Albanian National Team [General topic]

[Dallku]

Most impressive thing Sylvinho did since joined Albania was changing culture around national team, if he thinks one player doesn't fit how he wants to play than Sylvinho doesn't give a shit if his name is Uzuni, Bare, Cikalleshi, Broja, Muci and if there is player that suits way how he wants to play than he brings him from Korea, Sweden, Romania. Most people around national team especially media are "pissed off" because somehow "Lojtar i ekipit kombetar" was established as profession in Albania.

Every coach has done the same thing. Edi Reja was more strict to "team over names" mentality more than anybody. Even more than Sylvinho but results were worse...

We'll see if Sylvinho will still have success with this but honeymoon period might be over. There is only so much luck players like Asani and Seferi can have at this level.

International game is not like club where players train every day and build chemistry and tactics. International is mostly individual talents making a difference. That's why someone like Mudryk might struggle in the prem but he's an absolute demon for Ukraine.

[artan]

My Thoughts:
Thank you for the goals Asani but he should not be starting and he showed he was a limited player in June.
Hoxha should be given a spot with his much needed pace and counter attacking
Manaj should be sent far away from the NT preferably Mars. Daku is by far the better and more complete forward.
Laci deserves to be in the lineup
Hysaj's time as a starter with the NT may have run it's course. Time to see what Balliu can do.


Don't be fooled into thinking Sylivnho is some miracle worker. He probably has the most talented team in our history at his disposal and qualifying for Euro is easier than ever. He hasn't shown me that he can win without Asani or Bajrami scoring miracle goals. Syvlinvho defending a 2-1 deficit the entire game against a weak Italy will forever leave me a bad impression.

[artan]

Most impressive thing Sylvinho did since joined Albania was changing culture around national team, if he thinks one player doesn't fit how he wants to play than Sylvinho doesn't give a shit if his name is Uzuni, Bare, Cikalleshi, Broja, Muci and if there is player that suits way how he wants to play than he brings him from Korea, Sweden, Romania. Most people around national team especially media are "pissed off" because somehow "Lojtar i ekipit kombetar" was established as profession in Albania.

Every coach has done the same thing. Edi Reja was more strict to "team over names" mentality more than anybody. Even more than Sylvinho but results were worse...

We'll see if Sylvinho will still have success with this but honeymoon period might be over. There is only so much luck players like Asani and Seferi can have at this level.

International game is not like club where players train every day and build chemistry and tactics. International is mostly individual talents making a difference. That's why someone like Mudryk might struggle in the prem but he's an absolute demon for Ukraine.

Syvlivnho has favorites like Reja and makes questionable lineup choices but the difference was that Reja refused to abandon that awful 3-5-2 which did not fit this team's personnel. Sylvinho was atleast smarter to realize that Hysaj can not be a wingback and the only width and that deploying two slow goal poachers up top is not a winning formula. Atleast he brought some pace and width.

But I am still skeptical. Like in my last post Sylvinho showed his true colors defending a 2-1 deficit against a weak italy in the Euros. He can't get it done with out wonder goals by Asani

[RedFootballs]

My Thoughts:
Thank you for the goals Asani but he should not be starting and he showed he was a limited player in June.
Hoxha should be given a spot with his much needed pace and counter attacking
Manaj should be sent far away from the NT preferably Mars. Daku is by far the better and more complete forward.
Laci deserves to be in the lineup
Hysaj's time as a starter with the NT may have run it's course. Time to see what Balliu can do.


Don't be fooled into thinking Sylivnho is some miracle worker. He probably has the most talented team in our history at his disposal and qualifying for Euro is easier than ever. He hasn't shown me that he can win without Asani or Bajrami scoring miracle goals. Syvlinvho defending a 2-1 deficit the entire game against a weak Italy will forever leave me a bad impression.

He was the one who called up Asani and fit him into his system when none of our former managers would ever have done that, so he deserves all the credit for those miracle goals, as Asani wouldn't even be on the pitch under any other Albania manager.

Do we expect Albania to be able to beat countries like Poland or Czechia regularly whilst playing dominant, well-worked football, with only team goals and walking the ball into the net? You will be waiting your whole life then. We aren't better than those countries, and in general, if we want to have chances of beating top nations we will have to rely on individual actions as we aren't better qualitatively or tactically than any of them, so I don't think it's fair to say he has to win without good goals or he isn't a serious manager.

Most smaller teams rely on individual actions and moments of magic to attack against better teams, it's the nature of football, small teams have to play conservatively and rely on their talented players to be able to produce, because you will generally lose if you try to tactically match a much better team. So a lot of small teams build their system around certain attacking players and try to emphasise their qualities.

[Princ]

Edi Reja insisted on his 3-5-2 formation with super professional maestro Keidi Bare even though it would cost us every game..

Sylvinho fixed that right away and Albania went

Sylvinho is a hard worker and constantly scouting new talent regardless what league they play in.

Reja did this job only for a paycheck.

[artan]

My Thoughts:
Thank you for the goals Asani but he should not be starting and he showed he was a limited player in June.
Hoxha should be given a spot with his much needed pace and counter attacking
Manaj should be sent far away from the NT preferably Mars. Daku is by far the better and more complete forward.
Laci deserves to be in the lineup
Hysaj's time as a starter with the NT may have run it's course. Time to see what Balliu can do.


Don't be fooled into thinking Sylivnho is some miracle worker. He probably has the most talented team in our history at his disposal and qualifying for Euro is easier than ever. He hasn't shown me that he can win without Asani or Bajrami scoring miracle goals. Syvlinvho defending a 2-1 deficit the entire game against a weak Italy will forever leave me a bad impression.

He was the one who called up Asani and fit him into his system when none of our former managers would ever have done that, so he deserves all the credit for those miracle goals, as Asani wouldn't even be on the pitch under any other Albania manager.

Do we expect Albania to be able to beat countries like Poland or Czechia regularly whilst playing dominant, well-worked football, with only team goals and walking the ball into the net? You will be waiting your whole life then. We aren't better than those countries, and in general, if we want to have chances of beating top nations we will have to rely on individual actions as we aren't better qualitatively or tactically than any of them, so I don't think it's fair to say he has to win without good goals or he isn't a serious manager.

Most smaller teams rely on individual actions and moments of magic to attack against better teams, it's the nature of football, small teams have to play conservatively and rely on their talented players to be able to produce, because you will generally lose if you try to tactically match a much better team. So a lot of small teams build their system around certain attacking players and try to emphasise their qualities.

The bar is set so low that we see teams like Poland and Czech Republic as some juggernaut teams. This is why we will never compete in a tournament and will defend 2-1 deficits or 1-1 draws in a must win tournament games. Poland and Czech might be better than us but not by much and Albania has enough talent to beat them any given match. A team like France or England is another thing but not Poland.

And i'll say this again building your tactics around a career journeyman to score bangers will not work and will get exposed. The counter attacking system that Albania has shown at times has been promising and I wish Silvinho would have added to this but instead it was non existent during the Euros because of certain players like Asani, Seferi, Manaj who are still in the lineup and due to just cowardly tactics.

[RedFootballs]

My Thoughts:
Thank you for the goals Asani but he should not be starting and he showed he was a limited player in June.
Hoxha should be given a spot with his much needed pace and counter attacking
Manaj should be sent far away from the NT preferably Mars. Daku is by far the better and more complete forward.
Laci deserves to be in the lineup
Hysaj's time as a starter with the NT may have run it's course. Time to see what Balliu can do.


Don't be fooled into thinking Sylivnho is some miracle worker. He probably has the most talented team in our history at his disposal and qualifying for Euro is easier than ever. He hasn't shown me that he can win without Asani or Bajrami scoring miracle goals. Syvlinvho defending a 2-1 deficit the entire game against a weak Italy will forever leave me a bad impression.

He was the one who called up Asani and fit him into his system when none of our former managers would ever have done that, so he deserves all the credit for those miracle goals, as Asani wouldn't even be on the pitch under any other Albania manager.

Do we expect Albania to be able to beat countries like Poland or Czechia regularly whilst playing dominant, well-worked football, with only team goals and walking the ball into the net? You will be waiting your whole life then. We aren't better than those countries, and in general, if we want to have chances of beating top nations we will have to rely on individual actions as we aren't better qualitatively or tactically than any of them, so I don't think it's fair to say he has to win without good goals or he isn't a serious manager.

Most smaller teams rely on individual actions and moments of magic to attack against better teams, it's the nature of football, small teams have to play conservatively and rely on their talented players to be able to produce, because you will generally lose if you try to tactically match a much better team. So a lot of small teams build their system around certain attacking players and try to emphasise their qualities.

The bar is set so low that we see teams like Poland and Czech Republic as some juggernaut teams. This is why we will never compete in a tournament and will defend 2-1 deficits or 1-1 draws in a must win tournament games. Poland and Czech might be better than us but not by much and Albania has enough talent to beat them any given match. A team like France or England is another thing but not Poland.

And i'll say this again building your tactics around a career journeyman to score bangers will not work and will get exposed. The counter attacking system that Albania has shown at times has been promising and I wish Silvinho would have added to this but instead it was non existent during the Euros because of certain players like Asani, Seferi, Manaj who are still in the lineup and due to just cowardly tactics.

The problem is we don't have anyone to rely on, our supposed wonder talent can't even get in the squad at Fulham and hasn't played football for 2 years.

The squad is nowhere near as good as people claim. The best player in the attack (not even really an attacker) is Bajrami who is midtable Serie A level. Then players like Hoxha, Uzuni, Broja, Daku, who are all decent but nothing more than relegation or mid table level players at their absolute best in a top5 league. Then we're comparing to a nation like Poland that has legendary players like Lewandowski and multiple players who have played at the highest levels.

We don't have that much quality. We have a lot of top5 league players but no stand out guys, nobody above mid table level.

Whilst this is the most talented Albania squad historically, it's within a wider backdrop of football improving in general in the last years and other nations have also mostly become much better than they were.

I'm not saying we shouldn't aim for qualifications to Euros, World Cup etc. I'm just saying we should not overestimate the quality in the squad, it isn't that good. A lot of the players play in C tier leagues like Croatia or Turkey, then many of the ones who play in high level leagues like Serie A or Prem for Broja don't start for their clubs.

[Aurora Bulkualis]

I'm still shocked at why Hysaj keeps getting called up. His own club is shunning him. This guy is completely awful and is at best 1 level above Superliga defenders.

And let's drop Asani ffs. We are playing with 10 people when he is on hoping for some miracle.

[RedFootballs]

I'm still shocked at why Hysaj keeps getting called up. His own club is shunning him. This guy is completely awful and is at best 1 level above Superliga defenders.

And let's drop Asani ffs. We are playing with 10 people when he is on hoping for some miracle.

Hysaj is mainly in the lineup out of sentimentalism and gratitude, because he was the most notable Albanian player at club level. Its clear to everyone he is well past it now and it isn't just us scapegoating him, because his club football has also steadily declined.

Balliu is clearly in better condition as a player, I wouldn't be surprised to see him start one of these games.

[Dallku]

our supposed wonder talent can't even get in the squad at Fulham and hasn't played football for 2 years.

Neither has Ukraine's wonder talent. Mudryk has been a total failure at Chelsea and every time he plays for them he's terrible.

But Ukraine would never dare to bench him, especially for some random Ukrainian league player because they know football. They have a footballing culture unlike Albanians.

The fact that Agim Zeka's callup received no skepticism by Albanian media/opinion confirms how easy it is for corruption to happen there and not be questioned.