otto Rehhagel thanking the greeks and the greeks thanking him for a 9 year next to the greek national team. THANKS OTTO WE WONT FORGET 2004 EURO Fernando Santos has signed for 2 years
Well considering the point we have reached with Otto he can't be worst. He may not play offensive football but he wont do lineups with 3 DMs and Achristeas and Samaras in the wings as our only way of getting forward.
nick 3f hehehehehehehehe why will we be doomed? september 3 is our first match with georgia we will see which new players he calls for the nt.
I think he'll be slightly better than the after Euro Rehagel. It's not like he's a better coach, but I hope he'll trust younger players more.
im from israel i would intoduce my country but you remember whipping our ass right out off the world cup so im just here to say hi again we cant get rid of you and we will probablly lose again alaso i wanted to know if you changed anything in your national team besides the head coach
Well it's the coache's duty to change things it? I suppose he won't call up Charisteas which means we 'll get to field 11 football players again. He will propably use some new players like Ninis which Otto would take ages to do. I hope he has the balls to drop players that don't perfom/try (Katsouranis..) and sticks to play players in positions they are expirienced in. I think he will play 4-5-1 and won't switch to tactical masterpieces of 6-3-1 like we did with Otto in every 'crucial' game lately...
. I think he will play 4-5-1 and won't switch to tactical masterpieces of 6-3-1 like we did with Otto in every 'crucial' game lately...[/QUOTE] we play 9-0-1 last time so you should be happy playing 6-3-1
Santos has done some wonderful things with Greece. The 17 games we went undefeated--a Greek record--was a great achievement. The quarter-final finish was even better. He also showed a lot of potential. Had we been pitted against the Portuguese at the quarter-final stage of EURO 2012 instead of the Germans, most Greeks would have fancied the chance of doing one even more better. And had not Ninis and Tziolis suffered devastating injuries, our midfield worries would be long forgotten. Not to mention, Rehhagel's winning Euro 2004 system was adopted from the tactical set-ups of Santo's/Bajevic's AEK (in qualifying) and Markarian's PAO (at the finals themselves). Unsurprisingly, the winning Euro 2004 teams featured a starting eleven largely composed of players from those two clubs. None of this came easy of course. Santos had an open rebellion on his hands as he took the Greek helm, with players like Gekas and Kyrgiakos having bitterly retired. It's important to note, however, that both players were former Frankfurt teammates of Amanatidis, who announced his retirement before Rehhagel's tenure was over. The implication was clear: there were cliques running riot despite Rehhagel's "Ottocratic" rule. There were problems with a team that, very often, painted itself as one big family. In fact, those problems were all on show against South Korea as Greece lost 2-0 in their opening World Cup fixture. Regardless, others were said to follow suit, as changes to the team selection swiftly followed Santos' hiring. Santos eventually steadied the ship and managed to coax Gekas out retirement... but only once Theofanis' club career was destined to be in tatters. Santos has his failings too. We can grind out results, but the results aren't pretty and usually sloppy. How exactly Karagounis and Katsouranis, now relative geriatrics, will improve upon their abysmal display four years ago in South Africa once Greece qualify for Rio is something I can't fathom. We desperately need to reinvent our midfield and Santos isn't coming up with any answers. Nor does Santos craft a figure of reassurance on the touchline. In fact, before the match where we upset the odds against Russia, Santos went Catholic: he sat down and prayed as if to capitulate. It's not the right image for a coach--it looked weak. Worse yet, he made questionable players selections, most notably in Chalkias, who appeared to have been selected out of sympathy and crony entitlement rather than merit. Chalkias is most remembered for his horrendous display against Bayern, gifting a bemused and stunned Luca Toni four goals. It was the kind of performance he seemed destined to repeat as he volunteered himself off the pitch once 2-0 down to the Czechs after just five minutes. The biggest game of his career and he refused to carry on despite a seemingly innocuous knock. Meanwhile, Chiotis, Greece's most experience keeper was left off the final 23, this despite finishing a season that saw him win a penalty shout-out in the last 16 of the Champions League (something no other Greek keeper can boast about).
In a press conference earlier today, Santos gave some lively responses to questions concerning the team's performance and selections against Liechtenstein, whom we narrowly beat, and what sort of implications that will have on tomorrow's match-up with Latvia (click -> here). Santos has come under a lot of heavy criticism from fans and even journalists. One major sticking point has been the team's performances in the early proceedings of almost every match. Why is it, then, that Greece performs pronouncedly better in the second half? It comes down to the older players (e.g., Karagounis, Katsouranis, Gekas, Salpingidis, etc.) trying to preserve themselves for the 90 minutes. And if any of the older players are rested in the first half, they can give it their all in whatever second half minutes they get. Such was the case with Salpingidis at EURO 2012. He played better against Poland and Germany, matches where he was subbed in, than he did against Russia and Czech, matches he started. Another factor is Santos' impassioned demeanor from the sidelines, something that permeates throughout the team. As a result, we appear less lively in the first periods of play. Regardless, there are some unbalanced criticisms. Santos can't be blamed if Mitroglou left his shooting boots at Levadia over the weekend. Besides, Greece isn't the only team that overwhelmingly underperformed this past Saturday. France, Netherlands, and current rivals Bosnia all delivered disapproving displays. Slovakia, a team that includes Hamsik and Skrtel, drew Liechtenstein in an earlier round. We did win in the end and we did produce some 20 chances at goal. Plus a number of irregular faces did feature, namely Tachtsidis, Lazaros, Ninis, Kone, and Siovas, with only Kone and Ninis not having shared the field at one any time.
Lots of Greece fans have vented their disapproval of Santos. I don't strongly disagree with others, but we've had easier groups before, strong squads, and still failed to finish in the top two of the group. In 1996, we finished behind Russia and Scotland. In 1998, we finished behind Denmark and Croatia. In 2000, we finished behind Norway and Slovenia. 2000 was obviously the most disappointing campaign. We had a team that had, at that point, played together for years, had plenty of experience, and had burgeoned with talent. Players like Georgatos, Tsiartas, and Dabizas were making names for themselves abroad. In those days we played to outscore the opposition rather than to concede fewer than the opposition. We played by throwing caution to the wind and that was our problem; however, our biggest problem was our finishing. We simply couldn't score even when we had ample chances. I still recall Dabizas hitting the posts against Denmark and Norway. It was tough watching us drop points to Latvia, Albania, and Slovenia. We could be doing a lot worse. We could be in Slovakia's shoes right now. It's not like a case can't be made that Slovakia has a better team than ours, either. Slovak players like Stoch and Weiss are among the best players in Greece right now, while players like Hamsik and Skrtel are much more renown than Ninis and Sokratis. Here's my take on whether we should go forward with Santos after the World Cup. I'd agree to letting go of Santos in the event we can get Makarian, whom I consider to be the best candidate around for the job. Now is the only chance we have at getting Markarian and I'm almost certain he would agree. Valverde is someone a lot of fans would love to have, but coaches generally take on national teams in their 60s. I just don't see him ever happening with us. Hubb Stevens is the likeliest candidate to replace Santos, but that will be a further two years from now, after EURO 2016. There are other options; Bajevic, Jovanovic, who coached APOEL to the CL quarters in 2012, Noplias, who recently quit Cyprus, Anastasiadis, Donis, and Tziolis. Are any of these other options better choices than Santos? I doubt it. In my view it comes down to either Markarian now or stick with Santos and go with Stevens later.
when making a HC change timing is the most important IF, Greece qualifies for the WC, Santos stays until 2014, at least IF, Greece does NOT qualify for the WC, then it is the perfect time for a change the NT coach, is there for the WC and for Euros 2016 Euro, 2018 WC so, the next HC would have the job until 2018 at the very least, and most likely until the 2020 Euros if Santos is kept, then he has the job until 2018 WC IF, Greece does NOT qualify for the WC then HUGE changes r needed anyone 30 yrs old and up goes to the bench or is dropped there has to be friendlies set up camps for youngs/new players set up, to see,test, try out the next generation these changes CANT b done slowly either all the time and planning for 2016 Euro and 2018 WC, has to go to the younger players the new group needs as much time together as possible will any of this happen ? idk. probably not. this is my view, from Wisconsin, USA.