It’s a scientific fact over the past decade, you need a Croatian on the team if you want to win the Champions League title.
With Spurs down 1-0 in the 54th minute versus Marseille in a “do or die” match, Perišić sent a perfect free kick onto the head of Clement Lenglet for the equalizer. It was a goal that would move Tottenham back into a Champions League Round of 16 spot as a loss would have seen them exit the tournament. Spurs played with much more confidence shortly after and would add a late insurance goal in the fifth minute of injury time to top the group and end Marseille’s European dreams completely. Spurs will now be a seeded club in the R16 draw.
Perišić hasn’t scored yet for Spurs but he has been an “Assist” machine! This goal changed the entire complexity of the match as Spurs march into the final 16 next year when Champions League resumes in February.
Perišić received a 7-grade from 90min.com. “Always got the feeling that if Spurs were going to create something, Perišić could be at the heart of it. Beautiful assist for Lenglet’s goal.”
Perisic has always been a fantastic player, and I had very little doubt about what his contribution to Tottenham would be even from the beginning.
For me, the names on the call up list that I find most troubling are the following: Budimir, Krama (his form has been problematic even tho I knew he would still get a a call up), Brekalo who hasn’t been doing much, and finally (even tho it will be controversial for some) Ivanusec is the last one. I am leaving out Vida and Lovren as it has been talked about on countless occasions and we knew they would be called up anyways.
Ivanusec, for me because he didn’t play well in the Nations League and he had had some bad games for Dinamo, from some of the articles I have been reading and from what I have seen as well. I don’t really see where he fits, and he seems a bit redundant to me. Misic on the other hand is the exact opposite, I thought he had some great games personally, and I think he would be great and suitable choice.
Brekalo has been non-existent, Krama is a problem for us as he just doesn’t fit the traditional 9 set up, maybe a backup striker is better for him. Budimir, well he is not the best selection right now to be fair to Musa and to Colak.
But I guess we will see what happens, and who gets the final call up.
For the starting back four against Morocco
It’s most likely
Sosa gvardiol/lovren JJ
?? I wouldn’t mind stanisic there to shore up the right side
But JJ does bring that bit more offensive flair.
Also I commented previously
Jakic started two Champions league games in a row on a three man defence!!!
He and stanisic may prove vital with their versatility and Jakic has some solid experience now with being in a Europa run last year as a champ
If Orsic were to start at RW, then he brings everything Juranovic would bring in that role and you get to play the more defensively capable Stanisic at RB.
I like Juranovic, but it’s hard to turn down a starting player for Bayern over a Celtic RB who may be a weak spot in our backline.
Stanisic barely gets minutes lol, only started one game in ages
Sadly that’s quite true… I think Stanisic got to play against Inter because the result is of no consequence to Bayern.
Do you think we will see sort of a
Orsic. Petko. Majer
As our second look offence God I hope petko and orsic catch on fire. They could punish and still catch teams off guard with their skills
Perisic. Krama/bumimir. Vlasic
As the first?
Where does livaja fit? I love hajduk like the next dude but I can’t really see him starting in most situations for us
It’s good that the right backs can both bring something different
We all know and I’m sure the teams know pretty much everything is gonna come down from that left side
Hopefully tho this enough to make teams really worry and double up that area
To think they will have to worry about that while luka can distribute how he wishes
Captain Luka with the goal from the spot, 1-0 !
(And Juranovic takes Celtic PK, saved.)
Yea it’s fairly notable that Stanisic played a full 90 with Bayern today and earned a 7.5 rating on SofaScore.
Is he better than juranovic?
Defensively, he is.
If Canada decides to play Jonathan Davies on that left side (instead of central midfield which they have been experimenting with), then that is a weakness on our end.
Morocco also has two really solid RBs (one of whom will probably play on that left side), so Juranovic will need to play well defensively.
I would rather we go with Stanisic as our RB, so he can shut down Davies they way he did to Mbappe.
If we need offensive firepower on that right side, then put someone like Orsic or Majer on that right side.
Stanisic is starting to get Champions League and Bundesliga starting minutes at the right time.
He’s probably a safer option for us on that RB side (even if we do lose out on Jura’s crosses).
Yea I remember stanisic clamping mbappe. Juranovic is still pretty solid and probably is better for when we are trying to dominate possession and build up the play
But I think I’d agree against a team like Canada and many others hes a better option
in the words of Thompson, Moj Ivane!!!! Still say the goal against England goes down as the most important goal Croatia has ever scored in World Cup play- that was such a crazy tip that had to be timed perfectly. Ajmo, Ivane
so we need to start by talking about luka in the netflix documentary captains
what on earth is going on with the language of his kids
his two older kids speak croatian with him, but then despite living in spain, being croatian, and not speaking english too well, his youngest daughter is growing up speaking english with luka and her siblings
really strange.. you would think, i don’t know…. maybe they speak croatian or spanish with her!
and then even the older kids talk with luka in croatian, but you can tell they are actually not great at it. for example, his son says dvije kartona, when it should be dva kartona. luka keeps this up and soon enough these kids will be like every other diaspora child on the coast in july saying “daj mi pivo” , “hvala”, and thats all i know
on another note, the documentary showed a lot of what we know about luka. he’s generally a good guy. his teammates like him. he doesn’t blame others. he’s no prima donna like ronaldo who is all about the media attention and fame. but at the same time, modric is a dog. you can tell in how he speaks and carries himself, he thinks he’s the best. he wants to compete and he’s not scared of the moment.
Niko Kranjčar went to American schools in Austria and Croatia, and the guy speaks flawless American English and (obviously) flawless Croatian too.
Luka realizes that tackling foreign languages early is best, if you’re planning on living in Croatia anyway.
His kids will likely be speaking English and Croatian flawlessly when they are adults, without any accents or other issues.
This is not the same situation as a diaspora kid who will never live in Croatia (which makes it especially important to use every opportunity to speak Croatian).
It’s pretty standard practice now in Croatia. We live in Dubrovnik and when we take our 2 year old daughter to the park most of the kids speak English. Most of the stuff they watch is English on the youtube and netflix so it comes naturally.
Spurs are running him into the ground
Canadian Press story on Croatia team. —-> https://www.tsn.ca/soccer/world-cup-finalist-croatia-bringing-rebuilt-team-to-qatar-1.1871548
Honestly the guy did a little research, pretty short, sweet, and through!
I guess everyone is realizing that “old” Croatia is the youngest team in the group.
Rangers worst team ever cl hostory goes to show that hnl is on par with spl imo. Thats why colak scoring goals in Scotland is not impressive atleast to me
This is the main reason I wanted Petar Musa called up.
Both Celtic and Rangers are last in Champions League, but Benfica eliminated Juventus.
The Portuguese league is legit.
I still want to try both Čolak and Musa…but Musa got cut, and I doubt Dalić will bw motivated to try out Čolak in a role other than late substitute.
Yeah, the Portuguese teams really surprised me. I had never watched Benfica or Sporting play until this CL, and they are way better than I expected. Also, the Scots were way worse than I expected.
Can’t believe they are 9th ranked league in UEFA.
That will, for sure, drop now into the teens (where it belongs).
Stanisic played full match for bayern
He might be starting over Juranovic in this World Cup (especially due to the flank threats our opponents have).
With scores locked at 1 – 1 and a few minutes left before injury time, Perisic stopped a certain goal by running and blocking a shot three meters out from his goal line. Superb piece of defending from a player that is great in both directions.
Random thoughts.
Not to send like “Lovren is shit” but the second centreback absolutely needs to be erlic or sutalo. Both are fairly level
Our striker is Livaja or Colak. Not much debated needed there. Kramaric isn’t as useful as he used to be and petkovic could def get some minutes
For RW that’s genuinely a mystery. Vlasic is probably more natural in that position but Majer has far more upside
We’re probably stuck with livakovic in net, but if we lose to Morocco by 2 goals or more swap out to ivusic. He’s much more consistent
Perisic is special. Unique talent which we might never see again.
Can we please have one more
Perisic and luka please;)
Anyone know how Jakic did?
He started in middle cb in their 3 man defence
Do we really need so many cbs if Jakic can clearly play at the back position if need be?
I mean he started at the back two champions leagues matches in a row
We don’t need dcc I feel
And technically he is family but screw it
We need to take colak and musa
Yes, just saw the delivery by Perisic. We’re lucky he’s ours.