbelis is just another C class player. Bouxa should have his spot, not because he is excellent, but because he is better than Kourbelis and has been exposed to a higher level of team mates and opponents.

All in all Vlachodimas is better than Barkas.
Bouxa better than Kourbelis.
Cant think of Greek players as mistake prone and panicked as Bakakis and Stafy.
Even a poor or out of form Mandalos, Gianniotas, Fortounis and Fetfa are miles better than Bakasetas at AM. Greece should have created many chances to score these games but didnt because of the players selected.

Weak and poor selections, tactics and lineups by VS and EPO these last two games. Type of games Greece sneaks through but gets wiped out vs the better sides if Greece are luckily enough to qualify. EPO is in its deathrows politically and like all guilty broken people, when confronted with their own demise, they never reform but always double down on their own stupid decisions.

[Dean97]

Greece should have created many chances to score these games but didnt because of the players selected

^ This is what frustrated me the most over the last 2 games... I can’t remember how many times I got frustrated with players like Kourbelis, Zeca, Bakasetas, Bakakis. They gave Greece a disadvantage throughout the matches due to there low iq, poor technical ability and overall ability. Kourbelis gave the ball away too many times, Zeca not influential enough but maybe slightly better, Bakasetas not getting involved enough or not giving smarter balls and Bakakis panicking when he shouldn’t. Not good enough. But somehow Van’t Schip has made a team with average to garbage players more functional and got them winning games. Got to give credit to him, but man things can be so much better...

[Reaper]

No point winning the skirmishes (quals) on a wing and prayer with weak troops just get annihilated in the actual battle (tournament). Can you conceptualize the damage Germany, Italy, France, Spain, Portugal etc will do to a back 4 with Bakakis and Staf happily residing in it?

VS should be looking at juggling the best players Greece has and buildung familiarity. Not juggling the 3rd or 4th best wing backs and AMs and hoping they magically become footballers. Dont care what Bakasetas has done in the Jihadi Premiership, he is not an international quality player. Neither Kourbelis, Bakakis, Staf etc. Zeca looks like he has finally slowed down too and 80% of his use was his energy.

Massive massive error not to start Tzolis both games but I suspect the EPO had already sold the caps to Kolouris and Pav weeks ago.

[Dean97]

I agree he is using 3rd and 4th best options. I think he is looking more at work rate and attitude. If he was looking at talent then Fortounis or Mantalos would’ve started over Bakasetas and Manolas over Stafylidis and so on.

I don’t believe for 1 second that Bakakis is better than G. Masouras or Kitsiou. Or even Retsos. I would like to think or hope that Van’t Schip is using these C and D players as way to implement his philosophy to them so we can figure out who is capable of being decent back ups and also have a plethora of options at his disposal. I don’t know. Maybe that’s unrealistic or wishful thinking or maybe he actually thinks that he’s called up the best Greece has to offer. I don’t think so. I don’t think Svarnas or Stafylidis is better than Hatzidiakos, Manolas or Mavropanos. Not playing any of these 3 and playing Stafylidis instead in a major tournament is a big mistake. I don’t care how passionate and how much of a leader Stafylidis is, he is not a CB or a good enough defender.

If we go into a major tournament with this team and especially this starting 11 I don’t think we will go far. We’ve just barely beaten Kosovo and drew with Slovenia who are both below us on the rankings. Well be lucky to get a point in a major tournament with Stafylidis and Bakakis in defence. Van’t Schip needs to find a new captain, a captain he can depend on and who isn’t injury prone. Also someone who plays week in and week out.

As I said I hope he is using some of these players to see who he keeps and who he doesn’t keep. So by the time the qualifiers start he actually plays the players that we all agree with and that are of international quality.

[Brklyngrk]

Do you guys remember that we were losing to the Faroe Islands not that long ago?? The team has improved immensely in a very short period of time. These were the first two games for us in about 10 months. The Slovenia game we were by far the better team and unlucky not to win, against Kosovo we struggled but again we played well enough to win against a team that plays tough against everyone at home. I think he is experimenting with the team and valuing work rate/commitment. Overall, he has done a great job!!

[Reaper]

Do you guys remember that we were losing to the Faroe Islands not that long ago?? The team has improved immensely in a very short period of time. These were the first two games for us in about 10 months. The Slovenia game we were by far the better team and unlucky not to win, against Kosovo we struggled but again we played well enough to win against a team that plays tough against everyone at home. I think he is experimenting with the team and valuing work rate/commitment. Overall, he has done a great job!!

Remember all the games over the last decade where we were struggling against teams like Kosovo and fans were saying the coach is just experimenting but come the crunch games we would still have some second rate lb at cb and an AM leading the attack who has one goal to his name in over 30 games?

VS / EPO where not experimenting. VS genuinely believes Bakakis who looks like a deer caught in the headlights is the best RB of Greek origin playing football today. Even Restos playing RB is miles better and he is great in the dressing room too. VS also believes Bakasetas is the Greek Messi - the best Greek for creating something from nothing. That is patheticly out of touch. I had VS on a short leash early because of his bizarre alearly selections that optimists put down to 'experimenting' too. These two games, for me, were brutal to watch. All the excuses too... 'he is experimenting... no football in 10 months.. look at us before he came. .' etc None of that excuses Bakakis/Bakasetas/Barkas/ Staf getting serious minutes. EPO still selling caps imo. Greece will always struggle until it stops filling the 11 with 3rd rate players because, be sure, other teams, no matter how small, are not letting their version of Bakakis or Bakasetas anywhere near their 11s. Kosovo put something close to their best 11 out and they almost drew a country 10 times bigger because Greece littered the 11 with 3rd rate players.

[Don Giovanni]

It would be a mistake to be overly critical. Bakakis has his shortcomings, but he did defend admirably. Svarnas is a new face. He's nowhere near the quality of Manolas, but he has big body and I can see why van't Schip picked him (it was for this game specifically). The coach has worked a miracle by getting us to actually string more than 5 passes together.

Barkas did make one big save tete-a-tete after Stafylidis slipped up. He struggled to hold the ball because it was very wet and Nuhiu kept bashing him without any intention of playing the ball. That's the only way Kosovo was going to score after Siovas came on and settled us a bit better than Stafylidis who is error prone in possession.

Siovas made some comments after the game. He did say that just because Manolas wasn't there doesn't mean he's out of the group or out of the plans. He even said Manolas is Greece's best player.

That was important for me. It shows van't Schip has a plan to develop players and if I'm reading what Siovas said correctly, Manolas will be back in the team eventually. That is music to my ears. I trust this coach to set the right tone with players and inspire them.