Another weekend of Croatian excellence across Europe is in the books!
Mario Pašalić added another highlight to his fantastic 2021-22 season on Sunday, scoring the opening goal for Atalanta in their 6-2 victory over Udinese. Pašalić now ranks 6th in the Serie A in goal contributions with 8 goals and 5 assists – quite fantastic for a midfielder!
Ante Budimir found the back of the net for Osasuna in their 2-0 victory over Cadiz on Sunday. After suffering two injuries in fall, this is only Budimir’s second goal this season in La Liga.
Joško Gvardiol played another magnificent match in the Bundesliga on Saturday, as Leipzig comfortably beat Mainz 4-1. The 19 year-old was the highest rated defender on the pitch with a solid 7.3 SofaScore rating. Gvardiol completed 90% of his passes, won 5 duels on the ground, and recorded three successful dribbles.
Mateo Kovačić’s season just keeps getting better! Kovačić was given the captain’s armband for Chelsea in their FA Cup match against Chesterfield. The midfield maestro commanded the pitch in the first half, and was rested in the second half once Chelsea took a comfortable lead.
Luka Modrić played 70 minutes in Real Madrid’s 4-1 victory over Valencia.
Marcelo Brozović and Ivan Perišić started for Inter Milan as they beat Toma Bašić and Lazio 2-1.
Nikola Vlašić was named ‘man of the match’ for West Ham in their 2-0 FA Cup victory over Leeds United.
Budimir must play!!! We need a guy who can head the ball and who hustles. Budimir does both.
Paired with either Kramaric or Pasalic as a false 9.
That combo, with our amazing midfield, and our ability to swing in crosses (from Sosa and Juranovic) would be lethal.
—————-Budimir————————-
————————Krama/Pasalic—————
—————————Modric————————
——Perisic——————————Kovacic
————————–Brozovic—————
Sosa——Gvardiol—-Caleta——Juranovic
—————————Grbic——————-
Subs- Majer, Rebic, Brekalo,
That team wins the WC!!!!
Bog i Hrvati
Couldn’t agree more with the statement that Budimir is a must start for us! He in my opinion is the biggest missing piece. A real CF that has high work rate and can play nogomet. If you play in La Liga you know how to play soccer.
We don’t need a striker to carry the team we just need a Miroslav klose performance next WC to complement our great mid. Our midfield would benefit greatly having a player work hard and stretch the field it was missing last tournament and qualifying cycle.
We don’t need to experiment with a false 9 or rebic who isn’t a striker, we have a striker and it’s time to play him.
Ante Budimir is another player that is unparalleled in our talent pool with his physical presence up top.
He is also another asset in are depth chart.
His injury was bad timing for him.
He is exactly who plays this Spring in the UNL.
We need to have a legit #9 audition this Spring.
Nice to see those Osasuna highlights with Budimir involved in every play. He’s definitely a target for crosses, and what I like most about him is that he fights for the ball. Osasuna’s second goal materialized from a deflected shot by Budimir after he won a divided ball. Some of you might say, “OK, but he should have scored a hat trick.” In reality no striker puts away all of his chances. Even the best strikers are usually doing what Budimir was doing, putting relentless pressure on the defense and the keeper.
@Dannyj
Preach homie !!
All these talented dudes coming on and contributing to the cause.
Is “22 the deepest we have been since ‘98?
Need my man Rebić back in fold.
Nobody brings his physical presence.
Glad to see him on the pitch getting his legs under him.
Brekalo in fine form
Is it leaving Germany, Italy being a weaker league?
A change of environment and system?
Croatian coach?
To have him and orsic come on as super subs needing a shake up will be nice
Depth is what we need if we want to cause damage in Qatar
I agree about giving pasalic a serious look
I don’t think Italy used a proper striker for some of euro did they?
Karmaric ain’t lighting up Germany anymore currently
Perisic……………………………………..Rebic
…………………….Pasalic………………………
……………………………………………………….
……….Kovacic………………Modric………..
……………………..Brozo……………………….
……………………………………………………….
Sosa………Gvar………..Duje………..Juran
……………………………………………………….
……………………..Grbic………………………..
Can luka and Kova play at same time? I know Ante and others are big against it
Seems like when rakitic and luka started to mesh together is when we really shined
I think having Brozo and Kova sit back while Luka roams is pretty much a lock in our system. All 3 are legit world class and have to play together.
Brekalo is getting more playing time on a weaker team. The two goals today weren’t anything special but they still count. Brekalo now has 5 goals along with his teammate Marko Pjaca who also has 3 nice goals this season. Funny enough, Pjaca has some experience playing CF. Not that I’m suggesting either of them start for the repka at this time but playing time always helps.
Brekalo brace! 30 minutes in.
Your description of Luka’s game leaves a lot to be desired. Here’s one I found:
CM Luka Modric
Another standing ovation was given to Luka Modric by the Bernabeu faithful on LaLiga’s 20th Matchday. Modric was the saving grace in the outfield against Getafe, and he continued his blistering start to 2022 with a just-as-good performance at the White House on Saturday night. Modric was all over the pitch, majestically controlling the midfield with his accurate and progressive passing. The Croatian recorded three key passes to tie Mendy and Kroos for the team lead, and he was so unlucky not to have scored as his left-footed shot smacked the underside of the crossbar.
Rating: 8.0
Was reading vlasic will get more and more game time early in the year
Here is his chance
Great news about Vlasic. Statistically, he had a pretty good game without scoring or assisting; 3 key passes, 90% accurate passes, and 4/5 dribble attempts. Let’s hope he’s finally getting settled in rainy England and continues this form.
Promising about vlasic
Remember we have to wait till end of season to judge him
Let’s hope this continues
We need a guy who can do some headers
Hard to not find a spot for pasalic and his nose for goal for us
Can he actually be converted to more of a striker role for us??
Either a target man or a false 9 because he can help the midifield and provide lay offs and late runs into the box, I would certainly rather him as a target man than Kramaric for now.
Nikola Vlasic has gotten praise by David Moyes and West Ham fans for today’s performance against Leeds, good signs for his career at West Ham.
Basic starting for Lazio
Pasalic with another header goal after making a run into the penalty area. He has 8 goals playing for a very deep team. Budimir has 1 goal so far…still has 60 min to try and get another. I would really like to see Dalic test Pasalic as a false 9 during the friendlies.
I think he heard me hehehehe…still not a Budiliever
Pasalić played as the 9 in the UNL match when we scored 3 goals against Portugal (and lost 3-4 because of terrible defending by Vida, Lovren, and Livaković). I like him at that position, especially considering that some top performers are going to have to adjust in order for the repka to field its strongest starting lineup
Pasalic is a lurker. He knows his shit. He is so good and must play more
Gvardiol continuing to improve every week. He’s just so good, such a joy to watch. He hasn’t had a bad game since Spain in the Euros.
Today he missed a big chance in front of goal by hitting it with his weak right foot and sent it flying over the bar. Unfortunate since he could’ve easily secured a goal there.
He also swung in a crazy shot from far out after dribbling by a Mainz midfielder. Similar shot to that Modric goal against Argentina. But the goalie got his fingertips on it. Josko did it with his right foot too.
I’ve been reading around, and it seems to be that Gvardiol’s price tag set by Leipzig is currently 80 million euros. That’s insane! Would make him the third most expensive defender in the world right now (behind Davies and Ruben Dias). Not super credible however, so don’t quote me on this. Regardless, Leipzig will make big bucks when they sell him.
What did they pay for him?
That’s an insane number
Probably over inflated but for sure many are seeing what an impact he can and most likely will be
True two way player
When Modrić retires, in theory we still potentially have two or three world class type players
I’m saying Gvardiol, kova potentially and maybe throw in broz. I’m not throwing Perisic there cause most wouldn’t consider him that for club level but for us most definitely
What’s going on with sosa? Is he healthy again?
They payed around 19 mil for him.
Sosa’s been playing. Consistently good performances.
Dinamo wisely added a 25% future transfer clause in Gvardiol’s transfer agreement with Leipzig.
If he goes for €80 million in a future sale (which I believe he will) then Dinamo will get a quarter of that.
80 is cheap and I’m not joking.
He’s that good
https://www.google.ca/amp/s/www.chelsea-news.co/2022/01/video-mateo-kovacic-surging-run-sets-up-timo-werner-for-easy-goal/amp/
Kova with a great run. Flashbacks of Iceland way back now
We need this from him. Our attack just becomes that much more lethal with those runs
Luka Modric—8: The Croatian is having quite the season at 36-years-old. He continues to dominate matches in the midfield and against Valencia it was no different.
Kovačić captains Chelsea.
Gvardiol looks world class.
Are we ready for yet another deep run at the World Cup?
Man it’s hard not to have legit hope
We can probably argue our defence should be better
Midfield similar strength as Russia
Striker and keeper is the question mark? Who will step up
You know luka and Perisic are gonna leave it all out there
Should have great service from the wings
Control in midfield
Proper CBs who can pass it out and not heavily rely on the midfield to constantly move it out
We can’t have a livakovic/lovren/vida moving the ball like shit back there
We can go deep into the World Cup if we have a target man upfront (ie. Musa, Budimir or Simic).
Croatia also needs to have a consistent run of form throughout the whole year and Dalic needs to stop pissing about with team selection
For example, Lovro Majer was involved in almost every goal against Malta, gets benched the next game.
Duje Caleta-Car does well with Gvardiol which enables the defense to play a higher line and aren’t so vulnerable and enable both the fullbacks to go forward. People who watched both the Cyprus and Malta could see this but Dalic on the other hand had to take him out of Slovakia and Russia.
4-1 for Leipzig. Didn’t see much on the news about him but there is this one part where it says the goalie was forced to make a great save from rampaging defender gvardiol
That and the obviously big score line leads me to think he was strong again
Kids a beast