Kosova National Team [General topic]

[Princ]

Yup , it’s not all doom and gloom for Albania. A couple decent attackers and they’re easily better than Kosove . They can’t defend at all .

Kosovo’s attack is on another level compared to ours, but their midfield is also much better.. Our lot of graveyard workers do not compare to the likes of V. Berisha, Idriz Voca, Bersant Celina plus all the other second rate Swiss prospects like Toma and the boys that they are stacking up.

There is also a false notion that Kosovo’s defense sucks. Rrahmani, Vojvoda, Aliti and Hadergjonaj are not bad at all, while their other full back Kololli was absolutely on fire to end the season. Nowhere did I see any of these boys to give up two goals at home to a bottom dweller like Andorra.. In fact, they were on a two year unbeaten streak from November 13, 2017 until England finally broke it on September 10, 2019. During that run, they faced the likes of Denmark and beat Czech Republic, also destroying Albania 3-0 in the process.

Albania is in desperate need of midfielders and attackers.. and now with Kosovo being the primary destination for second rate Western European prospects, that leaves our player selection pool absolutely decimated to Superliga players. The doom and gloom is real, this is the lowest point of the Albanian NT.

[Plako]

Yup , it’s not all doom and gloom for Albania. A couple decent attackers and they’re easily better than Kosove . They can’t defend at all .

Kosovo’s attack is on another level compared to ours, but their midfield is also much better.. Our lot of graveyard workers do not compare to the likes of V. Berisha, Idriz Voca, Bersant Celina plus all the other second rate Swiss prospects like Toma and the boys that they are stacking up.

There is also a false notion that Kosovo’s defense sucks. Rrahmani, Vojvoda, Aliti and Hadergjonaj are not bad at all, while their other full back Kololli was absolutely on fire to end the season. Nowhere did I see any of these boys to give up two goals at home to a bottom dweller like Andorra.. In fact, they were on a two year unbeaten streak from November 13, 2017 until England finally broke it on September 10, 2019. During that run, they faced the likes of Denmark and beat Czech Republic, also destroying Albania 3-0 in the process.

Albania is in desperate need of midfielders and attackers.. and now with Kosovo being the primary destination for second rate Western European prospects, that leaves our player selection pool absolutely decimated to Superliga players. The doom and gloom is real, this is the lowest point of the Albanian NT.

All of these are good points. We have the worst attack and midfield that I remember. The only decent player we have right now in midfiled is Bare but he can't do much without any support. The attack is in shambles.

[ZenMaster]

Kosovo is scooping up prospects left and right. They’ll be making some noise in the next 10 years

Kosova will pretty much have Swizterland and other European countries farming them out players for the next 10 years. They should atleast be competitive.

I don't understand why FSHF have just stopped being interesteed in these players. Instead them go after random players like Egli Kaja or Bujar Lika

Gianni De Biasi took all the credit for himself but most of the facitilation work was done by volunteers(mostly TKZ member) Jupi office was designed as a liaison office between diaspora talents but unfortunately it was more obstacle than facilitation office. Tramezzani was the guy most heavily involved but all he did was checking messages, replying politely and traveling to meet suggested players on his inbox. The recruiment process has been even more chaotic than i am describing but somehow the "final product" wasn't too bad . When Albania qualified for EURO 2016 Duka was booed from a small group of TKZ members, as revenge he put in TKZ disposal 0 tickets for EURO 2016 matches. This decision literally killed TKZ because general feeling was the loyal fans of Kombetarja for years were replaced by political establishment of Albania&Kosovo, their family members, instagram whores and even most vocal opponents of "Nje Kombetare" got tickets.
FSHF hasn't stopped anything but the guys (De Biasi,Tramezzani,Jupi) who were cooperating with "enthusiastic volunteers" are gone, TKZ exist now days only "sa per sy e faqe" so even "unprofessional shitty recruitment infrastructure" of De Biasi doesn't exist anymore.

[artan]

Yup , it’s not all doom and gloom for Albania. A couple decent attackers and they’re easily better than Kosove . They can’t defend at all .

Kosovo’s attack is on another level compared to ours, but their midfield is also much better.. Our lot of graveyard workers do not compare to the likes of V. Berisha, Idriz Voca, Bersant Celina plus all the other second rate Swiss prospects like Toma and the boys that they are stacking up.

There is also a false notion that Kosovo’s defense sucks. Rrahmani, Vojvoda, Aliti and Hadergjonaj are not bad at all, while their other full back Kololli was absolutely on fire to end the season. Nowhere did I see any of these boys to give up two goals at home to a bottom dweller like Andorra.. In fact, they were on a two year unbeaten streak from November 13, 2017 until England finally broke it on September 10, 2019. During that run, they faced the likes of Denmark and beat Czech Republic, also destroying Albania 3-0 in the process.

Albania is in desperate need of midfielders and attackers.. and now with Kosovo being the primary destination for second rate Western European prospects, that leaves our player selection pool absolutely decimated to Superliga players. The doom and gloom is real, this is the lowest point of the Albanian NT.

Kosovo's midfield currently isn't much better than ours. Gjasula, Bare, Abrashi, Xhaka, etc, are probably on the same level as Kosovo's midfield. We just had a rough patch where guys like Ramadani, Kristi Qose and the corpses of Memushaj and Basha would constantly start. Kosova's attacking third just absolutely wrecks us which is where the main difference lies. All of Rashica, Muriqi, Zenelli, Berisha, Celina, even Zhegrova, would walk in our lineup.

Our midfield situation isn't as bad as it was a few years ago post Euro 2016 but it's still painfully average. FSHF still needs to poach one of the defensive midfielders in Switzerland (such as Fazli who is from Presheva) as cover for Gjasula and has his replacement. Nedim Bajrami would also be a great addition as well (From Macedonia so Kosovo can't swoop him up) and he'll be good enough to start in the midfield or as a winger. I'm curious about Enes Cokaj and Sherrif Kallaku too.

Defensive Midifelders (holding): Gjasula, Fazli, Cokaj
Center Midfielders: Abrashi, Bare, Bajrami, Ndoj, Selahi, Kallaku, Xhaka

Bajrami and Selahi both seem like box to box midfielders. Kallaku seems like a "Number 10" in the mold of a Pogba (obviously nowhere as good), Abrashi and Bare are both pitbulls with Bare being more technical while Abrashi more defensive. Xhaka is still decent but I think he's not interested in the NT anymore.

[artan]

Kosovo is scooping up prospects left and right. They’ll be making some noise in the next 10 years

Kosova will pretty much have Swizterland and other European countries farming them out players for the next 10 years. They should atleast be competitive.

I don't understand why FSHF have just stopped being interesteed in these players. Instead them go after random players like Egli Kaja or Bujar Lika

Gianni De Biasi took all the credit for himself but most of the facitilation work was done by volunteers(mostly TKZ member) Jupi office was designed as a liaison office between diaspora talents but unfortunately it was more obstacle than facilitation office. Tramezzani was the guy most heavily involved but all he did was checking messages, replying politely and traveling to meet suggested players on his inbox. The recruiment process has been even more chaotic than i am describing but somehow the "final product" wasn't too bad . When Albania qualified for EURO 2016 Duka was booed from a small group of TKZ members, as revenge he put in TKZ disposal 0 tickets for EURO 2016 matches. This decision literally killed TKZ because general feeling was the loyal fans of Kombetarja for years were replaced by political establishment of Albania&Kosovo, their family members, instagram whores and even most vocal opponents of "Nje Kombetare" got tickets.
FSHF hasn't stopped anything but the guys (De Biasi,Tramezzani,Jupi) who were cooperating with "enthusiastic volunteers" are gone, TKZ exist now days only "sa per sy e faqe" so even "unprofessional shitty recruitment infrastructure" of De Biasi doesn't exist anymore.

How hard is it to have a few scouts to recruit? Di Biasi called up something like 47 news players in his first 4 years...

[Aurora Bulkualis]

Yup , it’s not all doom and gloom for Albania. A couple decent attackers and they’re easily better than Kosove . They can’t defend at all .

Kosovo’s attack is on another level compared to ours, but their midfield is also much better.. Our lot of graveyard workers do not compare to the likes of V. Berisha, Idriz Voca, Bersant Celina plus all the other second rate Swiss prospects like Toma and the boys that they are stacking up.

There is also a false notion that Kosovo’s defense sucks. Rrahmani, Vojvoda, Aliti and Hadergjonaj are not bad at all, while their other full back Kololli was absolutely on fire to end the season. Nowhere did I see any of these boys to give up two goals at home to a bottom dweller like Andorra.. In fact, they were on a two year unbeaten streak from November 13, 2017 until England finally broke it on September 10, 2019. During that run, they faced the likes of Denmark and beat Czech Republic, also destroying Albania 3-0 in the process.

Albania is in desperate need of midfielders and attackers.. and now with Kosovo being the primary destination for second rate Western European prospects, that leaves our player selection pool absolutely decimated to Superliga players. The doom and gloom is real, this is the lowest point of the Albanian NT.

Kosova is definitely better offensively, but so was Armenia during WCQs... Unless you have some world class strikers, defensive stability > offence.

Now whether Albania is still defensively stable after DB's departure is another issue.

[Princ]

Kosovo's midfield currently isn't much better than ours. Gjasula, Bare, Abrashi, Xhaka, etc, are probably on the same level as Kosovo's midfield. We just had a rough patch where guys like Ramadani, Kristi Qose and the corpses of Memushaj and Basha would constantly start. Kosova's attacking third just absolutely wrecks us which is where the main difference lies. All of Rashica, Muriqi, Zenelli, Berisha, Celina, even Zhegrova, would walk in our lineup.

Our midfield situation isn't as bad as it was a few years ago post Euro 2016 but it's still painfully average. FSHF still needs to poach one of the defensive midfielders in Switzerland (such as Fazli who is from Presheva) as cover for Gjasula and has his replacement. Nedim Bajrami would also be a great addition as well (From Macedonia so Kosovo can't swoop him up) and he'll be good enough to start in the midfield or as a winger. I'm curious about Enes Cokaj and Sherrif Kallaku too.

Defensive Midifelders (holding): Gjasula, Fazli, Cokaj
Center Midfielders: Abrashi, Bare, Bajrami, Ndoj, Selahi, Kallaku, Xhaka

Bajrami and Selahi both seem like box to box midfielders. Kallaku seems like a "Number 10" in the mold of a Pogba (obviously nowhere as good), Abrashi and Bare are both pitbulls with Bare being more technical while Abrashi more defensive. Xhaka is still decent but I think he's not interested in the NT anymore.

Bajrami would be a great addition but has shown 0 interest in joining Albania. Gjasula and Abrashi are both over 30 with the better part of their career behind them. Xhaka is also done with the NT. That leaves us with Bare, Selahi and some other scrubs/unproven players. (Ndoj, Kallaku, Cokaj, etc.)

-Bare is a second division playing midget who is not the man Abrashi once was, despite their similar role as pit bulls. Have watched Bare play for years and he does not convince me at all.
-Selahi is a wild card as we have yet to see him play and we wish for him to be a pleasant surprise.
-Ndoj has proven to be a scrub.
-Kallaku and Cokaj are unproven so far.

Contrast this group of scrubs/unproven players to Kosovo’s midfield of V. Berisha, Voca, Celina, and their growing list of Western European prospects and the difference is clear.

[artan]

Kosovo's midfield currently isn't much better than ours. Gjasula, Bare, Abrashi, Xhaka, etc, are probably on the same level as Kosovo's midfield. We just had a rough patch where guys like Ramadani, Kristi Qose and the corpses of Memushaj and Basha would constantly start. Kosova's attacking third just absolutely wrecks us which is where the main difference lies. All of Rashica, Muriqi, Zenelli, Berisha, Celina, even Zhegrova, would walk in our lineup.

Our midfield situation isn't as bad as it was a few years ago post Euro 2016 but it's still painfully average. FSHF still needs to poach one of the defensive midfielders in Switzerland (such as Fazli who is from Presheva) as cover for Gjasula and has his replacement. Nedim Bajrami would also be a great addition as well (From Macedonia so Kosovo can't swoop him up) and he'll be good enough to start in the midfield or as a winger. I'm curious about Enes Cokaj and Sherrif Kallaku too.

Defensive Midifelders (holding): Gjasula, Fazli, Cokaj
Center Midfielders: Abrashi, Bare, Bajrami, Ndoj, Selahi, Kallaku, Xhaka

Bajrami and Selahi both seem like box to box midfielders. Kallaku seems like a "Number 10" in the mold of a Pogba (obviously nowhere as good), Abrashi and Bare are both pitbulls with Bare being more technical while Abrashi more defensive. Xhaka is still decent but I think he's not interested in the NT anymore.

Bajrami would be a great addition but has shown 0 interest in joining Albania. Gjasula and Abrashi are both over 30 with the better part of their career behind them. Xhaka is also done with the NT. That leaves us with Bare, Selahi and some other scrubs/unproven players. (Ndoj, Kallaku, Cokaj, etc.)

-Bare is a second division playing midget who is not the man Abrashi once was, despite their similar role as pit bulls. Have watched Bare play for years and he does not convince me at all.
-Selahi is a wild card as we have yet to see him play and we wish for him to be a pleasant surprise.
-Ndoj has proven to be a scrub.
-Kallaku and Cokaj are unproven so far.

Contrast this group of scrubs/unproven players to Kosovo’s midfield of V. Berisha, Voca, Celina, and their growing list of Western European prospects and the difference is clear.

Thing about Berisha and Celina is they're both attacking midfielders or wingers. Celina struggles defensively and can't be played deep, Berisha is a bit better but even he's more of a winger than a true midfielder. There's only so many winger and attacking midfield positions in the lineup so they can't play them all or have to play Berisha as a central midfield. Kosova just lacks defensive and holding midfielders. It's why they had to play a converted CB (Dreshaj) or keep playing Shala who's just a pitbull in the midfield. Ironically, a guy like Gjasula would be perfect for them and a guy like Berisha or Celina would be ideal for us.

Voca is improving though and maybe the Swiss/German rejects (Toma, Rexhbecaj, etc) can give them a boost there. But they can't be constantly putting Shala, Dreshaj or whatever excuse of a defensive midfielder out there and expect to qualify.

[Dallku]

Kosovo's midfield currently isn't much better than ours. Gjasula, Bare, Abrashi, Xhaka, etc, are probably on the same level as Kosovo's midfield. We just had a rough patch where guys like Ramadani, Kristi Qose and the corpses of Memushaj and Basha would constantly start. Kosova's attacking third just absolutely wrecks us which is where the main difference lies. All of Rashica, Muriqi, Zenelli, Berisha, Celina, even Zhegrova, would walk in our lineup.

Our midfield situation isn't as bad as it was a few years ago post Euro 2016 but it's still painfully average. FSHF still needs to poach one of the defensive midfielders in Switzerland (such as Fazli who is from Presheva) as cover for Gjasula and has his replacement. Nedim Bajrami would also be a great addition as well (From Macedonia so Kosovo can't swoop him up) and he'll be good enough to start in the midfield or as a winger. I'm curious about Enes Cokaj and Sherrif Kallaku too.

Defensive Midifelders (holding): Gjasula, Fazli, Cokaj
Center Midfielders: Abrashi, Bare, Bajrami, Ndoj, Selahi, Kallaku, Xhaka

Bajrami and Selahi both seem like box to box midfielders. Kallaku seems like a "Number 10" in the mold of a Pogba (obviously nowhere as good), Abrashi and Bare are both pitbulls with Bare being more technical while Abrashi more defensive. Xhaka is still decent but I think he's not interested in the NT anymore.

Bajrami would be a great addition but has shown 0 interest in joining Albania. Gjasula and Abrashi are both over 30 with the better part of their career behind them. Xhaka is also done with the NT. That leaves us with Bare, Selahi and some other scrubs/unproven players. (Ndoj, Kallaku, Cokaj, etc.)

-Bare is a second division playing midget who is not the man Abrashi once was, despite their similar role as pit bulls. Have watched Bare play for years and he does not convince me at all.
-Selahi is a wild card as we have yet to see him play and we wish for him to be a pleasant surprise.
-Ndoj has proven to be a scrub.
-Kallaku and Cokaj are unproven so far.

Contrast this group of scrubs/unproven players to Kosovo’s midfield of V. Berisha, Voca, Celina, and their growing list of Western European prospects and the difference is clear.

Bare is nothing like Abrashi in play style. Bare is way more technical and box to box while Abrashi is an absolute one-dimensional destroyer. I still have a bit of hope in Bare because he has played well for the NT.

Agreed about the other guys but the Kosovar players you're hyping(Voca, Celina) are 2nd division players too. Valon Berisha(the best Kosovar player imo) could barely make the bench at Lazio. I still think even at this stage Xhaka, Abrashi, and maybe Gjasula would walk in the Kosovar lineup. The "upcoming prospects" theory is something We've been hearing for years. We'll see it to believe it but I still think the Kosovar diaspora talent has dried up.

[Princ]

Abrashi, Gjasula, and Xhaka are yesterday’s men.. their time being productive with the NT is done. Let’s compare transfermarkt values of the midfielders in question:

Xhaka: $2.2m (Done with NT)
Bare: $1.98m
Abrashi: $1.76m (over 30)
Gjasula: $798k (over 30)
Selahi: $798k

Celina: $4.4m
Berisha: $4.4m
Rexhbecaj: $4.4m
Voca: $3.52m
Toma: $2.53m
Domgjoni: $1.98m

Notice how Kosovo’s midfielders with the exception of 27 year old Valon Berisha are all solid up and coming prospects, while Albania’s list consists of washed up has beens and scrubs/unproven players. Kosovo has set themselves up nicely for the future, but the same cannot be said for Albania.