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

[Aurora Bulkualis]

Yea, Sadiku sucks, but he's still the best option as forward. It's not like there's a clear better option like there was during all those years of Bulku and Lila starts.

Lila is still starting...Bulku would probably be too if his legs didn't give out after 10 minutes. The funny thing is Lenjani's only feats are long range goals which even Bulku scored against Slovenia.

[artan]

Lets not kid ourselves. If Lila played with that generation we would be saying right now that this current team is missing the passion and defensive ability of Lila, we wouldn't have leaked in easy goals with Lila in the lineup. He even played for a season in Serie A and made Inter shit themselves, no albanian player can do that currently!

[Migjeni]

^^

[Aurora Bulkualis]

No we would be saying Lila was Beckenbauer. Albania in the early/mid 2000s being a better attacking team then than now is a matter of fact, not opinion. The stats on the first page prove it.

Skela had more creativity than any player we have now. You can make an argument about him not fitting DB's system, but you can't say Lenjani or Lila are more creative than him.

[Plako]

No we would be saying Lila was Beckenbauer. Albania in the early/mid 2000s being a better attacking team then than now is a matter of fact, not opinion. The stats on the first page prove it.

Skela had more creativity than any player we have now. You can make an argument about him not fitting DB's system, but you can't say Lenjani or Lila are more creative than him.

I agree with Skela on his creativity but he would slow the attack down every time he got the ball and that drove me crazy every single time.


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[Albanian Damien]

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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I agree with everything you said. I think the whole "we play ugly" idea is overrated. We defend, we pass the ball well at times, and create opportunities. The only problem is we have no offensive firepower like you said. So it looks really ugly when we don't capitalize on our chances. If we had a prime Igli Tare or Bogdani on this team we would 100% have made it out of the group.. But the future looks bright with the likes of Rashica, Manaj, and Avdijaj to choose from..

[Zemi]

absolute shit post bulku