Look, I’m no football manager and I’ve never coached a professional team in my life, so who am I to speak against the great Pep Guardiola? But something is starting to smell awful fishy in Manchester with Gvardiol playing the left-back position instead of his native center-back role. Manchester City obviously had a plan bringing over Gvardiol from Leipzig for $90 million this summer. They forked over some pretty hefty “chedda cheese” for a 20 year-old defender. So I can only assume this is exactly what Pep wanted as he likes to play a more offensive-minded formation with “3 in the back” instead of four defenders.
Was City’s plan to groom Gvardiol into a left-back the entire time or eventually let him play where he has made a name for himself: at center-back? The dude (Pep) has won trophies wherever he goes, so it’s hard to argue his tactics, but will the Gvardiol “Left-Back Experiment” work out? Dalić tried it against Latvia and Gvardiol looked a bit uncomfortable earlier this month. I’ve watched plenty of City the past few weeks and Gvardiol is simply getting burned left and right by strikers/wingers who are faster than him.
It’s obviously still too early to tell if Gvardiol will work at the left-back spot, but the results don’t lie in recent matches. Manchester City have dropped points in four straight Premiership matches and now trail 1st place Arsenal by six points. On top of that, City have conceded 11 goals in their last five matches. That’s not good.
So something has to give.
Will Pep keep his tactics the way they are during the slide or shake things up to bolster his side defensively? The good news: City get KDB back this month. He has already been named to the Club World Cup squad that will be playing in Saudi Arabia December 12-22nd.
Gvardiol received a 4/10 grade from Manchester Evening News Wednesday night vs. Villa as he had “A rough night up against Bailey where he was beaten more often than not by the tricky winger.” Goal.com was a bit more forgiving with a 6/10 rating: “Made a goal-saving tackle to deny Youri Tielemans in the first half, but only after giving the ball away. Continued to step in with bold blocks, and seemed to relish the pace of the game.”
This is obviously a situation all Croatian fans are monitoring as Gvardiol’s confidence must remain high moving forward as it will be him and only him we build the Croatian defense around for the next decade.
Frigan was on target. Westerlo won 2-1 in a relegation six-pointer at Kortrijk and Frigan opened the scoring in the 33rd min, but later picked up an injury and left the field in the 54th min. Kortrijk equalized about 10 minutes later, before Frigan’s replacement – Makedonija striker, Erdon Daci – netted the winner in the 87th (dammit, hopefully Frigan will return quickly as I’m sure Daci will now take over his place in the starting eleven). After sacking their coach, Westerlo is currently managed by an interim duo which includes former Belgium international Bart Goor.
Excerpts from the Westerlo website match report:
“While Bos’s toes prevented a goal, a toe from Frigan did result in a goal. On a long cross from Bayram, the Croatian striker cleverly slipped past his opponent to tap the ball past a bewildered Vandenberghe.
[…]
Both teams faced an additional opponent in the second half. The field at the Guldensporenstadion not only facilitated inaccuracies in passing but also caused an injury to goal scorer Frigan. He was replaced by Daci before the hour mark.”
Heya moderators I wrote a comment to MART and Soul Champ. Please help to unlock it, cheers!
@MART
https://croatiansports.com/will-the-refs-be-kind-to-croatia-in-2024/#comments/501957
Ah touche, it would be too risky to start Sosa in those matches. Guys like Ferran Torres are too much of a threat. If Perisic doesn’t make it back in time… err is it going to be Gvardiol at LB??♂️
@Soul Champ
https://croatiansports.com/will-the-refs-be-kind-to-croatia-in-2024/#comments/501967
Both assists with Vlasic’s left foot? Nice… I still think there’s something left in him. Maybe he’ll rebound one day who knows. It’s good that Vlasic and Majer are under the guidance of Croatian coaches at their respective clubs.
As for Mario P, it’s a shame he’s so undervalued by Gasperini.
https://streamin.me/v/ca8a8d14
Lovely turn from Kramaric. Clinical finish.
Great movement off the ball to make that play happen, too.
Good stuff, hope Krama stays in form through to the Euros.
We need a coach like Pep for our NT. Maybe we would have won some silverware already.
Maybe yes, maybe no. Also Croatia can’t and won’t pay a good foreign coach. I question how great Pep is, after all he signed off on Kova, that’s some poor scouting in my opinion. We shall see if Kova can turn it around but I’m gonna say he will be riding the pine unless the injury bug bites.
Truth be told, Outside of Portugal, Spain, Germany, Brazil, and Argentina, the rest of the world is envious of our success to date.
Top club managers rarely coach international teams, and if they do, it’s usually during the tail end of their careers when they want to cash out…or they do it for their own nation (and not others).
Some coaches that did this are Mancini, Santos, Flick, Bielsa, Deschamps, and Cappello. I can see Ancelotti and Mourinho doing this soon too.
There are some coaches who make a career out of it early (like Hiddink and Martinez) but you have to take chance with them and hope it works out, as these guys didn’t have a big club resume before taking on National team coaching roles.
A very recent example is what Turkey did by hiring Vincenzo Montella who was a Serie A coach with over a decade of coaching experience (but not at any big clubs) and now he’s looking like a great hire for them.
This is probably something that we should be looking at doing. Since our budget seems to be 1.5 million+ Euros per year, we should be looking at coaches with at least a decade’s worth of experience in the top-4 leagues. It’s a risk, but so is hiring a rookie former player coach, which is almost always going to fail (like it has with us in the past).
But guys like Klopp or Pep definitely won’t be coaching a National Team until they are 60+ years of age and want to cash out (like Mancini is currently doing with Saudi Arabia).
The kid is in his early twenties and is playing in one of the most difficult leagues… What are people expecting for every game to be perfect??
Sure his price tag is high, and he is adapting to the style of play it is considerably different from Bundesliga and other leagues. There is a lot more grit in the EPL.
I would expect at his stage for there to be some adjustment on Gavrdiol’s part. Kovacic, however, needs to step up. Kova is in his late twenties (nearly in his thirties), a decade apart nearly from Gvardiol. Kova’s is making very little contribution to the overall club and team. Here we should be having some discussions. Kova has not reached the stage where we can safely say he is a suitable candidate to takeover in the midfield. This is a much more troubling problem for us really.
Kovacic took a big step forward in his second season at Chelsea back in 2019-20, but he’s largely been treading water since.
He’s passable as a starting midfielder for us, but that whole Modric “heir” ship has sailed a long time ago.
Baturina has a higher potential to fit that lead midfield role for us than Kova does.
Unfortunately, Modric, was made from a unique mold. Small, agile, but strong, and intelligent. Tough to ever replace. It was just the greatest gift to watch him develop and play all else years. Just to think, they prejudged him as the biggest flop in Spain, when he first arrived from england.
City is struggling right now, so they’re looking for a whipping boy.
When I dared to bring up recent defensive weakness issues, regarding the national team last month, specifically break away counter attacked goals, I was hammered. I am glad others are echoing my concern, whatever the solution needs to be.
With that said I am open for a more offensive stance if it behooves us, if the increased offensive production, is not at the expense of a porous defense.
Not trying to place blame, just want what is best for the team.
Mrš nazad preko Drine!
Lol, evo nas opet !
The Spanish/ Madrid press also bashed Luka in his first year in Spain. In fact I think he was dubbed the biggest flop….500 games at Madrid later, we all know how that turned out.
I’m sure Joško will work out fine
Bog i Hrvati
Convenient error in the AP story today about Girona.
••
Ancelotti says he hopes to have the injured Luka Modrid back in time for Betis.
He’s fine, much to do about nothing.
I am sure the people here know more than Pep.
Davor sounds like he’d be fun to hang out with at parties.
I bet he can at least order a drink properly at a kafic in the summer
And probably not where another man’s name on his back;)
Gvardiol played “left-back” in a back 3 @ Leipzig
See heat map from 2021/2022 season – that’s the heat map of a left-back (not a centre-back)
<<>>
He’s playing the same position at Man City when they line-up w/ a back 3
At Dinamo he on occasion also played “left-back”
So no clue why people are saying Pep is playing Gvardiol out of position at left-back (that’s just silly)
The biggest thing against Gvardiol right now is he didn’t have a pre-season at Man City – so in the perpetual “catch-up” the whole season (similar to Modric 1st yr at Madrid)
The wingers in the PL are typically very fast and very pacey – at times Gvardiol is not able to keep up w/ them – see Brennan Johnson, Leon Bailey, etc – they are literally running right past him
For those who watched Spurs vs. Man City game – I’m sure you also took away that Spurs LB Udogie (also 21 y.o.) is better than Gvardiol at LB position (both defensively and offensively – he gets forward all the way to the byline at times – bc he’s able to recover/get back)
I can’t remember any of the PL wingers being able to blow by Udogie this yr (at least not like Gvardiol – where the leave him in their wake w/ him being yards behind – unable to catch-up) – the Leon Bailey play y’day is particularly bad bc Bailey eventually held up to reverse play and Gvardiol kept running right past him
https://totalfootballanalysis.com/player-analysis/josko-gvardiol-at-rb-leipzig-202223-scout-report-tactical-analysis-tactics
Heat map doesn’t lie. I’ve just seen him have to back track so much in the past month. He’s playing so far up like a winger and then gets frazzled on the counter.
This ever happened to him at RB.
Yeah because he’s never played at RB hahaha
This just goes to show that you have to watch the games. On Sofascore he was City’s highest rated player with an 8.0. I’d assumed that he must have done well.
….And FotMob, oft used by this here website, gave him a 7.7 — highest on the team.
I’ve been watching and I’m talking about the cons in his game right now. He’s getting Hugh scores because he does make a difference on defense. He makes multiple slide tackles to save shots just as Gvardiol did vs. Belgium. All good there.
However, guys are blowing right by him which are leading to goes. That is what is frustrating.
Sofascore is fine and all, but if you start reading the players rating for Gvar, English press are starting to bash him. And you know that’s never good.
He will be the next Lovren if this continues?
I don’t why any Croat would agree to play under Pep
It’s like oil and water
I think that Pep is an overrated coach, winning titles with big clubs and with big budgets. I would like to see him coach a middle of the table club and see what he could do.
In regards to Gvardiol he pays 90 million for him and one has to assume for Gvardiol’s performances as a central defender and then plays him at left back. He is stuffing Gvardiol big time and the English press and some of the Man City fans have turned on Gvardiol and seem to be blaming him for every poor result. It will take Gvardiol some time to adjust to the EPL and the pace of the game, but at least give the guy a chance to learn and develop in his natural position as a central defender.
Pep always uses his players in different positions and overthinks it a lot on some occasions, I mean he had a pivot of Akanji and Stones as well in the Villa game lmao.