Albanian Football Forum

Raketa wrote: Wed Jun 03, 2026 9:35 pm

Don’t matter who is on the pitch..

Even Messi can be there..

The game will look the same..

Ultimately you need players who are comfortable on the ball. It makes a difference.

Arber Hoxha is the most comfortable attacker on the ball and it's no coincidence that 90% of the attacking danger comes from him. You need someone else on that level. In Albania's case it's either Muci or Gruda or bust. No other options.

Broja is becoming the biggest waste of talent ever. I swear he seems to be getting worse every game. Looks slow as a snail too. He's finished.

This NT is basically dead at this point. The "talents" like Broja and Asllani just didn't pan out. Mihaj is going back to Greece. The coaches are just awful. And instead of taking a knockout cup specialist like Ilir Daja, he'd rather give it to some random Italian.

Thank God for Djimsiti being rock solid in defence, but even he's going to age out soon.

All our players play in slow paced leagues..

Both at club and NT level, all they do is pass in triangles around the back and waste time.

To see a drastic change in the gameplay, I believe we would need a majority of players playing in fast paced leagues.

North American teams will be this tourney!

Watch out especially for Mexico!

ReyM9 wrote: Wed Jun 03, 2026 10:32 pm

Raketa wrote: Wed Jun 03, 2026 9:35 pm

Don’t matter who is on the pitch..

Even Messi can be there..

The game will look the same..

Ultimately you need players who are comfortable on the ball. It makes a difference.

Arber Hoxha is the most comfortable attacker on the ball and it's no coincidence that 90% of the attacking danger comes from him. You need someone else on that level. In Albania's case it's either Muci or Gruda or bust. No other options.

Broja is becoming the biggest waste of talent ever. I swear he seems to be getting worse every game. Looks slow as a snail too. He's finished.

Yeah, this thing about Messi is nonsense, the reality is none of these guys are even close to being top level on the ball and Hoxha is our best bet which tells you a lot.

Everything changes when you have a player like Messi. Because he will even improve the movements and actions of other players. The passes come at the perfect time and with the perfect weighting, so it's way easier to finish, to move the ball etc.

He also would never lose the ball, teammates would always look for him if they are in trouble.

About Broja... I have doubts that he can even play for Burnley in this shape. He was left out of the squad even for their last matches of the season which is a big red flag because they were already relegated. Honestly if he doesn't change his attitude his career might be coming to an end, they spent 20 million on him and it seems they don't think he is good enough even to bench.

redfootballsv2 wrote: Fri Jun 05, 2026 10:34 am Yeah, this thing about Messi is nonsense, the reality is none of these guys are even close to being top level on the ball and Hoxha is our best bet which tells you a lot.

Everything changes when you have a player like Messi. Because he will even improve the movements and actions of other players. The passes come at the perfect time and with the perfect weighting, so it's way easier to finish, to move the ball etc.

He also would never lose the ball, teammates would always look for him if they are in trouble.

You can’t say that with any certainty because Messi has not played for a team playing as slow as Albania..

If you have not noticed, we are the ones passing in triangles around the back slowing the game down because if the game gets too fast, we’re cooked..

Edy Reja at times tried to play fast game..

What he realized was that we started eating way more goals than we could score..

Israel does not play fast and score lots of goals because they have a Messi..

They play fast and score goals because literally all their players play in fast paced leagues like the Israeli league, MLS and Eredivisie..

All our players play in slow paced leagues..

A majority of them would not be able to keep up in a fast paced league..

Raketa wrote: Fri Jun 05, 2026 4:20 pm

You can’t say that with any certainty because Messi has not played for a team playing as slow as Albania..

If you have not noticed, we are the ones passing in triangles around the back slowing the game down because if the game gets too fast, we’re cooked..

The players being naturally slow is part of it (it's especially true for the fullbacks) but the biggest reason they don't move the ball forward and create passing patterns between midfielders and attackers is simply because they are insecure/uncomfortable on the ball. You don't really need to play fast for that. You just need good soft touches, knowing how to shield the ball from opponents, and creativity.

Look at the Albanian midfield. It's just 3 destroyers in there who can really only make the safe pass which is sideways and backwards. None of them knows how to combine with other players in attacking patterns. Asllani is supposed to be the creative one. His job is to make those vertical passes but we know how insecure and scared he plays.

And then the striker is a major problem. He can't be THAT LAZY for a team like Albania.... or any team for that matter. Not fighting for balls, not winning duels, not holding up play to bring the team forward, etc.. are all big issues.

Can you please explain why the Albanian league plays just as slow and low scoring as the NT..?

The players are different, the coaches are different but the gameplay is the exact same..