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Ante, Lebo, and Zorić chat about Perišić’s replacement moving forward, what Livaja can do for Croatia during October’s Euro 2024 qualifiers, and who is currently the front runner to win the HNL: Dinamo or Hajduk.
Episode 10: Perišić Out, Livaja In
By 44 Comments
@Ceona
But you said on this very site that Jesus is not the Son of God, but now you’re saying He is by saying the Our Father.
You’re so confused because of the false prophet that believed about the Christ what heretics before him believed.
Isaias 9:6
For a CHILD IS BORN to us, and a son is given to us, and the government is upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called, Wonderful, Counsellor, God the Mighty, the Father of the world to come, the Prince of Peace.
Whose Son is given to us?
Does this Son have a Father to honour?
John 5:18
Hereupon therefore the Jews sought the more to kill him, because he did not only break the sabbath, but also said God was his Father, making himself equal to God.
You see the Jews understand what you Mohammedans don’t (and what the Arians didn’t before Mohammed), they just didn’t believe that Jesus was the Christ. This is also the reason why the Jews laughed at the false prophet Mohammed’s Arian teachings.
Remember, Mohammed never heard of the dajjal, if he did he would’ve been named in the koran, but lol he wasn’t, other “prophets” made him up later, cringeworthy indeed.
Just clarifying my written mistake, I was writing in frustration, no plural thrones rather Jesus being seated at the right hand of God, quotes even suggesting sharing God’s throne. Is what I meant to say. It gets pretty annoying and vexing to deal with you buddy
Kromiza,
No question about ordinary folks in common life…..they’re the ones who keep a country/society moving forward.
Switching gears…….we have one of the best young defences in the world. It’s amazing how the defence is coming together……maybe if we look back, say, 3 or so years ago, very few people saw that quality coming with our defence. Hopefully something just like that happens with our offence and our young strikers. Maminjo has a sense they will come through, he is usually right.
On the defence side, I thought Erlic played well today against Inter…he looked solid…..he played most of the game, but cramped up late, and was subbed….
Erlic also captained Sassuolo in their 4-2 win over Juventus last Sat so that’s 2 big victories back to back. Such a shame we couldn’t incorporate all three of Gvardiol, Sutalo and Erlic into the NT starting lineup..
Erlic is hot and cold. Even in that Inter win he showed some cracks. I’ve been a huge fan of his, but he needs to improve on aggression and decision making to even sniff a starting spot.
If we’re talking defenders in Italy, I think what Pograncic is doing at Lecce is more impressive.
Didn’t realize Lecce is 6th
@ maminjo
i didn’t leave out those young guys like sucic, vidovic, simic etc… I was largely focusing on this gap that runs from the early 20s to late 20s. 20 – 30 pretty much… where there really is no groundbreaking offensive talent
that is a huge number of years for an alleged factory to go without producing a significant offensive talent..
it is extremely worrying because that is also the age range of prime soccer players.. most world cup teams average about 27 years old
So I fear it could be very limiting to the success of the national team that our prime age players will not be very noteworthy.
“The mid-20s prospects are Majer, Ivanušec, Brekalo, Vlašić, Pašalić and Musa.” –
This list doesn’t really do much for me. Sadly majer, brekalo, vlasic, and pasalic are all on downtrends and haven’t quite lived up to the hype.
Ivanusec and musa are rising, but I haven’t seen much anything special there.
Perisic has a fantastic contribution rate of .57 per game over 110 games.
Ivanusec so far is at .39 per game… not terrible….
But I think we all know if you go from Perisic to Ivanusec in the future, your team has downgraded
What were you saying when Perišić was 24 and struggling in Euro2012?
You were probably whining about our defense a few years bsck. I highly doubt you predicted we would have guys like Gvardiol, Šutalo, Stanišić, etc all developing and playing well.
You have no idea how any of these guys will pan out. Until Croatia starts missing or finishing last in tournaments on the regular (like other top teams like Italy, Netherlands and Germany are doing), then I wouldn’t worry.
I remember when Jelavic and Perišić were both coming up at the same time, trying to figure out, which player was going to be the most effective for the national team and pan out. It seems to be a strange thought in retrospect.
When you go back 10 years, you’ll laugh at some of the things you may have (or your friends) may have thought about each player.
Truth talks about Perisic as being some baseline for excellence, but forgets that Perisic also had a down year (at Dortmund) and many people were talking about him as being a headcase who couldn’t work with a coach like Klopp.
He had a bad Euro2012 campaign (as our worst starter on the team) and ended up at Wolfsburg.
Funny thing is that Majer is kind of on a similar situation, where he had a great year in France, followed by a year on the bench after not jiving with the coach, not impressing with the National Team lately, and now he’s also at Wolfsburg, ha ha. Maybe he’s our next Perisic!
Rakitic and Brozovic had similar struggles at the same age. Raketa had a strong start with Schalke, but they eventually just let him go to Sevilla for peanuts. Had a good first ‘half year’ with them, then found himself on the bench the following year. He only really blew up at around 24.
Broz, similar story. The guy was accused of being a ‘Mamic guy’ when he was called up to the 2014 World Cup squad (at age 22).
Guys like Holiga mocked Inter Milan when they paid 8 million Euro for him (at age 23). He wasn’t even really a standard player on our National Team until the World Cup 2018 (where he shared starter duties with Kramaric). He was used as a winger at Euro2016 because we had nobody at RW, and he only really cemented his position with us as our CDM during the knockout stages of the World Cup 2018 (when he was 26 years old).
Now, I’m not saying that Majer is going to suddenly turn around and become an elite player like Perisic, Raketa and Broz…but I find it funny when people compare the peak PRIME years of these three players to guys (like Ivanusec) who are only starting to take off.
Ivanusec is just as good as these guys were at the same age (24). Guys like Baturina and Sucic are even better than these guys at age 20.
It doesn’t mean these guys will be as good, but it’s a good sign when you have multiple young players doing well, and your nation has a history of having guys take that next step forward in the 25+ age range.
Thats why like what i mentioned, the 23-28 year old players didnt perform as expected when younger..all wasted talent
Josip Radosevic (napoli)
Halilovic (barcelona)
Andrija balic (wanted by barcelona)
Marko Rog (napoli)
Ante Coric (roma)
Robert Muric (wanted by man u)
Karlo letica (wanted by real madrid)
Toma basic (rotting in lazio)
Sarri destroyed many of our young players..signed rog and radosevic..put them on bench on 2 years.
Signed basic and dont want him anymore..not registered for CL.
Condemned mandzukic in reserves..when he was in juventus and in his prime..without football..he moved to saudi clubs and couldnt reproduce his form
We just need a few of them to be developed to become top players in big clubs..but none made it. Sadly
Livakovic, Sutalo, Sosa, Juranovic, Stanisic, Erlic, Ivanusec, Majer, Vlasic, Pasalic, Petkovic, and Musa are all within that age range.
Most of these guys played a pretty big part in our World Cup 2022 run and some will continue to get better.
You listing out a bunch of random players (almost all of whom were sold off for peanuts) doesn’t matter. It’s pointless drivel.
You’re not going to get 20 elite Modric-caliber superstars within a 5 year age range. If you did, you would be better than France, Argentina and Brazil combined.
Our success in our soccer program might eventually be our own future undoing of that success. If Croatians are good, they are moved out, and live the rest of their lives, re-settled in Germany/Spain/Mancao/Sweden/America. With potential fading Post war soccer success, I have faith, it will still be a great nation without it. No need to be sycophantic, over our wealthy demigods. The greatest Croatians are found in a common life, where no one is clapping, outside the limelight, off the field, with their backs against the wall. Soccer is a loved activity of some of our people, but it is not all encompassing of the greatness of our people. Slovenia likewise is a great nation without professional sports accolades, Croatia likewise.
As I’ve expressed and been dismissed, Croatia’s upcoming offensive talent is in a lot of trouble. Croatia has just not been able to produce any talented offensive player in a generation. Lets take a look at the team ages who starts up front.
Modric 38
Brozovic 30
Kovacic 29
Perisic 34
Kramaric 32
That 20 year old – 30 year old gap is a barren wasteland on offense.
Vlasic, Majer, Brekalo ….nothing too special to see and trending down
You have a younger crop of sucic, vidovic, baturina etc….but there is some sputtering going on there as well… But they are 20 years old…
What does it mean that Croatia really couldn’t generate any special offensive talent for 10 years? concerning. maybe the factory isn’t quite what we think it is
Yes it’s a shame. But remember that having talent and actually making it to the top level are two completely different things. We have a very small population so it’s logical that statistically we will experience shortfalls in certain areas periodically that are much more unlikely for bigger nations. Also, culturally Croatian football tends to produce technical players who are comfortable on the ball and intelligent and creative. That lends itself well to midfield maestros. So that’s our strength,and the other areas will follow a bell curve statistically in terms of talent making it up the highest level. We have been unlucky, at some point someone will come through; sesko, vlahovic, dzeko…high end strikers from the region. It’s only a matter of time before one or two comes through for us
Conveniently leaves out Ivanušec, Musa, and Šimić who are all on upward trajectories.
It is also important to note that a lot of our youth don’t really take off until they are 24 years old. We all saw this with guys like Brozović, Rakitić and even Perišić.
We have a lot of really young talent who are currently doing pretty damn well for their age, like Šimić, Beljo, Baturina, Vidović, and even Sučić (despite his injury).
Ivanušec looks great this past year, and Musa is looking like a very useful piece.
Not all young prospects are going to pan out and I am perfectly fine with keeping guys like Kramarić, Brozović, Petković, and Kovačić on the team over the next 3-4 years.
This is not an issue and even if a minority of these younger players pan out, then we’ll be perfectly fine.
But to comment on the age gap…
The mid-20s prospects are Majer, Ivanušec, Brekalo, Vlašić, Pašalić and Musa.
None are superstars, but most of these guys are very useful to any National Team.
You’re not always going to hit a homerun with every group. I personally think Ivanušec is legit. Most of the rest have been very useful role players for us (and I wouldn’t write off Majer or Musa just yet).
Even in a worst case scenario, we will probably have 1 or 2 pan out as impact players…with the rest providing a lot of depth. The fact that we develop “creative” players with strong technical skills will always allow us to play a certain way and dominate possession and punch above our weight.
You haven’t been dismissed. I’ve mentioned this problem multiple times on Twitter.
The striker position is not just a Croatia problem, it’s a global problem.
When it comes to transitioning, we’re already seeing it at the club level. All of the greats are aging out, and all the clubs are looking to start transitioning into the new crop.
No real standouts yet, so we’ll probably have to wait another 5 years for the big talent to start standing out.
A conversation with guys who are passionate about Croatia / football (soccer), sharing their perspectives, opinions, predictions, stats, etc.
An entertaining podcast- keep up the good work.
great analysis guys
I had time waiting in doctor’s office so I listened to the podcast. I will say thank you for making an effort, but are no other people available who understand croatian or croatian soccer more than the people who did this. I am pretty sure you can find others who are more plugged in than what this was.
One guy doesn’t know the Vuskovic brothers are brothers. Way to be on top of things.
One guy thinks he is a war hero and wants a statue next to Gotovina with military action 50 km away.
Did you guys just learn that Xabi Alonso is coaching in the Bundesliga. The biggest up and coming coach in Europe and you just found out about him?
The checkers are heavy. Maybe they are for for you when talking about the checkers.
Is it Milan or Milos Krasic. You lose all credibility.
Then the European Union and Yugo comparisons. Thanks for the hour entertainment.
moj dijaspora…… ufff
Hrvati hating on dijaspora more than the immigrants coming in or politicians stealing from under their nose.
Sve problema…dijaspora. UUUFFFFF
The guy you are mocking for not knowing the Vuskovic brothers are siblings has done interviews with Modric, Suker, Kranjcar and many others. He built this platform for Croats to talk about croatian football and has had many interviews and articles picked up by Croatian media. What exactly have you done?
I mentioned that my father took me into a war zone at 12 years old. All I said was that I’m surprised my mother let him go there from the US in the middle of the war. You are sick in the head mentioning some war hero status
Sometimes it’s best to not say anything. We don’t call ourselves experts. We just love croatian football and we follow it as much as we have time to as we all have other jobs and kids(2 of the 3 of us)
Easy komšija. English is not first language here so maybe I got something wrong but I do not think so. My hearing is 20/20.
This is a public space so you should expect criticism when you say dumb things. Not knowing simple facts or names or how to pronounce names raises a red flag for me. I have to ask if these people are serious. If I go to NFL podcast the people on a podcast know who the Manning brothers are or if I listen to NHL podcast people talking know who Tkachuk brothers are. You lack common knowledge and that is where problem is.
So it looks like you are the kid who took a vacation in a tourist area while my Slavonia was burning and being slaughtered by Arkan and Slobo and their men. Please read up on Arkan as history is important. May I call you Pukovnik for being in a war zone? And what war zone? You went swimming while my selo burned. Based on what I heard on podcast it seems like you are from Zadar area and United States. I need to ask. Did you become Croatian at the start of war. Maybe you and daddy were visiting Zadar area to help the Serbians who live there. In Canada we raised money with Gojko. What did you do? Did you bring them ammunition or may burek? Maybe you and tata were there to help JNA and later you find religion. I am joking. Well maybe only a little. You went to go help your DRUG. That’s no OK.
I hope you people do more podcasts. I will listen now that I find this one. It gives me good laugh. All I ask is that you have people on who know the sport.
My uncle was in HOS in 1991 and switched over to Cro army in 93. Hope you were at the doctor getting your head checked. My father was active in Los Angeles raising money for Croatian war efforts and was the head chef for Tudman when he came to L.A. to raise money. But you are the biggest croat here 😂😂 nice calling me a Serb bolesnik. I’m sorry your village burned but I can’t control where I’m from. I have many friends from Skabrnje and some very sad things happened there too. Good luck with the head exams
why is there a womans picture tied to your name? I am confused
Not sure. My sister must have used my email for something because her photo is there
If you really have friends from Škabrnja then you would know how to spell it.
I give you high five for daddy not poisoning the former Partizan general.
I missed the đ in Tuđman too you forgot to mention that. Mr Anonymous super Croat
We actually know about all of those things, but cramming in 4 weeks of topics into an hour is pretty difficult. Top that with real life, no budget, no production, and yah we’re a bit raw.
I could edit all of the mistakes out, so that we can sound polished every week, but we all have professional lives outside of this.
We’ve been doing this for 12 years, and we find that all the people in the comments section are usually MUCH MUCH smarter than us. When we try to get them in front of the microphone, though, their live knowledge doesn’t match up to their typing knowledge.
Thank you for the hate listen. Hopefully you can start your own show and website in order to completely blow our knowledge out of the water.
Eh moj Kulen, smisan si…
I’ll bite and reply since my group texts were all going off today that there’s a new funny guy in town.
First off my man, you gotta find yourself a new doc. Waiting 70 minutes to see a doctor is way too long. My guy gets me in and out in 20 minutes. You came in here hot with the ‘Veliki Hrvat’ talk but that has Dijaspora healthcare written all over it.
You expect me to know Mario Vuskovic is related to Luka?! First off..who the hell cares? One guy is a 2.Bundesliga scrub who just got caught for doping and the other, albeit, signing a monster contract with Spurs has yet to do anything with his career. So who the hell cares that they’re brothers in the grand scheme of Croatian football? You’re acting like these guys are related to Modric or Perisic. Vuskovic brothers…please.
War hero? Ma daj. You’re reaching on that one my friend. Trying too hard. Zoric was a kid for God sakes.
Slavonski Kulen “hate comment” Grade: B-
“His head was in the right spot but could not execute on all fronts. Must do better next time to keep up with the 1st Division lads.”
Please do keep them coming. We will have a “Mean Tweet” episode soon adding in your thoughts alongside all the fake Ziva Istina’s we see on the site.
Love you all. Chat soon. -Kvartuč
Keep up the great work boys. We all appreciate it. Kulen was obviously killing time was to see his psychiatrist.
regarding Livaja and Brekalo.
1) in my opinion, Livaja isn’t the same player with the National team as he is with Hajduk. in fact, I feel like he is 50% of the player with our National team than he is with Hajduk and thats most likely because everything goes through him in HNL games while he doesn’t get as many touches on the ball with our National team.
I’ve been watching Livaja since he came back to the HNL and he’s got some surprisingly good qualities. for one, he’s extremely strong on the ball and very hard to get him off the ball. He is usually excellent around the goal, can score with both feet, he doesn’t need much time or space to take a good shot and he’s very composed around the goal. when I see him with our National team I rarely see him with the same involvement, he’s nowhere near as effective holding up the play and his goal scoring touch just doesn’t seem to be anywhere near as good as it is with Hajduk…and this puzzles me.
2) Brekalo! this addition to the National team baffles me. I heard someone on the podcast mention that he’s familiar with the National team and he’s been getting minutes at his club….he’s played in 5 games (3 at left wing, 2 at right wing) and zero assists/zero goals…looking quite ineffective and is not that game changer…shifty player we used to see a few years ago.
Dalic has always said “the best players play”. between Brekalo and Vlasic, I feel we have 2 very poor options…I’ll include Majer in this conversation as well. These guys have had their ups and downs and all 3 are currently in the down category. I don’t think I’d use any of them as a starter so with that said, I’d most likely bring in some younger players…ie…Baturina (my #1 choice), Vidovic and then someone like Beljo or Sucic…someone thats going to get value from being in the camp and someone relevant enough that we consider in the near future.
I like Brekalo, I always have…but he’s nowhere near in good form so he must earn his way back and not get into the squad just because he’s been there before. Baturina beats him in every category and he’s still never been called up (if my memory is correct)
Vlasic has gone from starter to bench option. Brekalo has done the opposite.
What a brutal podcast. People who dont know nogomet commenting about it
I’m just curious what you find to be “brutal” about this podcast? They’re a few guys, opening up some dialogue regarding the National team, the HNL, certain players and general discussion. what exactly did you find to be brutal about what was said?
if you ask me, I don’t always agree with everything said and I do think some discussions might be a little too basic but these are light discussions and they’re just 3 guys, having a discussion and recording it…all topics discussed are interesting enough for me to listen and if I’m not interested I’ll turn it off…I don’t really see the “brutality” you see except for the fact that some comments might not be backed up with education on the topic…but that happens with tons of interviews and podcasts all over.
Love the hate listen. Thanks Davor
Davor buddy, no need. If it’s not your taste ignore it bro,
Lots of us enjoy it
best hour of my week !!!
Dalic’s Plan:
1. Musa continues to play well at Benfica, with possibly guys like Simic or Beljo doing the same
2. Livaja continues to suck at Hajduk and they drop in the standings
3. Livaja keeps getting callups until the Euro qualifiers are finished in November, then allow for the long pause between November and the Euros to take place
4. After Hajduk doesn’t finish first and (hopefully) Livaja having a bad year, there won’t be any qualms from anyone when he is cut from the short list for the Euros
What if… Hajduk win the title and then Torcida build a monument to Kralj Dalmacije outside Poljud? Not only do my worst nightmares come true but then there’s no chance Dalic drops him prior to the Euro
Dalic can then pivot by forcing Perisic into the starting lineup.
He will be a Hajduk player by then, and even though he’ll be on crutches on the field, nobody can claim that Dalic is pushing Dinamo players (like Ivanusec) into the starting eleven over the Hajduk ones.
How terrible for you guys if Hajduk wins. Hopefully it comes true! Lol, Hajduk winning helps the league in general having the same club won indefinitely all the time doesn’t help the league much at all, it’s been the conversation many of us were having all this time.There is no guarantee that Hajduk will remain on top but it would be nice to see a different team win it other than Dinamo.
Personally I am happy that Livaja has had a slow start, maybe this will push him to be more aggressive in his style of pla. It could very well push him to be a better player in the end for the National Team. To be honest I didn’t see Petkovic being able to do so, but he is adapting quite well, so Livaja hopefully follows on suit. I think Livaja is capable of finding that groove he just hasn’t shown as much initative for the National Squad and now that the league is challenging him more I think it could help him development further.
Given that Livaja hasn’t had a strong start, especially with the goal scoring that he had previous seasons, I would be content if he could be the type of player who creates opportunities for those goal scoring chances. He did t do a terrible job of this the past seasons if he could continue on course with that this season and create more opportunities in the final third then I would be fine with how he is doing. Every player can have a slow start to a season, I don’t think he should be discounted yet. If anything the new challenge for him could prove to be a good thing.