Joško Gvardiol scored his third Premier League goal of the season Saturday in a 2-1 Manchester City loss to Bournemouth. The header came little too late in the closing minutes as City were already down 2-0. However, good to see Gvardiol climb the ladder to give his side a chance. Both Gvardiol and Mateo Kovačić played the full 90 for City in the match. Goal.com gave Gvardiol a 6/10 rating as he was “Poor for both Bournemouth goals, turned by Semenyo and then lost the race with Evanilson. Compensated at the other end by giving City hope with his thumping header.” Kovačić received a mediocre 5/10 as he was “Too cumbersome in possession.”
Ante Budimir scored the lone goal of the match Saturday from the penalty spot in a 1-0 Osasuna victory over Real Valladolid. Budimir received MOTM honors and a 8.5 match rating. He has now scored six goals in 12 matches this La Liga campaign. He has continued this season just as he finished last in Spain. But will Dalić give Budimir or Matanović the #9 crown this month in Nations League?
Ivan Perišić is on the board in the Netherlands! The Croatian winger would get the start for PSV Eindhoven and play 89 minutes in a 3-2 come-from-behind victory by Ajax. Perišić scored the go-ahead goal for PSV in the 54th minute to give his side the lead, however, Ajax would rattle off the final two goals of the game for the W. Josip Šutalo played the full 90 minutes on the backline for Ajax in the win. Perišić perfectly rifled a shot from the top of the box just inside the right post to beat the Ajax goalie. It was a prime Perišić goal to say the least and the first of his Eredivisie career.
Luka Modrić and Real Madrid’s match vs. Valencia has been postponed this weekend due to fatal flash floods this week on the east coast of Spain. Real Madrid will next play AC Milan in Champions League November 5th
Luka Sučić and Real Sociedad play Sevilla Sunday at 1130AM (ET)
Goalie Dinko Horkas came in for Las Palmas in the 60th minute versus Atletico. Gave up one goal. Didn’t see the performance.
Thanks for mentioning him. I didn’t hear of him before. Hopefully, he continues to improve and gets noticed.
I hadn’t either. I saw the game for only five minutes and saw the name on the back of the jersey and wondered. Honest question: Is Dinko a typical name? Can’t say I’ve heard it before.
I got a cousin named dinko
Not so common but I guess a thing
Vidovic not even on the bench for Mainz this morning. Not on the injury list either.
He played in the mid-week cup loss 4 – 0 to Bayern. He started the match and at half time it was 4 – 0 and Vidovic got subbed and did not come out for the second half.
Great header by josko but it was painful watching him get exposed defensively yesterday.
Maker came off the bench then 11 minutes later got subbed again
Majer limping badly with that ankle injury. Not sure if he had a fracture or just torn ligaments? Either way looks like he needs more time for recovery.
Good to see Perisic with a great goal. When he did his ACL a medical expert in Croatia said that it would take 16 -18 months for the knee to heal properly and then it would be up to Perisic to see if he could regain his form. So, if the doctor is correct, we can expect Perisic to be at his peak in February- March 2025? I just hope that Dalic uses him sparingly this time around in the upcoming NL matches.
He is not ready for two 90 min matches in three days, in October matches he did well against Scotland but as we all saw he was poor in the second match against Poland.
There should be a forum section on this site!
Do you guys think Matanovic should find another club? Feels like it. No guarantee he’ll be Frankfurt’s first striker when Marmoush leaves
A six-month loan starting in January seems like a good idea…but only if he can guarantee himself a starting spot somewhere.
But it’s tricky because even a good prospect like Lovro Zvonarek doesn’t start for Sturm Graz. Even though he scored in these past two games for them, he’s not starting in today’s game either.
He’s not a Sturm player, and Bayern still own his prospects (with no option for Sturm to buy him)…so there’s little incentive for Sturm to prioritize him over their own players.
Now compare this to Dion Beljo at Rapid Vienna (who actually HAVE an option to buy him).
Beljo started a little slow…but Rapid were patient with him, and now he’s scoring at a better rate. Rapid Vienna has an incentive to give him minutes, because they have the option to buy him at the end of the season. So, they are fine with going through any growing pains with him, because they can always decide to buy him out from Augsburg at the end of the season if he pans out well.
In Matanovic’s case, Frankfurt has already signed Matanovic long term for cheap (so it’s not in their best interest to give a team an “option-to -buy” clause).
With only six months remaining on the season, there is no incentive for a team to hand Matanovic a starting spot on their team (if there is no option-to-buy clause). They would literally be just be developing Matanovic for another team.
The only benefit would be getting a free striker for six months (whose salary would be paid by Frankfurt).
The only teams interested in that would be smaller teams on a tight budget (like Hajduk Split) but that would be a big dropoff in league quality and there’s always still the potential of a Gattuso-caliber coach benching you if he doesn’t like your effort.
Not an easy decision. May be just better to stick it out at Frankfurt.
Ariel,
@Bartolec1912 raised a similar question some days back and if you have not seen that thread, it is under this heading: What Is Dalić Doing Calling 4 Keepers, Only 2 CBs?
Click on there and you can see Maminjo and others weigh in on Matanovic (if you have missed it). You might find it of interest. Some good discussion there.
Maminjo’s point is well taken. Look at Vidovic….. He has been loaned to Mainz by Bayern and he has hardly seen any playing time at all. It has been very disappointing. If Vidovic does not see the field, what was the point? I had wondered whether he and his agent had a good deal of say in where he goes on loan and if this loan was just a mistake on their part …..I don’t know. I don’t really understand how it works….he would have been way better off loaned back to Dinamo and playing in Champions League but maybe that option was not there….but he seems stuck right now. Hopefully they start him tomorrow….
The main thing with Matanovic is that I think Frankfurt sees him as a long term part of their organization; he has come up through the ranks, and he is getting regular time albeit not starting and not as much time as we would like. When one of those two stars are sold off, it will open up more room for him and I think he will get his chance, and then he would have to make the most of it….I gather from things I have read that the coach there really likes him and he even said he has dreamed about how to start all three on the field together (Ekitike, Marmoush, and Igor). Right now I think he should stay there, work hard with a good team in a good league that values him as part of their future, and his opportunity will come.
A forum with a Tottenham section! So we can all avoid the God damn tripe.
Hmm my 2 cents…
Although Igor had a good pre-season, I was not surprised that he found himself 3rd choice in the CF pecking order behind Marmoush and Ekitike once the season began.
As A Tin U mentioned, I think coach Toppmoller does value Igor. I also read that Frankfurt’s sporting director rates Igor very highly. These are the positives for him.
For the 2nd half of the season, I’m of the same opinion as Maminjo… think he should just stick it out at Frankfurt… try to get starts in the cup competitions and try to take advantage of whatever playing time he gets in the league matches.
Come summer, I’m quite confident Marmoush will leave the club as he is attracting so much interest from the big English clubs already. But yes I agree there’s no guarantee Igor would get promoted to the first team even after Marmoush’s departure.
However, his present goal/assist drought has got to end soon, otherwise there seems to be less and less justification for Toppmoller to utilize him?
There is one thing about Igor that has always disturbed me somewhat… look up his stats from during his time at St Pauli. It’s pretty bad in terms of goalscoring rate. Maybe he is a striker who can deliver only when given regular playing time…
For our Nations League games this month, maybe the in-form Budimir deserves to get the nod over Matanovic for the #9 starting role. We’ll see… hopefully Igor puts in a good performance for Frankfurt next week.
I think Marmoush is pushing for an EPL move and it’s better they sell him before his contract runs out.
As an example, RB Salzburg waited too long to sell Luka Sučić (who was rated as a 25 million Euro player over a year ago) then his value dropped after he chose not to extend his contract, then got injured.
I think Frankfurt sell him in the Summer, and start Matanović in his place.
The jury is still out on Matanović though. He does all the right things on the field, but always just seems to barely miss on his finishing.
Maybe he’s just one of those strikers who can draw attention, and needs ro play a full 90 minutes every game… but still influence the game when he doesn’t score.
Maybe he’s our version of Alvaro Morata.
Yeah true, I think best time for Frankfurt to sell Marmoush would be next summer, after he comes off a stellar season and with 2 years left on his contract at that point. I highly doubt Marmoush will extend his contract with Frankfurt. His market value would be at its peak, and Frankfurt can demand a huge fee (if memory serves, they’re already asking for 60m euros).
It’s just that once Marmoush is gone, I’m not sure if Toppmoller (or whoever the coach is then) will continue to employ a formation with 2 CFs. And I really hope Frankfurt won’t decide to use the proceeds from selling Marmoush to buy another highly rated forward…
If Igor can become our version of Alvaro Morata, I’d take that any day of the week! 🙂