21 year-old Matija Frigan scored his 6th goal of the Belgian season Sunday in a 2-2 Westerlo draw vs. Gent. Frigan received a 7.7 FOTMOB rating for his efforts in the match. 17 year-old Croatian teammate Luka Vušković received a higher rating in defense from FOTMOB: 8.3. Not bad at all from the Croatia U21s in a very competitive Belgian “feeder league” for the rest of Europe.
Joško Gvardiol got some much needed rest and did not come off the bench for Manchester City in a 2-0 loss to Liverpool at Anfield. With the loss, City now trail leaders Liverpool by 11 points. Mateo Kovačić is still out due to injury and is not expected to return for 3-4 weeks.
Luka Modrić came off the bench to play the last 23 minutes of Real Madrid’s 2-0 win over Getafe. Modrić received a 7/10 grade as “Brought on to control things for the last 30 minutes, which he did very nicely.” With the win, Real Madrid now only trail Barcelona by one point and have a game in hand to jump their rivals. Barcelona lost this weekend.
Josip Juranović returned from ankle surgery to play his first match of the 2024/25 Bundesliga season Saturday. The Croatian right back/wing played the last 11 minutes in Union Berlin’s 2-1 loss to Bayer Leverkusen. This is fantastic news for Dalić and company as the Vatreni have been depleted of options on the right side with Stanišić currently out as well (knee surgery). Whether Dalić deploys a 4-4-2 or 3-5-2, a healthy Juranović can only bolster the squad.
Kristijan Jakić was voted MOTM with a 8.0 FOTMOB rating Saturday in Augsburg’s 1-0 win over Bochum. Croatian backup goalkeeper Nediljko Labrović picked up the clean sheet for Augsburg in the win with one save. Labrović received a 7.9 grade for his efforts.
Please reveal why Ante Rebic is ignored. Massive striker effort for Lecce today. What is the full story
Rebic has had a relatively shitty many years after being dropped by Dalic. Not sure what your asking here. Usually you show something when that happens, but for him he his career went sideways. What is more is that he has an awful temperament. With both AC Milan, and the Turkish team he caused big issues with the club, missed practices and is a big hothead. He thinks he is the cat’s walk and can make demands but he is nothing of the sort. Not that any player should be this way even if they are exceptional, but Rebic definitely is not.
So my response would be, do you really want a problem like that on the National team?
Look I rooted for the guy for a couple of straight years when he started with AC Milan, but even when things were going well for the guy you could see then that ball retention and control was not his thing. He shit the bed big time in the game against Spain in the Euro which cost us. The on top of that had the audacity to call out Dalic for it! When he deleted the post after it showed you that he knew he was wrong for doing so.
Rebic is not a skilled player by any means. He was supposed to be a great winger for Croatia, and with speed as his asset that would have been a possibility. However, that conversation is well passed gone at this stage.
Just to reiterate, Rebic didn’t score at all when he was with the Turkish team, and in his final year or two he barely scored with AC Milan.
For a winger these a atrocious numbers because you have to contribute offensively.
It would take something of a miracle at this stage for Dalic to call him up, as well as a public apology which I don’t think Revive is keen on providing.
And in case you were wondering what was said by him, he called the Croatian National Team shit, which set Dalic off.
If Jakic is in form we’ll be ok. He’s an important piece of the puzzle that is the NT
Westerlo v. Gent. 2-2.
On a day when many of our young guns are injured and/or not playing, Vuskovic was MOM on Sofascore and second highest rated player on Fotmob. So….some good news in Belgium….maybe Anon’s Tottenham reports will contain Croatian content sooner rather than later…..
I hate to admit it but it took superior Italian coaching for us to finally dominate Dinamo ! Let’s go !!
Italians make good coaches. Osijek has one too… but both Hajduk and Osijek have been adding more quality players over the years, so they were eventually going to close that gap.
Gattuso is not a great coach. His record is pretty poor.
However, he’s been good for Hajduk. Maybe he’s gotten better over the years, or maybe his focus on fitness pushes the players to give 100 percent.
They looked like they worked a lot harder than Dinamo on the field.
Good. He should do double duty and coach our NT.
In a perfect world, Gattuso our NT coach and I guarantee 9,10 and 14 will find their asses on the bench
Let’s Go!!!!
Dinamo BBB stupidly throwing flares with a man advantage while a Hajduk player was lying hurt out of bounds – thanks for letting him recover – idiots!
Man City 0 – 2 Liverpool.
Back line struggling with Gvardiol .. oh wait .. not playing!
Maybe Man City issues are deeper than there 22 year old stud.
Kovačić is missed.
Also does Haaland ever score in a big match against an elite opponent?
Need more nogometaši at Cro City.
Anyone have a reliable stream for the hajduk game?
More Bundesliga….Igor got the start for Frankfurt today. Good to see…
Anon’s crystal ball seems to be in good working order. First substitutes on at 56 minutes for ManCity….no Gvardiol.
Still 1-0 Liverpool.
Over in Bundesliga, Vidovic was not on bench for Mainz today. Reported that he has an ankle injury and will be out until February 2025.
As Anonymous hypothesized
Gvardiol teammates making him look bad so he gets dropped
Sure enough – most important match of the season – Gvardiol on the bench
This is not the match you want Gvardiol to be load managed
A real test for Gvardiol this morning with Liverpool on tap and Mo Salah attacking down the wing. Hope Josko rises to the challenge. Shame that Kovacic is injured for what is probably the biggest game of the season (so far) for Manchester City. .
Luka Sucic injured in game against Ajax on November 28. Report is a muscle injury, out for 2-3 weeks.
Hey A Tin U, where was this reported? Definitely not a good time for him to be hurt as I read that coach Alguacil wasn’t too pleased with his last 2 performances…
Bartolec1912,
I saw it on FOTMOB where they report if a player is injured.
This link might work:
https://www.fotmob.com/players/959597/luka-sucic
I saw him play in the Europa League game against Josip Sutalo and Ajax. He only played only the first half, which seems consistent with the injury having occurred. Doesn’t appear a bad injury, perhaps something troubling him that will keep him out a couple of weeks or so.
He was largely invisible out there in the Ajax game. I thought he defended fairly well, but I don’t know the game anywhere near as well as so many of you here. In any event, he didn’t seem to be caught out of position. On the other hand, he wasn’t really an offensive threat and didn’t seem to create much in the way of offensive opportunities. At one point he had the ball in the middle of the field with time and he sent it out to the right wing, as the Ajax defender (I think it was Hato, but I might have that wrong) anticipated what Sucic was signalling, picked the pass off easily and roared up field with the ball while Sucic put his arms in the air in frustration.
I know that people have commented on his lack of speed. When I watched him in this game, his acceleration seems good to me, he seems to be able to break past defenders to get into the open. I don’t know if his speed is a weak area or not.
But he looked fairly average in this game. On the whole, Real Sociedad did not look very good in the first half and Ajax failed to capitalize on some opportunities. I take it Real Sociedad must have had a better second half, as they won 2-0.
Soticek w/ his 3rd start this season for Basel (2nd start in last 2 games – before that he only started Sep 21st – and 13 times has come off the bench)
Scored a goal – it was a bit lucky – as if the defender didn’t deflect it his shot would have gone wide – but a goal nonetheless
Here are the highlights:
***.youtube.com/watch?v=Unjh2zOZ67I
Good to see Sotiček getting starts.
He’s very young and is a RW player.
Ante Crnac
9.3 FOTMOB
Unselfishly on a hat trick dished the ball to his team-mate for 3rd goal (99% of players would go for the hat trick) – mature head on his shoulders
2 goals 1 assist against Luton – who were in the PL last season – so he’s proved himself against PL caliber opponents today
Hopefully he can build off last 2 games and keep pushing
Every game grows in stature / confidence – night and day from first games to today 16 games later
Pretty remarkable he’s settled in so well in England / Norwich – not an easy move to make for a 20 yo (while Sutalo crying today he’s always alone by himself at home – wonder if he’s picked up English yet ? Maybe Crnac can teach him)
Important 3 points for Norwich today now 9th in the table w 25 pts – 5 points back of 6th place (final spot for promotion POs)
Good stuff Anon
Thanks Anon for the report.
Watched the full game now against Luton. Saw Crnac play earlier in the year. He was solid in that earlier game, but this was a far better Crnac against Luton. Anon’s report was bang on…..three additional points to add.
1. On the third goal, when he made the unselfish pass, Crnac beat the Luton defender in a ground duel for the ball when it looked like the Luton defender was slightly better positioned to win the ball. Crnac seems to move well, has good acceleration and he got there, won the battle for the ball, and now breaking alone in on the net, he then makes the unselfish pass to his teammate for the goal.
2. That pass and a couple of other quick passes upfield during the game suggest Crnac has very good vision. There were a couple of times in the game where Crnac threaded one of those quick, outside-of-the-foot-Modric-type passes, and nearly broke a Norwich player free on the goal. I am no expert in regard to the game, but I believe I rarely see a striker make those kinds of passes. Midfielders, yes, but strikers, not many that I recall. In one case the Norwich player mishandled the near perfect pass from Crnac, a pass which would have sent him breaking away on goal with a great scoring chance. Crnac is a guy who can hit speedy wingers with a pass.
3. Crnac very aggressive, worked hard, constantly pressing the opposition defenders when Luton had the ball. Aggressive without the ball.
Crnac was also the top player in the game on Sofascore rating.
He is quoted in the English papers as saying his confidence is growing with each game.
Crnac article if this link works.
https://www.edp24.co.uk/sport/24763066.ante-crnac-buoyant-huge-week-norwich-city/
Crnac 2nd goal of the day
x.com/FootballReprt/status/1862883149601980864
Look at his contribution v-a-v the pressing – his read of play into the press / teamates is excellent – which leads to him knowing the route / angle he should take – it looks like he’s slow-walking into the box – this is deliberate – as he knows the distance / space he needs to be in to be ready for the cross back into the box
That’s 3 goals in 2 games – 4 in total this season
OMG
CRNAC GOAL !
x.com/FootballReprt/status/1862880854889910695
What elite technique / finishing ability in over-crowded / tight space in the box with players all around him – volley left foot – than volley right foot – than strike with left foot goal – it’s vintage Eduardo in terms of skill – are we sure Crnac doesn’t have a Brazilian mother ?
This is what Budimir lacks i.e. elite technique and finishing ability – he’s just a bull with limited brains running around
Two goals in 2 games
His over-all / all-around play once again stands out
Hopefully he’s starting to come onto Dalic’s radar
Would be good to give Igor competition – especially given Crnac playing every game now (often 90 full minutes) while Igor biding his time
He’s got another one. Brace so far
He actually can play at RW as well
Yes, and cut in with a vicious left boot
Eternal Derby should be a really, really fun matchup.
Dinamo win, and just like that, they’re only a point behind Hajduk. Hajduk win, and the gap opens to 7 points. Huge match for position in the table
However, I wouldn’t be surprised if this ends in a 1-1 draw. Would be typical. Drag the season out a little bit longer until Dinamo somehow, some way jumps ahead.