Don’t look now, but 2nd Division English side Aston Villa have won seven straight matches – all without new Croatian goalkeeper Lovre Kalinić. The current Croatian #1 last played club football February 16th in a 2-0 loss to West Brom, but was taken off at halftime as a precaution to a potential head injury. Kalinić was fine but hasn’t seen the pitch for Aston Villa since.
In the mean time, he allowed three relatively soft foals for Croatia against Azerbaijan and Hungary while on international duty in March and is currently in the dog house with Croatia supporters.
Aston Villa are now sitting in fifth place in the English Championship standings. Teams ranked 3-6 go to the playoffs with the lone victor being promoted to the Premiership next season.
There’s no injury report on Kalinić but he’s currently third on the depth chart on a second division team.
If the status quo remains…it’s time for Dominik Livaković to step up and take the reigns for the Vatreni in front of goal. Kalinić was the chosen one to succeed Subašić for the next next decade. He has the physical prowess and wingspan to get the job done in front of goal, but mental lapses at age won’t bode well for his future.
If Kalinić doesn’t get any playing time down the stretch run of the season – which it seems he won’t – Dalić has to throw Livaković in goal in June.
“He saved a few penalties against Denmark (and none against Russia) that won him a lot of praise. ”
He saved the very first Russian penalty. Sounds like YOU didnt watch the games.
I also remember a bunch of croat girls around me clapping when vida headed it back for the corner thinking it was a good clearance or something..(facepalm) good ol fake soccer fans
Its probably due to Vida’s crazy wife
@ Goku
It was such a simple play to make, he coulda just headed the ball out to side (touchline). And it was at such a critical point in the match, we were getting stronger.
I too wonder what woulda happened if he just made the easy play. I’ll tell you one thing, France would not have scored another goal in that first half, we were just starting to take control of the match.
Why do you think Mandzo was telling off Vida after the game. He was fucking smashing him for all of his fuck ups at the back (it should been either Vida or Lovren trying to clear that cross from Grizmann instead of Mando – poor bloke was trying to attack and defence) but instead everyone’s blaming Suba’s poor movement instead on the last fourth goal what a joke. What the hell can a keeper do when the defence is front of you is absent. Vida was shitting himself against Mbappe.
The reason why we are talking about Kalinic is that we have no confidence and if you don’t have confidence in your keeper you are pretty much screwed as a team.
@Razbijac
I remember that Vida play very well. I started yelling at my friend next to me “WTF IS VIDA DOING” and then the corner led to the penalty call…
Who knows how the game would had unfolded if he didnt screw up that header
Get off Lovre Kalinics dick already and write about something else. This is the 3rd or 4th article about him since the March qualifiers. Get some new talking points
Perhaps? When will people finally understand that Croats and Serbs do not mix even on the football field
The only player that could have played for Croatia was Ibrahimovic but he chose not to so just Pulisic they can settle playing with a second rate national team
Perhaps true
@Truth
Jugoslav players would not have been an improvement in any area of the team, each Croatian player in that WC team in my opinion was better suited in the team in their position than any other player in the Balkans.
That being said, I understand the argument that Oblak, Iličić (who is actually partially Croatian), Pjanić, Matić, or Milinković-Savić could maybe have improved our team, but honestly I think that Suba and Brozo are such underrated players and performed so well at the WC that I think the rest of the Balkans are vastly inferior and wouldn’t have really improved the squad. Don’t forget that our performance was almost entirely fuelled by national pride.
What about Suba against Kane in the first half what a fuckin legend and the claim that Suba did nothing against the ruskies and argies was bullshit
I’m afraid Kalinic is going to be worse than Pletikosa which is a scary
We gotta try livakovic
suba made incredible saves against denmark in the shootout. that was our toughest game, psychologically and physically it was huge huge pressure. he stepped up when others were lost. we would have gone out in the second round if not for suba
Yugoslavia does not exist anymore you idiot and any real Croat would have only put a half arse effort on the field to fuck up those greater Serb supporters like yourself
I bet Crnkovic could fix TV’s too
Ahhh so many truth imitators. Even as Yugoslavia, would-ve been unlikely to win wc. What would’ve been the fun anyway though. More enjoyable with the Croatian team
“I watched some taped games with some friends recently and we were just laughing at what Suba was doing half the time.”
That is so gay. You need a girl and to get laid.
@Razbijac
Nah.
Smolov kicked the ball at Subasic (who jumped early). Smolov tried to do a Panenka, then changed his mind right before he took the shot, and ended up kicking the ball lightly at Subasic who dove early. Had Smolov just done the Panenka, it would have gone in without any problems.
For the other Russian penalties, Subasic guessed wrong and went the opposite way on all of them. We won because that Brazilian-Russian missed the net. Subasic didn’t win that shootout for us, it was Raketa, Vida and Brozovic taking fantastic penalties (with Luka getting extremely lucky with his).
Re: Suba having a good World Cup…
You gotta see the games again. He was bad. People already forgot that abysmal first half against Argentina where both Subasic and the Argentine keeper (Caballero) were making fools of themselves whenever they had the ball. Out of bounds clearances, losing the ball under light pressure, tripping over their feet…it was only a matter of time until one of them screwed up (and Caballero received the honor).
I wish I had a highlight reel of the errors and just random near-misses that happened while Suba was just standing there in an almost semi-slouched position (not even aware of the danger). There was one play against Russia where Subasic feigned away from the oncoming ball while covering his face when the Russian took the shot on net (trying to avoid being hit!). Luckily the shot went over the bar.
Subasic was just very lucky that he faced very few shots (relative to other goalkeepers). People forget that we outshot every one of our opponents in this World Cup. Half the shots we faced went into our goal! You can’t be letting in half the shots that come your way go into the net and expect to win a game (but somehow we almost won the tournament).
If I can find some full games online, I will post some links where some hilarious Suba stuff happened. Some of it was funny. I watched some taped games with some friends recently and we were just laughing at what Suba was doing half the time.
@Truth
Nah. Serbs are chokers both in war and in football. They would have caused us to finish 3rd or 4th in our group (like they always do).
Actually, World Cup 2018 was the first time Serbia did not finish last in their group at a World Cup. They finished third this time. I’m actually very proud of them.
If Jugoslavia was still together, they would have won the last WC.
Thought crnkovic’s comments might not be looked at on the other thread
Good one to talk about
Livakovic; vrsaljko, lovren, vida, jedvaj/barisic/sosa; brekalo, modric/rakitic, brozovic/rakitic, perisic; rebic, kramaric
442 is a good formation for a number of reasons.
(1) it puts less emphasis on the full backs providing width and delivering assists. since we have no outstanding left back this solves a big problem. this allows jedvaj or barisic to sit in a more natural left back position and provide stability.
(2) this in turn allows the central defenders to be more aggressive in attacking the ball in front of them as there is some cover from genuine fullback position (in 433 or 4231 formation the fullbacks are pushed high up the pitch so do not provide cover for the central defenders) this suits the aggression of vida and lovren.
(3) we reduce our central midfield to 2 players from having had 3. modric, rakitic and brozovic should not all play together anymore. there is a lack of aggression and lack of power and pace in that midfield. we cannot afford 3 elegant midfielders anymore. let them compete for the 2 available spots. the bench will motivate them to give 100% when they play. also none of these 3 players is a natural 6 or natural 10, yet each of them are highly capable in all the areas of midfield play. this again suits a 2 central midfield as it allows both players to take turns moving forward and sitting deep…
(4) without mandzukic we need to take the opportuntiy to develop our play in the last 3rd of the pitch. to become more creative, quicker, more incisive and to carry a greater threat on the counter attack through the middle. I cant think of 2 better suited players for this than kramaric and rebic. between the 2 of them we have everything you could ever want from a strikeforce. pace, power, running, pressing, shooting, intelligence, flair, vision and composure. let these 2 players develop an understanding between them. it would be awesome. in addition there may be only one player in world football that kramaric passes to rather than always shooting, out of fear, ante rebic
(5) many have called to solve our left back crisis by putting perisic there. this is clearly a daft move as perisic has been our most potent attacking weapon for some time. but playing him on the left in a 442 gives the best solution. it takes way some of the responsibilty to always attack the box. allows him to pick his moment to attack. takes away attention from his attacking threat. and allows him to contribute his athleticism by dominating the left side in attack and defense.
(6) Brekalo, along with vlasic, are the 2 players who have stepped up from youth football and showed they have what it takes. both are highly skilled dribblers and very creative players. however, neither is a presence in the box. in a front 3 you need that presence. this has led to brekalo being played as a RB just to get his talent on the pitch. in vlasic case it has led to him being deployed further back as an attacking midfielder by CSKA. by playing these guys as wide players in a 442 you solve this problem. on the right side we have vrsaljko who will over lap often. this allows brekalo, or vlasic, to cut inside often into the 10 position. alternatively they can play intelligent passes into the right channel for rebic to run onto or decide to be agressive and run at the opposition fullback 1 on 1. all of this suits their game perfectly…
to some up, i believe that if Dalic is brave enough to work on this shape it could be the solution to our current problems. and help usher in the new generation of talent with a quicker, more direct, more incisive and more stable playing style
April 11, 2019 at 3:03 AM
crnkovic says:
(7) from a tactical perspective we lost against hungary for this reason: hungary pressed the ball and marked in midfield. when teams do this to us we have a tendency to hold the ball at the back and try to spread further and further into wide areas to find a bit of space. we end up with 2 sometimes 3 central midfielders dropping deep to find the ball. in the end we have no forward solution. there are 2 ways to beat this that i can see:
(1) play kovacic, let him beat the press by picking up the ball deep and running through the field, once he has taking one or 2 players out of the game he can pass it, like he always does, and we now have possesion in attack
(2) play 442. when they press play forward quickly into the front strikers. one of them comes short to receive feet. the other spins into the channel. this splits their defence and puts doubt into the opposition pressing game. all it takes is one of thos passes to get through and we can score. so the oppo have to drop off and little and we then have our space to play. if the press again we pass through to the strikers again. it just gives us that variation to our play that we hardly ever see. all of this takes huge pressure off luka’s shoulders as well. it doesnt have to go through him every time. the ball can go from back to front by passing midfield. then modric can receive the ball not from the defence but from a rebic lay off on the edge of their area. from where he can shoot, dribble or slide in persic down the side of the area.
April 11, 2019 at 3:18 AM
@ Maminjo
First off Subasic did save a penalty against Smolov in the shoot out vs. Russia.
Second, Subasic had overall a good World Cup, except his last match where he shoulda sat out. Throughout the tourney, He marshaled his defense in front of him, and made the necessary plays.
At any rate, Subasic is just a good GK–not Great or World Class. He can be called upon to make the routine saves, but isn’t an extra-ordinary shot stopper.
In the shoot out, he was good because he does have strong focus and concentration. And I think in this department he is ahead of Kalinic.
@ SUBA
Speaking of bone-headed plays!!! The one play by Vida where I completely lost it is when he headed Lloris’s goal kick back for a corner. Rather than heading it to the side!
I don’t know what the HELL he was thinking on that play. Was he trying to head back to Subasic????
At any rate, you don’t give up cheap corners like that–especially in matches like the World Cup Final. And this corner would particularly hurt since it lead to a goal.
This was the most critical point match. Croatia had just equalized when Vida gave away that corner, they were gaining momentum!
And by the way when was Pletikosa ever any good
Suba will be remembered up there with Beara one day as Croatia best ever keeper
Disappointed with the comments about Suba
Some of you guys sound like those Italian boys i went to high school who were crying and blaming Baguio for the 94 WC loss when he was the one who got them in the first place.
Without Suba we would have been eliminated much earlier
We lost the final because of bone head defending that was in front of Suba aka Vida
Subašić was bad at the World Cup.
I advise anyone who has the World Cup recorded, to re-watch every game and to simply take a look at what Subašić is doing, his stance, and how he is positioned when the other team goes on an attack. It’s frightening.
He was a complete idiot this past World Cup and he cost us the trophy. He saved a few penalties against Denmark (and none against Russia) that won him a lot of praise.
We always seem to be so unlucky with the fitness of our keepers at critical times.
Ladić during World Cup ’98 and Pletikosa during Euro 2012 were the only two tournaments where our goalkeepers performed well. Every other tournament had a gaffe goal or two, with a lot of shaky plays.
Suba did good except for the final because he was hurt. Playing him is on Dalic but what choice did he have? Start Lovre?
@ vuki 1 good game for suba???? id you not watch the world cup ?
Subasic had 1 good game for Croatia and since it came at the most crucial time people hold him super highly. He also won one of those GK of the years when his team was the best team with the best defense. Perhaps Kalinic is not better, but he definitely has the potential to be better.
He’s afraid of the ball. Subasic, Lloris and Buffon are not and close the angle on the ball without fear.
How is Kalinic better than Suba, are you on crack?
Suba won the French league, was named goalie of the year twice and took Cro to a WC final. Kalinic did what?
Here you go Croatia youth.
https://www.total-croatia-news.com/lifestyle/35242-croatian-youtube
My personal opinion is that Kalinic is a better GK than Subasic, but his confidence is so low right now. Confidence is one of the most important attributes for a GK and it’s really hurting his decision making. Livakovic definitely should play in the next matches as I’ve been impressed with him in every Dinamo game I’ve watched and when he played against England. Hopefully Kalinic can get back to how good he was in the Belgian league, but I don’t think that will happen until next season.
A record 6 goals