Croatia U-21s Will Play Spain, Ukraine, Romania At EURO 2023

Take away rebic’s goal against Argentina which fell into his lap and what else do you really have??

I think what Slavonac is trying to say Placenta (strange choice of name lol), is that Rebic’s pace off puts the defensive line for other teams. While I agree that the goal against Argentina was gifted to him, and it was, from a goal scoring standpoint he has come a long way with AC Milan, which a lot of people here are arguing, in fairness to the guy. My problem is that I see him as train wreck, which I think he is.

My point above is to say that when your playing international you cannot always rely on the subset of players you have during club season. Things change, and the difficulty level also changes as your playing harder teams with less options around you. So as an individual you really have stand up and make a difference. Rebic had three games.to do this but failed to do so, in Dalic’s words “he thought this was Rebic’s golden opportunity to light it up” but he didn’t and blamed everyone else afterwards and called the team shit. Bad move.

Now, I am not saying that similar difficulties are not faced during the club season but international is much harder to win. Case and point Modric has 5 UCL Cups but no international trophy. Not saying the guy hasn’t earned it, and I am not saying it makes him less of
a better player, he is exceptional, but when you can rely on great players beside you all the time it is a bit easier to achieve success in one sense.

Rebic did stand out like a sore thumb for me, and I didn’t see the defensive contribution that Slavonac is talking about when I watched the Euro. I saw a sluggish person who was barely in his own half, especially against Spain but also in the other games. I also saw the same thing recently when watching the guy play for A C Milan. Unless it was an offensive play, he was anything but a Mandzukic who would play defensive and try to dispossess the other team. When Rebic did try it would end up in failure , and usually turn into a card or atleast a foul for the opposing team. This is what I see, but maybe I am wrong and somehow missed what others seem to see in the guy.

You’re not wrong that he’s tempermental and that when he’s not good, he’s pretty bad…I’m saying when he’s in form, he’s a beast!

Like I said above in my other comment, Rebic is more “effective” than Livaja, Budimir, Vlasic, Brekalo….and…he had a bad tournament at the Euro’s. Back in 2012, in my opinion, Perisic was a HUGE disappoinement and lackadasical, he then turned things around and started becoming more on a consistent player.

At the end of the day, we want to see players complete their assignments. A player on the wing has to create chances and Rebic does that better than what we currently have.

I remember soo many people pumping Brekalo’s tires and look at hime, he’s been irrelevant for almost 2 years now!

Rebic creates chances with his “bull in a china shop” style of play…but he’s botched just as many chances too.

At the last World Cup (just off the top of my head) he missed several sure-fire goals that were created by others…

– He missed a beautifully set up sitter in front of the net against Nigeria (fanning on the tap-in as it bounced off the top of his foot),
– He missed an injury-time breakaway against Denmark (which was set up beautifully for him by Modric) and Rebic got fouled when he stupidly tried to walk the ball into the net (instead of tapping it in)
– He missed a golden chance that landed in his lap in front of the English goal (when Perisic’s shot ricochet’s off the post and right to Rebic, right in front of goal) and he reacted poorly

These were chances created by others.

However, he does create chances with his style of play and pressing… like the Argentina goal.
But even though he scored against Argentina, he probably should not have cranked it the way he did. A better player would have opted for more control, rather than power, since the Argentina keeper was in no man’s land. It turned out to be a great goal anyway, but let’s not pretend that his shot wasn’t more likely to go sailing over the net. 8 times out of 10, Rebic fucks that chance up.

He was far too aggressive in that Argentina first half, and was very lucky to not get red carded. He messed up a few runs toward goal too and Perisic and his teammates looked upset with him. Dalic opted to keep him on, when most of us wanted to take him off and the pressing game finally paid off…BUT we all closed our eyes and held our breath when we watched him unnecessarily wind up to crank that shot full blast at the Argentina net.

If he missed that shot, he would’ve been subbed out shortly afterward and who knows how we would have viewed his performance after the World Cup.

In the end, I think he’s a good player to have off the bench in certain situations. Having depth and a wide array of skillsets is always good. But if his presence messes up the lockerroom, then he’s not a big loss.

Yes a hundred times over Slavonac, as per our last conversation about the striker problem all the players listed are a little bit wiser with ball, especially Livaja out of the names listed, and Petkovic and Orsic to name a few.

I am not fond of Vlasic or Brekalo, or Budimir so I would opt for younger talent or different talent like Colak from Scottish Premiership and or Marin Ljubicic from the Austrian League as they are scoring way more goals right now. They have a knack for being in the right place at the right time, and are proving their worth. Rebic is not doing this and to top things off I jury is a constant issue with him as well. The last part of the argument may not be fair but it’s life.

When you have an issue goals being scored and no traditional number 9, like how we do not, then you put the players who are in form and scoring. I think it’s pretty plain and simple to me. Rebic does not solve this issue unfortunately. While thos newer or you get talent is a risk l, I think it’s a risk worth taking here for Dalic personally.