Same mistakes keep costing us

Same mistakes keep costing us

By Greg Gavalas

Another campaign under head coach John van’t Ship has ended in the same way the last one has, in disappointment for the Greek National Team.

It’s rather incredible how when John van’t  Ship (JVS) took over, we started playing nice football under him to where we have ended up today, with another draw against the mighty Kosovo, capping off Project Qatar as nothing more than a big failure.

It posses the question and debate on everyone’s lips and fingers the last few weeks or months about JVS’ future, does he stay or does he go?

It’s pretty clear now that we need to look at a new direction given the way the UEFA Nations League (UNL) campaign went, where we couldn’t top a group consisting of Slovenia, Kosovo and Moldova, in that campaign we couldn’t beat Slovenia and only beat Kosovo once thanks to a winning goal from Dimitris Siovas, at that point our best Centre Back by some way, what happened next? 

Siovas was excluded from the Ethniki for comments he made in relation to players that could help the team ironically.

Player management has been one of JVS’ issues, it seems those that could have helped the most were vanished, it’s come out in recent interviews that some of those players refused to join the Ethniki, another debate and issue but let’s look at the results and tactics.

At the end we finished second and failed to grab a lifeline through that campaign, we scored 6 goals from 6 games, 4 of those goals against Moldova, and the cracks were there to be seen especially in front of goal.

The debate started then about JVS – it was a huge variation on, does he stay or does he go, but one key point from many was – will JVS learn from his mistakes, some glaring issues on player selections, tactics and the real inability to change tactics when needed.

That brings us to the FIFA World Cup Qualification campaign and what many hoped would bring a major tournament qualification for the first time since 2014.

It’s a campaign that ultimately was a huge disappointment and all the mistakes we hoped would be rectified just continued every game.

Greece opened the campaign by scraping a 1-1 draw with Spain away from home, a penalty conversion by Tassos Bakasetas landed the Ethniki a point they could have really taken advantage of considering 98% of the game was our players chasing the Spanish passes. 

The result brought on huge celebrations which I thought needed to be backed up against Georgia at home, the nerves were there after what happened in the UNL with teams of this quality.

The Georgia game, played at PAOK’s Toumba stadium would be arguably the worst Ethniki performance for a game we were expected to win, but for a couple of moments by Christos Tzolis in the first half, he would go on to be subbed off and it was Georgia would was looking for the goal. 

Kostas Fortounis, arguably Greece’s  best Central Attacking midfielder would be played on the left to accommodate Bakasetas who if fit, will always play in that central position under JVS.

Charis Mavrias another bizzaar selection would play at right back in the second half and after Greece took a lucky 1-0 lead thanks to an own goal, Georgia’s Khvicha Kvaratskhelia would turn Mavrias inside out for a well-earned equaliser, as the game went on, the Ethniki would be lucky to hold out the Georgians.

Warnings signs all over, the away point to Spain all but neutralised after failing with Georgia at home and our outfield play a concern.

The next game, away to Kosovo saw JVS adapt a three-man defence, in that defence Dimitris Giannoulis, here we would see what has become a standard performance from the Ethniki, an improved performance in attack but after going 1-0 up a real inability to seal the game off with another goal, we also saw the adaptation of Thanasis Androutsos at right back.

Like the games in Athens today, as the Greek team tired out and became complacent, Kosovo would boost their game and start pressuring the Greek defence, which was starting to show cracks, eventually Giannoulis would be caught like a deer in the headlights and Kosovo would equalise leaving Greece with just three points from as many games, whilst Sweden and Spain took care of business against Kosovo and Georgia respectively.

Greece had now adapted a 5-3-2 formation, moving away from what worked well when JVS took charge which was 4-2-3-1, his formation incorporated wingers and one striker and the Ethniki would generally create good chances, finishing was our issue, sadly finishing was not our only issue any more with makeshift three men defences using wing backs in place, virtually no presence on the right and shot at goal a real struggle.

In the match with Sweden in Athens it really was do or die time and we needed to win if we had any chance of qualification, it was the last 30 minutes of this game that saw the Ethniki play some positive football, Bakasetas finally went forward and we combined for two goals to come away 2-1 winners, that 30 minutes saw every player step up in belief and play attractive football, but we needed to do this for 90 mins going forward, it wouldn’t happen.

A 2-0 win away to Georgia came at the end of the game, a lucky penalty converted by Bakasetas saved the day and hope remained, but you could see we just don’t have the killer mentality to drive our opposition out of a game.

The big moment came away to Sweden, in my opinion, Greece played good football for 75 minutes in this whole campaign, 45 of those minutes came in an outstanding first half against the Swedes were we somehow (again) didn’t get a goal and go into half time a goal up.

Come the second half and it was back to the Ethniki with little resolve up front and then our defence would gift Sweden two goals. Greek heads down, we crumbled after that and never looked like scoring. 

This for me also captured the weak mentality this squad shows where as soon at things get hard we have no resolve and JVS’ substitutes are like for like so they don’t really help turn the tide. The only real change that was done to change the formation was done in the 71st mimute, Dimitris Pelkas for Emmanual Siopis, sadly Pelkas was a ghost.

The campaign would all but fail in the last two matches with Spain and Kosovo at home. 

They would bring one measly point for Greece… in a match we needed to win against Spain we didn’t threaten the goalkeeper, all be it, Spain won with a phantom penalty call by the Polish referee, Spain cruised through the match and the Greek players chased them all game like we did in match day one.

So one wonders, what was the game plan exactly?

In the final match, and with a hope that JVS would give some minutes to promising midfielder Sotiris Alexandropoulos and start Tzolis, even give Manolis Saliakas a go at right back, we saw a tired line up that had chased Spain all day only days before. 

By the time Kosovo had equalised, players like Petros Mantalos and Bouchalakis were completely out of gas and making mistakes only to continue and play 90 minutes.

Our inability to close of games again on show, complacency at 1-0 our story for ever and then conceding goals when our defence is pressured just a little.

For a team that once had an abundance of players to pick from in this position, we are now playing Wing backs at Centre back. 

Is that the best we can do, I think not.

Why JVS moved away from the driving attacks we saw when he started to playing scared against better teams when it counts and lacking a real killer instinct really cost us. 

Not incorporating our better players also cost us, we have a player like Tzolis who clearly shows a level above the rest getting some minutes here and there whilst others come on and lose the ball most of the time.

We have matches that need a tactical change but instead we see like for like substitutes that don’t do anything until the last 5 minutes of a match.

To close, there is just not enough of a plan B from JVS and his obsession to play the same guys all the time in key positions hurts us more than it does good. 

We also clearly can’t win games against the likes of Georgia, Slovenia and Kosovo due to all this which shows he has not learned from his mistakes or able to put forward a game plan the team can follow to earn the 3 points which is what ultimately get you to qualify.

We cannot continue on this path if we want to qualify for a major tournament, and unfortunately and JVS has plenty of chances to do this.

Hellas Football 

Follow @GregGavalas