Andreas Samaris - Benfica - Portugal

[Dean97]

Anyone know what’s going on with him? He and Tachtsidis seemed to have regressed. Both I though were going to big things back when they were 22 and 23. They haven’t turned out to be anything and have let the national team down so there performances. Samaris has become more or less a bench player at Benfica and Tachtsidis has been going different clubs every season and barely even plays a good amount of games. I used to rate them not so much now.

[Amorgos]

He’s just not that good file. I had known of Tachtsidis’s limitations before most so I am not surprised with him but I actually thought Samaris was ok for a while, but in the last few years his passing game has become rubbish with some real scaring moments as a result.

[Don Giovanni]

They have not shown enough progress as players and time is running out for them to salvage their careers. There's a lot of things they don't do right that a professional player should know how to do well. The thing is both had more potential than Katsouranis, but Katsouranis had Zagorakis and Rehhagel to help him grow and then Fernando Santos also gave him a lot of support too. For a little while Tachtsidis had Zeman and Samaris had Santos, but after that things fell apart. I think it hurt their development a lot that they were forced to emulate Tziolis, a player who was never good enough for Greece, and the fact is both of these players are not good enough for Greece either as things stand.

Lecce are barely above relegation. Before I had said Tachtsidis could survive in the Series A and that Lecce were bound to be relegated, but if Lecce goes down, he'll have to go down with them. If they stay up, it's hard to say they'll keep him. I think he's heading back to Series B one way or another. If he can find a rhythm again and improve weak areas of his game where it is possible for him, he could still do well for himself and establish himself in the Series A. Tachtsidis has a lot of technical merits and good positional sense, I still think he has some value despite his lack of pace.

Samaris will have a hard time getting consistent playing time. I think Benfica are being too kind to him. He definitely knows he's counting his lucky stars that he's still with a club of their stature. It may just be a matter of time before he's let go and that he has to accept playing for a lesser club. It's difficult to imagine him improving beyond what he shows now. Samaris doesn't have enough technical quality to be a midfielder. A defender yes, but not a midfielder in my view. He may have to play as a CB eventually.

[Dean97]

I thought Samaris was good when he was at Olympiakos. Was also playing well at the World Cup and that’s why Benfica signed him. Don’t know what happened to him from that point as he could never get it together for Greece. I think these types players like Tachtsidis and Samaris need runners and players with energy around them. Otherwise they become useless. Samaris and Tachtsidis together in midfield I think was never good idea now that I come to think of it. We’ve continuously played players who are slow and low energy in these positions like Tziolis and Bouchalakis.

I don’t mind having one of these guys (except Tziolis) with someone else who is more agile and energetic, with good balls skills and vision. I don’t think Galanopoulos is our answer. He isn’t the type of CM we need. He’s energetic but not really a playmaker. We need like a balanced midfielder who can be the playmaker and destroyer at the same time. Hopefully Vasiliadis is the player I’m describing.

Ive pitched the idea of having Mantalos as the 8 behind the number 10 instead of having two 6’s which clearly Samaris and Tachtsidis are. Also hopefully Bouzoukis and Androutsos develop as I would like to see them as number 8’s. If not then Vasiliadis is the guy for the job. We have plenty of midfield destroyers but not enough creative CMs.