SRNA NOT FEELIN’ THE FIST PUMP FROM EDUARDO
After a 3-0 trumping over Latvia on Friday, the Vatreni will take on fellow Group F contenders Greece this Tuesday at Maksimir in Zagreb. The 2004 Euro champions shockingly drew at home against Georgia 1-1 this past week making them look extremely vulnerable. Croatia can set their precedence on the group with a win against Greece on Tuesday. They got off to a slow start against Latvia but finished strong. With Luka Modrić being rumored to be available for the Greece game; anything but a win would be disappointing. Ivan Strinić should finally be tested in defense and Slaven Bilić will have a decision to make regarding starting Ognjen Vukojević in the midfield compared to other worthy teammates.
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Lakic – yep… bring him in and watch the net bulge…
i'm still waiting for your beloved Mandzo to even scrape the side netting..
So you think Eduardo, Klasnic Lakic, Kalinic, Bilic don't deserve a call. Are you planning on cutting the squad to 12 or something, selecting only 3 strikers:).
Haha – i just put his name in as i knew it would get that reaction. Still deserves in about as much as Mandzo.
As long as Bilic calls Mandzo ANYONES a player for the repka 🙂
Sammir????????? Dude, enough….
He is not croatian, although he does have a damn passport, but he is not worthy of c all to the repka.
Lakic…so we bring in a guy based on two regular season games. Ok, brilliant.
Greece didn't do too much against Croatia. Everything goes through Modric. He can't shoot so he has to play someone else in. Kranjcar has no pace so shoots from distance and Olic, Petric and Eduardo are small and not gonna trouble you in the air so lets not trump up Greece's defending too much.
CROATIA HAD NO VARIATION. Where's there Dado Prso – the guy who can fight a defender for an arielly cross. Mix it up. Bring Bilic and Lakic in squad. Perisic. Change the ideas and add variation. Croatia are wasting slots on team when they have guys who could be use to them.
I'm a Dinamo fan and basically i'll admit Vukojevic gets favoritism. He's one of many including Eduardo. Dujmovic deserves a chance. Bilic refuses to leave out his buddies and this could harm Croatia.
i believe dudu has still fetched some goals since his injury. who you putting in ahead of him. there are other candidates for criticism.
Put it this way if theres room for Pokrivac and Gabric at the point where Trabzonspor got rid then theres room for Eduardo.
I think the squad needs freshening up. Why is it same old players.
G: Pletikosa, Subasic, Runje
D: Srna, Corluka, Strinic, Schildenfeld, Simunic, Lovren
M: Rakitic, Dujmovic, Vukojevic, Modric, Perisic, Kranjcar, Pranjic
F: Eduardo, Olic, M Bilic, Petric, Jelavic, Lakic
That'd be my squad till Klasnic proves fitness and will keep an eye on Vucko, Vida, Gabric, Sammir, Mandzo, Kalinic, Ilicevic, Jajalo, J Leko.
But NOT Pokrivac and NOT Buljat.
what has the brazilian born croat done since his injury, both for club and country? Not much….if you just judge him on his play since the injury, he is not a national team player. That is all I am saying. If you think he is the same player as he was before, then you need to watch some DVDs of him prior to the injury and compare it to now.
Dude, I'm not pro-Bilic or anti-Bilic. I think its a combonation of poor coaching and the players not getting it done on the field. I didn't understand why Vukojevic started either. I'll give some credit to the Greeks. They have played this style of have gotten results for the last 6-7 years. Ties on the road, 1-0 wins at home. They have done this to better teams than us.
To me Croatia team looks like a mish mash of players playing in slightly odd positions.
To cope with the system they can prob get by on individual talent. To change this squad i'd look at Perisic for Pokrivac. Perisic seems to have a good scoring habit and i think really we don't need him in the under 21's. i look at Croatia's squad and nobody convinces me as players who are good in the air. Perisic at least would be one.
There is prob another guy who needs developing down in under 21's. Perisic is already developed. I think you can use this guy in the first team squad now.
Mate Bilic should have a unquestionable place in squad UNTIL something goes wrong. Has been no issue so far so why drop him. Mandzukic OUT completely until he scores regularly in Wolfsburg.
At moment we have a situation where Lakic is scoring Mandzo is not. Mandzo done less so far than Lakic in his career and is only 2 years younger.
That Gabric position could go to Lakic or Ilicevic or Jajalo should be kept under close observation and if one comes good they can step into that position. Klasnic until he gets fit then we can't do much with him.
Bilic needs to bulk up his squad as we are relying on the same old players who lets face it are a 0-0 V Greece team or 2-2 with Ukraine. They need a little extra help to turn draws to victory. Maybe new players can help achieve this.
There is no point saying Mate can't do it until we see it. I can already say he strikes the target and gets his shots away more regularly than the players we seen.
Petric to me has not justified a starting place, but am okay with him on bench. Olic hustles but he could also do this coming from the bench. Its not essential Petric and Olic start like Bilic seems to think.
EDUARDO – i'll be straight. eduardo whilst not being same player is still good enough for Croatia. plus he earns favoritism from Bilic, so he ain't coming out. Sadly Ziva this is where your pro Bilic feelings work against you. Bilic loves Eduardo.. end of story.
KALINIC??? you know what this guy could be useful to Croatia now. At the moment we don't know. i'd like to see Kalinic play some match in friendlies or smaller ties.
There is ways Croatia can advance. to sit there are so this is best players is not accurate.
A guy on Red Bull salzburg's bench and a striker with a record of 1 goal in 13 is not the best players.
This is the maximum this lot can do. We've seen it now. They can scrape a 1-0 or 2-0 against Greece on another day, but they need extra help.
That help is going to come from new players. NOT from NIKOLA POKRIVAC. Ivan Perisic is worth having around on the bench. Slaven Bilic should have given himself every chance possible in this match. He had enough slots to make sure he had Mate Bilic sitting there to go to or Perisic.
I heard Klasnic mentioned which i understand as you can nail his foot to the floor and he'd still find it easier to score than this lot at the moment. BUT Klasnic played just 45 minutes against Southampton in which time he scored which is impressive. But he missed the Birmingham game due to injured. Klasnic is not fit enough just now.
If Klasnic is not fit i'd have just gone straight to Srdjan Lakic over Mandzo. Lakic is hot just now and even scored during international break.
I will still come back to when Otto Baric when he was in trouble as Croatia coach and just went okay Dario Srna, Tomislav Maric and Dado Prso straight in the first team from nowhere. You're either brave as a coach or a wuss. Bilic is a wuss. he'd rather go for Drpic, Pokrivac and Vejic then try a up and coming player.
I said this before its not just the Modric who will qualify Croatia as the guy can't shoot. its the squad. He should use the best players to get through games. If something isn't working he needs to make sure he has other who can turn a game.
Mate Bilic scored 3 in 4. Did not warrant being dropped. Every can say what would he have done when he's not there. Its easy to keep someone on the sidelines and judge them.
Let him fail first and then we'll talk about it. When he gets to the stage of Mandzo's 1 in 14 then we'll call him a failure.
By the way what has Eduardo done… erm check his strike rate for Croatia. Why are you not saying same thing about Mandzo, Petric, Olic? You talk about Arsenal cutting him lose yet the rest of croatia's strikeforce wouldn't even interest Arsenal so what you on about exactly.
What a utter disgrace, echos of the last campaign emerging,signs of the whole foundatians falling apart, fingers being pointed everywhere, but the blame falls solely on the shoulders of Mr. "riding my reputatian on beating england twice" Bilic and who ever is keeping him there. Look i know its not the end of the world just yet but the opening couple of games usally sets the tone of whats to come, and dont give me Greece parks the bus, so what if teams like geogia, moldova north and south korea can find a way to open these chumps croatia should be able at home at that. Greece for crying out loud Greece, hang you head in shame Bilic and im giving you my middle finger salute just for you, you deserved it.
A couple of comments after reading from other fans:
1) To the guy who keeps referring to Eduardo as "the Brazilian born Croat"…how old are you? Are you 5 years old or some 60 year old bigot?
Ok, we get the point, you don't like the guy because he was born outside of the country (as is the case with most of the National Teams in the world). So what? Your schtick is old and immature. You need to get a life.
2) Some of you want to can Bilic? That's insane.
You think Asanovic would do better with this same roster? Come on, he's the best coach we've had since Blazevic and people are ripping on him. You bring in someone else and we finish in 3rd place behind Greece and Israel.
3) Even when considering that Greece played with 11 men behind the ball, the chemistry among the midfield and forwards was poor overall.
4) Once we get to the last 1/3 of the field, we're lost.
I don't think we should be surprised that there has been no offensive improvement since the World Cup qualifying games. It's basically the same players. Unless one of the guys on their younger teams steps up, we mayh see more of these types of games.
Exhibit #A
"Bilić: Ne znam zašto su nam navijači zviždali. Napravili smo sve za pobjedu…"
Ahem, Mr. Bilic, that may be your problem sir.
Exhibit #B
"Ako se pogleda stanje na ljestvici, možemo biti zadovoljni, no dobili smo opet veliko upozorenje od Gruzije, koja je remizirala s Izraelom – kazao je Slaven Bilić"
Ahh, right, we should be thankful and content that the Georgians are saving us. Excuse me?
At least somebody in our country sees the truth:
Drazen Ladic-
"- Ako je Bilić rekao prije utakmice da je zadovoljan bodom, možda je ovaj rezultat i OK. Moje mišljenje je da smo trebali igrati agresivnije od početak"
Zlatko Mateša-
"- Prvo poluvrijeme igrali smo kukavički nogomet, što puni Maksimir nije zaslužio. Ako se opet ne kvalificiramo na veliko natjecanje, onda smo to izgubili večeras."
Franjo Arapović-
"- Utakmica s Grcima mnogo je odlučivala, a mi nismo pokazali mnogo agresivnosti. Dojam je loš. Nije mi jasno zašto smo igrali tako ziheraški."
Cico seems to be doing pretty well with the Montenegrins… no EPL players there!
@Vlad
Alleluja, al-leh-lu-ja!
Finally, someone else that can see Bilic's gaffes. I didn't even know about the "press conference" episode yesterday that you mention. What a clown. A straight-up embarrassment.
You're exactly right about the England wins. And you're "bang-on" about his making you "feel like he's guessing" part. The guy doesn't even know his own team, and he's apparently the frickin gazda. I wonder who actually chooses the squad and why?
At least we Hrvati used to have jaje/cojones. We can at least look back fondly on that time.
Bilic should've been fired immediately after the embarrassing debacle in Wembley at the hands of Capello. If he had any scruples he'd have resigned on the spot and walked home in shame.
But don't worry we've got a nation of sun-tanned apologists waiting in the wings to get him a cold compress.
He himself is an apologist for the players, and it shows. You'd think that between him and his 19 assistant-coaches that they'd in total at least be smarter than 1 man. WTF!
I'd be willing to bet that amongst the real coaches in the world, he's a running joke.
A frickin no-name coach from Portugal, in his second game with a new and foreign country, took him to school… and so we turn to blame our best player instead.
He's not even smart enough to at least hire a sharp nogomet tactician, and put him in a room somewhere to devise the tactics. Is anybody "on the ball" in our country?
Isn't it funny how he loves the 4-4-2 and long balls… geez I wonder where he learned that? In the EPL, before it was a good league…
How many coaches have to embarrass us before we actually put a stop to this?
My god, what would Rehnhagel do with this team? (and keep your lame money excuses to yourself, that's an illusion, and you're all buying into it like good yugoslav propaganda-eaters do).
Wake up people!!!!!
I think to give up on da silva is the dumbest thing i have ever heard. To all those people in the peanut gallery calling for da silva's head, tells me you know nothing about soccer and most of all nothing about our national team.
A) He hasent been that bad as advertised, what other healthy striker in the past four years stepped up and really solidiefied himself besides da silva when healthy. What has a healthy petric done, what has olic done except run, we dont have a clear cut choice of strikers. The last thing we need is to abandon a great player who loves to play for croatia.
The funny thing about croats is how little they really know about soccer. There is not much diffrence between this team and the team back in the start of euro 08 qualifiers, back then we were a average team and know we are a average team the only diffrence is we had a healthy da silva who scored 10 goals and carried us to euros thats it. Our two wins against england was the worst thing that ever happend, it made people think bilic can actually coach, which he cant.
Is da silva in top form no, im not saying he has to start, but to get rid of him is crazy.
Once again as for bilic he's a joke of a coach, we were at home and on the brink of taking control of this group and he tells the press a day before one of the biggest games in the next two years a tie would be just fine.
The saddest part is he's not learning from his mistakes, olic did nothing against ukraine twice and will do nothing against greece twice, again he started the wrong deffensive mid just like against ukraine, never should have played juric never should have played vukojevic.
The biggest fear with bilic is this is now his fith year year incharge, he should know his team, even though players change he makes you feel like he's guessing, just liked he did with pokrivac at wembley he's making dumb guesses, if he dosent know his team know he never will.
What if we had Mate Bilic you think the game would be different?
RE: Strinic passed the test
While I thought he did a fantastic job of joining in the attack, Strinic was never tested defensively… nor was the rest of the back four for that matter. Strinic looked shaky against Latvia, as you may recall he was bailed out on a few occasions by Kranjcar of all people.
The play on which Pranjic was taken down in the penalty area late in the game certainly called for a penalty shot. Had the referee had the courage to make the correct call, we would be celebrating a 1-0 win. Instead, we're left wondering what went wrong. That's just the way it goes some times.
Speaking of Pranjic, I really don't know what to make of this player. I thought he played well coming off the bench against Latvia. I thought he really asserted himself and had an impact on that game. But after today? I can only say I am less than certain that he belongs in the first 14.
One good thing is that Strinic passed the test. I'm still not entirely convinced yet, as I remember Pranjic was one of the 2 best LB at the Euros(by a mile). Still, he looks good.
Dissapointing game. Dudu had a amazing chance but was blocked. Atmosphere was great at Scorps. Thanks for the shirt Denis!
@ZivaMokraPokrivac
Who really cares what the players say?
As you famously say ad nauseum, it's only what happens on the field that counts.
You're too close bro, and the reflected fame is going to your head. It would surely appear that Dudu is not one of your purported "insijders".
I'm not sure what game you were watching, but Dudu did more in 18 minutes than anybody else did the entire game. And your character assassination of Dudu is getting real old… real old… and it's obviously not predicated purely upon football alone, which is perhaps the saddest part.
Ziva,
I didn't say Dudu does or doesn't deserve a callup. I agree, though, he's not the same player.
As for Klasnic, he just played a full 90 (and scored a goal) in the carling cup. No, he probably shouldn't start, but a good half hour is totally reasonable.
As I said, we looked much better today than vs Ukraine last campaign.
Give the Greeks their due, everyone knows that they play bunker, and they still manage. Although if it wasn't for Sokratis they'd have been sunk. Either way you slice it, it's a major lost opportunity for us.
I'm seeing signs of life from Bilic but he's still a few cards short of a full deck. He had the tactics backwards again. There's no need for Vuki in a game like this at all. Olic and Petric should never play together, and actually Olic should only come in as a sub in the last 20 minutes, then he can do his Tasmanian devil routine. His subs and starters up front should have been reversed!
You're telling me that you're not gonna start Dudu for this game when you know that a little bit of class can make all the difference? He played 18 minutes and did more in that time than Olic did in 70?
Strinic was MOM and you can see how important offense from the Defense is… especially against a bunker team. Joe's still gotta go, he had a nice walk in the park today, and he still almost cost us a penalty.
Kranjci was horrible today (aside from that nifty little pass to Jelavic for the offside goal), as was Olic. Petric never had a chance to get in the game.
When a team plays bunker, the goals need to come from Corners and set pieces and long shots and overlaps by the "D". This is why we play poorly against these types of teams, because we are embarrassingly bad at these things. This is purely the coaches fault, and since he was a defender it probably makes sense, although I wonder what the hell Asanovic and Zuti do…
I also wish that Srna would STFU with all the yapping at the ref.
As for suggestions for improvement… I think Gabric can work in the mid (even if for Niko), and would bring some sorely needed pace. Perisic needs a look up top, likewise with Mate Bilic and Kalinic once they get some games. In fact, Klasnic is useful for the last 15 minutes too.
Klasnic has not played in months.
@Alex…..what has the brazilian bron croat done in the last three years to warrant future calls to the national team. He is done. Not the same player any more. When Arsenal cuts you loose – and npt because of age or money – well, that speaks volumes.
I know hindsights 20-20, but this might have been a perfect game for Klasnic.
I cannot believe so many are counting Eduardo out already. To be fair to him he plays real football! If we had a coach who would understand that maybe his role would be much better in the side. To play a 442 with such negative attacking long ball tactics how much can you blame a player like Eduardo!! He is not being provided any service. I mean this is just my opinion but he is a great link to the striker if he is played in a supporting role behind a better finished then petric and olic! I mean eduardo is just being thrown up to with players who have alot less technical ability then himself. We were walking the ball stopping then walking it up and then a long ball…. We just didnt control the game good enough and its hard for a player to come in for 18 minutes and have a huge impact!! We are just not passing the ball well when we play a 442 there are not enough people moving into spaces and playing a team like greece does not help on top of that….We dont have an established 11 its always something new or a new formation….blah blah blah we need consistency the players need that so they can start understanding each other!! We cannot keep doing this at this rate its hurting is to much to change so much every game there is no chemistry in the squad anymore in my opinion….
we were crossing it plenty but someone put a half descent shot on goal for gods sake….vukojevic really didn't need to play this game put in players like Rakitic who can shoot from distance, Kranjcar-Petric that's the only way to beat this team crosses and shots once you get into the 16meter box there is no room to breathe
and definetly yes on the 4-2-3-1 Bilic disgusts me with his 4-4-2 man this guy is just playing it save in order to sell himself to a good club, he should have left right after the euro, period.
Yeah, Rakitic almost cost us on 1 or 2 occasions by playing sloppy crossfield passes. That said, aside from Vukojevic starting and perhaps Petric, he put out our strongest lineup, basically. I was glad to see Pranjic play, as he was good- in fact, if Eduardo's finishing had been better, he'd have been the man for that great headed ball across. Speaking of Eduardo, he mightve also done better on the set piece at the far post.
Idk, but it's hard for any team to break down Greece when they play like that. Who cares if they drew Georgia- different game, different day, plus they were at home in a match they wanted 3 points from. Here they just wanted a draw.
The fact they drew Georgia takes a bit of pressure off us- we're not(yet) obligated to win in Athens, so long as we take care of business in the other matches. Israel drawing Georgia is also good for us.
Really, it was the final ball and the finishing that stopped us getting 3 points.
Put it this way, we looked a hell of alot better than in the Ukraine draws last campaign.
Ziva,
A lot of teams dropped points which I do understand but Bilic does not have room to mess up again… Its not like we ever praise him for back to back games he seems to never get it right over and over but here and there he does…. Plus I just read his press conference and its an embarrassment that he can just be so calm about the situation. I just want him to accept the blame plain and simple. In a game like this he should just say we should have played better and I fielded the wrong players tonight but no….! He goes out and just says its an acceptable performance when 95% of us dont think it is!! And to be honest good luck selling out tickets if you think that is acceptable maksimir was fuller then it has been in a long time and for a awful game. I will always stand behind the Croatian NT but I will never understand why he is the coach. We dont "want" to pay the money for a better coach but when we missed out on the World Cup we lost out on a lot of "money"!! Now if we want to keep repeating that and losing out on sponsors and ect… that is fine keep it up HNS!
We need a new stadium for the NT we need so much stuff done its sad to see that countries like Georgia and Kazakhstan have far better infrastructure then we do just makes me go crazy! We are a top 20 team in the world at all times and we have a stadium of somebody that is 50th or worse! Make it on a neutral if Dinamo does not want to fund it I can tell you a game in Osijek sells 20,000 seats against a Wales… I am not saying that we should make it there but we sure do need a new stadium!
We do play our best football against the best teams in the world because they actually play the game the way its supposed to be played. Regardless of that we still need to be winning games like this.
DISAPPOINTING….although sadly, not that unexpected. Count me in the corner that feels Dudu is done for us, at least for the time being =(….sad and I hate to say it, but he's been useless for 2 years now and can't play the injury card forever!
To say what else could have bilic done is a little soft in my opinion. Im not blameing the tie on him, but at the same time i think some blame is deserved. After greece dropped points against georgia, everyone knew they could not afford to loose to us or they would be out. Everyone knew they were going to play negative soccer bunker we knew this and bilic knew it. There is no Way Rakitic does not start this game!!! He was our best player in latvia distributing the ball everywher on the pitch. In my opinion having rakitic on the bench for 61 minutes and having vukojevic is 61 minutes lost which you cant take back. you know greece is gonna bunker, you dont need vukojevic, he has no purpose in this game. Dont need a player that sole purpose is to be a distraction to opposing teams when your gonna control the game and trying to brake down a bunker.
Also i love olic but diffrent players are useful in diffrent situations. I have never seen olic contribute to a game where the opposing team clogs up the field. He dosent know what to do, dosent hold up the play hes lost. A coach should know this, olic is at his best when where on the road against a quality team when he can run and break not when theres 10 behind a ball, every game is its own battle and tactics and in my opinion. To break down a bunker you need skill, your at home in maksimir you go for the win and not play scared. Bilic is always scared, the only reason he played vukojevic was because he was scared. Also why does niko have to start every game, he sucks, if hes not good enough to play in the middle of the park then dont start him bottom line!!! Hes not a wing player, Niko's slow you dont beat a bunker with players that telegraph every move they make. strinc and pranjic on the wing is alot more threating than strinc and debali. I would have left petric on the right like against latvia that was his best game in years for national team bc he got a chace to get involved. once again just my opinion.
Never thought I'd say this but mandzukic should have been subbed in instead of Eduardo. The two chances dudu had (header and last min shot) were easy pickings for a player like mandzukic. Hate to say it but dudus time is up on the national team.
The "parked bus" zone defence is the new style of soccer. Ukraine, Serbia, Mourinho's Milan, Greece..mediocre teams who camp outside their net and just kick the ball to the one or two cherry pickers in the midfield. I think the only way to score against such teams is for the midfielders to lob the ball to the strikers head for a header goal.
I agree with you on that. Rakitic should have started, but he did not do much in the time he had.
We play better against teams that want to open up. Greece is just anti-soccer. I still think we will win the group. Look at other scores around the continent, not every teams wins every game. these results happen.
screw it for now. I'll talk to a couple of the guys tomorrow via text and email, so I'll see what they say.
Rakitic starts the game from the bench?! I mean that is a joke that we can have Vukojevic starting and Rakitic sitting on the bench! Its just so frustrating any good coach would see that is a ridiculous thing. I mean Pranjic plays there in Bayern and does a good job why does he not at least choose him over Vukojevic. I am just so pissed we went back to the 442 that makes us just a boring as Greece to watch!! We have the quality in midfield not to have to play long balls for the back yet we do. Bilic is by far the worst tactician on the planet. 1 point isnt life or death but its not just about 1 point its about how we look out there and once again he is getting the tactics wrong! Greece didnt care to win today they knew they were here to go for a 0-0 tie but we didnt help our cause be hoofing balls over! When we play in our 442 we play ugly am i wrong? What do you guys think about the 4231 or the 4132 i dont really care for the 442! We have to many talented attacking midfielders to play the standard 442! Why should rakitic be forced to sit on the bench when a player like vukojevic starts is beyond me. What are your thoughts ziva?
Michael, they pretty much used their entire team to bunker up. They weren't playing to win, but not to lose. Considering that the only real serious contender for them (except maby Israel) in the group is Croatia, it was probably the smart thing to do.
I'm no big fan of Bilic, but to the honest I'm not sure what else he could have done. It's very hard to play against a team that is so defense oriented, especially for our guys.
And even though Eduardo isn't the same player as he was before his injury, I still think he does have a place in the team (unlike some other commenters). He doesn't do as many goals as he used to, but he does a lot of other things well. As someone else mentioned, he is a good link between the players. And yes, in this game he was a bit of a disappointment.
this was the typical Croatia performance under Bilic for the past 4 years (yes even going back to the Euro 2008 qualifying). An early 10 minute blitz, boring 75 minutes, then another blitz in the final 5 minutes. Any half decent, organized squad can stop us, because Olic can't score for his life
To me this is not a good start to qualifying, with 6 points Croatia would basically have control of the group, now it is tight. We cannot lose in Israel now. Bilic should go, but I've said this since 2009 when we lost 5:1 in Wembley, thats when he should have been sacked, but HNS is too cheap.
Bilic should have been dropped a very long time ago. In fact saying that it is alright to tie to Greece is a reason to fire him. They tied to to Georgia! 1-1 FFS Georgia scored a goal on them IN GREECE!! The problem is why are we starting Olic and Petric together?!? What there miraculous goal scoring records which are 1 goal in every 3 matches(they both scored last game I can tell you they are not due for a while now). Modric played well he is by far our best player even out of form but the problem is why do we sit Rakitic he should be filling Vukojevics role. Srna should not be captain anymore I am sorry he truly brings no leadership to the side and he is the reason we play long ball it seems. The only thing is I can see that is so shocking is that Greece truly shouldnt be happy with 1 point! I cannot believe they play such negative football its disgusting. I am just so pissed of we went back to the 4-4-2!!! I cannot believe we are tacking steps back after moving forward in a 4-2-3-1! F&*( anything but a 4-4-2!!!
I missed the match, did Greece do what many of us thought they would?
If so, 4 points from the first 2 matches is a good start to a qualifying campaign where our star player is just coming off an injury. This reminds me of the matches vs Russia in Euro 08, where Russia just played for a draw.
I think the bigger worry, would have been if we didn't get 4 points and only wound up with 3 or less.
The reason Modric is on is because we have nobody better.
The brazilian born croat should not have played, in fact he should be dropped from the national team. He has done nothing since his injury. Time to move on and only bring him back when he is able to produce.
I'm no Bilic supporter or critic, but I do not know what else Bilic could have done. But, i'm sure we will hear from the peanut gallery and a bunch of other who have no clue how to play soccer but feel their opinion is of value.
This was an expected result for me. I thought we would get 4 points from the two games and that is what took place. We struggle with teams that play bunker and play better against squads that want to play soccer and not be negative.
Modric played good tbh
Bilic should have been sacked ages ago. Why would you put unfit or out of form players like eduardo, petric or even modric on. Playing style is still shit (continuous longballs). The same old.
The only positive from this game is strinic, he was fantastic.
Babic…he just went to shit. I remember watching him for Hertha and Zaragoza and he moved like a tired old man- like it was painful to run. He still had good crosses and shot/free kick, but his movement and pace was nonexistent. certainly for a 29-30 year old. Maybe he has Epstein-Barr(chronic-fatigue syndrome). I'm only half-joking.
Weve actually been passing quite well- there's just no final ball. Greece is doing what they always do well. This is the "new" Greece? Yeah, right.
The way to beat the bunker is to bunker!
Well, when we get Spain's midfield then we can play that way.
These fuckers have 8, 9 games behind the ball.
Someone should tell Bilic that you don't win a single game in 2010 with only long balls to the strikers.
Since 2008 Spain is showing that short, low pass play ist the win. Fast combinations, no silly balls into the enemy half.
http://atdhe.net/23661/watch-croatia-vs-greece
I finally found it! 🙂
Can i have a direct please?
Greece parks the bus with 9 defenders every game. nothing new with them.
I wouldn't look at 1 point as not being successful tonight but I would definitely not be jumping up and down for it either. I think we can get all 3 points tonight and we better be gunning for that. I would take out Vukojevic and put in Pranjic. Also, please dont start Mandzukic out right he is not a damn winger and I think we might see this tonight but I am praying we don't. Many have also complained about Eduardo and to be honest I don't care what his club for is like because he has always been amazing in a Croatia jersey. He may not be bagging goals right now but he is a nice link between the strikers and only time will help him out. Plus, he has the best scoring record on the squad.
hear Marko Babic just been released by Real Zaragoza. Babic has had a nightmare since leaving Leverkusen. Why you want out from a side like Leverkusen anyway i have no idea.
Babic was always gonna be a flop in Spain as they like there wingers to be all action NOT conservative. I don't know where Babic goes from here. Dinamo and Hajduk do not really have a vacancy. Babic has to hope a Greek, Austrian or Turkish team get interested. I highly doubt Bundesliga offers or French offers are still open to him.
Babic has to be one of the head in hands players of the last decade. Was all going fine and then the guy just lost it with the 'i want to play in spain' motif.
Vranjes is also a bit of joke. He's taken over from Leko and Simic in being a mercenary. Simic had pathetic any to his career, but Leko at least restoring some credibility.
I am alittle bit worried that Greece try and park the bus in front of goals with 9 defenders. If the Vatreni can put in a quick goal I have no doubt that the flood gates will open. 0-0 @ halftime would not be good, but would not be game over either.
we need a win here at home, we can put the Greeks 5 points back.
should be a great game tmw, really hope for a win cause hate the Greeks and it will get Croatia back up in the fifa rankings. The one thing I like to see more is free kicks. Latvia gave us no free kicks sadly, so nothing better than a Srna blast would be better.
Is that Srna and Dudu at a bar? Nice way to celebrate the win.