(During the next 30 days, starting May 10th, CroatianSports will be giving “season grades” to 30 of Croatia’s most important football players: Starting XI, bench, fringe, prospects. Grades will be given on preseason expectations vs. actual season performance; not stats.)
Day 6: Dominik Livaković
Season Grade: A+
Grade for Croatian NT: A+, an absolutely heroic World Cup, historic in penalty shootouts for the Vatreni.
Grade for Dinamo Zagreb: A, very solid season, lead his weaker-than-normal side to another league trophy.
Season Highlight:
Penalty shoot-out masterclass against Japan (3 saves, only two other keepers in the history of the World Cup have made that many saves in PK)
Man of the match performance against Brazil and penalty shoot-out hero once again
Statistically the best goalkeeper at the WC (despite not winning the trophy)
Team next season:
Transfer to Manchester United.
Stay at Dinamo and become a club legend, arguably most impactful goalkeeper in club history.
What to improve next season:
Although he is a stellar shot-stopper, proving many of his haters wrong, Livaković can always improve on his decision-making on balls high up in the air. His positioning is oftentimes subpar, and his reaction time has room for improvement. Improving this will ensure his superstar status as a goalie.
What the future holds:
We all know how Livaković rumors end. Chances are, he’ll end up staying at Dinamo for another year, and likely the rest of his career. Fantastic keeper, just too scared to exit his comfort zone.
U17 Euros kick off today. Our match with England can be watched for free on UEFA.tv
Here is some more of Buljan
https://youtu.be/EmWUB0Lmp44
Here is what Borna Buljan can do
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Twt1gwLsWxg
Watching Liva at the WC.. A bunch of his saves were balls shot directly at him saves and not hand or foot to ball saves. Good positioning perhaps but a good deal of luck too. He is relatively weak if he has to come off his line and it frustrates the Defense ( IE Gvardiol yelling at him ).
He is an average goalie that has had a very fortunate tournament,
From what I have seen. Our next Goalie should be Buljan. That kid has great positioning and authority from the games I have seen.
wait 10 years, boy . . !!!
because Dalic is a shit manager 1
you eat this shit -> Dalic’s reign [manager]
______________________________________
so where is the goalkeeper?| below list]
Be Considered as Decent Players –
Bilic, Stanic, Corluka, Asanović, Biscan, Kranjcar,
Eduardo, Zvonimir Soldo, Pranjic, Dado Pršo, Petric
Average players – only 3 goalkeepers
Dražen Ladić, Subasic, Livaković … etc – 30% more
Not Impressive – the rest of the goalkeepers
Livaja, Petkovic, Ivica Ivusic, Ivo Grbic … etc – 50% more
similar to what happened in WC2018 with Croatia,
Inter Milan has a path without a great challenge -> to the Final!
Porto, Benfica, Milan?? | were not a great challenge./
On the other side…
Manchester City is similar to France WC2018
with some great challengers – Bayern and Madrid
so what’s the fucking difference here’
if Dalic has to manage Inter right now
He is fucking stupid and 100% certainly –> lose
look at Simone put in a brilliant strategy
for making Brozovic a super substitute…
if He coached Croatia in 2018 | for sure
He could rest Subasic –> Out }} for a God Shake
and gives an order to Rebic to mark Mbappe for 90min
Simone will certainly lift the trophy ~
this wise man is a brilliant manager 0
Up to broz now to bring it home for us
Hope he plays
I imagine they won’t start him as he hasn’t been
Tho I’m sure broz would help to shut down the juggernaut city offence
Wish Perisic was still at inter right now
A+ is hella generous. Do people still say hella?
how else would you classify him? he was the biggest reason croatia made a semi-final once again, which is the last thing we expected and way above his pre-season expectations so if that doesn’t warrant an A+ idk what does
only our diaspora friends from CA
A+ is bit of a stetch however he did very at the penalty shootouts like his predecessor
I can’t remember Real getting killed so badly. This is tough to watch. Also…remove Modric, and things just get worse.
Not too late to call Luka a bust…….
Modric substituted by Rudiger? Can someone who knows football well explain why? They need two goals why being in defender for midfield?
Rudiger in for defense, and Camavinga is moved to his natural midfield. Modric wasn’t playing well.
But Camavinha was not playing defense, just defensive midfielder, so I still don’t get it. Modric was not playing well, but he seemed to be warming up when they took him out
Whole team was bad. Can’t say I was surprised. Man City and PSG are due to win CL sooner or later, with the free-flowing spending. GO INTER !!!
Croatian players all the time level -o
this is the standard – not to divert.
World Class [Gold Type]
Luka Modric
Be Considered [Silver Type]
………………………………………
Decent Players [Bronze Type]
High Level –
Boban, Suker
Mid-level >
Rakitic, Mandzukic, Prosinecki, Boksic, Olic,
Niko Kovac, Perisic, Brozovic, Darijo Srna
Low level –
Robert Kovac, Dario Simic, Gvardiol,
Robert Jarni, Kovacic, Igor Tudor
______________________________________
so where is the goalkeeper?| below list]
Be Considered as Decent Players –
Bilic, Stanic, Corluka, Asanović, Biscan, Kranjcar,
Eduardo, Zvonimir Soldo, Pranjic, Dado Pršo, Petric
Average players – only 3 goalkeepers
Dražen Ladić, Subasic, Livaković … etc – 30% more
Not Impressive – the rest of the goalkeepers
Livaja, Petkovic, Ivica Ivusic, Ivo Grbic … etc – 50% more
Commenters on this forum all the time level /0 ~ (?)
World class — everyone except Lubi
F***ing crazy — Lubi
Might be a unpopular take but I’m fine with Livakovic staying at Dinamo!!! As long as he stays in form, gets playing time and gets a bit of a European season, sve nabolje!!!!!!
Not unpopular at all.
I would prefer not to mess with a good thing and keep Livakovic at Dinamo too.
The problem with Livakovic is that he is still not great when it comes to coming off his line and handling the high balls that are outside his six yard box. He’s also still a bit unsure and hesitant when he has the ball at his feet. Many coaches won’t like this from him.
However, he’s great at goalkeeping on the line with his quick reflexes. Our National Team has good defenders who did well to direct attackers into wide angled positions, where Livakovic was able to block or deflect most attempts on goal.
We had very few long range or high ball attempts in our 18 yard area, and the opposing attackers were largely coming in on a wide angle trying to score from a narrow position. Brazil seemed to have over 10+ attempts like this against us, and finally Neymar managed to get one in during extra time. If it takes the best team in the World to manage to score on us like this (after a dozen attempts) then I’ll take it.
All I want is for Livakovic to get steady minutes and continue to play this way for our National Team. I would hate for him to go to a new team, where he is being bombarded with long range efforts or going against teams sending in crosses (and he ends up losing confidence in the coach and fans, especially in an unforgiving league like the EPL).
Livakovic seemed to have some confidence issues in the past, and I wouldn’t want to see any of that return if he ends up being mercilessly criticized for a goalkeeper error, or ends up on the bench behind some other keeper.
I’m not too fussed about him getting better (players rarely get better after the age of 28) so I’d be happy with him as he is. We’ve never had good goalkeeping in two successive tournaments, and if Livakovic stays the same…we could end up having a good keeper for several tournaments in a row. I’ve always said that the day we get an average keeper, is the day we win a World Cup. Well, we almost won the last one because of it.
I think some of us have had our attitudes change in the past World Cup, where many were happy with medaling in the past…but you can see that level of disappointment that we didn’t win the entire thing. I think the expectation now (from Croatia) is that we need to WIN a tournament, and not just be happy to medal (no matter how remarkable our three-medal feat is).
He played an outstanding World Cup, reinforced with his performance and a couple of world class saves against Turkey. Were it not for the goal conceded against Morocco I think he would be playing in a bigger league right now. That goal reinforced in everyone’s eyes his weakness about commanding his goal area.
Just as our midfield is aging out it seems we have defence and a goalkeeper set up for the next 10 years. Unfortunately, even with support from the diaspora, our small and decreasing population makes it more and more difficult to see us making more sustained runs in the big tournaments.
Hajduk’s run in the Youth Champions’s League and the youth national team’s victory against England show we have loads of potential, so I hope I am proven wrong long term.
Would going to another league improve his skill set? Maybe/probably but could also mess him up like orsic
Watched that gvardiol video of Morocco and orsic crazy skill goal, now he is lost in English oblivion
Some guys just do better at being big fish in smaller ponds
Livakovic showed against turkey that most likely World Cup wasn’t some flash in the pan
Like for real if it wasn’t for livakovic we wouldn’t have sniffed third
The Argentina match including liva we all want back but so be it
Bridge under water as they say
Hopefully his time with repka and playing big enough international and European games at club level are enough to keep him sharp and improve some even if staying at Dinamo
If he continues to play how he has been the past year, he is plenty for us for euro and hopefully World Cup
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again
He’s made me eat my words this year
It was probably that luka conversation who gave him some more balls out there
He made some questionable challenges but he is trying now. That’s the biggest thing. Hopefully he loses that lost in the headlights look for good
And either he has improved some or our defence is better at not doing the whole pass to each other and back to keeper thing as much but he does look more confident with the ball at his feet
For me, it’s mainly Gvardiol and Livakovic which grew later on in the tournament were the reason why we had such a great run.
Livakovic mainly got the kick up the ass during the knockouts because the game before against Belgium, he was a whole different keeper. He didn’t come off his line even when Gvardiol shouts at him to get it (this also had happened against Wales this year) , was hesitant catching the ball in the air.
Without Gvardiol, there was also no chance we were getting out of the group against Belgium. The block against Lukaku summed up what Gvardiols World Cup was, World Class.
But again, although Livakovic had a great tournament it was Gvardiol who was Croatia’s best player by a long way imo.
I get the impression that you sometimes just “follow the leader” and repeat things you read and hear without actually seeing and then commenting.
your comment about Orsic’s situation is one example. Orsic went to Southampton for a decent transfer fee for a guy his age, playing in the HNL. when he got there, he wasn’t afforded any adjustment time or playing minutes…so the clubs overall motive to buy him didn’t jive with the coach/manager and they basically pissed away his transfer fee. It had nothing to do with Orsic’s performances…he got almost no time on the field.
every single player in the world deals with ups and downs…being in form and dropping form…they all need support to be successful. part of this is the coaches/managers responsibility, its their job to get the best out of their players and to set them up for success and its the players job to live the life of a professional athlete (get rest between training sessions, eat and drink properly, focus/concentrate on finding ways to be relevant and improvements…).
with regards to Livakovic, the guy had a short (few months spell) period where he lost his confidence and this is normal for any player. many of you here kept repeating over and over about how shitty he was. it got to the point where the majority on this site just shit all over him and you all opted for Ivusic or Grbic when in fact, Livakovic was the obvious better choice. now you’re saying he “made me eat my words” while I ask myself what exactly did he do to make you feel he was as shitty as you’re suggesting? I know my buddy Maminjo repeated a million times that Liva has terrible feet and he’s a nightmare on crosses but thats HIS opinion, why was it yours too? sure, did Liva stay on his line when he could have come out? Yes…at times….BUT you guys created a false narrative that he was at fault for goals that had nothing to do with him….when defenders allowed a player in behind them to score or when our team fell asleep defending and all you guys saw was Livakovic as a sitting duck, blaming him for shit he didn’t deserve.
someone said something about Brozovic being an average player and I sometimes have to hold back and watch this board spew falsehoods, over and over again. I wonder if some people really do understand the role of players, based on their specific strengths…and then also understand what it exactly is that they’re doing…whats their role and assignment for the game? Until people understand a players role and their duties for a game, they really shouldn’t comment on a players performance. Brozovic is incredibly valuable, probably more valuable than we realize. he is a modern type of player that runs more than almost any other player in every single game…but his role isn’t glorious. he is constantly dropping back into pockets to offer passing options…he is shifting from one side to another…he gets forward and then gets back…all the while he rarely holds the ball for more than a second or two.
Gvardiol is just a beast in every aspect and yet he got turned inside out, taken to the cleaners when we played Argentina, by Messi…I rarely saw anyone single him out while we are soo joyful to discredit Livakovic. don’t be fooled, Gvardiol has had MANY bad moments while playing at his club and we seem to let those go…and once again we have a different standard for people we perceive to be “untouchable”…like Modric, Gvardiol and even Perisic (who’s very hot and cold) and yet we micro evaluate the smallest perception of an error for Liva when the guy has been phenomenal for Dinamo and our National Team!
I don’t personally watch Liva except for repka and Dinamo in Europa
I think he has proven he is questionable with ball in his feet for repka
But also we had lovren and vida often dishing it back to him
I think with our mobile and ball moving defence this should be helped out
His confidence was down but let’s face it he was caught looking like a lost puppy on a few goals even with defensive breakdowns. He seemed like he just didn’t try on a couple
What I meant about orsic and going is exactly what you are saying
He won’t get a ton of looks and say if liva goes say to Man U for 10 mill
They have no problem losing 10 mill
And I don’t want him getting his confidence out of whack if he goes there and has a tough start
The English aren’t so forgiving
Liva is on a roll and however it looks he needs to keep it going
Broz is irreplaceable
Never get an argument otherwise from me
His above average skill and work rate are what makes a Croatian baller special imo
As far as gvardi goes, he’s still just a kid. A beast at that but is going to grow through growing pains of professional athlete and life which will affect all
“His confidence was down but let’s face it he was caught looking like a lost puppy on a few goals even with defensive breakdowns. He seemed like he just didn’t try on a couple”
would you consider De Gea a good goalkeeper? If you, have you not seen some of his blunders? its the same for soo many players and keepers, they have their ups and downs. my comments aren’t to suggest that Livakovic is world class, I know he’s not…BUT…he’s a very good keeper and this is where I feel like many just repeat things that appear to make him a complete shitty keeper and he’s not.
Good points made Slavonac. Gvardiol has made mistakes and he has not had the greatest season to top it off which is worrisome. But he is young as mentioned, so I am hoping that that is all it is for him and that it will change.
I think after the World Cup many of us were taken aback by Livakovic’s performance, to be honest I didn’t know he had it in him. I did see some of his performances against stronger teams in Champions League qualifying and such. I did see moments of great resolve and capacity but there were times, to be honest, that I questioned his confidence. That issue never came up in the Word Cup with Liva and to my perspective he seemed to be a completely different keeper from what I had seen in the aforementioned matches. To be honest, I hope that he gets a transfer personally I don’t think staying at Dinamo will be good for him or his career, contrary to the other opinions. I would prefer Serie A or La Liga as a transfer for him but who knows maybe he can do well in EPL.
With regards to Broz, I have been arguing for some time that I am sick and tired of poeple making the argument that he is not world class when he is and I hope he starts the final and proves everyone wrong and wins the Champions League to be honest he was the one I was really routing for at the start of this tournament as he hasn’t seen a Champions League trophy just yet. This really gets me annoyed because, it is as you say, people who do not understand that his position is defensive and not offensive.
As I mentioned once before this is soccer and not hockey or basketball. It is not all about goals and goalies. And yes the midfield is actually a position that exists and some midfield positions are more defensive aka Broz or more offensive aka Perisic. People need to learn the difference and then comment.
Manchester United players level -o
World Class [Gold Type]
………………………………..
Be Considered [Silver Type]
………………………………………
Decent Players [Bronze Type]
High Level –
………………………………….
Mid-level >
Casemiro, Varene, Christian Eriksen, Rashford,
Low level –
De Gea, Lindelof, Anthony Martial,
Bruno Fernandez, Luke Shaw
He would not last at Man United if he had moved and this is coming from a United fan.