It’s no secret Croatia has been plagued with injuries as of late, and with Petković and Kovačić missing this international window, there are two open spots on Dalić’s starting eleven this time around. Yes, it’s just Latvia and Armenia, but any little slip up can be costly at this stage in qualification as Croatia MUST secure all six points. How does Dalić line up? Here are some suggestions…
Bold Move
If Dalić opts to make big changes in the squad, perhaps a bold move is the way to go, however unlikely considering his typical pragmatism. As already mentioned, Gvardiol will be playing in his Man City left-back role since Sosa and Barišić haven’t impressed as starters. This opens a center-back role for one of Erlić or Pongračić should Dalić make proper adjustments. If Dalić goes bold, he moves with the youth, in which we can see an in-form Sučić potentially start in attacking midfield in front of the Modrić-Broz duo, and maybe we see the Rijeka duo of Pjaca and Marco Pašalić on the wings? However, this would make 4 new additions to the line up and the odds Dalić does this are very low. Expect Ivanušec on the left and probably Kramarić on the right, but perhaps we see the Rijeka duo get some late minutes. Ante Budimir is a top 3 goal scorer in La Liga this season thus the striker role is his, at least against Latvia. I believe injecting some youthful attackers has the benefit of a more determined and hungry play style, but probably more wasteful as well. However cut throat Marco Pašalić has been in the HNL, doing it in Croatian checkers is a different story, as seen with Beljo’s intense but insufficient cameo. Dalić will probably opt for his more trusty “fox in the box” Mario.
Plug and Play *
This plug and play line up contains an asterisk because I do believe one of Baturina, Sučić, Marco P or Pjaca will get minutes in this international break, meaning a new call-up will see some playing time. However, historically, Dalić has felt more comfortable opting for a “Plug and Play” style of dealing with squad changes. This would see Mario Pašalić most likely playing behind the striker with Kramarić in the right-wing role, where he has found some recent success. I don’t think you can really go wrong with this line up as it is the strongest one on paper. I like the new call-ups but I wouldn’t want to rely on them just yet in such crucial games, even against inferior opponents. Although I’d be much more intrigued to watch the likes of Pjaca, Marco P, Sučić or Baturina mesh within the National Team, I think Dalić goes the safer, and probably better, route.
It’s crunch time for Croatia. The usual “Cardiac Croatians” have been at it again this qualifying campaign, however, it’s time to quit playing games and take care of business. Hopefully Wales continues their patchy form and drops points in order for Croatia to cruise into the Euros. I think another play-off route would be detrimental to the cardiac health of Croatian fans around the globe.
How would you line up for the upcoming games? Where do you think Dalić goes with the squad?
*Update: Juranović will miss the clash with Latvia due to injury but will be back against Armenia*
Sucic!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Sit back and watch our boys ajde momci Za dom =U=
Careful with that =U+. You can not bring that flag into the stadium.
I hope that Dalic will use Erlic instead of Vida as one of the central defenders.
I would also like to see Marco Pasalic get a run sometimes during the match.
With Beljo being benched at club level he is not even in our U21 squad for the friendly against Slovakia and the qualifier against Belarus.
Watched our U19’s beat Armenia 2 – 1 in a qualifier played in Rovinj. Luka Vrbancic plays behind the forwards scored both of our goals. He looks a really good prospect and when Baturina leaves Dinamo I think that Vrbancic will be his replacement. Luka Vuskovic also had a good match, however Roko Brajkovic had a poor match on the left wing and did slightly better in the second half on the right wing.
Yes, Vrbanĉić showed skill and leadership ability.
Roko Brajkovic is a clear Right Winger, I don’t know why he gets put on the left wing most of the time. I remember watching the Hajduk u19 game against Milan and his first half wasn’t great at Left Wing. Come second half, he gets put on the Right Wing and is superb in which he picked up two assists and was always a constant threat.
Yea he was awesome that game. I think he’s a solid prospect for us.
I am pretty sure Dalic has more or less stated that he is not going to be changing the formation. He will more than likely, from the sound of it, stick with a 4-3-3 formation. So the 4-2-3-1 formation does not sound likely to me, it sounds more like a conjecture rather than an actual possibility, regardless of how good the formations and lineups above look to me.
As to the comments below, I think the Truth guy is a bit of a Negative Nancy and has been for the most part throughout past few years from what I have seen. The results are due to injury, Maminjo is right about this. What do you expect with 6 players missing from the squad and a plague of injured players? As with Maminjo’s comments from a previous post, any team, and the strongest of Nations would also struggle with this Croatia wouldn’t be alone in this. So if you think about it, if your correct Truth guy, then comments about a good run for Croatia should have ended in 98, but their continued success actually is proof to the contrary.
Being cynical is part of being Croatian. It’s good to not be so naive (like Westerners are), but at the same time it’s toxic to be negative all the time.
Lots of people thought we were going nowhere after Suker, Boban, Boksic and the 98 crew retired..but we’ve had a lot of depth over the years (even at striker where people complain about the most).
Olic, Mandzo, Klasnic, Prso, Eduardo, Kramaric, Petric are all very capable strikers who played in good leagues. To get this many strikers over a 15 year span ain’t bad at all. None were World Class like Suker, but name me a team who wouldn’t take a Mandzukic or a prime Eduardo.
Since when was Croatia not part of the West? The very history and even map of Croatia is literally defined by being on the front line defending the West, even up to being famously known as warriors against the Bolsheviks.
And calling Westerners “naive” is preposterous.
Why should all the unstoppable invasions in history stop at Vienna?
Ghengis Khan, Islam, Communism, each has rolled over and united everybody who fell under the general definition “mankind.” Then they slammed into the West.
We are NOT “mankind.” We are brawling, aggressive people no one can unite.
Or conquer.
Croatia is Central Europe.
The warrior country that keeps conquerers from advancing through its territory, allowing the more Western nations to live blissfully in fantasyland.
Okay clown, “we did it all by ourselves.” Dude, you’re destroying your credibility with such silly comments. Learn how NOT to respond to everything, learn when to keep your mouth shut.
You would be responding to me right now in Turkish if it wasn’t for us Croats.
What are you doing posting on a Croatian footballing site if you’re not Croatian nor into football?
Maminjo is part of the delusional guys here..
he doesn’t agree that we are lucky so far `
but I think he has come to realize
that Dalic is complete crap!
for counting on luck
So what I think will happen with these games is possibly some change with the lineup of players rather than the formation. That is mainly from those players who have been dropped rather than an expectation to see the younger players start. I think Dalic will mainly keep the younger players as substitutes with the only exception being Budimir, and those positions which need to be filled now. That is what I am anticipating to happen.
So in other words, Kovacic’s position will have to be filled as he has been dropped due to injury. Petkovic’s position will have to be filled as he has also been dropped due to injury. Perisic’s position will have to be filled as he has been dropped from the squad due to injury. This is what I am expecting. So we can more than likely expect to see Budimir, Ivanusec, Krama, and Majer to start. This is what I think will happen rather what I or others would want to happen.
The only thing that I am hoping to see is that Erlic and Sutalo get a chance to play side by side that is when our defense seemed the strongest during the Nations League qualifiers in my opinion and with Guardiol on the left and possibly Juranovic/Stanisic on the other side of our defense may be in a better position than it was previously. Although I would expect Dalic to play Vida as he tends to.
Thought Livakovic had figured out correct goalie positioning in the run up to the world cup, but just looks like he’s taken two steps backward, or in this case, fifty feet forward. Hope it was just a few stones in the road, and we are past it. Time for a session with the MD psychiatrist Modric.
He’s had a great year. Seems like it was two brain farts that happened at the worst possible time (both being game winning goals).
October was just a perfect storm of injuries, out of form players, indecisive coaching and goalkeeper errors.
Try not to be overly sanguine, ipak , Gore i Naprijed!
yea I agree with this notion completely. This site loves overreaction. . It loves to absorb any loss and run around with its head cut off screaming fire.
Croatia has had an incredible run. Sustaining it indefinitely was always unlikely, especially with injuries. There is the chance that indeed the wheels are coming off the Croatian team . But I think the team’s performance has been so good for so long that you keep riding it until the wheels definitively come off.
We’ve seen over and over again people call for fringe players to have starring roles only to receive confirmation of why these are fringe players who are playing in poor leagues and not being recruited elsewhere or not doing anything notable.
For a long time there were shouts for budimir, who flopped and now returns. There were calls for Musa and Beljo who both busted (although I was still intrigued by Beljo more so). Seemed like Musa was studying Petkovics energy levels.
No need to rock the boat like crazy.. If I had my way I’d make a line up like this.
Budimir
Ivanusec Kramaric
Majer Modric Brozovic
Sosa Gvardiol Erlic/Sutalo Stanisic
Livakovic
Subs: Sucic, some striker back up, pjaca/pasalic/pasalic etc
There…. was that so hard….
And just pray that Livakovic doesn’t run out of goal when he’s not supposed to and stay in goal when he’s supposed to come out. If he had those down, last round could’ve been different.
We don’t have to re-invent the wheel here with our lineup.
Our losses last round were the result of injuries and out-of-form players. Some better coaching moves could have been made, but those first two reasons are the main reason.
We got back a few players from injury (Ivanusec, Kramaric, Jura) and we have some players that are in form right now who didn’t get much of a chance last round (Majer, Erlic, Budimir) and we have some young players who have been playing well lately (Sucic, Baturina, Marco Pasalic).
– With Kovacic out, we can just throw Majer in his favored position behind the strikers and keep playing Krama in his regular role at RW with Ivanusec at LW.
– We can start the dependable Erlic, which allows us to have Gvardiol and Juranovic on the flanks providing service in the middle to Budimir.
– If we are up a couple of goals and guys like Ivanusec, Majer or Krama are becoming stagnant…we can try out Marco Pasalic, Sosa, Sucic or Baturina for those last 10-15 minutes to see what they can bring.
Other than this, it would be too risky to try and roll out too many new players simply because we messed up last month (and were perfectly fine up until that point).
It sucks that we don’t have a back up target man up top (in case Budimir has a bad game). Should have kept one of Musa or Beljo in there since Petkovic is out, but what can you do.
I agree!
Budimir starts up top and Krama + Ivanusec are wingers. If Budimir isn’t it cutting it Krama goes up top. And then we have Pjaca, Pasalic (Mario) and Marco Pasalic as subs for the wing.
Stanisic will need to step up since JJ is out for Saturday. Other then that. Majer slots in the middle with Brozo and Modric. This isn’t horribly complicated. Brozo and Modric need to run the show. Ajmo.