(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 10: Mario Pašalić
Season Grade: D+
National Team: C-
Atalanta: D
Season Highlight:
Winning penalty against Japan in Round of 16
Team next season:
- Atalanta (90%)
- Other team (no current rumours) (10%)
What the future holds:
Pašalić has had an extremely quiet season. Four goals in 30 appearances for Atalanta is not flattering as Pašalić has been a very sporadic player for them this season, in and out of the lineup a lot. Pašalić recorded 0 goals (other than the winning penalty against Japan) at the World Cup and his Croatia play has been very passenger this season. Perhaps a move would be interesting for Pašalić. Preferably to a club a club where he is a cemented starter and translates that play into the National Team. For Croatia, Pašalić will most likely be a super sub option (a role he’s delivered well in in the past), and as long as he can bag a goal every few matches, he has done his job.
@Maminjo
[“Maybe Modric dies a slow National Team death, and sticks around as a backup (or as a player coach) who can be deployed off the bench to play a vital role in the last 20 minutes as a late sub (with fresh legs). I would love this.”]
– I would absolutely love this too.
[“I think Luka Sucic was the likeliest player that could be an impact midfielder that would be a better player than Majer for us in that role…but his injury will hurt us here.”]
– Dang, these knee ligament injuries… such a bummer it happened to Sucic (and also Kacavenda). Does it always put the kibosh on an elite career? Can you think of any player who tore his knee but still go on to enjoy a great career?
Del Piero…but it probably reduced the caliber of impact he could have had if he didn’t injure his knee.
The good news is that Baturina is looking better and better. From a technically gifted and creativity standpoint, he looks like he has a higher ceiling than both Sucic and Kacavenda. Kacavenda was explosive and Sucic is a box-to-box midfielder, so they are both more like modern footballers, and would have been great as well. If Baturina can gain more discipline and get physically stronger, then he will be better than them.
Would’ve liked to have seen Baturina with this squad considering Sucic is out because of his knee. But I’m not really worked up about him not being on there, just would’ve been interesting I guess.
Yeah I hope Baturina will keep improving. The coaches at Dinamo need to tell him to get physically stronger asap!
Yeah I hope Baturina will keep improving. The coaches at Dinamo need to tell him to get physically stronger asap!
———— NETHERLANDS ————
National League players level -o
this is the standard – not to divert.
World Class [Gold Type]
……………………………………..
Be Considered [Silver Type]
…………………………………………….
Decent Players [Bronze Type]
High Level –
Virgil van Dijk
Mid-level >
Matthijs de Ligt
Low level –
Wout Weghorst, Ryan Gravenberch
______________________________________| below list]
Be Considered as Decent Players –
Stefan de Vrij, Denzel Dumfries
Average players
Nathan Ake, Steven Bergwijn, Steven Berghuis, Jasper Cillessen
Davy Klaassen, Marten de Roon,
Not Impressive
Jurrien Timber, Cody Gakpo, Vincent Janssen, Brian Brobbey,
Devyne Rensch, Tyrell Malacia, Daley Blind, Kenneth Taylor,
Andries Noppert, Mark Flekken
————– CROATIA —————-
National League players 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 –
………………………………………….
Mid-level >
Perisic, Brozovic
Low level –
Gvardiol, Kovacic
______________________________________| below list]
Be Considered as Decent Players –
…………………………………………………..
Average players
Livaković, Juranovic, Kramaric, Mario Pašalić,
Lovro Majer
Not Impressive
Livaja, Petkovic, Sosa, Stanišić, Šutalo, Barišić
Martin Erlić, Vlašić, Vida, Ivica Ivušić, Labrović,
Ivanušec, Petar Musa, Dion Drena Beljo
There is a rumour floating around, not sure anyone has already mentioned it, but the rumour is that Livakovic could move to Real Madrid as a transfer given that Lunin doesn’t want to stay with Real Madrid.
Could be an interesting move for him, I prefer La Liga as an option over Premier League personally.
Easily. EPL would be an awful move for him.
National Team grade is a little harsh.
I was never a pro-Pasalic guy (I don’t think he’s starter quality) but he’s carved himself a good role off the bench for us.
Good with headers, and crashing the opposing goal for opportunities. He’s a tall and heavy kid, who is a nuisance for opposing defenders. Bad at finishing with his feet (unless it’s a PK), but is good when he plays within his role (which he has done this past year). He did well against Japan and Brazil at the World Cup. This recent Turkey match showed both his positives (physical play) and negatives (missing a sitter right in front of goal).
So long as he is considered a depth player (who comes off the bench) and plays within that role, then his grade is a B.
To add to this, I really like our “bench mob” that we have coming off the bench for us in Orsic, Pasalic, Vlasic and Majer.
They all did well for us at the World Cup, and even played in key moments like the PKs against Japan and Brazil. They all scored PK shootout goals to.
This is why we shouldn’t have left Orsic off the squad for the Nations League. He’s a pretty big catalyst off the bench for this “bench mob” crew we have going here.
I think Ivanusec will be “that guy” instead of Orsic this round. His form has been incredible lately, and he’ll be looking to prove himself for the repka after being dropped for the world cup.
I agree but I think this goes with Dalic’s motto that if you haven’t been playing consistently at your club you won’t get a call up. Right or wrong this is his approach to players that are in the position where Orsic is now, especially the younger players it seems.
But then again he backtracks with players like Vida for example who didn’t even play in the World Cup so again he doesn’t always seem to follow or apply the rule. Why certain exceptions are made I have no idea
Vida is a Slavonac, so Dalic is pandering to the Osijek crowd.
Dalic was raised in Yugoslavia, which used to do this all the time (and capped its ceiling by trying to pander to the different republics) which always limited the talent on the field.
It’s influenced him a bit, where although he uses “club form” as his rationale for gaining a callup, he makes sure the National Team appropriately reflects the country with representation from all areas of Croatia.
Unfortunately, you end up with guys like Vida on the team over a guy like Orsic (who is 100 times more useful for these Nations League matches).
I also noticed he also called up Matija Frigan on standby (who is from Rijeka).
It makes me wonder why Dion Beljo (from Zagreb) was never given a standby callup when he was one of the league leaders in HNL the past two seasons.
Even after transferring (and starting) at Augsburg, it still took some time for a callup.
I like that we have a young striker coming up with Frigan, but his scoring rate is good (but nothing special) and he’s barely been doing this for half a season (and was non-existent in previous years).
However, we are usually starving for players to come out of Istra and Kvarner region and my guess is Dalic is going to fast track this kid into the National Team simply because it gives the Rijeka fans (and Kvarner region) someone to cheer for.
Dalic needs to stick to coaching, and stay out of the whole ‘bringing Croatia together’ project he keeps talking about.
Small moves like this (cutting Orsic from the team), could be what costs us the Nations League title.
@Maminjo
There’s one part to your statement above which is agreeable and there is also another part to this where I see it as disagreeable (basically some players you used as examples make your point spot on but using some others maybe not so much)
The agreeable part is where you say how Dalic is trying to bring ‘Croatia together’ in that sense where you’re calling up everyone from everywhere for the sake of it i.e. Vida, Livaja and Petkovic who are not good enough for the National Team and for the progress for the National Team. Whether it was Dalic talking shit about how Livaja ‘deserved’ to play at the Poljud against Wales and drops a complete stinker or how ‘we only have strikers from Dinamo and Hajduk’ following the WC when it was just complete nonsense as well.
The Disagreeable part is when you use Matija Frigan as the example to that trying to bring ‘Croatia together’ situation. When you say he has been ‘non-existent’, it sort of makes out like he’s some 25-26 year old player that seemed to be washed when in reality, he is only 20 years old and previously he was going through his development stage within senior football and only as of this year, he has exploded onto the scene and probably would’ve been talked about a lot more if the coach that Rijeka has now was coaching from the start of the season and his tally would be much closer to Livaja’s in the league.
Interesting… now that you mentioned it, I can’t seem to recall any National Team player who originated from the Kvarner and Istra region. It’s a bit odd given the presence of Rijeka there. I don’t really agree with Dalic’s “bring Croatia together” project but I think it would be nice to see a talent from that area finally make it “big”… dunno maybe it’ll help to inspire other kids playing football there?
https://www.instagram.com/reel/CsbmRRDgTC8/?igshid=MmJiY2I4NDBkZg==
It seems our little streak is gaining attention, lol. 🤣
If inter wins I have a weird feeling they can upset(pressure is all on city)
City gonna absolutely break the bank getting gvardi for next year 😉
Hope your weird feeling turns out to be right Dannyj.
And then yeah, City will do everything to get Gvardiol next year cos they know they can’t win the CL without a Croat in their team.