Albania Since 1982 (Why Skela & co. were better than today's team)

With memories of the golden years (80's) of the albanian football still fresh on her mind, Albania is now attempting to recreate its strong football legacy. As young players start making their names abroad, the future is looking bright for Albanian football!

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Plako
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Albo_eagle wrote:Sorry i didn't see it was per game.

We are getting results now, our first ever Euros. I much prefer this.

Obviously now we have a much stronger foundation to build upon. We're 2-3 players away from being in Bosnia's level. If Rashica/Avdijaj/Manaj live up to the hype we can look to the Euro 2020 qualification with greater hope.


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Dallku
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Plako wrote:
Aurora Bulkualis wrote:We have always played with the same defensive system. We were never playing attacking football.

It's just today we actually have some proper defenders, and we're organized well. Too bad we went from Serie A strikers (when Serie A was the top league) to FC Vaduz powerhouses.
We have upgraded immensely in defense by going from Dallku-Aliaj-Çipi to Hysaj-Mavraj-Cana/Ajeti. Even Agolli has been pretty solid in the back.

I think Berisha is better than Strakosha although lately he doesn't seem to be the same player.

In midfield I still prefer "pitbulls" like Abrashi/Xhaka over the more technical old guard that were gassed in 45 minutes.

The one huge hole is the offense: going from Rraklli/Tare/Bogdani to Sadiku/Balaj/Cika is such a huge drop off. I was never too fond of Tare/Bogdani as I didn't think they suited our style of play but they were still better than the current crop. Our most threatening offensive players now are Mavraj (top goalscorer in the qualifiers) and Hysaj. That tells you everything you need to know about our attack.


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This pretty much sums it up.
Dallku
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Besides striker wingers are also a major hole. To be fair we never had high quality wingers. Fatmir Vata was pretty good, Murati was ok for a a little while but that's about it.

I don't mind 3 pitbulls in the middle but with this style of play the wingers need to very good in order to compensate the lack of creativity from the middle. They need to AT LEAST be fast and be able to cross. If they can dribble then even better. We are starving for players like that. It would make the team complete at both ends imo.
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Aurora Bulkualis
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I also think it's stupid to complain about Superliga players back then, when Sadiku, Cikalleshi, Balaj, Lila, Roshi are all Superliga products as well. Any semi-decent attacking diaspora players, and Switzerland/Germany/Belgium will poach them. That's why we're left only with defenders/midfielder rejects to pad out the team. Tarashaj kid was poached up fast even though he did jack shit during EUROs.

Being Switzerland II + Hysaj, Kace, Memushaj doesn't bug me that much if the diaspora could supply us with forwards, but we're only being supplied with defenders/mids, and have to rely on Shiterliga products for the attack. Sure, Norway 1-0, Portugal 1-0, Romania 1-0 was almost all due to Superliga forwards, but imagine if we actually had some semi-decent forwards, how much better we'd be.
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sylejman
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But we do have semi decent attacking players who want to play for albania but the FA is stalling once again, all you gotta do is cap them in a game and they are tied to us. If they're not ready they can develop and play in the future. For fucks sake other than Sadiku who does well in the swiss league all other superliga products are shit, they dont have the right training and fundamentals. You can see it when they play they are not up to par with other players who grew up outside Albania. Rashica is a talent thats why he was able to move to Holland straight from kosove and do well. Avdijaj is a product of schalkes academy which is known to make good young players such as Draxler, Meyer, and now Sane to name the most recent ones. We need these players from the outside because they have better training its that simple. They played in nice fields, trained in world class complexes, the albanian superliga players train on dirt fields how can they be compared.
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Even Sadiku sucks big time imo. He has a lead foot and can't control the ball to save his life. I think the problem with Avidjaj is either he's waiting out for Germany (think Mustafi) or he wants to be included in the senior squad and won't accept a call-up to the U-21 squad. If either is true, and I am speculating here, I think the FA is right in not bringing him in. I rather bring the like lbs of Rashicanon as he has shown a willingness to be part of the team.


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Plako
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Even Sadiku sucks big time imo. He has a lead foot and can't control the ball to save his life. I think the problem with Avidjaj is either he's waiting out for Germany (think Mustafi) or he wants to be included in the senior squad and won't accept a call-up to the U-21 squad. If either is true, and I am speculating here, I think the FA is right in not bringing him in. I rather bring the likes of Rashica in as he has shown a willingness to be part of the team.


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Princ
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+1 on the sadiku
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Plako
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I watched all three games from the stand so maybe my point of view was not the best but I thought Sadiku was absolute garbage: no hold up play, could not link up at all with his teammates and terrible in the air. Lenjani and Sadiku were the worst players in my book. I don't understand for the life of me why Cika did not play at all.
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Aurora Bulkualis
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Sadiku's got an eye for goal, but his hold up play is just terrible. I remember him ever since he scored that brace vs Portugal U21 in that 2-2 match back when playing with Balaj, Vajushi, Roshi. Him scoring 1 goal in EUROs is pretty much as his potential will ever reach.

Problem with Cika is not only being a shit goalscorer, but he's also lost his passing abilities as of late as well. Was very disappointed. He broke into the team with that 1-1 France friendly because of his hold up, but sitting on the bench in Turkey fucked him.
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