Ethniki: The Little Shop of Losers

By Alain Anastasakis

With a heavy heart and a huge hangover. This is how Greece woke up this morning, following the night when Ethniki played its most important match since November 2017.

Analysis

 

The Game:

 

Everything started during a sweet autumn evening. Greece was facing a fragile Netherlands team and could legitimately claim victory given the match in Ireland. Alas, nothing went according to plan. Well, if the Uruguayan coach even had one.

 

When the first fifteen minutes could have suggested a positive result, the team simply collapsed. Unable to stop any Dutch offences, stupidly conceded a penalty following yet another action from midfield. Odysseas saved Weghost's attempt. A glimmer of hope that we thought, would wake up overwhelmed players.

The exact opposite happened and 70 minutes later, the team did nothing other than suffer in the hope of obtaining a 0-0 which would not even have been deserved, as the level of play was purely awful. And the inevitable happened. Another penalty, this time converted by Van Dijk, definitively extinguished any hope of obtaining a result. The miracle did not happen in Athens.

 

 

The Tactics:

 

We could have been positively surprised with the starting 11. He seemed ambitious on paper and players like Ioannidis or Koulierakis could bring something different. We imagined that Poyet had finally abandoned his dogmatism to move to a system with 5 defenders. Alas, none of that happened!

A central defender who never played in this position ends up as a left-back, a full-back ends up as a winger, two attacking midfielders have to play recovering roles, and two attackers (leaving the right side systematically vulnerable looking at Masouras position) playing without a number 10 behind them and who didn't even get a proper crossing.

No real chances were created, a game of abysmal poverty and, worse still, totally aberrant changes such as the entries of Fountas or Bouchalakis sealed the match's fate. The goal scored by the Oranjes is ultimately anecdotal. They could have won by 3 or 4 goals and we wouldn't even have noticed the difference. A pure and simple repeat of the first leg, minus the humiliation.

 

Some will say it was the Netherlands. They are a great team. That the result is logical or that Ethniki is already lucky enough to play in the playoffs. Yes, without a doubt, some will be satisfied with that. This is not my opinion nor the one of many supporters, (no offence to certain colleagues), and it is precisely this mentality that continues, and will continue, to kill Greek football both at club and national level. But this is another story.

 

The Poyet Case and the Circus of the Strange.

 

The Uruguayan coach, known for his excited temperament but without the talent of a Bielsa, a Sampaoli or even a Tite, has offered us since his arrival "tactical mush", incomprehensible player choices and horrendous coaching. delusional, using a weak tactic worthy of the dark hours of Skibbe or Van't Schip. Such things give no hope for the playoffs.

 

“Clownyet”, as some supporters are now referring to him, deliberately chooses to deprive himself of talents such as Tzolis, Douvikas, Vagiannidis, Alexandropoulos, Tsiggaras and even Kourfalidis but has called up Fountas, Chatzigiovannis, Bouchalakis or Pelkas. The second has not even started a single match this season. We won't even mention the Tzavellas case. This is beyond comical at this point.

 

An absolute nonsense when the Ethniki have the most talented generation since Euro 2004. Choices on which Poyet refuses to express himself clearly, once again fueling the theories implying the choices of players have nothing to do with football. We will not address this aspect but there is, with this coach, no consistency while Greece has, for the first time since the retirement of the 2014 generation, a huge material to build a solid team armed to face the best nations.

 

Sometimes a great talent is simply not made for the national team, either for behaviour issues, personal reasons or simply tactical incompatibility. We face a completely different situation and it's ridiculous to waste an entire generation to rely on a core of players who have failed several times to qualify against weaker opponents and never showed anything good against superior teams. Even worse: All the friendlies the Ethniki played were beyond horrific. All of this is undoubtedly the "football DNA" of this coach. No ambition, no plan. A loser mentality that only hopes a win over the opponent's weakness instead of relying on his own player's skills.

 

Yesterday's match revealed that the problem was much deeper than a simple collective failure in a match which can, and this is quite natural, occur occasionally. Was it a simple "non-match"? Absolutely not! The Uruguayan "technician" bears total responsibility for ALL the failures and has nothing more to give at the head of the Greek National team where he shouldn't have set foot at first.

 

In a last childish tantrum, Poyet was once again faithful to his reputation and got sent off at the end of the game, leading to a probable suspension of 3 official matches and therefore an absence on the bench for the first two playoff games. Something that put the team in a very difficult, not to say surreal, situation where the coach would not even be on the bench during the crucial matches that the Ethniki must win.

 

Harsh but necessary observation because there is still hope and everything is possible for the playoffs where a properly managed team must qualify, if not easily, at least comfortably looking at the opponents. This is the least we can expect from this squad and this generation.

 

Enough to rekindle the flame and hope to rebuild a team with a new generation while relying on solid veterans such as Vlachodimos or Bakasetas.

 

Everything remains possible for the playoffs. But the team needs an "electric shock" which involves an immediate sack or, at least, a non-renewal of his contract expiring on December 31. A successor is yet to be found. The team needs a tactician who would accept the "commando mission" while having a vision for the future. This will be the subject of another paper.

 

In another moronic statement, Poyet said: "I love Ireland, I do! They are incredible! I want to coach there" after the only significant victory during these qualifications. It will be with pleasure to send the Oscar Tabarez from Aliexpress to our Irish friends.

 

Tacitus described the climate of Hibernia (Ireland's Latin name) as "misty and humid enough to extinguish fires of straw". The metaphor is perfect and we couldn't hope for a better conclusion!

@alainb_paris

Hellas Football