Here are my takeaways from today’s 1-1 draw with France at Poljud in Nations League. (And remember, France played their B-squad against us without Benzema, Mbappe, Lloris, Pogba. Griezmann came off the bench)
-Livaković cannot be Croatia’s #1 goalie at the World Cup. Was he at fault for the France goal? No. But you have to come out and challenge the attacker by cutting off his angle. They teach you that in Goalie 101 camp. Livaković stood there like a deer in headlights. Dalić needs to make him the backup.
-Croatia still needs to find a striker (or a system that Kramarić works in) before the World Cup. Budimir looked lost today against a French B-squad in the box. He’s supposed to be a point man like Mandžukić was or great with his head in the box. He was not today. The wings were also responsible for Budimir’s demise.
-There is no wing play without Ivan Perišić. We have no idea what we are missing until Perišić is not on the field. He explodes down the flank whipping in crosses and taking on defenders 1v1. There was none of that today as most of Croatia’s play came down the middle.
-We have the best center midfield in the world. Period. When Modrić, Kovačić, Brozović are all on, it’s truly a sight to see.
-The last 20 minutes of the game today were beautiful! Croatia almost found a winner but they pressed and pressed and pressed with intensity and passion. Why does it take us being down a goal to find this intensity? I don’t know. But if we started games down 1-0 in the future, it wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world.
-The Vatreni didn’t get skunked at home. A draw against any French side is good. I’m glad they were able to find one goal between the Osijek/Split matches this week.
-Luka Sučić is the real deal. He came on for Modrić late in the 2nd half and almost scored with his first touch. He nearly bagged the winner at the death. Maybe nerves on that shot to the far post but he is going to be a pleasure to watch over the next decade.
Croatia XI: Livaković; Juranović, Erlić, Vida, Barišić; Brozović, Modrić, Kovačić; Brekalo, Budimir, Majer
France XI: Maignan; Digne, Kimpembe, Pavard, Saliba, Diaby; Rabiot, Guendouzi, Tchouaméni; Nkunku, Ben Yedder
Our game against Austria he would NOT of saved even one of those 3 goals.
Not many keepers would have.
1) Even though Sucic is the future at midfield, any objections to starting him upfront vs Denmark? Anyone with a heartbeat has already been given a chance and they’ve all failed.
2) Why is the HNS ok with all of these ex-players looking stupid on the bench during the games who are no threat to Dalic and provide nothing of substantial value to the team?
The reality is Livakovic is our only option right now. I honestly believe he did OK yesterday, i’m a little surprised you spent over half of the video focused on him. Of course he is not my first choice, but what can you do, no one else has stepped up to clearly grab his spot away from him. And of all the available options, he’s the only one with any true high-level national team experience. How comfortable would a goalie be that normally starts for an HNL team in front of 4000 spectators, and now all of a sudden that same goalie plays in front of 500 million ppl around the world watching on TV? And superstars like Modric and Brozovic are relying on them to attain their childhood dreams? And with only like 2-3 games of prior experience on the NT at all? Mentally, it would be a very, very difficult position for anyone.
I don’t like Livakovic at all, but as things stand today, he’s prob the #1 option.
I agree.
Me too
I agree no one else has taken it from him. There all average keepers and he me the best out of a bad lot.
I have to agree with you. As bad as Livakovic is in challenging shooters and coming out for crosses, he is still the best shot-stopper that we have. The game that stands out for me was that game for Dinamo against Tottenham in the Europa League last year, when he was brilliant and showed good athleticism on several key saves from close range. I do not see that type of athletic ability in the other goalkeepers that we have. A good athletic goalie can save you a goal here and there. You can train goalies to challenge and come out for crosses but the coaching has to be better. What are the goalkeeper coaches doing? Do they not see his weaknesses and do something to rectify them? This is on the goalkeeper coaches at Dinamo and the Croatian national team.
I’m astounded at people thinking livakovic is our answer in net ?
Even a broken clock ⏰ is bang on twice a day and yesterday was one of his broken clock days,and was he truly that good ?
He WILL cost us points in the group stage that’s a guarantee if he starts it’s not even debatable!
This formation is killing our chances of scoring. Bring on pure wingers who can feed our lone striker. Don’t crowd the midfield with three-four players who constantly get in each other’s way. Better have Modrić as an attacking midfielder, two pure winger (Perišić and Rebić/whoever) and feed balls and passes to a striker. The way our formation is set up now, we have possession and skills, but absolutely no power going forward. I agree with bringing Rebić back. Not as a striker, but as a winger. The man’s a beast and he can upset any defense, together with Perišić, leaving ample time for our striker to nail home the ball in the back of the net.
Yeah, Majer just kept going into the center, even though he’s supposed to be RW.
Subbing in Pasalic did the same thing. Krama loves to play in this space too…so we had a crowd of people in the middle, which was easy to defend.
We couldn’t even dominate possession and we had Modric, Kovacic, Brozovic, and Majer out there. The game just became messy.
We really needed Sosa and Perisic. When Budimir plays, then we need those two out there.
Also, we really need a healthy Vrsaljko at RB if we’re going to start Majer at RW.
Juranovic completely shit the bed yesterday, so we had zero wing support.
He’s normally bad at defending, but he needs to always bring it offensively… or there’s no point in playing him. This issue gets even more compounded if Majer is at RW (and continues to veer into the middle, leaving Juranovic alone on the right side). This is why Modric was covering that right side a bit too.
I was at the game and when livi froze everyone in the stands said same thing we have line keepers who never are aggressive which is a problem it was a nice goal but livi did not cut the angle he did make 3 saves and the media in croatia didnt blame him for the goal.
Sucic gets a start next game that would be nice i think we need fresh legs maybe vrsaljko is ready for denmark game sosa recovered from injury.
From what dalic said livi will play v denmark but ivusic will play in paris.
Rebic is definitely not the answer. He should of been a scorer on our team which is why he was liked and It looked like he had a lot of potential at one point but he blew it.. Rebic was super garbage at the Euro. I was hoping he would of played much better since then and redeemed himself proving himself worthy of a starting role. At the very least he should have been a useful option on the team. It didn’t happen and now he’s not even on the team because of some Dalic drama so that’s just a waste of time and a complete joke. Right now nobody has an answer… Dalic still hasn’t figured out what he’s doing??? Or even how to set up a team that can score?
Kind of a problem if you want to win!!
Let’s see what happens next game………..
Good luck!
Full disclosure I am probably the only one who keeps going on and on about Rebić.
Is Rebić world class .. no. .. does he bring power and pace down the left flank .. yes.
Has he shown he can compete on a World Cup stage .. yes.
The problem is that he happens to be effective on the LW, which is also the space that Perišić occupies.
Dalic has grown as a manager over the years and has the alignment of Modrić. But it would be nice if he could figure out how best to work with the players we have to maximize our offensive output.
Maybe that Rebić beef hit home?
When you play for a Pioli level scudetto winning coach, you see what the best looks like up close.
If you have Rebić LW and Perišić on RW, then you can have a Kramaric start has his finishing will come to the fore and his physical weakness can be covered by the power and pace on the flanks.
We ask too much of our midfield when there is such a narrow place to operate due to the lack of width.
Speaking of lack of width, has Jurinović played himself onto the bench?
Talk about not on the level both on defense and offense?
Our full backs have to be better than yesterday.
That old firm sottish duo yesterday are part of the depth crew and should not start in Qatar.
I am only willing to see Rebic on the team if he shows improvement. His ball control is really bad. I agree that his pace is good and he can break defensive lines but this needs to be happening if he is to return to the squad. His Euro stint was really really bad, bad enough that on its own it was enough to keep him off, so this would be a reason for him to come back if it happens.
Rebic needs to show his willingness to be on the team and to stop looking at who to blame, many of our players fall in this trap, I for one am not blaming Dalic for this. The same here should be said for Vlasic but he has been off form and I am not sure why he was called up to begin with I didn’t agree with Dalic’s choice here even before the tournament began. Dalic has to be blamed for some of the decisions made here, I would only hope that he is seeing what is happening here and is noticing the mistakes. Vida and Lovren should officially be gone, they don’t provide any support even though Lovren was not called up. Pongrancic and DCC need to show improvement here or they may not be viable options. Not sure what is happening with Juranovic, lots of people were speaking highly of him. Erlic is new so I would hang on to see a bit more. Sosa and Gvardiol are you main guys now that should be clear they are both starters in whatever capacity.
We really do not have a solid back line, we really do not have a solid forward line without Perisic there. And we do not have a confident go to goalie. These are a lot of problems to resolve come World Cup, I think it is clear that we will not get a favourable result in this tournament UNL, we may be lucky to have a good run at the World Cup.
Hopefully Musa can make a difference, we will see. Kramaric, I just don’t know, he is never consistent, it was penalty goal so he didn’t put the ball in with his own opportunities alone. We have a few solid penalty takers with him Livaja but we need people who can show on this level that they can get the job done and score, noone said this was gonna be easy.
Budimir some are saying didn’t showcase well either so a lot of those options are faltering here.
You have to remember this was the B squad for France measured against essentially our A squad (albeit minus 2 or 3 player), so even without their best players they still drew that game with us. This is not good result for us even as a friendly/ or the UNL or whatever you want to call it. It really needed to be a win.
I don’t understand the love affair with Rebic on this site. It is almost hopeless if that is our answer to the current problems. I know he is a beast of uncontrollable energy, but what did he ever do of substance for Croatia, outside of that beautiful Argentina goal in 2018. In general, the game seems to go too fast for him , so he tries to make up for it by going faster, and spins out of control, like a kovacic wind up toy on steroids. He does not have the centered calmness of Suker, Da Silva, modric, etc. Stage to big for him.
Kromiza bang on!
If not for the keepers blunder in the Argentina game and putting it away what has he truly done ?
Totally over rated bull in a China shop is rebic who lacks the finishing class of a true scoring threat!
This Croatia striker/scoring/
issue is starting to get really bothersome and frustrating!!!
Why can’t we figure it out??????
What formation? Who can score ?
If I had one question for Dalic it would be
WHAT THE FUCK ????
Get it together buddy!!!!
Have Mandzukic run some scoring clinics or some shit!!!
I don’t get it? I don’t thing anybody does.
Just FOCUS ON THIS
Tell KRAMARIC to wake the fuck up..
go find REBIC at whatever bar he’s drinking at and tell him to get some flowers for Dalic, put on his fucking uniform and WAKE THE FUCK UP!!!
AND SCORE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Why is this so complicated. How come it’s become some mystery puzzle?? It’s not that hard.
Kick the damn ball in the net!!!!!
Go down the list of who’s ready
This is a gaping hole in our team!
It needs to be fixed now. It’s World Cup time and we are still pussy footing around.
Next problem : Goalie ??
Ok pick whoever the hell it’s going to be and just train nonstop rocky balboa style until he figures it out
Time is running out.
Don’t fret everyone. We aight. The real games matter the most. I’m not fretting over this.
Vida sux, this guy sux, put in this guy. Fuck it. We always somehow find a way.
Also, Kramaric needs to tell his teammates if he’s going to use that stutter approach on penalties – Vlasic was way inside the box – the shot should have been re-taken.
…and for those of you that saw that sign thanking Jean Michel Nicolier in the stands in Split, he was a French volunteer who died defending Vukovar.
Anyone else see Canada boycott the friendly game against Panama only a few hours before the game. LOL that team is pathetic and consists immigrants, for women’s equal play, gay pride and that chetnik Borjan. I hope we smack these losers. I hope our nationalism destroys that pro diversity quota.
I’m Canadian and i couldn’t agree more.
Didn’t they do the same thing recently when they scheduled a friendly with Iran, but then canceled it after (because Iran is a bad country)?
What the hell is Canada’s National Team doing?
About 2 years ago, a Ukrainian Airline passenger plane was shot down a little while after takeoff killing all of the passengers on the flight by the Iranians. The report of the incident blamed the Iranian officials for being responsible for shooting down the plane even though they say it was not premeditated by Iran. About 25 Canadians were onboard that flight. Prime Minister Trudeau felt that having an Iranian football team come to Canada to play a match would be bad for the families who had lost loved ones on that flight relatively recently.
Only good thing about the Nations League matches is that we are now playing a longer version of our National Anthem.
I think Greizmann shouldn’t even start for France. His play has dropped this past year. He’s been consistent for France from 2016-2018. After the two major tournaments France made the finals for, he’s dropped. Benzema and Mbappe are miles ahead of his game and level. The fact that we played a French B squad and drew them is alarming. That’s what we lack, a notable top tier striker. We haven’t had anyone impactful since Mandzukic retired. I know Perisic still comes in clutch but he’s 33. No other wingers or strikers make a dent. Orsic, Livaja and Petkovic are all tier 2 forwards we have can’t compete at high levels against World Cup defence…maybe Canada. Forget Rebic, he’s a lost cause. Besides Perisic & Kramaric, nobody has stepped up to the plate. I still recall the Nikola Kalinic days and was at one point used as our primary striker instead of Mandzukic. Could we try using Sucic at striker? I still feel Pasalic, Sucic and Perisic are the guys that can do the most damage upfront. Kramaric is inconsistent, Budimir can’t finish, Rebic is hopeless. Petkovic and Colak shouldn’t even be in the conversation. We need more speed for the wingbacks. Sosa is key for that position. Gvardiol & Erlic as centre backs looks like a potential combination. Vrsaljko and Stanisic are my selections for right backs. Nothing will compare to the back four in Russia. Corluka, Strinic and Vida were solid. I miss Suba too. There’s still 5 games to prepare. Denmark beat Austria with a late goal. Denmark could go far again and possibly make semis, wouldn’t surprise me.
@ Ante
Imenjank, spot on with you take on the game. Agree with your thoughts on Simic. I watched the U21 game and saw his pace on display by sprinting on a through ball and having the strength to get a decent shot off the ball with a defender on him. In a few years, I think he’s the answer for us up front.
The game:
Decent result. Poor performance until last 20 mins. French B team is still packed with top talent so it’s still france. We were also missing some of our best players
Budimir was poor because he was isolated. On his own up front.
We need to play 4231. Brozovic, modric and kovacic get in each other’s way. They’re so good but they are too similar to ALL play together. Many times we had possession but no forward option other that budi. Play budimir 9 and kramaric 10, or sucic, or majer, or vlasic. You saw the energy those guys gave. Modric, brozovic a d kovacic can rotate minutes at the world cup without losing quality.
Erlic at fault for the goal. Good debut otherwise
Juranovic and barisic were dreadful.
Majer class
Brekalo…not good enough to have an impact needs to show much more.
Vida was fine
Livakovic. I give him benefit of the doubt today, he made some good saves
Biggest take away for me is that we must sacrifice one of brozovic, modric and kovacic at any one time. In order to get more attack. The only other way to get it is with 352. Then you can play all 3 in mid, and have two forwards playing close to each other. But then the wing backs have to be studs to get forward which would mean, sosa on the left and PERISIC on the right.
I agree 💯 been saying for a while the big three can’t start at the same time.
@Maminjo
As a Livnjak, all I can say is that at least we end up in positions of power while guys like you sit back and bitch about how you can do better a better job being the man.
Your take on our coaches is getting old and it’s lame. We’ve always brought in former players because we don’t have the cash to shell out on bigger names. It will always be that way.
As for the game, better performance all around and glad we held our own.
We really miss Gvardiol and Sosa and Perisic. Barisic is serviceable but doesn’t offer much else. Our wing play needs to get better but aside from Perisic we don’t have anyone and will continue to use players out of position to get better players on the field ie. Majer
Sucic looks like he could be that offensive spark we are missing. Nice take but couldn’t finish the chance he had.
Love Krama’s PK…one of the few players we have where you just feel he will bury that more times than not.
@ Soul Champ
Would love to see Rebic back as when he’s on, he offers something we don’t have. I just doubt he and Dalic kiss and make up. Love his aggressive play and pressing…at the very least it would give us another viable option at wing.
My take on coaches may be old, but it’s not “lame” (whatever that means). It’s a serious problem that will continue to drag on unless the HNS decides to do its due diligence and actually interview coaches (instead of just passing it to the next former player in line). I can already see them grooming a guy like Igor Biscan or (gasp) Joe Simunic to take over one day, without even seeing what’s out there.
Also, you couldn’t be more wrong about your claim that we don’t pay our coaches. Dalic is paid extremely well. Dalic currently earns €1.6 million per year.
He is not the highest paid coach out there (since England, Germany, France pay their coaches a ridiculous amount)…but Dalic is on par (or paid MORE) than the other top teams.
Dalic makes more money than Belgium’s Martinez, Luis Enrique at Spain, and Petkovic at Switzerland. These guys all coached in Italy, Spain and England for multiple years before taking on their roles.
I believe Italy only pays Mancini about €2 million per year too (which isn’t that much more than what Dalic is paid). Sure Italy missed out on the World Cup, but they won the Euros and Mancini is a very sought after coach across the world.
These coaches are far above the quality and experience level of Dalic, and it doesn’t make sense that he’s paid more than most of them.
These aren’t the Bilic years anymore. Our coaches are paid alot, and have been since Euro 2016.
Re: the Livnjak comment…
It’s not an insult. It’s the truth. Livnjaci generally have strong and close ties to friends and family, but don’t draw a line between work and personal. This is obvious with Dalic too.
Livakovic- we are in deep trouble if we’re excited about that performance, the offside goal was terrible, and he was way out of postion on the goal that counted. ALL of these saves he did make were saves that any average keeper would make.
Barisic- brought absolutely nothing in attack, weak defensively
Vida- finished
Erlic- looked solid positionally, was afraid to make a forward pass
Juranovic- same old same old, efficient up the flank, poor defender, responsible for the goal
Kovacic- excellent
Brozovic- excellent
Modric- Modric
Brekalo- too lazy, he was so afraid of having to run back that he didn’t run forward, embarrassing
Budimir- botched 2 glorious opportunities on the same play, first for not passing to Majer, then for a weak attempt on goal, otherwise had a solid work rate and made life difficult for the central defenders
Majer- a little too predictable today, definitely favours his left foot too much to be effective on the right side
Orsic- awful, I’ve never seen someone do that, a swing and a miss
Pasalic- invisible
Kramaric- earned the penalty and took it expertly, otherwise weak
Sucic- lively and brought a spark
Vlasic- played with extra vigour in his hometown, actually had a nice shot
I agree with pretty much everything here.
Not sure about Brekalo being lazy, as much as him simply being slow or just not explosive enough.
It seems like two of our most technically gifted forwards (in Brekalo and Kramaric) seem to have zero explosiveness in their first step. Like they’re running in sand.
They’re not suited for counter attacking football, and do better when we dominate possession and can dribble in tight spaces.
Majer is great, but it just seems like we need to play him in a central midfield role. You can tell he wants to just play in that space.
France played a B squad and we couldn’t beat them. Kylian would’ve destroyed that defense. Nations League is wack anyway. We’re sorely lacking a prolific goal scorer but at least Budi was trying hard. Solid efforts from Brozo, Kova, Modri.
True, but you can’t ignore the fact that we played our B backline as well.
Gvardiol would be covering Mbappe if we were at full strength.
It is almost inconceivable that Modrić nearing 37 is still carrying us. It’s like he raised two generations for us.
Perišić is a close second and was missed.
Gvardiol was missed as well.
If you think we could of used one Ante Rebić on the left wing you would be right.
I like Oršić, yo .. he actually wiffed on a shot that was set up by his own dribble sequence?
Is that even possible?
That is the difference between Serie A and HNL.
Kramaric did his thing.
He can go strong for 30 minutes off the bench or start for 60.
Vlašić looked energetic.
Sučić is the goods. Just his movement makes a difference, there is an intelligence. Almost scored twice !!
Is Musa back from covid?
Can Boban have an Imotski sit down with Rebić and work this out?
We need power and pace on the wings.
Perišić on RW and Rebić on LW.
UNL benefits us the most. Left up to us we would be in Korea instead of getting exposed by tough opponents.
Overall a fair result and much improved performance. Livakovic had a good game at last and cannot be blamed for the goal and he actually saved us on a couple of occasions. Juranovic and Erlic at fault with the goal. Juranovic for letting the french player get away and Erlic was out of position to come across and cover.
You can’t blame him for the leading up to the goal, but you can blame him for his hesitation in getting caught in no man’s land.
He made a decision to start charging, then he stopped…making it so easy for Rabiot to pick a spot and score.
Had he kept charging at the pace he was going at, then he may have beaten Rabiot to the ball. The instant replay showed that he probably would have won that ball had he kept going.
At worst, he would’ve forced Rabiot to take a hasty (and likely inaccurate) shot, assuming it wasn’t blocked at short range…but Livakovic is scared to death of contact.
He did do a lot better against Griezmann on that breakaway where he charged out of the box, and forced Griezmann to take a bad inaccurate shot.
Good to see him do this for the first time ever.
I hope our inexperienced and incompetent coaching staff are telling him that this is something he needs to continue to work on.
But I have doubts they see any of this.
I think a goalkeeper’s first job is to stop the ball and Livakovic is our best shot stopper for that reason. I can not understand why some goalkeeper coach in Croatia though can not teach Livakovic how and when to come out for crosses. I think it is the goalkeeping coaches that are letting us down because Livakovic is actually a pretty good athlete that has not been taught how to challenge for the ball properly. It is the physical training of goalkeeping but also the knowledge of how to defend crosses.
Absolutely at fault for not coming out. He just stood there. Everyone knows you have to come out to cut off the angle. Mayne it still goes in, but you have to cut off the angle. He’s a deer in headlights every single time.
And if he dosnt know that at this point in his career it’s a major problem.. he just has no feel for the game
Takeaways for me from the game.
-Livakovic looked much more confident and challenged that giveaway by Erlic. Besides that Erlic looks solid.
-Vida can’t be trusted and the weakest link at the back line.
-Modric still carries out midfield
-France was missing all key players; Lloris, Pogba, Benzema, Mbappe and Hernandez. But I’ll take the draw. Improvement from the Austria game.
-Many great attempts by Modric, Vlasic and Sucic. Budimir can’t finish.
-Frances backend and second string goalkeeper looked strong.
Best players of the game: Livakovic, Erlic and Majer.
Sucic had a opportunity to seal it and it would’ve been nice to see him win it as a substitute for Modric on his 150 cap night. I’m predicting a 1-0 win in France.
Sucic with the poor finish attempt…but he did a great job comfortably bringing that ball down from that chipped pass.
Most players would have botched that.
He’s extremely skilled. He’ll be very solid for us, especially if he continues to grow the way he has been.
Let’s face it, this is not a golden generation. It’s the tail end of the last one with few heirs apparent. We are really lacking in fire power, and I noticed lots of back passing against the flow of play. Sucic looked ok.
We didn’t have any wide players and France just crowded us in the middle.
Very easy to coach against a team lead by Dalic, Olic, Corluka and Mandzo.
I understand that we had several players missing, but France didn’t have one starter out there.
If we’re going to play Budimir, you need wing support. You can’t throw in guys like Majer or Pasalic on the wing.
If you don’t have your wingers, then don’t bother starting Budimir.
If Vida is going to play, then you need to pair him with a technically skilled CB (like Gvardiol)…otherwise, you’ll expect to see Modric playing in our backline.
If Modric is going to be playing that deep, then you can’t run our plays entirely through him. We looked like Argentina when they rely entirely on Messi to make something happen.
If someone is shitting the bed, or just not being useful in the formation or game…don’t hesitate to sub them out and try something else.
We have a lot of subs, and we waited pretty late before bringing in our first sub.
Brekalo and Budimir weren’t as effective in this game, but we kept them until pretty much the 70th minute mark.
Way too slow.
Start the calls for sucic to start! 15 minutes in the game and involved seemingly in 5 dangerous actions
Don’t be fooled by livakovic . Nothing special about those saves, it just Shocks us any time our keeper makes a save
He still is permanently clueless controlling the box
Majers face is like 80 percent cheeks. It’s like someone took a shield and put eyes and a mouth on it
That’s the best I’ve seen Livaković play. He should have come out on the goal France scored, but he learned from it and made a major stop on the last breakaway. Erlić generally had a good game too. Vlasić looked like he’s getting back in shape with this match. Kovačić was excellent. Budimir and Kramarić are very different players, but both were nightmares for the defense tonight. Vida is too slow to play at this level. Majer is at the level. Barisić had an excellent match as well.
Why did the french player just kick the ball out for the game to end…
Good game for a “Glorified” friendly. We learned that livakovic is still the best we have. He is good at stopping shots and seemed like he cared. We might have something going between budimir and kramaric. We just need more players to be battling for their positions and we will see the work rate increase. Too many players have it comfortable in their positions.
Yeah i thought someone must have been injured but, nope, guess he was happy to draw?
This reminds me of that other Nations League campaign where Spain smashed us 6-0 and the next game we drew with England but that was considered a really good result to get some confidence back. Similar kinda thing here i think.
Please!!! No more about Livakovic. There is no one better so move on people.
First time in my life seeing Livaković properly challenging a breakaway
What a goal!
The Jorginho
To those that root for Vida, too many giveaways and great penalty by Kramaric!
Strange how around the 74th minute we were running forward and then kramaric just passed it backwards…
Strange game. Sometimes the players look tired then energetic, not interested then interested. We have to give livakovic credit, he is producing some good saves. Budimir put in effort. Perhaps this game would be different if it wasnt nations league?
Hey, Livakovic looking pretty good, right?
We can’t utilize our fullbacks. Not much possession in the 16 year box. Modric proving again he’s the best midfielder ever with those touches and attempt. Erlic looks confident too.
Will this team score again? Ever again?
I honestly believe that a fully fit Perisic would have completely changed this game.
We need two wingers.
We should just start both Perišić and Oršić the next time they’re both available.
We’re just crowding the middle this game.
Budimir is a waste
Bad game.
We should be dominating possession, yet we look disjointed and messy.
Modrić is playing RB and CB (since our backline can’t defend or start a play)…
Majer isn’t a winger, so he just veers into the central midfield anyway…
Brekalo cannot play the counter or longball…
Everyone just looks uncomfortable out there.
I agree with the post below. Every time they show our coaching staff, they look hilariously clueless.
Olić literally looks like he has down syndrome.
The good news is that the team has figured out how to play with Modrić and Kovačić at the same time.
The players look tired too.
Does anyone know why the Austria Denmark match never started?
Power outage
Well we made it to half time and we arent losing somehow so that’s something
@vlad- nailed it. Orsic shoulda started over Brekalo – better player in form
Brekalo is too slow for France.
Plus, we decided to only play with one winger…so it’s very easy to defend against us in this game.
Just cut off Budimir’s supply with the only winger we chose to start.
Kovacic looks best through 1st half…doin slalom runs, Vida is terrible should never play for us again, budimir shoulda scored or assisted majer for a goal however he’s causing France back line problems
Any recommended links to the game?
https://reddito.soccerstreamlinks.com/detail-match/10023295
http://1stream.top/soccer/MjM2MjcxNTc3?sport=soccer
Budimir, yikes!
I can’t help but laugh when they show our assistant coaches. Love them as players but c’mon.
Budimir just blew it.
Hey Mate. Why stop at Mourinho? Maybe Klopp and Ancelotti can be assistants to Moe Howard Dalic too.
GOL.HR reports the following lineup
Hrvatska: Livaković – Juranović, Erlić, Vida, Barišić – Brozović, Kovačić, Modrić – Majer, Budimir, Brekalo
It looks pretty good on paper…I guess we’ll find out soon.
Not a fan of Brekalo I think he’s had a decent amount of opportunities and hasn’t t showed much would rather have given Orsic a chance. We’ll see
Brekalo was excellent last game, one of the only ones creating chances. He has a bit of trouble getting involved in the game but if we feed his wing his dynamism and skill will take charge. He was very good this season at Torino, he just needs to be a bit more aggressive.
Majer on the other hand is a lock at RW imo. He’s been just so good.
Brekalo is weak easily shoved off ball and is bad defensively. The way Torino play he’s not asked to do too much defence he’s more a forward In Attacking third. Hope I’m wrong but the way we play our wing players gotta up and down. Orsic overall is a better player he’s tall and strong good shot, I don’t think we give much offensively between the two, but gain a lot in overall strength.
Modric Brekalo Majer kova not a lot of steel there even brozo as the main DM isn’t that big.
I didn’t think Brekalo was so great against Austria, but Orsić and Vlasić were both terrible in that game. Orsić was trying to dribble too many defenders and lost the ball. Vlasić couldn’t seem to receive passes or make accurate ones. Brekalo, Majer, and Budimir were the least poor of the attacking players.
I like Brekalo, but I was also expecting Orsic today. I thought he deserves start…maybe Dalic doesn’t want to start a Dinamovac in Poljud?
Kahlina should have been called upon earlier this year. Hopefully he gets a chance in September.
I watched his highlights.
He looks no different than the guys we have, but I agree that we should give him a callup considering our current situation.
I hope we give Nediljko Labrović a shot in goal too.
I watched one HNL game with him and he wasn’t bad. I do like the fact that he’s huge. He seems pretty vocal and confident (especially for a 22 year old) so that’s a good sign. I’m tired of looking at Livaković’s timid and shy face. We gotta keep trying. Don’t want to give Liva another tournament.
This is what I’d role out with
For today considering our lack of options at back.
Livakovic
Sutalo. Erlic. Vida
JJ. Brozo. Modric. Sosa
Majer. Sucic
Budimir
3-4-3 with 4 guys in the middle and three at the back then it’s ok that our full back are pushing, when dalic goes with a 4-2-3-1 our fullback get exposed with little support.
good lineup that would work, but doubt dalic would try this. though i feel sucic isnt yet ready to start.
“when dalic goes with a 4-2-3-1 our fullback get exposed with little support.”
cuz they’re naturally wingbacks who attack more for their clubs. its dalics job to let them know and position them correctly for more defensive duties.
anybody who doesn’t run or give it- pukni ga po glavo -it’s a friendly for these other teams we are playing as well- why are they giving it and we can’t- we want recognition for a top soccer country and we dog it so many games- this is a team culture issue led by the greasy Dalic- less hair grease and more kick butt
France projected XI:
Maignan
Pavard-Saliba-Kimpembe
Clauss-Guendouzi-Tchouameni-Digne
Griezmann
Nkunku-Diaby
Dalic’s projected line-up:
Livakovic
JJ-Erlic-Vida/Sutalo-Barisic/Sosa
Brozovic
Modric-Kovacic
Majer-Kramaric/Budimir-Brekalo
Honestly, this is the best we can do with what we have.
Meh.
At least they’re playing at Poljud.
Can’t really get away with half-assing it over there.
HI Maminjo- I hope your right but it’s become a norm for us- I don’t know why?
It’s a result of the “friendly coach” culture.
For example…take me at my workplace.
I know that my boss would never fire me. So, I only do what I need to do.
I essentially have a Dalic clone as my boss. I like them, we have a good relationship…but I’m not going to kill myself at work for them, especially if there are no repercussions.
These footballers are the same way…but even less motivated since they are all multi-millionaire athletes that don’t care that much for Nations League.
De Bruyne pretty much said as much last week when he said that he doesn’t care about this tournament.
Someone already mentioned here that Duje is getting married soon (which is probably why he doesn’t want to try hard and injure himself on the field). I’m sure the rest of the team are just focused on their summer plans.
It takes a different type of coach to motivate guys in this scenario, and Dalic’s “friendly coach” style is the LAST thing that could motivate a football team to get up for Nations League.
I mean, look at our record. We probably have the worst Nations League record across all three tournaments now.
Remember when Dalic got bitch-slapped in front of everyone by Lovren last year (over some flight scheduling issue when we were traveling to and from Russia for our qualifier with them)?
Most coaches would have kicked him off the team after being disrespected by a player in front of the entire squad and coaching staff. But Dalic didn’t.
If a player can get away with that, there is no way you’re going to be worried about your role (or even starting position) at a Nations League game.
I doubt that Duje, Krama, or any of these guys have anything to worry about regarding their starting positions on this team.
If we play like against Austria and in the same formation 4-2-3-1 we will get thumped. I would go for a very defensive formation 5-4-1 and play on the counter. Let France have the possession and defend deep with bodies behind the ball. Dalic needs to select players that are willing to run and fight for every ball. In recent times France has lost to Finland, and have had draws against Bosna & Hercegovina and also Ukraine.
We are all sick of losing to France primarily because of wrong tactics and selection of players. There is no reason, with the right tactics and player selections why we cannot get a result playing at home.
Although I mostly agree, we will almost certainly outposses the French. Our midfield will be Kova, Broz Modric and theirs Rabiot, Tchouameni.
we played a 4-3-3 against austria
Kramaric lost his starting position and needs to be coming off the bench!!!!! He has too earn his chance again.
I want to see Musa, Budimir, Orsic, Livaja Majer and Sucic all get good minutes and make it happen.
Good luck
completely agree- Kramaric is a scared rabbit for some reason- move on and let’s find a kid who wants it.
https://www.charlotteobserver.com/sports/charlotte-fc/article261659467.html
Get his ass to camp
Watch us beat France now lol
unfortunately dalic is probably gonna start the game again with 1 winger and 5 CMs. Despite dalic i think the team is gonna play really well today. Coming off an embarrassing loss will give the players extra motivation, playing against france our players will want to prove themselves, and playing in a packed home stadium. Also france wont be starting their best players
Dalic is a typical Livnjak.
Establishes strong relationships to friends and family…but does not draw a line between what can and cannot influence the workplace (allowing it to be corrupted).
– His misfit cast of assistant coaches in Olic, Corluka and Mandzukic makes no sense, and were hired entirely based on their relationship to Dalic.
– Dalic is always giving away the most talented youth players to the U21 team (who are better suited on the senior team)…and it’s not like Biscan is winning anything with them anyway.
– Dalic panders to the squad players and the home crowds by starting players who are born in the cities they play in, whether it’s Split, Osijek or whatever.
The guy just wants to have a good relationship with everyone, and now it seems like he literally just does what people tell him to do. He’s completely reactive.
Dalic has come into three Nations League tournaments and one Euro tournament completely unprepared.
This is starting to feel like the few months before our Euro 2020…where Dalic is trying a bunch of players to see what sticks (and a little bit of panic is beginning to settle with the fans, because nothing is working).
Dalic needed to surround himself with an experienced cast of assistants and scouts. They didn’t have to be big names, just some experienced former coaches with good footballing minds.
Every single assistant coach that Dalic hired has zero experience (unless you count Olic’s joke of a tenure with CSKA as experience)…and even the scouts are inexperienced former players (like Ognjen Vukojevic).
Dalic doesn’t have much of a resume himself, so it was important for him to make sure that he has a good team around him.
Giving away U21 players right up until the major tournaments (like Gvardiol) then capping them too late, is just self destructive.
Biscan probably sees himself as Dalic’s successor, so he’s probably working against Dalic when he asks for players to be provided to the U21s. Dalic needs to man-up and just say no. Some of these guys would make great backups (and possible starters) for the senior squad, which is worth much more than any U21 achievement.
I can’t believe we’re going to drop to Pot 2 for the Euro2024 qualifiers. This could cost us a future tournament or two.
The coaching carousel of former players is the biggest issue to me, the idea that cos someone played for the Vatreni they are somehow qualified to be coaches, i mean we’ve had a conga line of former players as coaches for the most part so i’d love for that to not be the case forever moving forward.
It was not that terrible with Bilic as the coach, but yeah I think it shouldn’t consistently be this way. Maybe hire a Jose Mourinho, or someone who could really help lift the team.
Bilić generally starts strong with his teams…but he has the same weaknesses as Dalić where he tries to be too friendly then loses respect and control of the players.
100% agree. I love what those former player have done for the repka, but they are not entitled to a job afterwards.
Orsic, Budimir, Majer, Pasalic, Kovacic, Brozovic, Modric, Vrsalko, Vida, Sosa, Livakovic
I’d like to see what Erlic can do, I don’t have much faith in pongracic and CC.
I’m predicting a 3-1 loss tbh
30,000 Hungarian KIDS bood the England team for kneeling. We must become more like Hungary.
After what I saw of him I don’t really care for Brekalo not sure what he brings. Orsic didn’t have a lot of time to showcase himself, not sure if Pasalic was tired or what was going on but he lacks consistency which Kramaric does as well when playing for the National team. That seems to be an issue with many of the players. Not sure what happened to our defence there but many of those players will have a lot to prove this time around. If they do not show up we may have to put players like Vida back in the lineup, as much as I don’t like that idea what else can we do really.
I don’t think it cuts it for me, or the Croatian media, a loss like this is not acceptable at any rate to a team you have never lost to and on home soil of all places.
Players should be on notice, if your Kramaric and Pasalic why is the ball not hitting the net. If your a defender like Pongrancic why are players passing you with ease. Where are the issues and how do we fix them now before the World Cup.
These problems need to be fixed because, we don’t even have an active and decent goalie on-top of all the other issues.