Luka Sučić got the start for Real Sociedad and played 48 minutes in a 7-3 (aggregate) win over Midtjylland in Europa League action. Sučić scored twice on the night by making a nice run int the box for an easy tap-in and then blistering a low shot from 20 yards out in 1st half injury time. He was voted MOTM with a 8.6 match rating. Sociedad will now play either Tottenham or Manchester United in the Europa League Round of 16. It will be a great showcase tie in front of the English media for the 22 year-old.
Bad news on the night. He was subbed off three minutes into the 2nd half following a rough tackle. I couldn’t tell if it was his knee, hamstring or ankle (looks to be ankle), but Sučić was in some pain. Fortunately, he walked off the pitch under his own power. We will be monitoring the situation.
We may also have to come to the realization that gvardiolo is no longer a cb capable of anchoring a defense
In the 22 wc he understood balance. Since going to man pep has warped his mind and he no longer has a defensive mentality in him
He’s probably gotta just play left back now
Sutalo and vuskovic to cover
To be fair, we’ve had a lack of consistency, form, and talent in the backline this past year.
– We haven’t had Stanisic for a long time now.
– We’ve also never tried Vuskovic yet (despite probably being our most in form defender and one of our biggest CB talents).
– We’ve also always seemed to have an out-of-form player in the lineup, whether it was Pongracic, Sosa, Erlic, or Sutalo.
Now, it seems we have a capable and in-form group of backline players with Stanisic, Gvardiol, Sutalo, and Vuskovic in full form (with Caleta-Car and Sosa getting regular starts with their clubs too).
So, now we have six backline players, all who are in form, that we could try various formations with.
It would be a shame we don’t call up Vuskovic in March.
Stanisic is an automatic starter at RB for us.
We just really need to see where Gvardiol, Sutalo, Vuskovic fit in the remaining spots (or if we really want to play Sosa at LB with Gvardiol at CB again).
Looks like Livaja is not ready for a recall to the national team at this stage and has made himself unavailable for the France match according to the latest media reports. No great loss in my opinion.
Concerning is the fact that DCC and Erlic are not playing at all and are warming the bench. Pongracic has started last 4 or 5 matches for Fiorentina. So, it will be interesting to see who will partner Sutalo as the CB ? Might be time to call up Vuskovic instead of Erlic and have him in the squad for experience.
He has lost the call up this time in my opinion. Far too many times changing your mind about whether or not you want the call up. It is pretty simple, make a decision and stick to it. How badly do you want to play for Croatia is my question? Right now, it doesn’t seem like he wants it enough…
Just to add, I have feeling that in a few years, Livaja is going to regret these decisions.
It shows just how much of a cuck Dalić is.
He has a top-3 La Liga striker, and a top young striker in Belgium… but he’s here chasing a disinterested Marko Livaja because he wants to be adored by Torcida?
He also has one of the top rated CBs in the Belgian league, yet probably isn’t even considering him for a callup.
We’ve been very bad since the Euros, and something has to change.
He’s been celebrating the victory and his contributions on social media. Assuming he manages his own account, these are not the actions of someone who has received bad news or is anticipating a lengthy rehab.
It was diagnosed as an MCL sprain (medial collateral ligament) which can occur suddenly from twisting or direct impact (which is what happened to him yesterday).
A lot of these are mild sprains, but we’ll see how severe his sprain is.
These things don’t need surgery, and usually are fixed with rest and rehab (3 to 6 weeks to make a full recovery). If it’s severe, then it will take a bit longer.
City of Zagreb and Government of Croatia are funding and will be co-owners of the new Makismir – Dinamo gets a free ride
So – yet again – everything is to make Dinamo succeed i.e. if they had to finance the stadium with new debt (beyond the equity required) they would have to service the interest on annual basis and would be bankrupt
Does Rijeka or Hajduk get a new stadium 100% paid by someone else ?
Of course not
Every parameter is in Dinamo’s favour
x.com/TheCroatianLad/status/1892966881209757711
x.com/CroatiaFooty/status/1892970500533735813
This is the dumbest post I’ve read on this website.
He is full of good ones😀! You kinda know it when someone posts in the third person all the time
You can really tell who watches these players and who just casually looks at stats and highlights.
People saying Luka Sucic cant take the mantel don’t watch him play.
I agree. He was phenomenal in the Euro, it’s like some people didn’t even see it.
In weekend summary
Can we pls include Marco Pasalic’s Orlando Saturday 7:30pm ET vs. Philly [1st game of season]
CL R16
Modric vs. Atletico Madrid
Perisic vs. Arsenal
Niko Novac vs. Lille
Ivanusec vs Inter Milan
Europa R16
Luka Sucic vs. Man U [instead of Tottenham 😢]
Sutalo vs Matanovic
Livakovic vs. Rangers
Sadly, i think we have to rule sucic as injury prone as well like gvardiolo.
He also hasn’t shown us anything to think he can take the mantle from the previous cro midfield trident and maintain Croatia at a high level
As predicted, his long shots are impressive but how often is that actually going to be a goal to consistently matter?
Yeah your right, scoring two goals and being named man of the match in major tournament is no reason to think he could take the mantle?! Not to mentioned that he is being looked at as a steal of a deal for Real Sociedad. Not just based on the goals he scored but his possessional skills as well.
What you are forgetting is that it takes time to reach your prime. As people have been discussing on this site, pretty frequently mind you, is that people like Modric even bloomed pretty late in their respective careers. I am not suggesting he wasn’t a great player early on but the accolades really started pouring through in his mid to late twenties.
I think it would be pretty accurate to say that they start to really pick things up in their mid to late twenties. At that point we can assess your comment above, right now he is showing promise and that he could very well be a person to fit that midfield trident.
So I think your argument is a bit presumptive at this stage.
We also don’t know the extent the injury, so we will have to see.
He was our best player at Euro 2024. Better than Modric.
Of course he can take the mantle, but unfortunately, we have this dragged out process of allowing younger players to take the mantle and play in their natural positions because those spots are reserved for our 2018 legends who get to play the full 90 min until they retire (without any role reduction until then).
Luka Sucic will be like 25 before he’s allowed to take over.
Unfortunately, coaches are constantly being critiqued for every game, especially with social media. If they experiment and lose, they are in danger of losing their jobs. So some will stick with the tried and true ones for maybe a little too long rather than going with an up and comer. But Coach Zlatko has made changes- Gvardiol, Livakovic, Juronovic, Stanisic, Sutalo, etc.. Viva Zlatko!
Noone is saying he hasn’t made changes it just takes far too long to make some of them.
Not better than Modric at all, in my opinion. One day people will learn to express their opinions as opinions and not as facts (I hope).
Cruciate ligament injury seems to have been ruled out.
They will do an MRI day after the game to diagnose the injury. The good news, to the extent there is any good news, is that it sounds like Sucic wanted to try to continue, but coach Imanol Alguacil pulled him from the game because he didn’t want to risk further injury to Sucic.
Below is the relevant portion of one post-game story:
In addition, the manager addressed the injury to Sucic. He confirmed that initial assessments indicate that a cruciate ligament injury has been ruled out. “Sucic’s injury is not cruciate. We need to wait for tomorrow’s MRI. We hope it’s nothing serious or grave,” Imanol stated. The coach also made the decision to not allow the player to continue in the match despite Sucic’s insistence. “I chose not to take the risk because we have many matches ahead,” he emphasized.