Lots of moving parts this week since Dalić’s initial squad call-up list a few weeks ago for the final two Euro 2024 qualifiers against Latvia (away) and Armenia (home) this week, Croatia Week reports.
-Kovačić and Petković are staying home with injuries
-Gvardiol will be moving to left-back
-Vlašić is getting called back up to the squad
Look, at the end of the day, our beloved Vatreni should easily get by the likes of Latvia and Armenia with our B-squad. I know that’s a bit cocky coming off of back-to-back losses against Turkey and Wales last month, but it’s the truth, especially in must-win games. Both Kovačić and Petković will not be missed for Croatia’s last two matches of 2023 and you all know where I stand on Kova playing alongside Modrić in the Croatian midfield…it’s a waste of a position. There’s nothing Kova does that Modrić doesn’t already do so this will open up an additional attacking spot in front of Modrić and Brozović for the squad.
It also appears that Dalić has been taking notes from Manchester City manager, Pep Guardiola, this season. Dalić will move his 21 year-old phenom defender, Joško Gvardiol, from center defense to the left-back position; where he currently plays for City. Will it matter at the end of the day against Latvia? Probably not. But it will be nice to see Gvardiol able to move up the left flank with less defensive responsibility. This comes with both Sosa and Barišić unable to lock the position down over the past year.
With the injury omissions of Kova and Petko, that means Vlašić has been called up from the stand-by list. He has been luke warm with a goal for Torino in the past month. Maybe Dalić plays him on the right wing (start or off the bench) with Kramarić as the supporting striker behind Budimir. That’s where I think Dalić’s head is with the current crop of players.
Remember, if Croatia win both games against Latvia and Armenia this week AND Wales fail to win both of their matches, Croatia will automatically qualify for Euro 2024 next summer in Germany. And I have already gone on record multiple times saying Wales will not pick up 2 wins against Armenia and Turkey to close out qualifying.
I to ti je to…
Pinnacle:
Armenia +313
Draw +256
Wales -107
••••••••
Latvia +2097
Draw +807
Croatia -796
(Goal line: Croatia -2 -139)
Dalic will play this shit formation…
………………….A Budimir…………………..
Ivanusec ………………………M Pasalic
………….Modric……..Kramaric………..
Gvardiol……..Brozovic…….Stanisic
….……….D Vida………Sutalo.………….
…………………..Livakovic………………….
then will be defeated by Suuper Latvia
Why do you think this lineup can’t beat Latvia? I’m not saying this is the perfect lineup, but c’mon its Latvia not Brazil.
because they will go suupppeer!! you fool –
………this lineup is not strong enough………
jebiga… not sure why i wasted my time replying to this clown. My bad.
We need those young legs creating the energy at Riga, Latvia, temps are going to be freezing.
Budimir is on fire, please supply him often.
As much as I love Kovačić, these next two matches need more attacking compliments to Modrić. We have seen the hole in the attacking third left by Perišić.
These young call ups are ready. They are all in form. I pray they don’t defer and man up in the final third.
This may be a blessing in disguise if these kids can create some moments for us.
This is one of those get your legs going and press from the jump.
Shoot early and often.
The team needs to see goals and dynamic attacking play to get back in the flow.
NO back passes and lazy square balls for this one. Lose the ball attacking and get it back again.
Forget flawless.
Be imaginative, make mistakes going forward.
Let the kids attack without veteran judgement.
If Budimir doesn’t get service I will scream. It’s basic understanding they’re parking 9 behind the ball, so unless there’s some brilliant plan I don’t see us having success without utilizing the wings. Majer will probably start on the right, but I would put Baturina/ at 10 and play 2 6’s. Won’t happen, if Krama doesn’t play hard do you bench him for the second game?
why play two 6s against Latvia?
Y’all forget, Zlatko played šime at lb against Ukraine in the clutch to go to Russia. Who was it that played him there against Brazil in ‘14??
Marco Pašalić ima top u nozi
Niko Kovac
Italy vs Macedonia on Friday
Armenia vs Wales on Saturday morning
These are a couple of critical games to watch
Yes, the Armenia v Wales match is kicking off 3 hours ahead of our match. I have access to it, but I won’t be watching it. I reckon I’d be a nervous wreck. I’ll tune in to Nova TV for our pre match introduction and hope that they will have good news about the Armenia match.
why would you be nervous. You are not playing.
With Juranovic most likely out with injury, our defence will be Stanisic, Sutalo, Erlic and Gvardiol with Livakovic in goal. This should be good enough for Latvia providing we do not make some silly errors like Livakovic coming off his line against Turkey and Wales and being lobbed.
I’m optimistic that we will beat Latvia and Armenia. However, I’m not so optimistic that Wales will drop points against Armenia and Turkey? Turkey is our best bet away in Cardiff? we are going to need some luck to go our way, but I have already resigned myself to the fact that we will most likely be in the play offs next March.
Regarding kovacic, if we’re playing a top team then kova should start, if we’re playing a shitty team and modric and broz are already starting then kova should not start. simple.
With the forced omission of kovacic for the upcoming games we’ll see budimir finally score because an attacking support player will most likely be added instead of kovacic. Despite this blessing in disguise dalic will try his hardest to mess up the balance and attack of our team by forcing a CB to play LB. Sosa and JJ both started when we spanked latvia 5-0. Next game vs Armenia dalic starts barisic and stanisic, and our attack is greatly diminished. Game after that vs Turkey barisic and stanisic also start and our attack was non existant. Basically a back 4 of all CBs lol. Dalic also played vida instead of erlic last game vs wales. he is one dumb man.
We might finally see the budimir kramaric combo uptop alongside two real wingers. I don’t want to see anyone not named ivanusec, pjaca, marco pasalic playing winger. Vlasic, mario pasalic, and majer are center attacking mids, not wingers, it doesn’t work and never will.
Seems like Juranovic is not fully fit… if he were to drop out, who should Dalic call up to the squad?
Gvardiol is a center back ffs. Enough of him moving left, he’s waay more valuable in the center. We have to stop making him more than what he is.
He is, the most expensive CB in our history. That’s where he will be
How fast is Pongracic in terms of pure speed and how good/fast is he in moving the ball fwd ?
Is he better that Erlic and Satulo ?
Don’t know – but one of them is half-decent
Dalic should try some Ange-ball
That way instead of Gvardiol going up and down the wing – he can spend more/most of his time inverted into the midfield and receive the ball from the back (hence the q if one of them is quick) and drive fwd
Same w/ Juranovic from other side
If Pongračić continues to play well at his club, he has a chance to get some starts for us.
He’s essentially the same kind of player as Šutalo. Tall and fast, with some solid offensive/passing skills.
Vida is just as good as the aforementioned players. It’s no loss to put in vida over erlic or the other guy. They all the same
Vida is completely inept offensively.
Can’t make a forward pass to save his life and is no longer good enough defensively to make up for it.
We never replaced Raketić as Perisić was the only midfielder we had who could actually penetrate, score an occasional goal and set up the striker, so the last two results shouldn’t be shocking since Luka was mostly unrecognizable.
I know it won’t happen, but this would be the perfect time to start Martin Baturina. The guy can actually make things happen. I’m fed up with Lovro Majer and I don’t want to see an unskilled like guy like Vlasić in there.
What has he actually made happen for Dinamo in the last few months.
Are you watching the games? Even with a depleted Dinamo squad with transfers and injuries, he is still standing out among the crowd.
Wow kovacic has been sucking lately since his injury to the point where he has to be benched because of his injury… everybody is sour now because kova is some magic wizard that does all this in a secret role that’s special to him and we don’t know about it? If he was healthy he would be playing, he’s not so let’s see what happens with some fresh blood and fresh lineups..jeezus Christo
This isn’t the kovacic wake, he didn’t get kicked off the team, he’s stale right now so rest him and reenergize him.. until then I want to see some attacking in his place since we need to score and get some offensive momentum. These are supposed to be meaningless games for a tournament we should have already qualified. Now they are like do or die and we need a spark Instead you want to play a busted kovacic who is doing special magic 🪄 that only certain experts can see…I say have different players and different options and see who has the heart right now instead of the same thing that isn’t working over and over. We need to score it’s as simple as that…
Don’t we qualify if we win the next two games regardless of what Turkey or Wales do ?
It doesn’t matter what Turkey does, but Wales have to drop points for us to qualify directly.
Why ? If Wales wins both games they and we win both. Then Cro Turkey and Wales all have 16 points. We would have a better head to head than turkey and better goal difference.
head to head against Turney doesnt matter. Have to include all three teams with same point total
If Wales beats Turkey then we lose on the three-way head to head record and Wales would top the group.
We have only 1 point in our Wales games and 3 points in our Turkey games (4 total).
Wales would have 3 points against Turkey (assuming they win next week) and they got 4 from us (7 total).
Turkey would have 6 total from their win against us and they beat Wales back in Turkey already.
However, I don’t think Wales win over Turkey.
Turkey has a shiny new Italian coach and they’re playing great. I think they want to top the group and grab a top seed at the Euros in front of the massive Turkish diaspora.
Wales will also have trouble with Armenia because Armenia can still qualify if they beat Wales.
Armenia has home field advantage, and if they win then Wales is done (with Armenia taking their place in the standings).
This would set up a do-or-die match against us in Zagreb, with Croatia and Armenia playing for qualification.
Yep, agree that Turkey is in the midst of a new coach bounce. I had a look at the current overall ranking of teams in EURO qualifying. Seems like Turkey’s chances of getting a top seed at EURO aren’t great but I’m sure they will still want to top the group. It would be perfect if they can get a good result in their friendly against Germany prior to the match against Wales, as they will feel even more confident.
So its total points between teams that are tied on points. Got it. Thanks,
If Dalic had the nerve to make changes based solely on current form then he’d start Marco Pasalic as our right attacker, Budimir as the striker and either Ivanusec or Pjaca on the left. I’m no Budimir fan (although I always wish him well) but at the current moment, he has the hot hand so I agree we go with him. Marco Pasalic is always dangerous and I’d prefer to see him start the game on the right over anyone else because he’s been really good this season and I’d slit my wrist if I saw Vlasic starting…he’s still useless in my books and Maminjo once described him perfectly…”rugby player”! I watched Pjaca play the other day and the guy still has some incredible skills as well as brains. I’d love to see him get the start if Ivanusec doesn’t!
To those of you that crap all over Kova, I’d ask if you knew what his role is? The guy is not Modric and he’s never been a Modric type player. He’s simply the guy that brings the ball from defense to attack…he’s never been “expected” to be a goal scorer and EVEN though he terribly lacks the “killer instinct” in the final 3rd of the field he always seems to end up on top European clubs. Have any of you asked yourself why? Are you somehow expecting him to become a goal-scorer or brilliant attacker? Is that what you see when you watch games on tv? Only attacking responsibilities and creativity? If so, you are missing out on an entire other part of the game and I get that the average casual fan may not identify this but for those of you that have been watching for years…you need to understand that not everyone is gifted and competent at all parts of the game. Mateo Kovacic is brilliant at moving the ball from deep in his zone through some very tight spaces and transitioning the play forward…thats an extremely difficult thing to do.
Overall I see us winning these next two games, at the moment we have the perfect formula to get the results. Kramaric is back in the mix and probably hungry to score, Budimir is definitely hungry to prove himself again after being overlooked recently, Marco Pasalic along with Marko Pjaca will be hungry and keen to prove Dalic made the right decision to bring them in. There is new blood which means new competition. I really hope we see Baturina get some minutes because I think this kid is special…he’s a fighter, he’s not easy to take the ball from and he’s very creative and always pushing forward. Between Baturina and Sucic we will hopefully get a competition to see who’s more suited to lead our attackers.
Its time we send Vlasic packing. He’s 26 years old, he’s already been on 5 different teams in the last 6 seasons (not including his time at Hajduk). Many here have tried to pump his tires by stating “he plays in Italy”…which really doesn’t say much if you’ve been paying attention….between Vlasic and Brekalo we have two guys that have not met their so-called potential and I’m not sure if we ever will!
Nice post, a lot of good points to ponder for all. In the end we all just want to keep on the winning ways, the last six to eight years we have experienced.
Good post / points
Presumable Pasalic Marco and Pjaca have some sort of chemistry playing together every day – so definitely agree – we should start them together and see if they can replicate for us
100% on Vlasic (crazy he has 53 caps for us)
And we should have probably called up Franjo Ivanovic from Rijeka too – and start an all-Rijeka front line (instead of wasting him calling him up to the silly U21) – we would not have had any excuses not to have the front line in sync / chemistry
Why Franjo Ivanović though?
Still trying to understand why his name keeps coming up when he doesn’t scores goals.
Great to have a good agent and marketing team I guess.
Wrong…Brozo is the guy that drops back to pick up the ball from deep and distribute. We need a midfielder who can create chances and Kova does not create. For the majority of his career he has been used as a sub and that is how he should be use for the national team. Susic, Majer & Baturina are better options right now.
Slavonac the Kovapologist, Kova dribbles the ball forward and either misses a pass or usually loses the ball. He’s a back passer or lateral passer that is scared to have the ball at his feet. Also he’s not one of those guys that makes those around him better, him being out is addition by subtraction. You can write a whole dissertation on the value of Kova but he fails the stats test and most certainly the eye test. Peddle that fugazi analysis elsewhere because anyone that has any knowledge of how good football is played knows that Kova is dead weight.
Based on current form, should Livakovic be starting?
Who else do we have right now?
Ante – You’re argument about Kovacic and Modric as a repeat player:
This is not a basketball court.
It’s a huge field where similiar types of players aren’t a problem.
They are both excellent at what they do – that’s what matters.
I agree. Kovacic is an elite player, we have to make space for the guy. I’ve enjoyed reading all the posts. Hope to see Sucic play and some of the other young guys are very exciting
Did you watch the world cup? Kovacic was terrible, right? that’s why he gets starts for the best club team on the planet. I remember when a bunch of people on this site said Rakitic and Modric play the same position so they can’t be on the pitch at the same time.<Duhh! Rebic made the key play this past weekend for his team; can't use him neither. Apparently Croatia has a secret storehouse of world class players that Dalic can only choose when the lesser players he chose suddenly aren't available.
Good point. We are always comparing everyone to modric, and there will only be just one modric in his prime. Modric days of being modric are even quickly coming to an end as well. Unfair to Kovacic. If we had better striker’s we would not be putting so much pressure on Kovacic to be someone he is not and will never be.
Ironically there is probably more overlap b/w Kovacic and Brozovic on the pitch (and agree it’s silly to compare anyone to Modric)
I don’t think you need both of them on the pitch – unless you want a more defensive lean in the midfield (bc we’re playing a team with strong pushing mid a la Belgium KDB)
the MORONS are out in full force AGAIN: “croatia is BETTER without Kovacic available” !!!!
Who else should we pray gets injured so Dalic can’t choose them?
Thanks for the insight Billo. It’s called addition by subtraction, but calling people that have a different and very valid opinion morons spelled in capitals to emphasize how stupid we are is really classy. Look at Kavacic’s stats at both club and international level, his stats are meager. Couple his lowly stats that with watching him play and a person with a reasonable level of sports IQ realizes he’s a back-passing plodder with minimal impact. However we should all defer to you Billo as you now best. LOL
Sorry to hear, that we are not giving Sosa, more chances to redeem himself. Still would like to see him at left back and rather, put Gvardiol at right back if an attacking lineup is what we seek. Maybe I just got on the Sosa bandwagon, and I am having trouble getting off. Never good at cutting my losses.
Whatever happened to Juranovic as well. I thought we had the backline figured out at least. I thought Juranovic was doing good. Can’t keep up with the everchanging fortunes of the croatian players.
I’m glad we will get to see josko in a more
Aggressive role.. ive been waiting for kovacic to do something for like 10 years
This is going to be his best work.. nothing
But this time it’s from the sidelines. We have Modric right now until that changes or he can figure out how to be effective this is going to be refreshing to see. The last time he did something I can remember was when he pushed the ball up the field against Iceland in a must game and srna got the ball and scored….since then not sure ???
Let’s wrap up these 2 games and focus on a scoring and winning lineup for euro 24. I don’t want to see the we can’t score we don’t have a striker story anymore!
Mateo scored two goals against turkey most recently, probably be the pinnacle of his career. The Blacksmith has steel shoes, no touch or strength, go figure. Not enough of a consistent threat, just a flicker of light now and then. The coals of our future to not glow brightly, with him tending the hearth.
I guess the 11 will be Livaković – Juranović, Šutalo, Vida/Erlic, Gvardiol – Modrić, Brozović; Kramarić – Majer, Ivanušec – Budimir
Ya that’s what I was thinking too
Do majer more on the right? Or krama more on the right?
The implementation of both krama and majer should help to the creative juices flow Budimir is hot.
We don’t need him to be our saviour for two years We just need two games
Or will he do a vlasic/pasalic right side?
I like to leave pasalic for the last 20-30 mins where he is full of gas and cause some problems for the opposing D and if we need that later in match goal
I think we will win these games. With Kova out our chances of winning shot up.