Ex A-League coach and Socceroo Michael Valkanis has been assisting John van’t Schip coach the Greek national team for the last 14 months.

After his career with the Australian national team, the former Socceroos defender went on to coach Adelaide United and Melboune City in the A-League.

In a recent We Told You So! podcast Valkanis told hosts Bodey Dittloff & Niall Boyle that Greece’s national team were heading in a good direction, going into their next two Nations League games.

“Me and John work well together. He really respects his assistants and everyone who works around him. I really enjoy working with him,” Valkanis said.

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When the Dutchman and Greek-Australian paired up to coach the Ethniki, they shifted the team’s focus from a defensive style to one based more around attacking which seems to be working a treat after one loss from seven games.

“Unfortunately for us we wanted two wins, and we had a win or a draw. But in saying that, even if we did win against Kosovo, who are a really strong side, we still would have had to win our last two games in the next camp,” Valkanis said.

The national team currently sits in second place in the Group 3, League C standings, only two points behind Slovenia.

Although they were leading the standings earlier into the competition, their most recent match saw them draw 0-0 with Kosovo, giving Slovenia the advantage.

“We’ve got a camp coming up in November and two big games we have to win,” the 46-year-old said.

“If we can finish on top spot, obviously we’re going to go into a different pot in terms of qualifying games for the World Cup, which would be better for us.”

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There are hopes training will pay off, as finishing at the top of the group would mean a promotion into League B and an easier time qualifying for the 2022 World Cup.

Greece will be heading over to Chisinau to play against their Moldovan hosts on 15 November and will then head back home to face Slovenia on 18 November.

For those wanting to catch the games in Australia, make sure to tune in on 16 November at 6:45am AEDT for the match against Moldova and 19 November also at 6:45am AEDT for the face off against Slovenia.