The Vatreni kicked off the summer international season with a dominant 3-0 victory over North Macedonia in Rijeka Monday night.
While the game saw Marco Pašalić score his first goal in senior checkers, attacking midfielder Lovro Majer stole the show with an impressive 1st half brace.
Was Majer’s 2-goal performance enough to earn a starting role for Croatia ahead of Euro 2024? If so, where will he play, and who wouldDalić bench?
Lovro Majer: Starter or Super Sub?
The 26 year-old had a decent season in the Bundesliga for Wolfsburg, notching five goals and five assists in 32 matches. Majer averaged a satisfactory 7.03 FotMob season rating; starting 25 league matches under Croatian manager Niko Kovač.
His club stats aren’t bad, but certainly aren’t outstanding either. Surely he’s behind Modrić, Kovačić, and Brozović in Croatia’s midfield pecking order, right?
Here’s where it gets interesting. In his previous five matches for the Vatreni, Majer has recorded four goals and two assists as an attacking midfielder or right winger. Directly involved in six of Croatia’s last 10 goals, Majer has provided much of the Vatreni’s attack amid an era of low production from the rest of the squad.
In games against Italy, Spain — and possibly even Albania — where goals are hard to come by, proven scorers need to be on the pitch to set the tempo. Lovro Majer is more than worthy of a starting spot during the Euro, and should be Dalić’s cemented “CAM” ahead of the tournament.
Between the likes of Brozović and Kovačić, who will Majer replace to complete the Vatreni’s midfield three?
Alongside Modrić, Brozović has proven to be one of the most important players on the roster in years prior. However, he’s getting old, and the Saudi league is a huge step down from Europe’s top-five.
On the other hand, Kovačić has taken a major step forward in his career this season under Pep Guardiola at Manchester City. But is his style of play too similar to Modrić’s to have on the field with Majer in front of them?
Let’s hear your thoughts CroatianSports Nation — does Majer make your starting lineup, and if so, who does Dalić bench?
Brozovic defensive work off the ball is vital for the Vatreni, he is/was underated and gives Modric freedom. Is he the same player with endless stamina maybe? We will see. Majer isn’t that type of player who does that DMF dirty work tirelessly on and off the ball. Against Albania we might get away with it but the bigger teams you need that brozovic type building up from deep. Unless we have a formation change with more midfielders I think it’s mod bro kov.
I agree that we need to find a spot in the mid for Majer.. I believe all 4 will be able to start together (Modric Kovacic Brozovic Majer) because we now have guys who can comfortably take on the roles of our dynamic trio (CM-CDM Sucic CM-CAM Baturina CAM Vlasic) can sub those roles if necessary.. Importnst thing is we have depth and individual players who can play various roles.. yes some they excel at better then others but aiming to put them at there most comfortable position should aid better results
Based on this Dalic 4-5-1(4-3-2-1)would should look like this
————————()————————
——(Perisic*)-—(Petkovic^)———Majer——
————————-—Modric——————————
———-—Brozovic———-—Kovacic—————
—Sosa————————-——————-Stanisic
——————Gvardiol—-Sutalo———————
——————-——-Livakovic—————————
There is a possibility that Dalic slots Kramaric or Majer on the Left/Right attack and Petkovic would start instead of LM in this case Perisic..
These are players who can hold distribute and defend which will be necessary against Spain… we need technicians who can turn quick as I don’t believe it will be a very open game on the wings against Spain especially to start the match it will be battle of possession.. second half likes of Pasalic(S) and Ivanusec/Pjaca and Budimir can add to more explosive options to add some more grit and speed if need be..
Tudor out at Lazio
Dalic will start Modric Broz and Kova and make adjustments as needed. Ideally you rotate the 3 with Majer starting, but Dalic won’t do it.
Majer on current form has to be in the starting 11. We will need to be compact in defence and play 4/5 in the midfield with Budimir as our lone striker and Kramaric having a free roaming role behind him.
Formation 4 -4 -1 -1
Liva – Stan, Suta, Erlic, Gvard – Kova, Broz, Modric, Majer – Krama – Budimir
Italy Turkey 0-0
Italian media asking whether they have enough time to sort it out in next 10 days
Apparently, Turkey completely neutralized Italy – hopefully Dalic watches the tape a couple of times to take notes
Nice to see Vicario get his 2nd cap for Italy
Turkey has an Italian coach. A pretty good one too. Probably helped in terms of tactics.
Croatia and Spain both have very good records against Italy, so this group was always going to be tough for the Italians.
If you don’t count friendlies, Croatia vs Spain has been pretty even. Will be an interesting and possibly tight finish. Probably may come down to goal differential for final standings in this group (similar to Euro2012 when we had to go all in against Spain in the final minutes due to being down on differential).
Not sure what the Albanians will be capable of. They have a pretty decent backline and fullbacks…but not sure what else.
They may play spoiler and draw someone. Lots of them are in Serie A too. Italy might be at another disadvantage here (as they are the most likely team to screw up here)…but Spalletti is a good coach.
Yup re: Montella
Did u see Ozan Kabak tore his knee ? Out of Euros
Thank Bog we visited Pope Francis today (Luka shaking his hand – priceless)
Albania coached by Sylvinho who mostly speaks Italian to the players (Albania’s previous 3 coaches were Italian and the federation (Armand Duka) speaks Italian – when he interviewed Sylvinho the conversation was in Italian. Also, they have an Italian video analyst Alarico Marco Rossi, etc) – so I’m sure all these Italian angles will help them too in their prep v. Italy. We better not take them lightly – they will be well organized to play against us – it won’t be easy.
Watched the 2nd half last night – I can’t believe I’m saying this – but Majer actually played especially well and fought all the way to the end (if u look at the Budimir off-side goal last minute – after Majer passed it to Sucic he ran into the box hard to get a return pass from Budimir) – also I was wrong with the 9 out of 10 (here’s a video showing a bunch of different angles of the 1st goal – look at the reverse angle, etc – it’s actually a really good shot/goal) – thought he did well overall and was playing all over the midfield / wings at different points in the game (e.g. when Baturina came off, he dropped deeper into a Modric role)
***.dailymotion.com/video/x8zl8vq
Sucic is so slick and silky with the ball at his feet, esp. in tight spaces with players around him. Still trying to figure out what Baturina excels at ? Aside from the odd dribble through a player or two or run into space forward to get on the end of a long pass fwd
Budimir – while he was active – his timing was off – a couple of needless fouls (leading to free kicks/stoppage of plays) – 2 or 3 off-sides (i.e. going fwd too quickly) – got nutmeged once – and lost the ball a couple of times in 50/50 – I’m sure he’ll be better next time (or at least I hope he does)
Ivanusec – with Pjaca on at LW – looked like he was playing on left-side of CM ? He looked anonymous – had maybe only 1 or 2 touches his first 25 minutes – near the end he touched the ball a couple of times – but did nothing (and fell down when ball was passed to him top of the box) – we have so many players who can play in midfield – no clue why Ivanusec is playing there – if he’s not going to be LW (TBD) – than not sure there is place for him on the field.
I thought Erlic was very good with the ball at his feet / passing it around (if you look at first half – Vida never passed the ball forward – it was always Erlic playing from out from the back – and he was good at it, especially playing on the left-CB) – Pongracic seemed less able with ball at his feet, but seemed more capable trying to dribble the ball forward on his own (w/ mixed success)) – I don’t know why but I have a feeling Dalic brought Pongracic in to play him – in first half a couple of times Sosa got caught forward (we were basically playing a back 2 – w/ JJ and Sosa playing way up – sometimes inverted into midfield) and on the track back Erlic looked shaky (didn’t know which man to pick-up and how to run/position himself getting back – considering this is our one “weakness” that every opponent knows about – we need CBs that are “best” at that aspect – not sure if Pongracic has better positioning awareness coming back – but Erlic needs to review the video and do better next time)
I feel (or at least hope) there is another gear in Marco Pasalic – his work rate is very good (esp. on defensive side / when he loses the ball) – but I think he has another gear going fwd – the problem is we brought him on to be a RW – yet our entire play forward remained through the middle – we need to STRETCH the field/play out to the wings – esp. if we have him in the RW position – to draw the opponent out from just clogging the midfield against us
I think I like Passport Soccer’s ideal Hrv lineup the best so far:
Petkovic
Kramaric. Majer.
Modric. Kovačić.
Brozovic.
Sosa. Stanisic.
Gvardiol. Sutalo.
Livakovic.
We need a creator in midfield and someone who can chip in with some goals. Majer fits the bill. Kovacic is a duplicate function of Modric. We don’t need that.
Kovacic is world class, has to play, just like Raketic did with Modric in 18. I like Majer but kova and Modric if both fully fit must start. Pending injuries/fitness I’d go
livakovic
Stanisic Erlic Sutalo Gvardiol
Kova Modric Broz
Majer Krama Perisic
perisic has missed a lot so may look for xfactor in Pjaca/young pasalic instead
Budimir’s year in laliga warrants opportunity if formation/opposition warrants it…