Why is it that every time CroatianSports rags on Krama, he does something good that week? After scoring Croatia’s lone goal against Wales at Poljud last week on international duty, Kramarić scored Hoffenheim’s first goal off a header in the box in a huge 2-1 victory over Werder Bremen. Krama played the full 90 minutes and received an 8.0 rating from FOTMOB. With the victory, Hoffenheim sit three points above the playoff relegation match.
Other than that, it was an absolute quiet weekend for Croatian internationals…
Luka Modrić warmed the bench for Real Madrid in a 6-0 win over Real Valladolid. He was surely rested in preparation for Real Madrid’s 2nd leg Copa del Rey semifinal against Barcelona on April 5th. Barcelona won the first leg 1-0.
Mateo Kovačić and the Chelsea offense looked pedestrian in a 2-0 loss to Aston Villa at Stamford Bridge
Josip Juranović remained on the bench in Union Berlin’s 3-0 win over Stuttgart. Borna Sosa did not dress for Stuttgart due to a muscle injury. That is the likely reason for him not playing against Turkey.
Joško Gvardiol played 71 minutes as Mainz defeat RB Leipzig 3-0 Saturday, leaving them in 5th place
Starter for KC against the Blue Jays tonight is Kris Bubic. Wikipedia says his dad is from Croatia and it looks like Kris is a fan the soccer team ——> https://twitter.com/krisbubic
Looks like Stanisic is back glued to the Bayern bench
We’ll see what happens next week with Champions League
Once again, after all the hype and calls for Musa, not enough attention was paid to how terrible he was in those qualifiers.
INVISIBLE!
he made petkovic look like he has a high motor.
Sure, you don’t get service, but show me some pressing. Win some aerial duals. Show me you can track back on defense.
I just couldn’t believe this is what I was seeing.
And even more shocking is after 2 years of people calling for Musa…he plays….does absolutely nothing….and no one mentions a single thing about it
He didn’t have time bud. Start the guy with 60 mins to play and then let’s draw the comparison. With little time to play, and zero service, what is he to do??? Make miracles happen??? Krama’ is in his 30’s and shitting the bed, literally and people aren’t noticing this at all. Yet it’s constantly play the guy. Why?? You play the youth so they develop and get used to the team it doesn’t happen right away.
The guys strength is set pieces and headers which Krama does not seem to able to very well for our team.
Look, if Kramaric could learn to pass once in a while I would overlook the other stuff, personally. But he cost us the game against Wales, and it isn’t the first he has done this.
As I have said before, if he scored goals like Suker or Eduardo then fine I would except it. But he can’t, so passing is that option you have to take more often than not when you are like Kramaric.
But if he somehow turns into a Ronaldo, Croatian version, then I’ll shut my mouth. But don’t forget even Ronaldo pass the ball once in a while when it made perfect sense to do so.
Can’t judge Musa on the Turkey game as he played only 6 minutes, and Croatia was just sitting back at that point.
He probably could have done more in the Wales game…but he wasn’t there in the first half when our team was playing more inspired and were creating chances. He probably would have buried one for all we know (instead of causing fouls in the box like Livaja did which cost us a goal). People may think that Krama cost us the game with his selfish play, but so did Livaja with his aggressive (yet uncoordinated) play that resulted in one of our goals being called back.
Either way, Musa only came in during the second half, and got like 40 minutes of play that game. He could have ran around more I guess, but it’s not like having Livaja, Petkovic or Budimir there in the second half would have been any different.
Regardless of what you think of him, he is better than what we’ve currently been rolling out up top.
Based off his goals at Benfica this past year, he’s the type of striker who buries chances created by others.
The one game he plays for us, is the game where both Sosa and Juranovic had a poor game, and our midfielders were slowing down and coasting at that point.
Musa absolutely should still be getting callups and should be getting starts over guys like Livaja and Petkovic (who maybe have one good game every third or fourth game them play).
I think everyone considers Musa to have the potential to be a good stop-gap striker for us (until one of our higher rated young forwards develop) as he seems to have the tall frontman skills to give us what we need in the box.
Budimir did far less for us, and he got to start every game in the Nations League. I’d easily start Musa for the rest of our qualifiers.
then you have to wait like 5 – 6 years
unless you kill that shit manager 1-
with him is in charge of this team
55% for the total effectiveness -o
with this pattern:
– can qualify from a weak group
– relaying on luck as usual -0i
Dude
Get a new angle
Dalic is staying Tactics will probably stay similar to how they are
Accept it. Troll Malta fans or something
We have kova what like a 10 year long leash lol
Give him some proper time
I know with a striker we need to see results
But let’s give him a proper run before saying he is shit
Didn’t Krama go like a year or something without scoring??
I know mandzo had a super cold steak too
Let’s give the kid a chance
Against wales you could see the energy of the whole team was a bit down in second half
Kid was obviously nervous as heck
Imagine finally getting your call up no real warm up as he can in sort of cold
In Poljud….
People did after the games.
What aerial duals? There were no crosses his way.
His goals for Benefica came off well timed passes. Our only creative midfielder who is capable of setting up a striker is Modrić.
I don’t know how many times we must go through this….. Did everyone already forget!!!!
Euro 20 NOTHING !!!!
WC 22 one game … AGAINST CANADA that’s it..against real competition=nothing
Nations league semis are coming up and euro qualifiers have already started…..
Kramaric can’t be are starting #9 striker any longer!!!!!!!!
He tells us that EVERYTIME he plays but it’s like no one is listening and no one remembers!!! If he wants to play some winger position off the bench when we need some fresh legs then so be it other than that it’s like we are playing a man down!!
Give Musa the start for Gods sake!!!!
How can you expect Musa to do anything when you play him in the last minutes of the game?
I’m just really over seeing Kramaric start and do nothing EVERYTIME…….
Musa gets 10 minutes at Benfica if lucky, some matches he does not even come on to play. It is very difficult for Dalic to give him a start when he gets very little match play at Benfica.
Not that difficult when you consider the alternative.
Budimir got multiple starts in the Nations League and didn’t come close to scoring once. Livaja cost us a goal against Wales with his messy skillset. Petkovic is just a niche striker who does really well in tight spaces, but is moreso useful against bunkering teams (and not against teams who will counter or have some possession themselves).
Musa may not be starting for Benfica, but he’s still our best stop-gap striker (until Beljo starts scoring in the Bundesliga).
I fully agree, I am quite frankly done with Kramaric personally. Another player, who much like Rebic, I routed for for many years but is proving that they cannot do it for us. Even at club level he has gone down in form from 15 to 20 goal seasons done to like 5 a season.
That aside, the numbers produced and stats produced, it is more the fact that he is one of the most selfish players on the field and probably the most selfish. Atleast Rebic would pass, as terrible of player as he is. I am by no means saying play Rebic, I am just drawing the comparison and feel that both should be let go by Dalic.
This seniority rules attitude Dalic had needs to be dropped.
I have suggested this before other than Modric, Brozovic, Perisic, and Kovacic any other player from 2018 needs to be on notice or simply let go.
Even the other two players, who again are questionable, Livaja and Petko would atleast pass the ball. I am sorry but it is an essential quality in sports for an athlete.
As skilled as Kramarić is, I agree that his refusal to pass is not only ineffective, it also clashes with the ethos of Dalić’s system. My guess is that once Musa learns the off-the-ball movement required of him on the Repka, that he will take the place of Kramarić. That will allow Vlasić and Pasalić to get more playing time, and may generally contribute to a better team in attack. And I say that being a fan of Kramarić, generally. Kramarić does know how to move off the ball and draw defenders out of the box, which is one reason why Kovačić was able to streak in there and score two. However, that’s a skill that any intelligent striker can learn. Kramarić is still a good option to have on the team, but he doesn’t look like a core member anymore with that selfish play. Livaja is also a good player to have because he is very tough and can turn a bad bounce into a goal, but he shouldn’t be a core player going forward either. I would like to see more of Vlasić, Pasalić, Musa, Beljo, and Majer, with the older players coming off the bench. The problem is that these players need to get starting minutes first, in order to get into that role on the national team.
https://www.goalstube.online/2023/04/werder-hoffenheim.html?m=m2
Kramaric with a nice header.
Leipzig getting beaten down 3-0
Guessing gvardi was off…?
https://www.goalstube.online/2023/04/bologna-udinese.html?m=m3
Moro with a goal and assist today. He seems to be gaining steam. Unfortunately, he left the game with an injury. I have no idea what happened, but hopefully it’s just a little knock.
Nice assist from muric…can he be our RWF?
Is rog good enough recently?
I hope basic can move to another club quickly.
I really coric moves out of roma quickly
How is benkovic performing these days?
Vidovic needs to get out of vitesse soon. He is on the bench
LOL.
Still fuming over the Croatia win over Turkey last week? 😉
those players will never ever be on Dalic radar
he absolutely chooses the local club and old fucking Vida
Livaja with a goal and two assists yesterday to put Hajduk back in the Prva Liga race.
He has to find a way to bring this energy to the National Squad, hopefully he can show this side of himself in the qualifiers a bit more.
Maybe he’s just not good enough to play well against decent competition? This game was against Šibenik after all. Does he ever produce these numbers regularly vs Dinamo 🤔
Ding Ding Ding!
Livaja is a 30 year-old veteran who is playing in a league filled with little kids.
He’s not NT caliber, but we’re thin at striker so we have to include him (plus it satisfies the Hajduk quota too).
If your playing Petko you may as well play Livaja. Not sure I see a difference there.
I would like to see some of these you get players personally.
Younger players
I totally agree…don’t get me started about Petko. He has his moments (ie Brazil), but generally he’s a huge disappointment. Both him and Livaja are what they are, and we shouldn’t place too much expectation with them for the future. They can help us as role players against lower rated teams until we figure out who will be our future star striker.
I agree Mate1. Let’s move forward with some young forwards and see what they can do- Petko, Livaja, had their time- time to get some speed up front to push back the opposing D. Never dreamt we’d be worried about a striker. We’ve been blessed with so many good players up front so it’s our turn to suffer up there a bit.
He has scored against Dinamo as well, it’s just much more difficult on the National Squad, and to score internationally. What would be telling is of he had moved to a different league and demonstrated the same success.
After the injury last week, I’m surprised he played.
With regard to the game against Turkey no doubt Livakovic was great and I hope he did not hurt his shoulder or elbow. Kovacic was terrific; Stanisic was excellent and really impressive. I thought Pasalic was good and Sutalo okay. Baresic was knocked around like a ragdoll but showed a lot of grit. Perisic played really solid defense but was not as involved offensively given where he was positioned. Brozevic had way too many sloppy passes although not as many as Modric. Really a subpar game for Luka. Majer came in and got off a rocket. He also made a really poor pass back to Dominik which nearly got Turkey back into the match. Gvardiol continues to make a lot of mistakes. He has the physical tools but makes too many poor choices which you hope he will grow out of. Kramaric was pretty much nonexistent.
Šutalo set up the first goal.
He quickly picked out Stanišić with an Incredible long ball pass that dropped beautifully in front of the running Stanišić, and away from the Turkish defender.
The game would have probably been very different had we not scored when we did.
So glad we have technically gifted defenders now. Long overdue.
We really haven’t seen enough from erlic
I hope he gets his chance
I feel he could be a solid guy back there
Stanisic as the right cb would work too if he insists playing 4 at the back with JJ on the right side
I’m that guy who thinks stanisic will have a more consistent career for the repka then gvardiol at the end of the day
Yea, Erlic is solid.
He’s not as offensively talented as Sutalo (which is the reason I assume Sutalo starts ahead of him) but he’s one of those guys that makes little to no mistakes.
A better schildenfeld ?;)
Compared to early days of 1994 through 2005. This is just a ton of talent and if HNS is smart they will develop a super competitive play only if you perform philosophy. Croatia didn’t have 15 /16 guys who we’re all good so despite some players I don’t like as well , we have far more of a competitive balance and that will help but it’s also puts pressure on Dalic to figure out who is out or in. I don’t think he’s that kind of leader . He was good when 95% of the guys played the whole match. I see the future being far different. More competition means more understanding of talent. It is not the role that Dalic will understand