Josip Juranović is having the season of his life!
The 26 year-old right-back has been a gem for Celtic since arriving in August, and has been one of the Scottish Premiership’s best players this season. Juranović has already scored four goals since joining Celtic from Legia Warsaw, proving that he can be a dangerous attacking asset down the flank. He’s averaging a fantastic 7.25 SofaScore match rating this season.
On his ‘Here We Go’ podcast, Fabrizio Romano reported that Premier League side, Leicester City, are extremely interested in signing Juranović this summer. Leicester manager, Brendan Rodgers, recently traveled to Glasgow himself to watch the right-back in live action. Romano later stated that several other European clubs have their eye on Juranović as well. Everything Celtic (@aboutceltic) claims that the club is unlikely to accept any bid less than 15 million euros for Juranović.
Juranović has been excellent on both ends of the pitch this year. The right-back pocketed Rangers’ star winger Ryan Kent in Celtic’s previous match against their bitter rival last week, and has quickly become a fan favorite at Celtic Park. In the Scottish Premiership, Juranović has committed no errors leading to a shot or a goal, completed 86% of his passes, and has played equal minutes at the left and right-back role. He would fit the Premier League beautifully due to his speed, offensive ability, and diverse style of play on the field.
Juranović will be a key defender for the Vatreni for years to come. He has solidified his starting role with the squad, leaving Croatian supporters with little to worry about for 5+ years (as long as he stays healthy). Juranović deserves a move to the world’s greatest league, and he should shine in England from the second he steps foot in Leicester; if it happens. For now, we can enjoy another six months of him dominating the Scottish league and raising his transfer value.
If we want a tall striker sounds like budimir really is our only logical choice as far as experience goes
If he finds his good form
Here is a fun one
Who would you rather have for one last tourney a top of their game on fire modric or Perisic??
You can only have one with our current roster
I guess I go with Perisic cause his goals and are midfield strength in general
We can fill in the midfield and call raketa for super sub
I must agree with you Dannyj… Modric is amazing but thanks to Kovacic and now Majer we have options… Modric of course has the chemistry down pat so it’s still not an easy choice but logically Perisic is more an asset in this case as he is our left side and goal threat..
This should be our starting team if all stay healthy retain form
aside from brozovic the other 3 mids can be rearranged in any way… personally I like Majer more upfront rather then Modric or Kovacic as I feel he is more dangerous with his shot options(lefty). Majer is a smart player like his idol Modric who can offer more flair upfront.. Budimir needs to get back to form as he is our only comparable striker CF to Mandzukic minus his workrate… with an aging Perisic(like a well aged bottle of fine wine) along with him would be interesting as I always seem to see Perisic always a player who can find and make space for himself and his shot is lethal… pair that with a lenky header in Budimir… “Hrvatske ce se buditi u napad”
The back four with Sosa(Jarni) and Juranovic(our in form Vrsajko) making overlaps when called upon will give us that offensive trait CIRO was able to lean on with Jarni and Stanic.. and a smart versatile defender in Gvardiol( like young TUDOR) and with anchor DCC(a mix of STIMAC/R.KOVAC) should prove that Croatia can reckon with anyone!
Our depth is pretty good as well..
——(Orsic)—(Petko/Krama)——
———PERISIC—-BUDIMIR———
————(Vlasic/Pasalic)————
——————MAJER——————–
–(^Sucic>)—————-(Ivanusec)
MODRIC–BROZOVIC–KOVACIC
(Bradric)—(Jakic)(Moro/Basic)
————————————————–
—SOSA——————JURANOVIC
(Bari.)-GVARDIOL-DCC–(Urem.)
(Pograncic)(Stanisic)(Jedvaj)—
————————————————–
—-(Ivusic/LIVAKOVIC/Grbic)—–
As much as everyone likes Kovačić, I still don’t trust him to start over Modrić.
Modrić is still better offensively and defensively, and even Modrić’s weakness in taking poor penalties, is matched ny Kovačić.
Perišić is such a killer though. The guy can change the game suddenly.
If we play three at the back, then Sosa could help mitigate the loss of Perišić a bit…but not with any game changing goals scored all by himself (like what Perišić does).
Tough call. I think Perišić has been slightly more valuable than Modrić for us, but it’s a wash between the two. It all comes down to formation, and who else is hot right now.
If a tall capable striker emerges (that Sosa can send high crosses to, while playing a 3-5-2) then Perišić may not be needed as badly.
If Kovačić starts to become more aggressive offensively, and guys like Majer and Sučić continue to thrive (along with Broz and Krama continuing to be in top form)…then Modrić may not be needed as much either.
It all comes down to strategy and form of the players not named Modrić and Perišić.
Even can include potentially pjaca as depth and most certainly brekalo as he’s been doing quite well In Italy
I feel he still has room to grow and will add to the repka at least a super sub option
follow up on WC seeding. Look at today’s new rankings. 2 teams have to pass us for us to be in pot 3. Uruguay has a great chance. But that’s prob it. The next team below them (Sweden) is 32 points below us.
Look also at the +/- column on the right to see how many points various teams went up or down from Dec. Looks like is basically impossible for a team to accumulate 32 points in just 2 qualifier games. The only teams that got over 30 from Dec to now were playing in the AFCON (much higher weighted), and Canada (cuz they won THREE qualifier games in Jan). Even Argentina, they won 2 qualifier games against good teams even (Colombia and Chile), and they went up only 16 points.
We basically have to drop down from 1620 points somehow from our March results to end up in pot 3. That’s prob why HNS scheduled more “winnable” games. Losses against a France and England shoots our point total down. But even just 1 tie against either Bulgaria or Slovenia may be enough to keep the teams below us out of reach.
https://www.fifa.com/fifa-world-ranking/men?dateId=id13554
Thanks for the analysis. I think your right about the friendlies. Some Cro media are reporting that we only need a tie to secure our spot. I’m so glad that we don’t need to stress about qualifier play-offs.
for sure. Sitting back and watching Italy and Portugal sweat will be fun
I agree with you Chicro1,
It does appear that Croatia has done the math and made decisions about freindlies based on it.
As you pointed out previously, a 1.1% chance of dropping to pot 3 remains.
As Eric pointed out, we just need one draw to seure our spot.
That equates to Sweeden winning 2 qualifier playoff games, Uraguay winning both of their remaining qualifiers, and us losing both of our freindlies.
Given that we can relax, and probably can just sit and watch either Sweeden and Uraguay draw or lose a game, rest our starters, experiment with formation, call up a bunch of young guys, and in the end barely even stay in pot 2, I wouldn’t like to see it happen.
I would rather see Dalić play for convincing wins with our top guys. Furthermore, only if and when we have a comfortable lead, start looking at ways to fine tune.
Sure there will always be a need to try out a few new things due to circumstances that are out of our control, but I would like to see momentum, confidence and chemistry being built up progressively towards the world cup.
I am convinced that we tend to play down to our competitions level , and step up to higher levels when challenged (more so than most teams).
I would rather see us play teams like Denmark, Netherlands, Germany and Switzerland (closely matched), and there is no doubt in my mind that we could achieve one tie out of 2 games with any of the above- particularly because all of those teams are already locked into pot 2.
Correction, One of Denmark, or Netherlands will be in pot 1 (once Portugal or Italy don’t qualify), so either one of the two would make for a really good game with us (we both would have something to play for).
It may be that Croatia chose the best option that was available?
It will be interesting to see what Dalić has planned.
Correction to my previous erroneous correction:
Forgot that Qatar will be in pot 1, so both Denmark and Netherlands will be in pot 2.
Franjo – you wanna hear a messed up possibility?
Say we drop the ball , Sweden wins out, and Sweden passes us.
And then say Uruguay wins one game, but loses the other (entirely possible. They play Peru and Chile). So they don’t qualify directly, but they go to the intercontinental playoff.
Uruguay also would “pass” us in the rankings (with only 1 win, they would pass us, since they are only barely behind us). However…. they haven’t even officially qualified yet.
The WC draw is immediately in April… but the intercontinental playof isn’t until June. So who gets the last pot 2 slot in the April draw then? Us? (who have definitely qualified)? Or Uruguay somehow?
If Italy or Portugal qualify via the playoff, they still get the benefit of being a pot 1 team. Shouldn’t Uruguay get that same right if they “earn” a pot 2 slot?
Yes CHICRO1,
I also read a while back that there will be a couple of undecided spots when the WC finals draw happens in April.
However, the article did not go on to say if the winning /qualifying intercontinental playoff teams could affect the group formations?
Croatia must know the answer, and there must be a cut off date?
The intercontinental playoffs are in June, so if they will reorganize the groups based on the rankings at that time, they need to include Nations league games also.
That should not happen (IMHO) because you could intentionally lose your way out of a group you don’t like.
I think this scenario is only happening because of delays from Covid-19?
When the draw takes place and the groups become known, the rankings should be frozen at that time, and two of the groups should get a placement from an intercontinental qualifier (regardless of who it becomes).
The unknown outcome is one more reason that I believe we should be playing to win our freindlies.
Playing for maximum points rather than lots of experimentation is what I think we should be doing at this point in time.
More and more clubs and national teams are going back to 90’s and playing
3-5-2. We have the players at the moment to try it. Keep in mind when defending the formation becomes 5-3-2. In the 3 -5 -2 formation who plays on the left side of the midfield/wingback ? Perisic or Sosa ? Perisic is in superb form for Inter in that position and I would say that Dalic in crucial/big matches will have him playing on the left and Juranovic on the right. I don’t see Perisic playing up front with Kramaric unless the match is already won and Dalic wants to experiment with other players.
People are talking up Musa, and I’ll be honest I have not seen him play last year or so. However, I have watched him play for our U19 and all his matches for our U21 side and I can tell you that he was nothing special and I often wondered how the hell did he get a call up for our U21 ? Gracan liked him and he started many matches. I don’t think that Musa has the quality to make the squad for the WC.
If he continues to play well for Boavista , sure call him up and try him out in some friendlies or NL matches.
For forwards we will have to rely on Kramaric, Budimir, Orsic, Petkovic and possibly Rebic if he smokes the peace pipe with Dalic. Roko Simic needs to make the first team at Salzburg and show what he can do at that level before getting a call up or going to the WC as a squad player.
If 3-5-2 works for us, then it will be very reassuring for the future, as Perisic will probably be retiring from the NT within the next couple of years.
Perisic has been our best player, and losing him will hurt us…especially since our second best player (Modric) will be retired as well.
Having Sosa on that left side in a 3-5-2 is good, because it plays to his strengths…and if we can make good use of a tall striker up top, we will have another dimension to our offense that we haven’t had in a while (especially with Juranovic emerging for us on that right side).
Juranovic is not wearing 33 | number
the 33 that we often look so impressive is –> M O’Riley
we mistook him for Juranovic because …
He is often in Juranovic’s position!
I was reading dalic wants to try 3 5 2 or more of 3 4 3 formation in the 2 games next month
Questions for me who is the number 1 keeper
Back line 3 cbs im guessing Lovren Gvardiol CC. Then what Broz Modric Kovacic Juranovic Sosa as Back up top Krama Perisic?
Id like for musa to get a call playing well in portugal why not. Its too early for simic lets him develop more maybe if start of 22 season gets a spot for RB maybe consider.
Imo id stick with 4 2 3 1 formation in the 90s and early 00s we had players for 3 5 2 we dont have strikers imo for this formation 90s Boksic Suker Vlaovic Cvitanovic. 00s Boksic Balaban(yes i said him his goals helped us get to 2002 then didnt play a minute in japan. Prso Klasnic Olic. We stopped playing 3 5 2 when bilic took over ever since 2006 we have played 4 4 2. 4 2 3 1 4 3 3 formation
When saw the amount Legia paid, my first thought was that Dinamo really screwed up their evaluation of Juranovic. Then I read that he was a Hajduk player and everything made sense.
hahaha he is from zagreb, signed by hajduk under dinamo’s nose
HNS is going to have to play full-throttle attacking football in order to get the most out of the players we have. A defense with Sosa and Juranovic plus a midfield with Kovacic and Modric, plus an attacking rotation of players who cause good defenses trouble on a weekly basis (whether or not they end up being the individuals scoring)… If they play it right, this repka could be the kind of team that breaks down even the tightest defenses. The friendlies against Bulgaria and Slovenia are a good opportunity to finally figure out how to score against a bunker defense. Then the nations league games are going to be an up-and-down race for goals.
Yea, even our CBs are more offensively-oriented like Gvardiol and Duje…
We may as well just press all game and try to outscore our opponents.
Even in our more defensive years (where our squad was dominated with more defensive-minded players like the Kovac bros, Jerko Leko, Dujmovic, Vukojevic, Zivkovic, Tomas..and a whole bunch of other guys who were all defense no offense) we were never great at defending and trying to hold on to leads anyway.
I watched the entire Rangers/Celtic match last week and Jura came out to play. He had a chip on his shoulder, balled out, and was even talking shit to the Rangers players. Celtic fans had to have loved that.
If we can get him and Sosa running at 100%, oh my…
They have been doing well both team and country, we just need a striker like Musa or Simic upfront for them to cross to.
Late bloomer Croats.
It’s a real thing man.
You know what happened the last time when Brendan Rodgers had a Croatian in his squad.
Is that krama or benkovic or both?
Benkovic
Vrsaljko 2018 seems long ago now
We look promising on both wing backs
They are talking pretty big money for juranovic on the Twitter comments
Wasn’t he only a couple mill?
What a great buy for them