Is Antonio Čolak playing in a top-5 European league? Not even close. But is he scoring regularly for Rangers in Scotland, who are without question, a top-2 team in the league? He sure is! Čolak scored two more goals for Rangers on Saturday in a 4-0 victory over St. Mirren. He received a 9.1 rating from FOTMOB and was given ‘Man of the Match’ honors for his efforts.
In the 4′, Čolak banged in a hard Borna Barišić shot off the right post for the game opener. In the 30′, Čolak was fouled in the box which led to a Rangers goal from the penalty spot. He wrapped up his brace in the 2nd half with an absolute wonderful run down the right side where he cut on the defender at full speed and sent a perfect Luka Modrić ‘outside the right foot’ shot just inside the left post. Full Match Report.
Ćolak is hot! He now has 13 goals in 16 matches this season; including Champions League qualifiers. In 1,120 minutes played, he’s scoring every 86 minutes of play, on average. Čolak did not get the start at Anfield this past week in Champions League, but he should get his shot against Liverpool October 12th as the CL group stage fixture moves to Ibrox. A goal versus Liverpool would be HUGE for Čolak. But as far as I’m concerned, he needs to be on the plane when Croatia take off to Qatar. He deserves it. Simple as that. Čolak is currently the leading scorer in Scotland with eight goals.
Mateo Kovačić came off the bench in the 66th minute for Chelsea vs. Wolves on Saturday with his side already up 2-0. In the 89th minute, Kova sent a perfect through-ball down field to Armando Broja, who did the rest to score his first Chelsea goal. The Blues won 3-0 and now jump back into the top-4 of the table. They travel to Italy this week to take on AC Milan in Champions League.
Luka Modrić returned from a minor knock Saturday and got the start for Real Madrid vs. Getafe. Modrić assisted on Militao’s opening goal in the 3rd minute of play off a corner kick. Real Madrid lead 1-0 in the 75th minute.
We have a Petar Musa sighting! Musa came on at halftime for new club, Benfica, and scored his first goal of the season. He tapped in a sharp, low pass from the left side past the keeper. It should add some confidence to the 24 year-old as he has not seen much playing time since his summer transfer from Boavista. Benfica currently sit 1st place in Portugal, having a 3-point advantage on FC Porto.
UEFA 2022 league rankings have the Sottish Premiership at 8th overall and HNL comes in 19th. Not sure what criteria is used and how accurate it is; however, a few things come to mind:
– Dinamo Zagreb (#45 ranked European club team) has beat #1 ranked English Premier league teams a few times, so the gap from the #1 league to the #19 can’t be nearly as big as the numbers suggest.
– Furthermore, Čolak playing in the #8 ranked league, can’t be very far off from the top 5 leagues, and as the result, his stats are relevant.
-Croatia has numerous players that aren’t playing in a top 5 league, so why not Čolak (in particular, given that larger rosters are permitted in Qatar)?
Rangers are the #38 ranked club team in all of europe, and they will play the #4 ranked Liverpool on Oct 12th. I hope Čolak does well and proves that he can produce against better competition.
Croatia, Wales, Armenia, Turkey and Latvia.
Could have been worse, we missed out on France, England, Serbia and Ukraine.
Why would you have rathered them instead? It makes it harder and Dalic would’ve shitted himself even worse than what he has already with the group we got hahahah
Croatia-Wales-Armenia so far. Can’t complain.
Still got some time to get hot before Qatar
We probably were better off with a summer time cup but hey petko and orsic are probably better performing then last year
Majer about the same
Vlasic is better
Broz will be fine
Defence will be fine
Lovren and vida to the rescue
Colak gonna get Golden Boot;) lol could you guys imagine
Colak is playing hard and scoring goals!!
Keep it up and keep playing stronger and he may make it to WC 2022 Qatar!! Let’s hope he’s the man to go big for the National team. Let’s hope Musa keeps getting stronger also.
The “Common Wealth’s” mudshark factory is going to get shut down.
Yeah that was a nice second goal from Colak, he needs to be called up i think
Both dortmund goals are stanisic fault..i guess he is not suitable playing at LB. And he will not get any chances to play again for bayern..
I am concerned on players getting ready for WC
Guardiol off form currently
Caleta car dropped to bench after 1 match
Chelsea boss is pro british…gallagher mount cheek are ahead of kovacic now.
Brozovic injured
Modric- no steam
If only pulisic can play RW
Budimir no goals and no games now
Orsic and petkovic cannot perform in CL
Erlic seems injured..sub off yesterday
Livakovic: lol.
I wonder what was going through your head before the last World Cup, when we had a backline of Strinic, Vida, Lovren and Vrsaljko.
None of them were in form or starting for their clubs (except maybe Vida) ha ha.
11 on 11.
It’s possibly the calm before the storm?
I hope you’re right! And it’s also important all of them stay healthy.
https://www.goalstube.online/2022/10/getafe-real-madrid.html?m=1
Well that didn’t take long, lol.
Luka’s back bitches!!
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=R8STUYF3q0g&ab_channel=VSPORTS-LigaPortugal
Musa with a tap in today.
Man, Musa could easily pass as a Portugalac
Take colak to Qatar
He could be our scilliaci aka Italia 90
We just need someone one for one month and we will be flying
Agree Suba. I’ve seen enough. The first goal today was all reflexes which means he’s totally into the game. The second goal was beautiful.
Dalic has to stop fooling around with this striker shit. We have a month for God sake.
Colak has to be there no doubt.
10 goals in 9 league games for Colak is impressive.
The only argument against him is not starting in the past two Champions League matches and (as a result) not finding the net against better competition.
Again, this is for backup striker minutes between him and a non-scoring Budimir.
Krama, Petkovic and Livaja are probably a guarantee in Dalic’s books.
Ljubicic and Musa are likely seen as too young.
The only possible change is a swap out between Colak and Budimir.
We all know Dalic is slow to react, but with pressure mounting since Colak can’t be ignored, he will get the call….However, I only see Dalic using him as the third option at best. I believe Dalic pecking order is Kramaric starting, Livaja first off the bench and maybe Colak if we need to go all out attack with our backs are up against the wall in a win or go home game.
I think Dalic’s dilemma here is that he needs to decide on who to omit from the striker choices we have. The only real striker options we have are Budimir. Colak just heated up and is doing phenomenal, Musa is off the radar so that leaves a bunch of false 9’s. In my opinion, Petkovic is our best false 9, even better than Kramaric. Dalic now has to decide on whether Budimir is his choice or do we go with Colak, he can’t take everyone to the World Cup!
Our next issue is our right sided attack. So far, I only see Majer as a good option and after that we don’t have many good options.
Thoughts?
RW still seems to be an enigma for Dalic as he’s STILL using Mario Pasalic very often in that role, and it hasn’t ever worked out.
The one time he didn’t actually play Pasalic at RW, is when Pasalic actually scored lol. But I think that goal may have confused Dalic even more now (similar to the Lovren goal against Austria), and he may continue to try and integrate Pasalic into the starting lineup (just like he will attempt to do with Lovren now).
RW is gonna be one of Krama, Majer, Vlasic, or Pasalic.
If we go by recent usage, it’s likely Pasalic…but that’s with Kramaric playing exclusively as a striker.
If we decide to move away from Krama as a striker (and go with someone else there) then Dalic may try to keep Krama in the starting lineup as a RW.
I don’t like either option at RW and Dalic should have been giving more time to Majer there.
We played Majer mostly off the bench in that RW role, so we have a small sample only.
I’m also pretty sure we’ve never tried Orsic there either (which is odd considering how hot he’s been).
I don’t recall ever seeing Perisic and Orsic on the field at the same time.
I would have opted to use these Nations League games to try out Majer and Orsic at RW.
We already had so much data with guys like Pasalic, Krama, Brekalo, Ivanusec, and Vlasic at RW.
We knew what we were getting with each of these guys there.
Same for striker. We pretty much only played Budimir or Krama up top. It’s going to be hard for Dalic to now make a sudden change there.
But it’s looking like Petkovic and Colak are the ones who are having hot seasons right now, with Budimir and Krama cooling off.
This last round of Nations League games was a wasted opportunity to try out one of Majer/Orsic at RW and Petkovic or Colak up top.
You’re spot on Maminjo…for once in your life you actually make sense!
😉
I wish R. Muric was a bit faster. He could at least play the position most naturally.
The good things about Čolak are that he already trained with the Repka a bit, so he knows the system, and his main asset is finishing. It’s not hard to see him replacing Budimir, since Budimir’s game isn’t very complex or mysterious. Čolak could very well slot in as the starting striker. It’s the position where that is most possible.
If that happens, my pick would be Kramarić on the right wing. Why? When we don’t have the ball, he will drop back to recover, and when we do have the ball, he can act as a secondary striker. We need a natural backup at each position, so Majer would be the backup for Modrić or Kovačić, Livaja would be the backup for Kramarić, Petković or Pasalić for Čolak, Orsić for Perisić, etc.
Ya he had two
I just read he was super close to a hat trick.
Maybe kramaric would be lighting up Scotland the same but as others have stated he is turning into a midfielder more than a striker
I was calling for budimir to get called up and play last tourney as he was undoubtedly hot, playing in la liga
He is not that any more and hasn’t done nuff for the repka as a whole
Dalic sort of slept on him
I know the defence is not the same but colak is putting the ball on target to score This is a lot of what we need
I feel like he is like the ugly chick who needs to get noticed. They will do things to feel loved
Colak will work his ass off and we need this
If he makes an impact at World Cup and keeps lighting up at rangers
He is gonna get a big boy signing
Playing striker for Croatia goes a long way now
Colak now with 2 goals today
https://streamja.com/PVPbX
I piss on Lovren as much as most here and definitely do not want him starting any games, but credit where credit is due. What a pass, left footed no less.
You know it’s gonna be Gvardiol and lovren starting World Cup
Terrible CB pairing.
Gvardiol likes to push forward, so he needs a steady CB back there (like an Erlic or maybe a Sutalo type) to cover for him.
Lovren is not that. He himself needs a steady CB to cover for his errors and aggressive tackles….similar to how Jose Fonte covered for Lovren at Southampton and made Lovren look better than he really was.
I agree but Dalic going by popularity and pressure I could see him doing such a thing
I wish we got to see more erlic
He looks like a richer mans skoric/schildenfeld… steady
I see him as another Vedran Corluka with all that Serie A experience he’s gathered, along with his height, and steady/conservative way he defends (with no flashy skills).
Corluka probably dribbles a lot better, but he never really showcased it and opted to be more of a fundamental defender.
It took Colak 4 minutes to score again, when tf is Dalić going to wake up to the fact that we need this guy for Qatar.
Preach Markus! Budimir is in terrible form. Kramaric is sputtering a bit and playing midfield. Petkovic is talented but lacks efficiency. Why not call Goalak up in lieu of Budimir, who doesn’t play an aerial game so that threat is negated.
Love to see the goal. Both finishes last week were nice quality(including a header)
Make that another brace.