Some noteworthy items regarding this call-up list for October from Dalić:
-Gvardiol will return (injury) which is great news as he’s our best defender
-Kovačić back on the squad (has yet to play for City this campaign). Maybe Dalić wants to get him some reps in the Gibraltar match. I can’t see him starting vs. Czechia.
-Luka Vušković has been called back to the senior side. Will Dalić play him? Probably not. Let him get the full 90 vs. Gibraltar. Come on!
-Stanišić called up but not expected to be available (knee injury)
-Luka Sučić still in the dog house
-Sosa and Vlašić have officially dropped to the stand-by list.
As expected, mourinho has reverted to 4231 formation and ivanovic has to sacrifice to play attacking mid role. He didnt play well and was the first to be subbed off..hopefully this is not the case like the downfall of musa
Similar baturina seems to be facing ante coric situtation.
Sucic is not yet starting 11 of inter..u wun know his status..esp if inter cant perform and sack chivu
What are you talking about?
Petar Sucic is in the starting eleven for Inter.
He only came off the bench in one game (which is normal for a top team in a top league to do).
I get that you’re a pessimist, but it’s nauseating how you twist things deliberately.
– Your pessimism around Luka Sucic and Baturina potentially wasting a season is valid.
– Ivanovic is actually doing well in Benfica so far this season, so using a one-game sample is premature.
– The Petar Sucic pessimism is just outright lying. He’s having a breakout year, and people around the World have taken notice.
You’re never going to have every single one of your young players clicking at 100% at the exact same time.
Having Petar Sucic and Franjo Ivanovic explode onto the scene (after transferring to two of the top teams in Europe) is remarkable…especially at the age of 21.
On top of this…we have an 18-YEAR OLD man-child who just scored HSV’s first Bundesliga goal in 7 years (and this kid is a CB).
This gives us some great options for the World Cup.
Sure, it’s not great that Baturina will have to wait for his opportunity, and Luka Sucic needs to get to full form before continuing his development. Results will take some time with these two, but that’s okay.
We pretty much had most of our team set for the World Cup, but now we have three potential SUPERSTAR youngsters breaking out this year.
The best part of it all is, that it’s a striker, a midfielder and a defender (nicely spread out options).
If you told me at the very beginning of this season that we’d have the Italian media praising Petar Sucic daily…
Franjo Ivanovic transferring to Benfica for 30 million Euro and immediately started scoring goals… and
18 year-old Luka Vuskovic continuing his goal streak in the Bundesliga…
I would have taken that any day of the week.
To clarify further.
For petar sucic, i am mentioning inter performance is yet to be rated..they are not consistent yet under chivu who is not so experienced.
I hope ivanovic is not going to play on attack midfieder role wk in wk out..bcoz thats not his natural position..
Baturina case is different..he is playing with a squad packed with experienced players..difficult to break into first team. I like coric and baturina and their playing style..even they are really good, it is just difficult to break into starting 11. U need many factors, not just playing well but also a manager who trusts.
Pulisic with two goals for Milan, unfortunately, he did not feel the passion to play for Croatia. Albeit, he used Croatia to be able to play in the english league. What could have been.
One can only imagine how awesome he could have been on our squad.
Croatia has an embarrassment of riches.
We have an 18 year-old CB (Vuskovic), making noise in the Bundesliga
We have a 21 year-old 30 million Euro starting striker at Benfica
We have a 21 year old star midfielder at Inter Milan
All breaking out onto the scene this season alone…along with Christian Pulisic blowing up right now…not to mention a 40 year-old Modric somehow still statistically being rated as one of Europe’s best midfielders this season (with Real Madrid fans furious with their ownership for letting him go).
Amazing other than some groin, hip flexors issues, Modric has been amazingly one of the most durable athletes. Everyone else seems to be day by day. Don’t remember the 90’s teams having so many severe injuries. The competition of the sport has become more aggressive and demanding, although Brozovic was a smoker like prosinecki, and were still able to compete.
If Dalic calls up players like Baturina who barely gets any minutes on the pitch with their club, I think Luka Sucic should be on the squad, not just stand-by.
I feel like that’s just an annoying ego thing from Dalić. I bet he’s gonna end up activating his call up if someone else falls out
As much as I’m also a Marco Pasalic Fan, I saw that he has ‘’only’’ 15 goals in 30 match in the MLS, which I don’t find impressive for the league. Like it’s definitely fine but I feel like that’s the equivalent of 7-8 goals in a top 5 league. I do however love the energy he brings on the pitch when playing for the repka and wish he’d get a significant amount of minutes
I have a feeling though that as some of you called, Ivanovic will possibly be starting on the right wing next match – though from the look of it in today’s match it’s not going well with benfica so maybe he just jeopardized that option
I agree with the MLS comment. It’s a bush league.
Nonetheless, Marco Pasalic is still a decent bench option that we should have tried by now (especially when we badly needed the width at Euro2024).
Both Marco Pasalic and Marko Pjaca give us something different on the wing.
Both should be bench players on the National Team, ready to come off the bench to mix things up.
“Inter Milan marquee summer signing Petar Sucic has quickly leapfrogged long-serving midfielder Davide Frattesi in the pecking order.
Though Henrikh Mkhitaryan often occupied that position last term, the situation has changed upon Sucic’s arrival.
Despite only recently joining the club, Petar Sucic is already making waves in Serie A. He has overtaken several more experienced clubmates in the hierarchy.”
…and you guys were worried 😜
Ivusic has no business being on this list. He should be replaced by Pandur
I don’t have any complaints about this list. Here’s why: Dalić is being pretty clear on who the members of the core team are, which is why he’s called Stanišić and Kovačić, who probably won’t play because both are injured. He wants the players on the standby list to know that as much as they may be valued, they simply aren’t cutting it to be called up. However, I can see Smolčić and Matanović eventually being invited for these two matches to replace Stani and Kova. It’s also good to see Musa being rewarded with recognition for his excellent play in MLS. You could argue that Pongračić and Erlić don’t belong, but I think Dalić wants to prepare for all situations in the back going into 2026, and the way to do that is to have a lot of players trained to be able to slot in. Again, we have seen Pongračić and Erlić play very well (Pongračić played well against Italy at the last Euros, for example), and Dalić is right not to give up on them just yet, especially since Gvardiol and Šutalo are somewhat injury-prone and since technical yellow and red cards are going to be handed out like candy at the world cup in North America (my prediction). Miidfield depth is obviously not an issue for Croatia, and aside from a direct substitute for Budimir, we look set in the forwards department, with Fruk, Ivanović, Marco Pašalić, Budimir, Perišić, Kramarić and Mario Pašalić each offering something different in the final third. I would like to see Matanović added to this squad once the roster expands to 26
I’ll admit that six CBs is too many to eventually take to the WC, but I don’t see a problem with having them all for this international break. Eventually two of them will need to be dropped.
Great Anonymous Doom,
I agree with your post mostly. However, I do think that Pongracic isn’t a particularly strong defender but he may prove me wrong. I think that he dropped both Sosa and Vlašić was the right move, they are not in form.
Like you I think that Matanović is the obvious choice especially from how he played in the few games for us in a previous tournament. He had good positioning and was very unlucky not to bag a couple of goals in my view. Hopefully Dalic gives him the nod soon.
I would like to see Vusković play and potentially start at least one of the games. Visković is on great form.
I hope that Luka Sučić comes back sooner rather than later. His sister should have changed the date to avoid all of this, and communication should have been better. It’s very stupid that the situation is what it is. Whether you agree or disagree with Dalic, he has been pretty clear on this issue before. I believe that Erlic had to miss his sister’s wedding, and Modrić’s sister changed hers to a different date. I mean the evidence was there that this would happen to Luka Sučić if he didn’t comply.
@Maminjo
Re Mourinho’s post-game quote on Ivanovic, I just wanna add that last season Mourinho was coaching Fener and Fener played against Union SG in the Europa League. I can’t remember what Mourinho said exactly but he praised Ivanovic after that game, meaning he probably had a good impression of Franjo prior to taking charge of Benfica. If that’s true, then we can be happy that Franjo confirmed that good impression by showing up for Mourinho’s first game at Benfica. Okay I know it’s just 1 game against the bottom side, but hopefully Franjo will remain in favor with his new boss hehe.
No complaints here.