England
NIKO KRANJČAR IN ACTION AGAINST FULHAM
Niko Kranjčar and his Tottenham crew travelled to Craven Cottage on Boxing Day to take on Fulham FC. Kranjčar once again started for the Spurs in an exciting 0-0 draw which could have gone either way. After being fouled 20 yards out in the 20th minute, Niko struck the free kick only inches wide of the left post. He played well in the game; missing a few opportunities that could have lead to goals, but it’s hard to stay on fire week in and week out in the Premiership. With Tottenham having to play West Ham United 48 hours after the Fulham match, fatigue management must have been on players minds. Kranjčar was subbed out in the 71′ for Luka Modrić.
ĆORLUKA HOLDING HIS OWN
Vedran Ćorluka helped deny endless attacks from the Fulham strikers to preserve the clean sheet for Tottenham. Although it wasn’t Ćorluka’s ‘A game’, it got the job done as he seemed ‘out of it’ on a few plays. Ćarli played his usual 90 minutes for the Spurs but will we see him again on Monday against West Ham. With the Premiership schedule playing two rounds in one week, look for some regular starters to get some much needed rest this week. Tottenham is in the Champions League mix for next season and will only benefit from resting regulars and keeping them fresh throughout the final stretch with Arsenal, Manchester United, Chelsea, and Liverpool still having to compete in Europe.
MODRIĆ FIGHTING FOR THE HEADER
Luka Modrić entered the game in the 71′ but couldn’t get any solid looks on goal. He is still getting back in the thick of things but it’s fantastic to see him play without any problems from his broken leg. We still haven’t seen Modrić and Kranjčar start together. Is it in Harry Redknapp’s plans or will they only substitute each other the rest of the season?
MATCH HIGHLIGHTS
Photo: bwfc.co.uk, Ivan Klasnić
Ivan Klasnić and Bolton were in action at Burnley in front of 21,761 at Turf Moor. Ivan started and played 67 minutes in a 1-1 draw. After going up 1-0, Ivan failed to double the score just seconds before the halftime whistle, as Brian Jensen denied ‘the killer‘ his sixth premiership goal. Skysports gave Ivan a grade of 6, “should have done better with first-half chance.”
Eduardo failed to show up on Sunday in 64 minutes of work at home to Aston Villa. Arsenal scored all three goals after Eduardo left the pitch, giving Aston Villa their first loss in five matches. Skysports gave Eduardo a respectable grade of 7. Eduardo is having a rough road to recovery, scoring only twice in 12 Premiership games this season. Hopefully, Eddie will have better luck in 2010.
Nikola Kalinić was an unused substitute for Balckburn in a 1-1 away draw to Wigan. Nikola has yet to score a goal in ten Premiership matches. Blackburn have now gone winless in their last seven matches.
Belgium
PHOTO: clubbrugge.be, Ivan Perišić in action against Cercle Brugge KSV
Ivan Perišić played the entire match in Club Brugge’s 2-1 derby victory over Cercle Brugge KSV from the Jan Breydel Stadium on Saturday. With the win, Club Brugge remain in 2nd place of the Belgian Jupiler standings behind Anderlecht. Club Brugge are away at KV Kortrijk on Wednesday in league action.
It has been a solid season thus far for the young Perišić, who transferred from French outfit Sochaux after spending a season on loan at Roeselare of the Juliper league. With his transfer complete this past summer, the Split native saw action almost immediately for his new side, quickly becoming a fan favorite for his goal-scoring ability, work-ethic, and passionate celebrations. Perišić has enjoyed an abundance of playing time in the Belgian Jupiler League and also in the inaugural season of the UEFA Europa League, leading his squad out of the group stage (2nd place, Group J) to set up a two-leg knockout stage showdown with formidable Spanish side Valencia.
An incredible season in Belgium earned Perišić a well-deserved call-up from the Croatia U-21 National team coach Dražen Ladić. The move, along with the addition of fellow players Nikola Kalinić and Ivan Rakitić changed the makeup of the Croatia U-21 squad seemingly overnight. The roster moves propelled wins over Serbia, Cyprus, and Slovakia and moved Croatia into first place of Group 7 heading into 2010.
In time, with continued success on the club and NT level, the Jupiler League will become a thing of the past for young Perišić, as a new challenge will be needed to further develop him as a player. Big clubs from the big leagues will be certain to make offers for his services. Will 2010 be the year he makes the jump?
Next Matches:
Monday, 12/28
West Ham United at Tottenham, Sunderland at Blackburn
Tuesday, 12/29
Hull City at Bolton
Wednesday, 12/30
Arsenal at Portsmouth
Winter Breaks
Austrian Bundesliga resumes 2/13
Coupe de France resumes 1/9
French Ligue 1 resumes 1/16
Bundesliga resumes 1/15
Serie A resumes 1/6
La Liga resumes 1/3
Greek Super League resumes 1/6
Turkish Super Lig resumes 1/24
Ukrainian Premier league resumes 2/27
~Ivica Peroš reporting from Long Island, New York with Denis Svirčić and Ante Kvartuč reporting from San Pedro, California
Having said all that about Lovren lol having read that interest of Lyon i think Lovren should go to Lyon now. I even think Dinamo should accept 7m Euro for the player. I think he will play and develop in Lyon better than he will in Dinamo and if we reject there bid we will have an unhappy player. If Spurs or Chelsea bid Lovren goes nowhere, but if Lyon bid Mamic should drive him there himself.
For the remainder of the season we have enough cover in Biscan, Barbaric and Kovac and can even use Carlos for HNL1. Hopefully if Lovren goes we tie up signing Domogoj Vida or Bostjan Cesar to replace him.
RE: Zach G
that was ages ago though. Bilic can't select on what people did months ago. He has to go on Petric's current form and also Petric has been one of the worst players for Croatia recently. He needs to improve and that 100% means him being benched by Croatia.
I agree with Michael to a certain extent. Though lets not forget Jelavic scores in Austrian league. His goals make him 5th striker and nothing more in my opinion. I think you turn to Jelavic only after you seen that Eduardo, Olic, Klasnic, Petric and Mate is not working. Those 5 are in the big leagues, Jelavic is in the little leagues. I think you also got to question whether Jelavic is better than Budan. I don't believe he is. The only reason you select Jelavic over Budan at present is cos Jelavic is the future.
When comparing the forward line we got to ask how many Klasnic, Olic or Petric would score at Arsenal?? To me the answer is they prob would not do a lot better than Eduardo so i think that's why Eduardo should start. I believe Eduardo has to do something wrong in a Croatia shirt before we drop him. Its like dropping Suker prior to World 98 just cos he didn't play that much in Madrid. I think Eduardo is still the man for Croatia and all the others are competiting to partner him.
Yes Eduardo missed a couple of chances he should have put away for ARSENAL, but i also saw enough moments from him recently that still suggests he's a class act.
Petric had 5 goals before his injury
I fully believe that Klasnic has earned his way gack to the NT spot.
He is definitely above (in my eyes) Petric, Mandzukic and possibly Bilic. Him, Olic, Jelavic are the only 2 that seem to be consistently scoring.
Klasnic is a stud
Re: Anonymous
In my own time i'm sure i'll update my own blogspot http://hrvsoccer.blogspot.com/
so you can check that if you want. I'm already updating a lot of stuff on there at present which prob wouldn't get on CSR, so yeah feel to look on there to catch the same kind of stuff i was writing here.
Dinamofan:
Thank you very much for all that you brought to CSR. I'm one of those fans that love soccer but not having enough time to follow every news and all the players (especially the new ones). Your coverage of HNL was more then suficient for me and many of those like me. We are not an "experts", like some of people on this site like to think of themselves, but we enjoy and love soccer same as they do. I'll terribly miss your corespodence and that's why I'm asking you to be on the site as much as you can.
Thank you again and good luck with everything that you decide to do.
Happy New Year to you and to all CSR family.
Nice report as always gents! Keep up the great work, and sretna nova!
Croatians took a day off on boxing day i think. I actually think Redknapp should drop Kranjcar for Modric next game to give Niko a break and also bring in Jenas. Also think Klasnic needs break for Elmander and bring Ivan on in 50 something minutes.
Kalinic has got to start getting worried at his lack of playing time. McCarthy is apparently on Allardyce's transfer list, Di Santo is a Chelsea player and attacking midfielders like Holliet and Dunn are also ahead of him. This situation isn't all that healthy for Kalinic. He needs at least a goal in his next sub appearence.
I'm unimpessed by this Lovren link to Spurs or Chelsea. If they bid Dinamo will accept, but this guy is supposed to be the next centre back for Croatia after Simunic and Krizanac. That means he has to play and if he goes to EPL he will rarely play.
I think he needs one more year in Croatia. I can understand why Mamic wants Mandzo to go now as he seems to be going backwards, but Lovren has a lot of improvements to make to his game and needs one more year of Euro action at Dinamo and regular international football with Croatia to fix him up. If he leaves now we can throw him on the pile of Kalinic's and Rukavina's who sit in reserve at big clubs.
There was nothing exciting about the Spurs / Fulham game. Pretty dull overall. And while it could have gone either way, Fulham was definitely the better team on Saturday.
Kranjcar played decent enough, but was not in the same form he was his previous two matches.
Hopefully tomorrow we get to see Kranjcar and Modric on the pitch together against West Ham.
COYS!