Slaven Bilić has named a 32-man provisional squad for Croatia’s final two Nations League games, away to England on November 12 at Wembley and at home to Czechia three days later at the Opus Arena in Osijek. The final squad is due on Friday, November 6.
Goalkeepers (4): Dominik Livaković (Barcelona), Dominik Kotarski (Dinamo), Karlo Letica (Luzern), Ivor Pandur (Rangers)
Defenders (8): Joško Gvardiol (Manchester City), Josip Šutalo (Lazio), Duje Ćaleta-Car (Sassuolo), Josip Stanišić (Bayern München), Marin Pongračić (Fiorentina), Luka Vušković (Brighton), Ivan Smolčić (Como), Šimun Hrgović (Hajduk)
Midfielders (11): Luka Modrić (Milan), Mateo Kovačić (Manchester City), Mario Pašalić (Atalanta), Nikola Vlašić (Torino), Lovro Majer (AEK), Martin Baturina (Como), Petar Sučić (Inter), Luka Sučić (Real Sociedad), Kristijan Jakić (Augsburg), Toni Fruk (Rijeka), Josip Mišić (Dinamo)
Forwards (9): Ivan Perišić (PSV), Andrej Kramarić (Hoffenheim), Ante Budimir (Osasuna), Marco Pašalić (Orlando City), Igor Matanović (Freiburg), Petar Musa (FC Dallas), Franjo Ivanović (Lens), Dion Drena Beljo (Dinamo), Marin Šotiček (Hajduk)
The two headline names are Hajduk’s Šimun Hrgović and Marin Šotiček, neither of whom has been on a senior squad list before. Both are 22 and regulars for the Croatian U21s, Hrgović with 16 caps and Šotiček with 22. This puts them in the frame for a possible senior debut. It’s also a nice reward for a Hajduk side on a roll. It’s also very likely that both make their senior team debuts at Wembley, as Ivan Perišić is suspended for that match after his red card vs. Spain. In the end, much-needed youth and depth on the left-back and left-wing positions.
Duje Ćaleta-Car is back among the candidates as well. Letica, Pongračić, Majer, Jakić and Fruk were on the preliminary lists for the previous camp and have now made the 32. Nikola Moro and Luka Stojković, who were on the September preliminary list, missed out this time.
Adrian Segečić and Darko Nejašmić also missed out after being touted by the media for a while. Segečić has been pretty inconsistent this season after his brilliant end-of-season form in May. Getting just three goals and one assist in 12 matches for Portsmouth this time around. While Nejašmić has continued to be a crucial piece of NEC Nijmegen’s side, who have been poor results-wise for the past two months, getting just one victory in that period which was over Dinamo at the Maksimir.
I’d say Bilic is coaching for his job now. Lose both Nations League and he is gone. Bilic sold them some unfinished story BS and it’s worn off. Win or you are gone.
I was fine with Bilić being hired (because we needed a change) and I am equally fine with him being fired if he loses too easily to England in Wembley and we struggle against Czech while at home.
Six games is a good sample size, and if we’re just going to keep doing the same things (and finish near the bottom like we have in the past two tournaments) then we’re better off hiring someone else right now.
This is football. Results are everything.
I don’t care about any moral victory like that last Spain match in Poljud. We lost.
Germany fired Julian Nagelsmann after the World Cup after they fell short of expectations.
Lots of people thought that was harsh, but I disagree. I think our coaches get too comfortable in their jobs.
The bad news is that the HNS turned his contract into a four year deal, so we’re likely sticking with him even if we do poorly in these last two Nations League matches.
The mood on these coming games much different than October
In October Croatia was still alive and people were excited for a new era
Matanovic was blistering, baturina looked ascendant, vuskovic was established and gvardiol was back.
Solidity from stanisic, perisic, kovacic and modric and a group of surprisingly high scoring but not standout strikers
And the forum was excited to see what we could do now
Flash forward: total nations league embarrassment, quick calls for bilic resignation and a young core that has underwhelmed
Matanovic dry, baturina unimposing, vuskovic exposed , and gvardiol a hole.
And eliminated
LOL.
Matanovic has been a revelation. We finally have a tall young frontman who should have been starting for us the past year (instead of being third in the pecking order) and he’s only 23. EPL teams are circling him, Transfermarkt has quadrupled his value, and it’s only us who have undervalued him.
Baturina was sick with a virus and fell out of form (but of course you knew this).
Matanovic had the virus too, but he still contributed an assist (despite likely not being at 100 percent).
Vuskovic exposed? how? The guy is starting every minute for one of the best teams in England.
Gvardiol has been an issue, but I’m glad we at least tried him out at CB to see if it could work. However, his struggles could also be the high line issue again, as he was amazing for us in 2022 when he was playing it safe and staying within our half.
The only concern is Bilic right now.
He made a call to play the high line and it’s putting too much pressure on our backline to sprint half the field against speedy English and Spanish wingers. He needed to pivot away from this after the first two games, but he stuck with it for the next two and we got killed.
The final Spain game was a bit better, but we’ll see what he does in the next two games.
You would figure that he would know better than us (after seeing these guys in practice) or after watching the club games for every player he intends to play….but what if he doesn’t watch club games?
My worry with Bilic is that he may be doing the same thing as Dalic, and that’s not watching a single club game in preparation for his role.
For example, I don’t believe Bilic has watched a single Brighton match. I don’t understand how Vuskovic would struggle against the Czech, but play seamlessly in the EPL. If he has trouble scaling the entire half of the field, then why put him in such a position? Why not play like Brighton?
This is the problem with our coaches (Bilic, Dalic, OIic, Corluka, etc.) is that they don’t actually watch any games…and whenever they do, they make a thing out of it, and come in person (with the media writing about it, like when Bilic showed up at the Dinamo vs Hajduk match…or when Dalic visited Italy that one time to watch a match and had dinner with our Serie A players).
Bilic has (so far) been playing the high line, he’s been starting too many slow veterans for 90 minutes, and his subs (specifically the Mario Pasalic one for Kovacic) has been very concerning because it seems pretty tone deaf.
He seemed to fix some things in the last match…but still failed when he threw in Mario Pasalic in the end (which actually cost us the point).
I want to give him the benefit of the doubt though, but the callup list is essentially the same. Hopefully the 12-15 players that actually play are the right ones, and he gets better…but the National Team should not be a “learning on the job” type of gig.
We’ll see what he does, but he guys like Krama, Vlasic, Mario Pasalic continue to play significant roles for us…we might need to bring ol’ Matjaz Kek into the role.
😉
Glad Kramaric gets another freebie
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Wouldn’t be the same with that cheap asshole around..
Pos
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Let’s get a foreign coach just for a change…
This team and country is boring as fuck..
I fully agree..why not mix it up! We stick to our boring tactics and getting blown out and just always losing to Spain and England as per usual..competitively we’ve beat them both once in ten years throughout…not impressed by that.
2016 2-1 Vs Spain
2018 2-1 Vs England
After that…
Collapse
2021 1-0 Vs England
2021 5-3 Vs Spain
2024 3-0 Vs Spain
2026 4-2 Vs England
Throughout four matches we’ve conceded 12 goals and scored 5…one was an own goal too so four and let’s not count nations league…good grief.
We beat Spain 3 2 in the nation’s league too when jedvaj got two goals. That after they belted us by 6 in the same tourney.
Great job announcing so early MORONS
Duje just got PUMPED for 6 goals LMAO
Stojko scored 2
But can we really expect better ?
These are the MORONS who are putting a red diagonal box with Confidential on the list they release – so so corny
Please, can’t they be normal ?
Plain piece of paper
23 names
Nov 6th
why call up nejasmic and vrbancic when you could have pasalic and misic warm the bench instead..
PAO sources tell me Jaga didn’t play last game bc of his injury (although he was on the bench)
They have a Cup game tomorrow – if he’s fully clear he’ll start, otherwise he’ll come off the bench
Like I said Ounahi is out till April surgery so lots of minutes waiting my for him
Guess u MORONS missed the part where both Hrgovic and Soticek are on the U21 list too for Germany?
This list is retarded
32 names
11 need to be cut to get to 23 (Bilic took 27 last time)
So it’s basically identical list to the September/October call up (we just don’t know who is on standby which is even more retardation)
Shocked Sosa not called as he’s a LB and played 90 last 3 games
So Matanović cooled off drastically. Hasn’t scored or assisted since mid September.
I was hoping he would break out this season. I’d still start him though.
I like the Hajduk additions, but little else has changed.
Hopefully we show up against England and beat the Czechs, and avoid playing guys like Krama, Vlašić, etc too much.
I’d love to see Šotiček get some real burn.
Otherwise we may have just wasted these six Nations League matches for no
reason.
Matanovic has cooled off but I think he’s still been playing decent. the last league game in September was on the 19th and his next game with Freiburg after that was more than 3 weeks later on October 12th so it could explain why he hasn’t been scoring.
with that said, Freiburg has lost their last 3 games to 3 good teams so this can be perceived in more ways than Matanovic cooled of drastically. last season I felt Sutalo was unfairly judged because his team was disorganized and were playing far below the expectations…same thing might be happening at the moment here.
I like Soticek and I think we should give him minutes. Segecic has done nothing special…Hrgovic still needs time in my opinion.
Yea I haven’t been watching Matanović. Just went off stats.
He’s effective regardless even when he doesn’t score. I would always start him.
We need to play Šotiček. I would hate it if we gave all the minutes to the old guys (Krama, Modrić) plus the role players (like Vlašić and Pašalić).
Yes I agree with everything! Soticek looks confident and capable of finding spaces and creating so I would go with him as a starter straight away.
I also like the fact that he’s got great size for a winger, and if all else fails, he can just use his body as a power forward (like Boksic) to bully his way in the box and create for others.
He didn’t have a clinical game against Thun, but he was still pressuring their backline and forced his way into the box. It creates chaos and confusion, which generates opportunities for others.
Matanovic has monstrous size (he’s almost 6’6″) and Soticek is 6’0″ and they both like to push forward.
We can play Perisic (6’1″) at RW for the time being, and suddenly we have three very aggressive forwards…
Probably the most aggressive trio since our 2018 World Cup team when Perisic was grouped with Mandzo and Rebic.
The young wingers should get the opertunity to play against a big nation in what is wembly stadium at least the English defenders will think twice before overlapping. Bilic has to play our defenders in there club positions for this game and against Czechs. He could and maybe should give the established current young midfield the responsibility to start the England game. If we need to bring in some of the veterans he can make the changes as the game goes on. The veterans know that where we are in this group right now the Czechs game is what matters. I dont expect points against England in the November game. This is the perfect game to start trusting the future that is already on the team. Olic came on board and offered the two 21ns players to Bilic. Olic was a fast young player waiting for a similar opportunity.
I dont understand the people who complain about the timing of when this list gets released. What? Were gonna surprise England by adding Soticek? Give me a break
It’s not really bc of surprise
It’s bc some players still have 3 games b4 the break – so some might stand out, some might drop off, some might get injured, etc – it conveys laziness on the part of Bilic and staff – that’s the issue
England announces a week Friday (11 days) – we should probably follow the country that has the Ballon D’Or winner (❤️ u H!)
First smart post you made all week.
Bilic just copying and pasting a callup list early, has no benefit other than being lazy.
He likely didn’t watch a single club match this month (except for the Hajduk match he attended) which is why we add Soticek and Hrgovic.
Not complaining about those two (I want them in the team) but I really hope Bilic is paying attention and starts making the appropriate cuts.