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!
artan wrote: Tue Aug 24, 2021 8:53 pm
Amateur defending by the Bosnian Left Back for Ferencvaros. Sometimes I got to remind myself that while teams like Ferencvaros are solid that some of their players can be total amateurs. Atleast Uzuini will be playing in the Europa League.
Yup like Skenderbeu basically. While overall "solid" as a team, their players are still very low level individually.
If you guys remember, even though Skenderbeu was qualifying for the EL, eliminating DZ and beating Sporting they still didn't have ONE NT material player.. well besides Shehi who was the 3rd choice gk.
artan wrote: Tue Aug 24, 2021 8:53 pm
Amateur defending by the Bosnian Left Back for Ferencvaros. Sometimes I got to remind myself that while teams like Ferencvaros are solid that some of their players can be total amateurs. Atleast Uzuini will be playing in the Europa League.
Yup like Skenderbeu basically. While overall "solid" as a team, their players are still very low level individually.
If you guys remember, even though Skenderbeu was qualifying for the EL, eliminating DZ and beating Sporting they still didn't have ONE NT material player.. well besides Shehi who was the 3rd choice gk.
It's just 2 different levels though. Our best hope is that Superliga will be a feeder league for the National Team. It can't even do that.
There are no teams in Superliga that will ever come close to the NT in terms of overall talent.
"Cheap things you can buy in bulk, but Bulku is priceless" Ervin Xhevahir Bulku
artan wrote: Tue Aug 24, 2021 8:53 pm
Amateur defending by the Bosnian Left Back for Ferencvaros. Sometimes I got to remind myself that while teams like Ferencvaros are solid that some of their players can be total amateurs. Atleast Uzuini will be playing in the Europa League.
Yup like Skenderbeu basically. While overall "solid" as a team, their players are still very low level individually.
If you guys remember, even though Skenderbeu was qualifying for the EL, eliminating DZ and beating Sporting they still didn't have ONE NT material player.. well besides Shehi who was the 3rd choice gk.
They had several players who were borderline NT (Lilaj, Berisha, Latifi, Olayinka, etc) but yea they did have some players who were Superliga journeymen like Muzaka, Dita, Taku who were playing big roles. Goes to show if you have a solid core of players and a foundation in place you can acclimate mediocre players into the system. These other Superliga teams can't grasp this concept.
Dallku wrote: Tue Aug 24, 2021 9:03 pm
If you guys remember, even though Skenderbeu was qualifying for the EL, eliminating DZ and beating Sporting they still didn't have ONE NT material player.. well besides Shehi who was the 3rd choice gk.
Skenderbeu had plenty of players good enough to play for Albania.
Olayinka and Sowe were better than any of our strikers. Bernard Berisha went on to have a very respectable career in Russia.
Lilaj was an accomplished midfielder in European competitions but he was unlucky to be in the same generation as prime diaspora players Abrashi and Xhaka, along with veterans Kukeli, Lila, and Basha.
Nimaga was a super underrated CM, standing at 1.90m with a ton of experience in Europe.
All 5 of these players mentioned above would be Albanian NT quality during any era other than the historic 2014-2016 EURO qualification timeframe.
artan wrote: Tue Aug 24, 2021 8:53 pm
Amateur defending by the Bosnian Left Back for Ferencvaros. Sometimes I got to remind myself that while teams like Ferencvaros are solid that some of their players can be total amateurs. Atleast Uzuini will be playing in the Europa League.
Yup like Skenderbeu basically. While overall "solid" as a team, their players are still very low level individually.
If you guys remember, even though Skenderbeu was qualifying for the EL, eliminating DZ and beating Sporting they still didn't have ONE NT material player.. well besides Shehi who was the 3rd choice gk.
It's just 2 different levels though. Our best hope is that Superliga will be a feeder league for the National Team. It can't even do that.
There are no teams in Superliga that will ever come close to the NT in terms of overall talent.
The NT in 2017 were pretty bad in terms of talent that I think Skenderbeu would have gave them a run for their money. Ali Sowe, Lilaj, Latifi (before he flopped), a juiced up Jashanica, Aliti, a veteran backline will make the match competitive. Skenderbeu's backline was probably better than Albania's back line that year and I'm not exaggerating. Skendebeu didn't leak in goals in qualifying and in EL.
