Croatia Take On Belgium In World Cup Friendly Tuesday 12PM (ET) Kickoff

I think the 4231 with krama as a 10 has worked for us really well in qualifying. It suits our players well. Both fullbacks, stanisic and gvardiol are solid defensively. So it’s a good balance between attack and defence.

We can switch comfortably to this formation any time. So I think Dalic goes again with 541/3421 to give us more practice with this. The benefits of the back three are:
a) allows us to use 3 centre backs (we have 5 in the squad including prince Luka)
b) allows two number 10, space for baturina and krama
c) allows us to cover the width effectively when defending deep against teams that have superior possession and wingers
d) allows quicker transition on the counter attack

I think Dalic is preparing to use the 3421 against big teams like England, Spain, France etc and will revert to 4231 against teams we can dominate like Ghana and Panama or if we are behind in a game and need to take more risks.

So against Belgium he will give Luka V another match in the centre of back 3. Against Slovenia maybe he puts 4231 to make sure we still have it fresh.

The problem is Perisic. I love Perisic but he is risky as a wingback. He is over motivated tracking back and scored the own goal against Colombia when livakovic had the shot covered. He also could easily have had a red card against both Colombia and Brazil with his positioning slightly off and then aggressive in the tackle to compensate such is his pride and aggression.

Here’s the thing, 3421 can change easily to become 4231 in a game with minor adjustments. This would allow us tactical flexibility and a key advantage over opponents. It requires one wingback to be a natural winger and the other to be a natural fullback. Which means either Perisic on the left or Marco P on the right but not both. Given seniority it means the best lineup we can field is the following:
Liva;
Sutalo, vuskovic, gvardiol;
Stanisic, sucic, modric, Perisic;
Kramaric, baturina;
Budimir/mata/musa

This can easily change to 4231 mid play. Stanisic sits deeper, Perisic pushes higher into his natural position. This makes:

Liva;
Stanisic, sutalo, vuskovic, gvardiol;
Sucic, modric;
Krama, baturina, Perisic;
Budimir

The only problem here is that krama ends up on the right side where he is ineffective. So the alternative is the opposite way around:
Liva;
Stanisic, vuskovic, sutalo;
Marco P, sucic, modric, gvardiol;
Krama, baturina;
Budimir+

This rotates the other way (anti clockwise) to:

Liva;
Stanisic, vuskovic, sutalo, gvardiol;
Sucic, modric;
Marco P, krama, baturina;
Budimir+

Last point. I watched the whole of the Colombia and Brazil games back. Pongracic was one of our better players. Erlic got cooked multiple times and struggled when pressed too, DCC was a bit too slow to cover the ground. Pongracic was quicker and better with the ball than either. He gets a lot of hate but based on those two games he is ahead of erlic and DCC to partner Prince Luka. So it’s sutalo or pong to partner the young man.