Should We Put Out A Full Strength Side For Olympiacos?

[diamondpocket]

Olympiakos have only lost their championship 3/4 times in about 25 years. Last year was the first time they lost out on the title in about 8 years or something ridiculous; they have dominated Greek football for years. They might not be what they once were but they are European stalwarts and we should be playing our strongest team to get into the group stages.

[FactualFrank]

Left back and left wing are a world of difference to a player that predominantly plays left back, that much was obvious, did well given the circumstances tho (playing out of position) we really should have another left winger who can play there as Brady has been injured for a long time now..........

He played very well as left wing at Leeds and very well as a left wing-back at Leeds. It's like nobody ever saw him play before he joined us. I'm sure Dyche won't have given up on him after one game in that position for us.

[LoveCurryPies]

1 Greece GK Lefteris Choutesiotis
2 Greece DF Stefanos Evangelou
4 Guinea DF Mady Camara
5 Greece MF Andreas Bouchalakis
6 Israel MF Bibras Natkho
7 Greece MF Kostas Fortounis (captain)
8 Greece MF Thanasis Androutsos
9 Spain FW Miguel Ángel Guerrero
10 Greece MF Giannis Fetfatzidis
11 Greece MF Lazaros Christodoulopoulos
12 Greece MF Giannis Gianniotas
14 Norway DF Omar Elabdellaoui
17 Iran FW Karim Ansarifard
19 Albania FW Mario Vrusaj
20 Tunisia DF Yassine Meriah
21 Greece DF Kostas Tsimikas
22 Greece GK Andreas Gianniotis
23 Greece DF Leonardo Koutris
25 Portugal DF Roderick Miranda (on loan from Wolverhampton)
26 Serbia DF Jagoš Vuković
27 Greece DF Giannis Masouras
28 Iran DF Ehsan Hajsafi
33 Greece FW Dimitrios Manos
35 Greece DF Vasilis Torosidis
56 Portugal FW Daniel Podence
66 Senegal DF Pape Abou Cissé
77 Greece DF Dimitris Nikolaou
99 Greece GK Dimitris Skafidas
— Brazil MF Guilherme
— Egypt FW Kouka

Do any of these names mean anything to anyone......?

Their Mums & Dads.

[LoveCurryPies]

Play to win. Best team possible. Otherwise don’t bother.

[Mattster]

Can't really judge the Olympiacos side we'll be facing based on last season as they've had a big overhaul from management through players.

I recognise a few of their attacking players. Fortunis is/was something of a Greek superstar and Podence is a pacey, creative attacker that could cause us problems.

[Quickenthetempo]

Our better players will want to play in these games.
They might never get the chance again.

If you gave them a choice of which game they would be rested for it would be Watford/Fulham any day of the week

[mrgomez]

i would not complain since it seems to work

i would bet for another draw and extra time / penalties for the next game.

other then this who scores first will probably qualify

this was my comment before burnley vs. basaksehir game.

now the situation is different... let me explain...

my besiktas got an easy victory against olympiakos last year (4-1)

olympiakos is not the old olympiakos, big club, big name, but far away from their old days.

BUT

basaksehir is a team, who is programmed to beat big teams attacking them. if you dont respect and attack them, they surely punish you, doesnt matter whoever you are. but burnley played very smart two games and kicked their dirty ass out of the tournament.

but now the situation is different...although olympiakos is not the old olympiakos...

it is still a big team in his own league. and always playing against weaker teams defending against them.

this means, even burnley again does his great defence, olympiakos know ways to unlock it. and if somehow they get an early score, and a "burnley must score" situation begins, then the nightmare begins. they will easily beat burnley at open football, which they do very well...

so..burnley needs to do more this round. while making his great defence, they should counter attack every time a chance is there, with 2-3 very good sprinting players, who knows how to score at fast attacks.

basaksehir has high quality players like turan, adebayor, clichy, visca, emre...etc. but basaksehir is a guerilla team. but olypiakos is a big team.

so...good tactic (nice def + nice counter) = burnley qualifies very easily

bad tactic (burnley MUST score this time, dont expect a scenerio like basaksehir) = burnley lives the nightmare

[BennyD]

To the OP; f*ck eye.

[cricketfieldclarets]

this was my comment before burnley vs. basaksehir game.

now the situation is different... let me explain...

my besiktas got an easy victory against olympiakos last year (4-1)

olympiakos is not the old olympiakos, big club, big name, but far away from their old days.

BUT

basaksehir is a team, who is programmed to beat big teams attacking them. if you dont respect and attack them, they surely punish you, doesnt matter whoever you are. but burnley played very smart two games and kicked their dirty ass out of the tournament.

but now the situation is different...although olympiakos is not the old olympiakos...

it is still a big team in his own league. and always playing against weaker teams defending against them.

this means, even burnley again does his great defence, olympiakos know ways to unlock it. and if somehow they get an early score, and a "burnley must score" situation begins, then the nightmare begins. they will easily beat burnley at open football, which they do very well...

so..burnley needs to do more this round. while making his great defence, they should counter attack every time a chance is there, with 2-3 very good sprinting players, who knows how to score at fast attacks.

basaksehir has high quality players like turan, adebayor, clichy, visca, emre...etc. but basaksehir is a guerilla team. but olypiakos is a big team.

so...good tactic (nice def + nice counter) = burnley qualifies very easily

bad tactic (burnley MUST score this time, dont expect a scenerio like basaksehir) = burnley lives the nightmare

Do you have tomorrows lottery numbers?

[cricketfieldclarets]

Its the perfect tie for Dyche in many ways.

Wina nd we are through and he is a hero, especially after defeating a 'name' along with a tricky Turkish side with big players and a Scottish side.

Lose and he has lost to a vastly experienced side who usually win the league and do well in The Champions League.

[dsr]

If we win, we will have the not very congested fixture list of 23 matches in the 17 weeks of September, October, November, and December. (Ignoring the League Cup which will be for the youth team.) So OF COURSE we should play a full team.

If we don't, what's the point of playing on? Our season would be over, if we decide that Cups are worthless, European qualification is worthless, and 35 points makes a successful season.

[Wile E Coyote]

no, league is all important, we just aren't equipped for europa fixtures hence the poorer selections already.

[superdimitri]

If Mr Gomez is right we're doomed. We have no pace at all and didn't score from a single counter all season. By comparison Leicester scored 7.

However I think a lot will depend on the ref and whether he allows tackles and headers.

[Quicknick]

The Swiss were awful, so it's difficult to assess Olympiakos. But the Greek league isn't very strong at all. If we put out our strongest team, we should win twice.

I rode my motorbike past Olympiakos's ground in 1998. And AEK's.

[JohnMac]

If Taylor's role was as a 'Left Winger', I must have been at a different game.

[Mala591]

The good news is that our 'fringe/reserve' players are definitely improving and are keeping our 'first team' on their toes. Well done to them and our coaches.

My biggest concern is the lack of shape/structure when we are attacking. The players know exactly what to do when we lose the ball but when we regain possession we seem to go into a chaotic/random mode of attack.

More quality in midfield (Defour) is obviously needed and I still think the club and players would benefit from the recruitment of a specialist attacking/finishing coach.

[redwasp]

Yes!. The "B" team are well capable of getting a point at Fulham.

[ElectroClaret]

So....have we missed a great chance, or better to save our best for Fulham?

[Woodleyclaret]

Yes go for it we need a 3-0 win and must give it our all.We may not qualify again for 50 yrs so must go out to win

[evensteadiereddie]

We win at Fulham and work our first-team knackers off to get through next Thursday.