Things we learned vs. Slovakia:
- The Croatian offense is in shambles. No pace or urgency. Very slow in build up. There is no “go to” guy Croatia can count on. Vatreni have scored five goals in as many games and three of those came against Malta.
- The goalkeeper competition is officially open for business! Osijek’s Ivica Ivušić had a wonderful first match for Croatia and was my “Man fo the Match” as easily saved 2-3 Slovakian shots the could have gone in. Livaković will have to step up his game if he wants to remain the #1.
- This team looks uninspired. Even with new players like Oršić, Čolak, and Ivanušec seeing the field from the first whistle, there’s not a lot hunger out there. The team needs to hit the refresh button and Dalić needs to be sacked. Mediocre tactics and football is not Croatia’s brand.
The good news? Croatia got the much needed three points they were looking for on the road and shots were being peppered in from outside the box. Oršić had a rocket from outside the box tipped off the crossbar. We need to see more of that offensively.
—————————————–
The second game of September World Cup qualifiers kicks off Saturday night in Bratislava when Croatia face Slovakia. The Slovaks are coming off a 1-1 draw with Slovenia earlier in the week while Croatia played out a scoreless draw with Russia in Moscow.
This is all you need to know about Croatia and Slovakia. Croatia just beat Slovakia twice in EURO 2020 qualifying. The Vatreni won 4-0 in Slovakia in September of 2019 and beat them again 3-1 in Rijeka two months later. That’s 7-1 over two legs. Slovakia is a mediocre European side with no real star power. This World Cup qualifying campaign will turn this week after two more matches from all the sides being concluded. After Tuesday, 60% of the games will have been played.
Slovakia beat Poland 2-1 in their EURO 2020 opening match before losing to Sweden and Spain. They did not get out of the group.
This is a Croatia side in transition but there’s enough firepower here to beat Slovakia and take control of the group going into the final two months of qualifying.
It seems we need to look big picture, meaning Euro 24 and more importantly WC 2026, there is no one in this current crop to envision strikers of Suker, Boksic, and Mandzo class. We’re developing a good defensive class and midfield, our potential lies in the youth Sucic and so on. This has been mentioned ad nauseum in this chat, coaching, coaching, coaching. How does Italy win Euro’s with one of the least talented teams…..coaching
2028 is gonna be so much fun
Borna Sosa is the key to the whole operation. Dude is deadly. Slick mofo
Is Ante Budimir healthy for Slovenia and available?
Ante Rebić couldn’t help us on Tuesday?
Can we not produce either a world class finisher like Šuker or beast like Mandžukić OR both in one Alen Bokšić?
At least Rebić is aggressive.
Sosa has come in from a failed defection and is thriving.
Rebić has done enough over the years to deserve tothe prodigal son welcome back.
These games have been open.
Not like these teams are parking the bus on us.
We actually create somethings going forward.
There is just no arrow head at the tip of our spear.
There must be a bias against fast athletic forwards in Croatia who may not yet possess our standard of midfield technicians.
Ivica Olić was super explosive and would miss all the time before his knee injury. Came back and was a poaching machine.
I am not interested in a player in his 20’s playing veteran cool and recycling the ball.
We have that.
We need dudes up top who run at the goal like they haven’t eaten in a week.
Poljud better be full of Dalmatinski colorfully cursing there hearts out at Slovenia.
There was an article mentioning Modric & Budimir won’t be playing in Split
I don’t know of any Croatian fans who are upset that Rebic didn’t make the squad. He was useless in the Euro’s. His attitude is horrible. A cancer on the team that needed to be removed. We couldn’t score with him, so nothing is being missed. Look at how we played once he was subbed out against Spain.
https://www.marca.com/en/football/international-football/2021/09/05/6134e69f22601d58718b45e0.html
This is an interesting read on the Modric/Mandzukic relationship. I had no idea that they didn’t always see eye to eye.
In the 90’s, we had TWO legends upfront in Suker and Boksic on the SAME TEAM. Now? We’ve been reduced to starting guys like Colak who shouldn’t even be on the team, but we’re so desperate we’re trying anyone with a heartbeat upfront. In the first half, there was one long ball someone played him from the backfield and it was painful watching him run after it as it went out of bounds. So slow!
Given this I would like to see Lovrić or Sučić called up. Čolak Seems to be a dud and Livaja should never be called up again.
1) I don’t think Sosa’s crosses were “off”. His crosses were actually in places where someone should be in (which he’s used to). He’s been a breath of fresh air since the Euro’s.
2) Although we’ve only given up only one goal, can anyone recall where Livakovic made ONE superb save since he became a starter? He’s an average keeper. Keep Ivusic in there.
3) Since we’ve already tried everyone at forward since Mandzukic, is there an 18 year old prospect out that is the equivalent of Susic that we can put in there? At least the person could be ready for next year’s WC (if we qualify). Clearly, we don’t have anyone else.
Dario Simic’s son (Roko) is looking good so far…but he’s very young (age 17).
He did make his debut for our U21 team already and scored. So that’s good.
Ljubicic is another young striker, but we need to see how he does at Hajduk this year.
Biuk is a midfielder/winger, but maybe he does well in a 3-5-2 up top.
Problem is that none of our strikers in the 21-24 age range has panned out.
Vizinger and Musa are okay, but are still trying to find consistency at club level.
I think Musa at 6’3″ can provide value as a tall physical striker to get his head on Sosa crosses and do the hard work up top…but we already have Budimir for this.
Jakoliš and Brodic are nothing. Kulenovic looks to be the same.
May as well just stick it out with Petkovic, Budimir, and Krama as your options up top. I think it can work, we just need to find the right formation and strategy.
Not good.
https://hns-cff.hr/news/23087/modric-i-budimir-ne-prikljucuju-se-vatrenima/
I’m pretty sure in 90 minutes, Croatia did not take one shot that was anywhere close to .5 expected goal. The epic bozo vic goal was probably .05 expected goal. Undoubtedly both Russia and Slovakia had higher expected goals in both games despite lower possession. Lucky result from the two games
What are you talking about? It was an uncontested full volley, dropping perfectly for a right footed player to hit at the top of the 18 yard box, middle of the goal. And you expect someone in that situation to score only once in 200 attempts? These are pros here, not hung over Sunday morning hacks.
Have our 3 most worrisome spots been solidified this quickly?
Sosa big ivica and stanisic by default if he continues to start at Bayern ?
All we need to do now is slowly push vida and lovren out to make room for DCC and josko!
It will take a while, since Dalic requires about 3-6 months lead time to implement the obvious…
But yes, it looks like we have a solid LB, RB and GK.
All it took was an injury to our current keeper,
the German FA blatantly trying to steal one of our players; and
one of our other players securing multiple starts for Germany’s best ever club.
Also, re: the CB situation…
We did have two CBs break the Croatian all time transfer record for a defender (Gvardiol and Duje)…
Unfortunately, this is not enough for Dalic to start them at CB over Vida and Lovren.
I think they will both need to be Ballon D’Or finalists for this to happen.
Well said Niko.
Dalic has tried lots of different combinations in an effort to try something. As much as you want to put it on him, (he’s obviously not without fault) you have to put it on the players. They are not performing. Upfront we anemic. He’s playing guys out of position to get our best talent out there. The Slovaks are a poor team and arguably they outplayed us. A lucky result because Brozo saved the day.
Kvartuc said exactly what I was thinking…we get the ball on a break then literally hit the breaks every time! The beautiful attacking & counter attacking/flowing football we used to play is gone. That’s on the players and the coach.
I’m all for a new coach because we need a spark. We need a motivator and as Niko said someone who can get better football out of less talented players.
Since dalic has changed to 4 4 2 diamond formation. This formation is played when you are not talented thats what we played under otto baric 2002 to 2004. Its a conservative formation but we dont have 2 cfs for it Dalic needs to wake up and find a staring 11 since 2018 we have played like 30 different lineups. If he like the romb formation you lose perisic because he is a winger or wing back for inter so id like to see petkovic get his act together because he isnt bad player or pair budimir with colak Budimir is only striker who plays in liga 5 everyone else dosnt cut it. Livaja krama are not number 9 leaves petkovic budimir colak as only. Number 9s
We will see a new lineup v slovenia but the romb is here to stay
versus slovenia:
…………………..budimir?………………..
Orsic……………krama….………perisic
………….….Brozo…..modric?……..…..
Sosa………vida…….lovren….……JJ
………………..….Ivusic……………..……..
We have a keeping performance like ivusic today in that Spain game it could have turned out diff
I don’t think livakovic is shit but we need to see other guys
Let’s hope ivusic can build off this
I know from my hockey days when you got a boss goalie it changes things
I think especially in soccer, they need to have presence
To be fair to Dalić, he’s trying everyone looking for a spark… gvardiol has been missed, I can’t wait to see him paired with sosa!
He has cleared the locker room of negative voices, even if they might be talented. That’s what a leader has to do. Dalić just isn’t tactically proficient enough for this level of talent, it’s not his fault, the man was coaching lower tier football and got tapped on the shoulder to take over, this is his best.
Hopefully he stumbles in to something that works, and he might, shit like that happens… my money is us winning the group (we are clearly the most talented) and going in to the World Cup under prepared, I’d love a Real coach to take Over, but if it doesn’t happen soon we are better rolling with dalić all the way thru the WC..
The one saving grace might be that he has tried everyone , we still can’t score, formation tinkering might be next… and maybe he can bring in outside ideas for that!
We are still alive, real talent looks to
Coming down the pipeline, and we are the best soccer country in the world per capita, just remember that!
@niko. Great post. Agree with everything except we are the best talent producer per capita.
Uruguay is much better at producing more talented players.
Why on earth are most of you guys always in panic mode? 4 pts. from 2 away games against the 2 strongest teams in the group is called success.
Yeah, it hasn’t been pretty. Yeah, we’re having trouble scoring goals…this does happen to even the best teams.
Every national team in the top 30 can beat any other team. Modern nogomet is a game of very fine margins. The better team is not guaranteed the win.
This is yet another typical Croatian qualifying campaign.
We will be fine.
Let’s hope Budimir and Kramaric get a chance to play together. I’d love to see them get a chance. I think their skill sets would complement each other perfectly.
The goals will come.
Bog i Hrvati
Well said on the offense. I think Dalic might deserve some time given that he is at least switching things up. On the other hand his inability to motivate the team is terrible.
But we are not tied with Russia at the top of the group. Russia is technically in first place on goal differential.
And so if our offense continues to be anemic, I’d hate to see us edged out on goal differential by the Russians….
So I think that last game vs Russia in Split may ultimately decide who wins the group and progresses automatically.
Croatia wins out, they don’t have to worry about goal differential.
Not a bad game but we’ve had scoring issues for quite some time. It shouldn’t be a surprise we’ve conceded one goal in 5 games. It should be that way. When your playing against lower ranked teams like Malta & Cyprus, no goals conceded is my expectation. When you play against better teams who are middle of the pack like Slovenia, Slovakia & Ruusha it’s a different story. Tactical I say we are doing better at defending. Livakovic shouldn’t start the remainder of these games. Ivusic looked way more confident and quicker. Slovakia defence stood they’re ground. Colak hit the post too. Got the win and hopefully another in Split next week. That last Russia game will indeed indicate who gets first place. ZDS
Anyone else hear that Modrić and Budimir will be back against Slovenia?
I agree that Ivanusec was too slow. He had a great pass from Orsić that he couldn’t finish, and he lost the ball a lot. A lot of miscommunication with Juranović too. Orsić and Sosa both seemed good to me. Vlasić was too sloppy in that CAM role. Missed passes and failed dribbles slowed down our counterattacks and build up. To play that style, the players need to pass accurately and execute their 1-on-1 plays. Hoping to see some improvement against Slovenia
Ivica Ivušić is 196 cm and owned the box today.
Credit to Dalic for realizing we need more presence against Slovakia. Ivusic needs to start Tuesday as he has earned it.
Brozovic is a world class #6 and his golasso has just kept our mediocre campaign alive again.
Sosa is silky smooth.
Juranovic hustles but because we are so inept at striker we need some offensive skill from RB.
Majer looked confident on that free kick.
I actually think our depth at home will be plus.
Need Poljud on fire this Tuesday against Slovenia!!
Only reason Ivusic was between the sticks today was because Livakovic was injured and couldn’t go. Otherwise we know who would of been in net.
Can’t give any credit to the manager for making an obvious decision.
Really, Ivusic should have easily been one of the keepers who went with the squad to the EURO’s. He’s been pretty consistent with Osijek the last couple seasons.
Instead narrow sighted ZD took an out of form stiff in Kalinic.
I’m just glad he didn’t play an injured Livaković like he did at the World Cup with an injured Subašić.
Ivušić was the obvious choice, and Dalić should not be getting credit for playing a healthy and in form keeper over an injured one.
If anything, he loses points for still calling up Simon Sluga as the third keeper.
You guys are thinking this the wrong way, and are being too pessimistic.
We currently have 1 goal against in 5 games.
Dalic is a defensive mastermind.
Being out-chanced every game and playing players out of position has been the key.
We’re going to ‘Greece’ our way to the World Cup.
When is Dalic going to let Kramaric play in his natural position? With Modric out and Vlasic playing terribly in the first half he had a golden opportunity. Yet he still slots him in on left wing? While Perisic plays right wing? I’m seriously lost for words.
Pasalic is a substitute, nothing else.
While I had very little knowledge of Ivusic, I must say that in this small sample size, I’m pleasantly surprised. No, not from any of the saves he made, but from his command of the box and calmness when receiving a pass from a defender. No Livakovic deer caught in headlights syndrome.
I actually thought that Colak was decent. Livaja was a turd. It’s sad, but it’s gotten to the point that I no longer judge these guys on whether what they did on the pitch was good, but whether they made any mistakes.
Vida was our best player in the first half but forgot to show up for the second.
I still believe that the next cycle in October will look very different from this one.
Livija
Livia
We Need some fucken real Hrvati Ustashe on the team , Livia sucks ….
We have 3 wins and a draw from only 5 goals scored. Seems barely possibly. Doing the absolute minimum.
Great win but I think our game in Russia was better.
Juranovic always was good for us but today he showed us that he played his football in a weak league.
Orsic was our best player today. He would have been our MOTM if Ivusic didn’t do those great saves in the end. Ivusic won two points for us today.
Kovacic was only a shadow of the player he was against Russia. Vlasic barely did something good today. Also Ivanusec (who I really like) was awful today.
I think Dalic should be more stubborn. I think he reads too many newspapers. He does what the journalists write that he must do. I think he should better go with a system and stick with it.
https://youtu.be/EkgIHrZDWEk
Here’s some lovely coverage
those last 4 minutes or so were kinda nerve-wracking haha.. but we DID IT !
Say what you will about Sosa. He’s an OUTSTANDING player. Rarely makes a bad decision.
Fortunate result. A moment of brilliance by Brozovic. Slovaks probably hard done by not to atleast share the points. Goalkeeper with some tremendous saves in the final minutes.
We will likely struggle once again to find the back of the net against Slovenia.
Dalic is a mo-mo regardless.
So do we have our new keeper?
First away win in two years lol
Ivusic is miles better than Livakovic.better reflexes and confident. Those last few saves might have wanted MOTM.
Yes. Agree
Yea, I think the close range save that Ivusic put over the bar was a very good one.
Livakovic has good reflexes, so he may have been able to save that one.
The long range one that went into the far corner that Ivusic saved, would have probably went in on Livakovic.
Too bad we don’t generally rotate goalkeepers. Would like to see more of Ivusic and possibly Grbic.
Ivusic looked much better than Livakovic in terms of high crosses. He aggressively came out and caught them instead of just punching them out. Bigger keeper so a bit easier too. Some good competition at GK position with Grbic finally getting playing time.
Epic Broz
Ivusic just saved Dalic’s ass
Eno ga!
FALA BOGU!!
Brozovic just saved Dalic’s ass.
Well the Colak experiment didn’t go well. We are way too slow upfront. No on wants to take on a defender aside from Ivanusec…problem is he’s too slow.
The free flowing style we used to play with has all but disappeared.
For all those Juranovic fans…..he’s very poor. Crosses are poor and just not fast enough to beat anyone. I would rather have a solid defender at RB..maybe this Stanisic kid could be the answer.
Colak has a very heavy first touch when playing the quick flowing, one touch style in the box. He was the weakest link in those instances.
Lets hope our depth kicks in.
Good point, Slovenia just played two matches and not sure about their card situation too. Imagine if he let’s Moro and Majer start…Brozo and Kova played the most of the min so far
Dalic needs to go. He sounds like a Bosnian car mechanic with missing teeth when he talks.
Much better hair than said mechanic..
Maybe the HNS will actually hire “a Bosnian car mechanic ” next 😉
T.V. repair man, same diff.
We’ve tried it all!
I’ll give them 5% excuse due to the poor state of the pitch but that’s all, this is absolute rubbish!!! Vlasic and Orsic have been terrible putting pressure on Kovacic and Brozovic. We lack any attcking ability and the opposition know it. Juranovic can’t beat anyone and his crossing is woeful. Big trouble qualifying for this WC!!!!
Croatia went from being an entertaining team to watch to just exasperating. They have way more technical quality than Russia and Slovakia, yet those two teams have better chances to score. It doesn’t make any sense.
That’s because they play with more heart and put in effort in these type of games
I’d like to see a huge half time shake up for a change. Send a message. Vlasic, Orsic and Ivanusec have been extremely wasteful. Send in Kramaric for Vlasic, Perisic for Orsic and Majer for Ivanusec.
How the hell do we not have a decent corner taker? Shouldn’t Sosa be taking them?
Kovacic is doing his best Lovren impersonation.
Not you Ivanusec
Disi Luka?!!
I’m falling asleep watching this garbage. No intensity!
This team is in deep govno. Dalic
Is an Ubda agent.
Yep this is getting worrisome when we can’t score on Slovakia.
This team is in serious trouble.
Dalic must go now!!!!!
Interesting lineup. Glad to see Colak playing as he’s been in form with Malmo….worth trying at this point. Everyone is playing their normal positions as well but I’m sure if the game doesn’t go as planned Dalic & Mamic will still get blamed. Lol.
Pretty fuckin jacked about this one! Haven’t had this many early drinks since June
Vida’s dope!
Long may he play!
I like this lineup, minus the Lovren/Vida partnership. Then again, they know how to score on set pieces, so maybe that’s why we get them again. I would prefer to see Uremović or Skorić, but you can’t have both of those guys in at the same time. To respond to whoever wrote that about no backup right back below, Vida and Uremović are the backup right backs. Vida is still pretty quick, and he was a right back during his best years. Uremović is very fast and has experience at the position. Of more concern are the striker and keeper positions. I hope these new guys rise to the occasion.
6 pts next 2 matches, “eye of the tiger” baby lets do it!
Not sure if goals against vs the minnows of the group count but Russia and Slovenia didn’t do themselves any favors.
Russia beats Cyprus 2-0
Slovenia beats Malta 1-0
Pretty shocking how few goals we have.
With Russia and Slovenia breathing down are necks with victories today. Anything less than a win is disastrous!
Agreed..this is a must win and if not then hit the panic button. Dalic should be fired.
Anyone know of a stream for today’s game? Thanks in advance.
Kovacic epitomizes our team. Pure middle third of the park player and team. World class in that part of the field. Everywhere else we are nothing special.
Having said that Ajmo Momciiiiiii!!!
wait and see ->
Lovren and Vida will cost us for this game : 0-
……… remember ……….
LAknat is always Right!
So another game another line up. It is a tiring way to run a team.
: Ivušić; Juranović, Lovren, Vida, Sosa – Kovačić, Brozović – Ivanušec, Vlašić, Oršić – Čolak
Lineup was leaked by an insider so perisic because of a yellow will come off bench. Almost got lineup right id never think hed bench perisic.
Never seen Ivušić play. I’m very curious to see how well he does.
Čolak I’ve only seen in Rijeka highlights, where he looked very good technically… But we’ll see how he does in our lineup.
I think he’s a fringe callup at best, but at least he’s a striker and not a CAM or winger posing as a striker (like Krama, Livaja or Lovrić).
Also, Dalić really needs to ensure that he calls up at least two players for each position.
If Juranović went down, we’d have no RB. He cut Bruno, and now that Budimir got injured, he has to test Čolak in a critical game (who hasn’t even played with this group in a friendly yet).
Just poor poor preparation all over again.
We have enough talent to win this game, but we can’t keep messing around with these sudden callups in important games (even when there was opportunity to prep in advance).
No article about super Mario? He was the guy that kept scoring from 2012-2018 and in big games too. That England and Italy goal were the best ones. We’ve never had that many spectacular forwards to begin with. Suker was the first, then Da Silva, Petric, Perisic and a few others but besides them..there’s nobody that stands out to me. A top striker is our weakness now.
Dado Prso? Can’t forget him he came outta nowhere at that time (post 2002) and infused Croatia with a punch… can’t forget that winning goal against Slovenia that brought us to EURO 2004! And at that Euros Olic Switzerland(love the guy) and Mornar France(lol) were inches and millimeters away from sending us to round of 16 but it wasn’t meant to be..
Jurnaovic/Gvardiol/CC/Uremovic
Sosa/Pasalic/Vlasic
Colak/Orsic/Ivanusec
Have Ivusic start and I’m expecting a dominant win today. Make it 2-0 or 3-0. Slovakia have poor defending and hardly any scoring. Not to mention they got hammered by Spain.
Is this a joke or are you being serious? lol
Why would I joke? Lol
How is Croatia’s record any better? Do you think they are scared?
Not scared just doubtful they can’t win
7/11 on the line up correct and should’ve had CC in. Forgot about brozovic and kova lol. No clue why Vida & Lovren are back.
https://www.footyheadlines.com/2021/08/croatia-2022-world-cup-pre-match-shirt.html?m=1
We’re wearing those damned and cursed black shirts again today. I don’t like them. We need to go back to blue being the main colour with a splash of red and white checkers somewhere.
The smaller the checkers are on the kits… The worse we play.
And what’s with that shade of blue? That’s not the plavi I know. Even our red, particularly in our warm up gear is off. Come on Nike! Go to a paint store and get yourselves a colour matching guide.
Oh man I thought here is a chance for grbic to get in
The atletico move it appears just wasn’t overall good for his repka career
How is sluga doing? Even if he plays lights out, it just seems like it’s basically going to be livakovic job for a very long time
Sluga or ivusic to start word out is same tactics as in russia except vida is in place id CC and livaja in for krama so again we are playing the diamond with no cf bomba id go with
Sluga(because hes been on team 2 years and trains ivusic doesnt know players but based on form ivusic.
Juranovic Vida Lovren Sosa Kovacic Brozovic Ivanusec Vlasic/Livaja Perisic Colak
I would of really liked to have seen Grbić now that he’s getting starts with Lille. The foresight is lacking with the call-ups and comes back to bite us with injuries or when it comes time for major tournaments.
Not that I’m worried about who’s in there for Slovakia, but how about thinking about who will be of the most quality when it comes time for the tournament (if we make it). Everyone knew that Grbić getting loaned out to Lille and will be starting for them. In a little over a year, he has a chance to be the most prominent Goalkeeper for us, but we always wait too long. Are Sluga or Ivusic going anywhere anytime soon…
Same thing with marching out Barisic and Meljnak at LB when we had 3 other LBs better than these guys.
Yea, there seems to be a very long “Dalic delay” between players playing at club level and getting a callup.
Stanisic starts for Bayern, but gets called up for the U21s instead (despite us only having one RB on the senior squad right now)
Grbic makes the move to Lille to become their first keeper, but he can’t even get called up as third keeper for us (and we’ll probably have to wait a couple of months before he does).
Same thing happened for us with our LB options last year, where we had Bradaric starting for Lille…but was finally called up late in the UNL campaign. Gvardiol, too, starting at Dinamo but not getting called up until the actual Euro tournament, lol.
Very, very hesitant to call people up..and when he does, it’s too close to the tournament and we are completely unprepared.
World Cup 2022 will be the exact same thing as these past Euros.
3 – 5 – 2
We have so many players that can do this with ease.
We need to shift it up.
Perišić up top as at least he puts the ball on frame.
Kramaric plays some minutes just out of necessity.
Kovačić bangs one in and establishes himself as the all around #8?
Brozovic golasso?
Vlašić ?
Oršić ?
We need to come out pressing to get into our flow.
2nd gear will not work today at all.
Slovakia can run and they are hungry.
Sad to say but at least last game Croatia looks to be gaining something extra in the left wing back positon with borna Sosa..Juranovic is pretty solid there and so far confident in his play as Vrsajko looks to be fading away.. good news Dalic has commented on possibly retracing back to old time formation 3-5-2 as we seem to have players more suited to these roles.. it’s a great system if everyone can buy into it… would like to see GVARDIOL AND SOSA in the starting eleven as I think it will improve our link up play from the back something we lack big time! As well if playing 2 strikers I like having PERISIC as the support striker and KRAMARIC as the poacher..
anyways MODRIC AND LIVAKOVIC? OUT.. possibly BUDIMIR fit maybe a start from him we will see..
3-5-2(3-3-2-2)
———-(Orsic)———(Ivanusec)——–
——-PERI/BUDI—–KRAM/LIVAJA
————(Majer)——-(Pasalic)———-
———KOVACIC——-VLASIC———–
—SOSA——BROZOVIC——-JURAN.
(Barisic)——-(Moro)—–(Uremovic)
—-GVARDIOL–DCC—–LOVREN——
—————-(Skoric/Vida)—————–
———————SLUGA———————-
https://www.90min.com/posts/mario-mandzukic-retirement-aged-35
Ironic how we are able to somewhat compensate for Modrić with our current midfielders but no where near to replace Mandžukić for the last 3 years!
He was hungry beast on the pitch.
This is what is missing from all these dudes.
Yeah but who is going score..
Dalić probably still should have called up Bruno just in case of injuries (which did happen).
Now all we have is Čolak.
Livaja is more of a winger.
Bruno works well with Vlašić and Perišić. The three of them killed Slovakia in the Euro qualifiers. They probably would’ve done it again.
Is that you super Mario??
Nice retirement letter
https://www.croatiaweek.com/mario-mandzukic-writes-letter-to-little-mario-as-he-retires-from-football/?fbclid=IwAR0qmPNZCgtWK0gkMRdARdejYn3zcLVrlp5q7smSRx75_QnC9rbz0vldmog
Pure class. He will always be one of my all time favorites. We can all see how much he meant to the repka now that he’s gone. Fuck…we really need another Mandzo!
If, somehow we don’t qualify at least a a bunch of guys will retire and dalic will be gone
Push a couple of these young guys up from the u21s and start maybe a new story
Maybe in a couple of tourneys there will be fear from others when they get drawn with us
Short term pain long term gain as our favourite non Twitter, non others mans name on jersey, sarma eating, Xbox predicting, zds lifestyle living brother says
I feel that Dalic makes one good move and 2 stupid moves and is always behind the plot. Starting sosa good move but krama as cf stupid and playing 4 4 2 diamond formation without 2 st is dumb move. When he took over as coach he pushed right buttons and he had better players than he does now. You are the coach if you see since 2018 its been bad change something dont just rely on individual talent mostly perisic modric to get you out of gutter.
Im no coach i just play sunday league in cro but v slovakia my 11 would be
Livakovic(he is injured so maybe sluga plays) Juranovic Vida Lovren Sosa Brozovic Kovacic Ivanusec Livaja Perisic Colak. That makes sense to me Vlasic Pasalic Kramaric Orsic off the bench.
Slovakia has maybe one or two players that could start for us, even with our injuries.
The talent gap between the two teams is enormous, and they generally play a style that favors us in a matchup.
We’ve been incredibly lucky that Slovakia, Slovenia and Russia all lost points stupidly (keeping us still in first place).
But we’ve still been keeping the rest of these teams in this group too close to us, and it’s time to start pulling away.
Need to pull out a win. No more satisfaction with draws, just because they are on the road.
Agreed. A draw to Russia in Moscow is a good result (losing would have been bad, winning would have been great). Anything but a win in any of these other matches would be a bad result. Fortunately, Slovakia’s defenders are prone to mistakes, which should allow one of our players to capitalize early. If Croatia doesn’t dominate this game, it will be a disappointment. I hope we see a shakeup in the starting 11 toward more offense
It’s this attitude that’s posted time and time again that I believe is an issue with our players and especially our fans. We think we’re better than others and can get by without matching the opponents intensity. Like the English claiming on numerous occasions that no Hrvat could crack their lineup. Games are won collectively not with individual talent. Sure individual talent should be the difference but it’s not.
We’re complacent and that falls on the coach. Don’t know how Dalic has survived Nations League or those March qualifiers..
He’s got something on someone and then that apparently stupid money they owe him
Which I brilliantly volunteered 500k Croats to give one to euro to pay his ass out
I remember an interview when he took over saying I would walk from wherever he was Saudi Arabia at the time for Croatia
Do what’s right and step down for Croatia
Maybe we will be worse but at this point a shake up is what we really need
A draw today should result in Dalic being sacked.. besides Skriniar and Hamsik. The Slovak team is aging and no one is good to replace the vets. It would be pathetic is we lost to a minnow like them.