Asteras Tripolis vs AEK

[Original Sydney]

This was a massive win for morale, we showed good character coming from a goal down, to 2-2 and then we didn’t stop and got the winner. The team is playing the way we know they can. The players are fighting for each other and have belief in them now, something we didn’t have the last month under the bald prick.

Kostenoglou has done well also, credit to him for this turn around in a very short space of time. You could see his passion when we scored the winner. Question is now do they keep him til end of the season or do they find someone else and take another risk?

Livagia’s celebration reminded me of Demi. He was fantastic today as was Albanis, can’t believe this kid hasn’t been given more game time, he is way better than Klona and offers way more. Good to see Oliveira get on the scoresheet again for us. Hopefully his injury isn’t too bad.

[Val]

Kostenoglou has simply reverted back to jimenez tactics. It's the smart thing to do since the players are already familiar. Kostenoglou is acting as the club's safeguard in this domain; a staff member that knows the previous manager's tactics well and can adequately fill in when required. More importantly, It means that you don't have to change the roster which limits the financial cost. I mean you guys previously recruited based on these tactics. What i don't understand is where cardoso fits in all this? Did meli and co. wish to go in another direction or did they not put too much thought in their decision? You should've recruited someone with a similar philosophy to jimenez. Shame as it has cost you europe.

[Dikefale11]

Cardozo was brought in with the intent of playing attractive attacking football which is what AEK has always been known to do. However it didn't work out, players could barely make a pass, for the type of play he was looking to enforce you need top top quality players, not possible in Greece imo.

The 3-5-2 is a good fit for us, we are much more dynamic with this formation and sticking to what we know. It's how we went 13 games unbeaten in Europe.


The goals;

[Damianos]

Great win, the best part was the passion on and off the pitch. The ball from Paulinho and finish from Simoes was hot!

Kostenoglou to stay, see what we can get next April if he's not up to it.
Baffled by management, why we don't keep Jiminez is beyond me. Has cost us Europe, millions of €, first Round loss. Why???

Any word on Mantalos and Olivera? Verde has been junk but we have to give him time. Still so early in the season.

[Amorgos]

Mantalos should be back for Lamia

[Original Sydney]

With the 3-5-2 you need 3 decent CBs and 2 very fit wing backs, which is what we have. We have 2 guys upfront who are quality and can bounce off each other, we have options at 10 in Mandalos, Verde (if and when he finds himself) and also Albanis who is brilliant at running at defenders and it showed today with the 2nd goal we scored. This formation suits us very well. Sure a 4-2-3-1 can work but I really like the idea of having 2 upfront with Livagia and Oliveira. You could even throw Albanis up top with that speed as he can finish too. Good signs for us, just need to keep it going and be consistent.

The fans are believing in the team now with the last 2 results also so that helps also. It was a mad atmosphere in Tripoli last night.