(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 12: Marko Livaja
Season Grade: A-
Season Highlight:
Clutch goal vs. Canada during the group stages of the 2022 World Cup.
Team Next Season:
98% certain he stays at Hajduk, 2% chance a top-5 league side pursues him.
What to Improve Next Season:
If Livaja remains at his current level, he will 100% be the Prva Liga scoring king again next season. Livaja is miles above the rest in league play, and should technically be competing at a higher level. Given that he will likely remain with Hajduk for the rest of his career, there’s not much for him to improve on. Stay away from suspensions, I guess?!?!
What the Future Holds:
Hopefully a Prva Liga trophy. If anyone can save Hajduk from their notorious trophy drought, it’s Livaja. Expect a 20-goal + 10-assist season in 2023-24 for the soon-to-be 30 year-old striker. At the end of the day, Livaja had a remarkable season with over 30 goal contributions for his club. The only things holding him back from an A+ are his average play with the national team and the fact that he’s not competing in a top-6 league.
With Musa and Beljo flying through the ranks, Livaja will probably lose playing time with the national team as he ages. His energy will be spent on his Hajduk side, and the task of dethroning Dinamo for the top spot in Croatia.
I’ll play Devil’s Advocate here and ask how Livaja got an overall score of A- while Orsic got an overall score of a D?
Livaja is the centre of the universe for Hajduk, we all know that but with that said how valuable has Livaja been for our National Team and club if he performed below average for our National Team, scoring 2 goals in qualifying games that we won quite easily vs Slovenia and Cyprus…each game we won 3-0. His only real meaningful goal might have been for us to take the lead vs Austria in a Nations League we won 3-0.
This season he scored 9 less goals than last season, he also missed 3 penalty shots and he was far less relevant in BIG games…almost always picking his spots but definitely not dominating by any means. I watch him weekly so this is my first hand opinion. There is no way in hell Livaja gets an A- for this season…there were soo many poor performances for him this year and my fear is if he continues, he’s gonna be less of a factor in the league next season.
Seriously I don’t how you guys are coming up with some of these gradings
I agree Majer F, Livaja A-???
I am a Hajdukovac but I would not be giving Livaja an A-, and Majer getting an F is way too harsh..
But this is subjective anyways…
We’re comparing apples to oranges here, because a “season average” would rate how each player did in their respective leagues, and Livaja has had a better HNL season than Majer having a Ligue 1 season.
So it technically IS accurate, that Livaja has had a great season and probably is deserving of that A- rating.
However, Livaja almost certainly can’t cut it in the French League, so his rating is obviously inflated by the fact that HNL is so much easier than Ligue 1.
So this rating system becomes useless when comparing between players, because a player getting an A- performance as a 30 year-old in a development league for teenagers is not a good measure of value.
If we compare Livaja to Mislav Orsic…will Orsic have a lower grade?
Using this system, then yea he probably would.
I think any ranking should be heavily weighted in favor of National Team performance, but I’m pretty sure we’ll give Mislav Orsic a mediocre grade too…even though he’s been infinitely better and more valuable than Livaja this past year.
So you can’t use this rating system to compare players. Just rate them based on how well they did for their respective club teams.
It would probably be better to do some sort of weighted ‘value’ ranking system where NT performance is most important, then the performance in a top-5 league, then after than, any performance in a smaller league…because scoring 20 goals for Hajduk means very little if you’re missing PKs in the World Cup.
This isn’t really sport related but i was playing a game on Xbox today and check out the name of the coastal town your home is in lol
https://imgur.com/a/vdJLzhG
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/wY-0n48SSKk
Halilovic —
Even looks like him lol. Cooler name tho !
————– 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, Vlašić
Not Impressive
LIVAJA, Petkovic, Sosa, Stanišić, Šutalo, Barišić
Martin Erlić, Vida, Ivica Ivušić, Labrović,
Ivanušec, Petar Musa, Dion Drena Beljo
I would have said a B or B+ only because he was relatively silent in the Conference League. But in terms of the numbers he put up in the HNL both seasons he has done an outstanding job. But I would have to see him contributing to a league victory or contributing to a deep run in a major tournament to put him at an A-. But that’s me personally.
But again this is all subjective to some extent.
https://www.goalstube.online/2023/05/rennes-as-monaco.html?m=1
Majer bangs one in. It’s hard to tell if he picks the spot or if the goalie makes a meal of it, but a goal is a goal.
https://www.goalstube.online/2023/05/inter-atalanta.html?m=m4
Brozovic with a well timed run and assist. He seems to be rounding into form after an injury plagued season. Just in time too…… Champions League final and Nations League 😁
I really hope Broz and Inter take Champions League.
https://www.goalstube.online/2023/05/spezia-torino.html?m=m4
Vlasic with a pair of nice assists.
He hasn’t had a great campaign overall, but he’s really turned it on to close the season out with a goal and 4 assists in his last 7 games.
It’s a good team for decent level Croats to play on with a Croat coach
Brekalo maybe should have stayed there?
Could livaja cut it say in Italy right now?
I think he was on Inter’s squad before but it never worked out.
It’s whether or not his current form in HNL would translate in a tougher league like Serie A. It’s a possibility.
Looks like gvardiol and juranovic are playing champions league next year if stay where they are
Sosa and stuttgart will be playing to stay in the bundesliga