Croatia’s U-21 squad took care of business in Austria on Tuesday night in convincing fashion!
In what was projected to be their toughest match of U-21 Euro Qualifying (away at Austria), the Mladi Vatreni defeated Austria’s U-21s 3-1. 18 year-old star Lukas Kačavenda opened the scoreline for Croatia in the 14th minute, hitting a rocket from 25 yards out into the upper corner. Kačavenda, one of Lokomotiva Zagreb’s best players this season, has been on the radar of many top European clubs. 21 year-old Bartol Franjić doubled Croatia’s lead in the 41st minute, heading in a wonderful set-piece cross from 19 year-old Luka Sučić (no surprise there, folks!). Sučić, the most promising talent on the Mladi Vatreni’s roster, scored Croatia’s third goal of the night, converting a penalty drawn by the in-form Antonio Marin. Austria scored a consolation goal in the 67th minute, as the game ended 3-1 in favor of Croatia.
After their crucial victory on Tuesday, the Mladi Vatreni remain perfect in U-21 Euro Qualifying, impressively winning all six of their matches so far. No question about it, this is the most talented under-21 side that Croatia has ever fielded. Salzburg’s wunderkinds Luka Sučić and Roko Šimić have been exceptional for the squad this campaign. A huge part of the Mladi Vatreni’s success in their group is due to Sučić’s three goals and three assists and Šimić’s outstanding six goals. Man, the future is bright!
The low salary thing is all a myth now.
Dalic makes more than Ivan Juric and Igor Tudor combined.
– Zlatko Dalic makes 1.6 million Euro per year with us.
– Ivan Juric is currently making 1 million Euro with Torino.
– I don’t know how much Igor Tudor is being paid by Verona, but he doesn’t show up on the top-20 list for Serie A (which likely means he gets less than 500,000 Euro). He made only 350,000 Euro as coach of Udinese back in 2019.
Salary is no longer an excuse for not hiring a quality coach.
We are one of the better paying nations now for our football coach.
We are also an attractive team for many quality coaches to come and coach now too (as we are a regular tournament qualifier).
There are a lot of coaches out there who would love to coach a team like ours.
Un related note Mario Mandzukic will ve assistant coach at the world cup for dalic so olic mandzo carli ladic mrmic pletikosa teknical direktor vukojevic jerkan all bivsi vatreni on dalics stozer
Lol.
It’s like an episode of Entourage.
Kacavenda has this bomb from outside the box
I feel like for sure harder to unleash it against the big boys but man its deadly
Did it a few weeks ago In the HNL as well
We can use that shot
He does seem small in stature but certainly explosive
I know it was said Kotarski is struggling but any chance of him becoming good for us
Kotarski is a prospect still ajax bought him if ajax saw something he has potential
Meh.
If they paid nothing for him, then it’s no risk.
I’m more interested in players that teams are willing to dish out real cash for.
Once Leipzig dropped that kind of money on Gvardiol, then you knew he had to be called up to the senior squad.
Are Juric and Tudor really going to leave serie A to coach our boys ?The HNS won’t match the pay of the Italians and neither one of these guys will put up with the BS.
I find it highly unlikely..they will always look for a cheap don’t rough the waters kind of guy.
Kovac certainly wasn’t that!
The low salary thing is all a myth now.
Dalic makes more than Ivan Juric and Igor Tudor combined.
– Zlatko Dalic makes 1.6 million Euro per year with us.
– Ivan Juric is currently making 1 million Euro with Torino.
– I don’t know how much Igor Tudor is being paid by Verona, but he doesn’t show up on the top-20 list for Serie A (which likely means he gets less than 500,000 Euro). He made only 350,000 Euro as coach of Udinese back in 2019.
Here is the Sportske article that disclosed Dalic’s extension salary which amounted to 1.6 million Euro per year –>
https://sportske.jutarnji.hr/sn/nogomet/reprezentacija/pao-je-veliki-dogovor-hrvatskog-nogometa-evo-do-kada-zlatko-dalic-ostaje-na-kormilu-vatrenih-15007167
Here is the top-20 coaching salary list for Serie A. Juric is a top-20 paid coach. Tudor is not on the list. –>
https://financefootball.com/2020/10/18/top-20-best-paid-managers-serie-a-2020-2021/
Salary is no longer an excuse for not hiring a quality coach.
We are one of the better paying nations now for our football coach.
We are also an attractive team for many quality coaches to come and coach now too (as we are a regular tournament qualifier).
There are a lot of coaches out there who would love to coach a team like ours.
Kačavenda has been a revelation ever since Toplak got desperate last season trying to keep Lokomotiva from getting relegated. No wonder he is on radars around Europe, this guy is legit. Skill, pace, work ethic…..definitely one to watch for our Vatreni going forward.
For those that can read Croatian, I suggest you go and read Sportske Novosti.
There is an article on the repka and happenings with the national team at the Euros and after Euros. Apparently on return to Zagreb, Dalic had a meeting with some players notably Modric, Kovacic and some others and asked them if he had the backing of the players ? Modric told him yes but that he had to change.
That is when Dalic started dropping players such as Vrsaljko who complained why he was not starting against Czech Republic at the Euros. Rebic for his instragam post where he called Dalic a shit coach. Brekalo for poor body language, Petkovic for being lazy at team training.
After the Russia match in Moscow the aeroplane was running late for Bratislava at 2:30 am and Lovren started complaining about poor organisation and that they should have stayed in Moscow for the night. Dalic and Kustic (President HNS) wanted to send Lovren packing but could not because Gvardiol was injured and DCC was cramping up and not ready for two matches. There is a lot more I suggest you have a read. Apparently Prosinecki was plan B had we not collected seven points in September. Not sure if you can believe everything written in the newspapers ? but this would explain why we have performed so badly after the WC in 2018. Dalic lost the change room and some players were undermining his authority and he was to gutless to bring in younger players.
I just read it and although many of us speculated and knew there was some crap going on…this sickens me right here:
” Petkovićeva nonšalancija na treningu ga je “ubijala”, pogotovo podatak o radu s 22 posto intenziteta na jednom treningu izmjereno GPS-om.”
I’ve mentioned Petkovic several times and as much as I appreciate his talent, he’s a cock sucker for thinking that training at 22% intensity work rate will get him anywhere. So, the next time anyone asks why Dalic hasn’t started or played Petkovic, ask yourself if you’d employ your employee if he works at a 22% effectiveness/intensity level?
Maminjo, you’re one of my favourite commenters here on this site but sometimes I think you don’t understand the reality of a professional. This isn’t a pickup street hockey game, these guys are professionals…employees…and they have policies, standards, etiquette, procedures and so on, that they have to meet. Soooo many times you have attacked Dalic for not playing certain players when in fact, I don’t think you’ve tried to read into a situation/scenario and understand what he’s had to deal with.
After reading the article in Sportske Novosti, I have realized that many of the players we think are “good soldiers” tend to have ego’s and issues that don’t belong. Vrsaljko has been lucky that no-one has been around to challenge his position but I’m telling you, he’s had soo many shit games and I see people saying how well he played (I avoid even commenting, its not worth the argument) and yet, he was shaky, gave terrible service and did sweet fuck all…but because he’s Vrsaljko and as done soo many good thing in the past, we tend to give him a free pass…why?
Well over 2 years ago I mentioned that Petkovic is a talent but that he’s also a “klosar”…one of those guys that can do it all but gives the least amount of effort, unless he feels like he wants to. He failed in Italy most likely because he was focused on banging chicks instead of playing thr game. Bjelica was the first to call him out, then Mamic, then Krznar and now Dalic…and yet, we still have people complaining he’s not starting or playing. Petkovic is the worse type of guy you want as a coach. He can be soo good that he will destroy any team he wants to at any time he wants…but he’s also the worse example to any young player, he ruins team chemistry and its hard to play him when you can’t trust him!
I currently post my thoughts only using 22% effort.
…and you admit that I am one your favorite commenters. 😉
But on a serious note, I am usually pretty big on changing players regardless of what they did for us in the past.
I was probably the biggest advocate for moving away from our Russia 2018 back line as they all took a huge step back over the past few years.
I used to be a huge fan of Vida, but I realized quickly that he was shadow of himself and I wanted him gone from the first team until he could get back to his top form.
I may have advocated for Petkovic for the Euros, but that was only because he always performed for us when we did play him. Obviously, this went away over time, but there was a period where he wasn’t scoring for Dinamo…but scoring like crazy for us. I attributed that to him being better when surrounded with better players.
Obviously, with more time passing and some additional games for us, it looks like Petkovic joins that group of players who’s form has dropped and shouldn’t be first team. But he was a weird one, where he was off at club level, but hot at NT level. Sometimes this happens, and I wanted to give him some leeway to gather a larger sample and confirm if it was just a fluke, or if there was something there.
Kramaric was the opposite of this, where he was hot in the Bundesliga but not for us. I’m glad we stuck it out with him, gave him a longer leash (which he was never given) and he is finally showing us what he can do. Easily a a starter for us.
Agree with your comments. I just wonder who leaked the information to the press ? It must have been someone close to Dalic i.e coaching staff (Olic, Corluka) or even Dalic himself ? It is a good thing that this was kept under wraps until the WC qualifiers were over.
I want to see some of these players used in the A-team’s friendlies for next year, mainly Simic, Kacavenda and Sucic.
Biscan i think will become A coach when Dalic leaves
Yes I think you are probably right. Cheapest option for HNS. The only thing about Biscan that I don’t like is the fact that he is a bit gutless, overcautious with his tactics and does not believe in the players that he has at his disposal.
Would you want to see Igor Tudor in the NT?
No, Ivan Juric is better.
Tudor is a good coach he was an assistant to stimac in 2012 so he could one day be coach the others are
Biscan Bilic Prosinecki Bjelica Tomic Juric Skocic Leko maybe Niko Kovac again one day.
I personally liked Niko Kovac, strict and big on disipline. One of the best matches that we played in my opinion was under Niko v Italy (1 -1) in Milan. We absolutely destroyed them on the night but did not have luck.
Tudor is too emotional.
He must have suddenly quit his post like 5 times in his career already.
I can see him being unstable enough to walk away from the team right before a key qualification match, over a disagreement with the HNS or players.
Juric is supposed to be a very good coach in Serie A. Apparently, he does his homework and prepares his teams well prior to key games. But his career is just getting started in Serie A, so he’s unlikely to leave that for us.
Not sure about Biscan. He ‘seems’ okay due to his small successes at club level and decent success with the U21s, but he’s still largely an unknown.
Bjelica is intriguing, and always seems to overachieve. But he also seems a bit emotional it seems, and I am still not fully clear on the fallout with Dinamo. He’d still probably be our best option after Dalic.
Matjaz Kek did badly with Slovenia in this last campaign. He was a great coach for Rijeka and Slovenia in the past (with a very attractive offensive style of play)…but I’m not sure why his lost his team in this campaign.
Prosinecki seems talented, but still a little green for me.
Bilic is great for starting up a new squad and would make a great scout (as he does a good job finding and playing young talents when he initially takes over) but he always seems to get worse with every passing year.
Bjelica is probably the best manager at our disposal but he’s so reluctant to playing youth… we wouldn’t see Simic or Sucic for another 2-3 years lol
Yea I think Bjelica is probably our best option. But I also think his falling out with Dinamo will crush any chances with the HNS.
I also like Ivan Juric, Vladimir Petkovic and Matjaz Kek.
But I am surprised that all three of these coaches don’t seem to be doing well right now.
Juric is doing just okay with Torino (but it’s still pretty early to judge), but Petkovic is looking at relegation for Bordeaux (which is surprising). Kek did a lot worse that I thought he would with Slovenia too.
For me, guys like Tudor, Prosinecki and Biscan need more experience.
Tudor is doing well with Verona right now, but he’s such a wild card. He walked away from so many teams out of sheer emotion in Italy, Turkey and Croatia. He would do the same thing with the HNS. He needs to calm down a bit, and I think more experience will do that for him. He’s a good coaching prospect in the future for us though.
Biscan and Prosinecki are intriguing but they need to show more. They both may be very good, but I would rather they prove it first (before we put our fate in their hands).
Unfortunately, I think the HNS is not really going to do much of a coaching search and will be satisfied with simply promoting Biscan, and just roll the dice with him.
I think Bilic will push hard to get back into the National Team fold.
His career has been dwindling, and this would be huge for him to get his career back on track. Bilic is what he is. A decent coach who is good at making a big splash early, then slowly diminishes as time goes on.
Good win, but it was anything but easy. Watching the match on HNTV, when we went 3 – 0 up I thought, that’s it, easy win. However, when Austria made it 3 – 1 in the 67 min, for the next 10-15 minutes they put us under the pump and we had a lot of luck. They hit the post twice and our goalkeeper (Kotarski) Man of the match performance, made same great saves during this period. Physically some players we spent and for the life of me I do not understand why Biscan waited until the 82nd minute to make his first substitutions.
Roko Simic was isolated on his own up front and did not have any chances in front of goal. That kid Lukas Kacavenda is a pocket dynamo and a great prospect.
The winning is contagious
To think most likely we will be better in 3-4 years from now
Kacavenda has a cannon of a shot
He is legit