Ante Budimir bagged his second brace since October 20th in a disappointing 4-2 loss to La Liga leaders, Girona, on Saturday. Budimir leveled the match for Osasuna in the 25th minute as he picked up a loose ball in front of the net and cooly slotted the ball high for the equalizer. In the 55th minute, Budimir would give Osasuna a 2-1 lead with a sharp header just inside the far post. Budimir got called back up to the Croatian national squad for this month’s Euro 2024 qualifiers against Latvia and Armenia. He has four La Liga goals in the past three weekends. Not too shabby for the 32 year-old.
Luka Sučić was voted MOTM with a 9.3 FOTMOB rating Saturday as his Red Bull Salzburg side defeated WSG Tirol 2-0. Sučić assisted the first Salzburg goal on the night inside 30 minutes. He has been called up by Dalić for Euro 2024 qualifiers this month. Roko Šimić also got the start for RB Salzburg but only played 62 minutes. The Austrian frontrunners host Inter Milan this week in Champions League.
Lovro Majer was credited with an assist Sunday in Wolfsburg’s 2-2 draw with Werder Bremen. Majer barely got a touch on the ball as it was quickly sent across the box from the touchline to teammate Kevin Parades, who scored. The ball wasn’t meant for Majer but he will gladly take the assist.
Mateo Kovačić had a slow day at the office on Saturday in Manchester City’s 6-1 thumping over Bournemouth. Kova played the entire 90 minutes but only received a 5.0 rating from 90min.com as he “Shuttled between the halfway line and Bournemouth’s box with plenty of endeavour but little end product.” Joško Gvardiol remained on the bench as an unused sub in this match for City.
Luka Modrić got the start for Real Madrid Sunday in a 0-0 draw to Rayo Vallecano. Modrić played 70 minutes in the draw and was one of Madrid’s highest rated platers. He received a 7.0 rating from 90min.com with “A typical Luka Modrić performance. Used the ball well every time he had it at his feet.”
Andrej Kramarić returned from injury this weekend and played the last 12 minutes of Hoffenheim’s 3-2 loss to Josip Stanišić and Bayer Leverkusen. Stanišić came on at halftime for Leverkusen and received a 7.0 rating from FOTMOB for his efforts. Luka Ivanušec got the start and played 59 minutes in Feyenoord’s 2-1 victory over Waalwijk. He received a 7.0 grade from FOTMOB after sitting out all of October with an ankle injury.
Sir can you change your name from Lovren is Shit to Vida is Shit?
Why is Dalic not playing Erlic is the million dollar question? He would rather play a an old and slow Vida playing in Greece (retirement league).
Sutalo is out of form and still adjusting to the Dutch league. By mid season Sutalo will be the best center back in the Eredivisie.
Budamir is on fire and a guaranteed starter for the Nov 18 & 21 qualifiers.
If the team is not creating any scoring chances then Broz out and Susic in. If Krama is playing like his usual self (shitty) then sub Baturina in.
I meant Kovacic not Krama should be subbed for Baturina.
I meant Kovacic not Krama should be subbed for Baturina.
Kovačić had better be careful.
We have several in-form central midfielders in Majer, Ivanušec, Sučić and Baturina playing well.
If Kova stinks it up again for us, and we screw up and end up in the playoffs, he should get bumped to the bench until he can get out of this slump.
He already gets special treatment from Dalić as his starting spot always seems to be guaranteed.
He got bashed by the media for his terrible performance in the October games and he doesn’t look great at club form right now.
He is our biggest risk right now (in terms of players having a bad game).
So I know some like maminjo claim I’m being sensationalist and that the Dinamo cover built is not slowing but just look at the minutes played in 2022-23. It is clear of two things . 1) There is huge concentration risk as tons of the players were developed at Dinamo 2) There really aren’t any young players from Dinamo that are contributors now. All the players are older. The exception is the centerback pairing of Gvardiol and Sutalo. But Sutalo is performing terribly in a non top 5 league right now. And I was mocked for calling Gvardiol injury prone, but despite being a stud and 21 years odl, he only falls in the middle of the pack for mintues played….because he gets hurt a lot.
Where are the 25 year olds who should’ve emerged from Dinamo? Where is the 21 year old offensive talents that should’ve poked their head out by now. It’s just not there.
player mintues age initial club
brozovic 1284 30 dinamo
livakovic 1230 28 dinamo
modric 1194 38 dinamo
kovacic 1031 29 dinamo
sutalo 930 23 dinamo
juranovic 890 28 hajduk
mario pasalic 799 28 hajduk
perisic 786 34
kramaric 782 32 dinamo
stanisic 678 23 bayern
gvardiol 675 21 dinamo
barisic 629 30 osijek
majer 524 25 dinamo
erlic 510
vlasic 395 26 hajduk
vida 376 34 dinamo
ivanusec 365 24 dinamo
sosa 361 25 dinamo
petkovic 343 29 dinamo
brekalo 333 25 dinamo
ivusic 180 28
musa 180 25
orsic 167 30 dinamo
lovren 148 34 dinamo
Livakovic is in bad form. The last two qualifiers were bad and his play in Turkey this weekend was very poor.
Hopefully he shakes it off. We need him to be solid if we have any chance of qualifying.
@ mart
You honestly don’t think that Vidović could play in the number 10 role after they sell Baturina? Little Martin might be the real deal, atleast on tv he’s passing the eye test.
If you’re up 2-0 in Latvia why not put on two young kids in place of Luka and Kova for the last 20-30minutes. Again fellas, we need to score.
I wrote a month ago that Vidovic is not a left winger and needs to play in the midfield where Baturina plays.
We’ll see what happens in our U21 side now with Baturina being promoted into the senior side. We play a friendly against Slovakia on 16/11/23 and 4 days later away qualifier against Belarus. This might be an opportunity for U21 coach Skocic to play Vidovic in the midfield where he is more suited.
Watched Vidovic play for our U17 and U19 teams and he looked impressive playing just behind the forwards. However, that was at youth level. He is not 20 yet so I’m not writing him off yet, however my expectations in his ability and career prospects have come down appreciably after watching him play for Dinamo and our U21 team albeit in the wrong position on the LW.
I wouldn’t be surprised if that was Dinamo’s plan.
Baturina is already rated as a 15-20 million Euro player in any transfer rumor and on Transfermarkt.
This is usually the price point where Dinamo sells their top players, and since they’re not doing well in Europe, I can see them selling Baturina this Summer for that amount.
They can renegotiate with Bayern to extend the loan agreement, and start playing Vidovic as that #10 or #9 and a half type of player.
Assuming they don’t just irresponsibly transfer Baturina into the EPL (for money purposes), this could be good for the National Team (having three offensive oriented young players in Vidovic, Sucic and Baturina developing their game in the central midfield).
Saw the Torino game was played with Jurić suspended from the sideline, and you can tell the goal meant a lot to Niksi. It’s his first of the season I think. Watch on YouTube and the very last second of the video it’s got him flipping the bird in a suite 😬 he’s plus 1 for me now because his assistant coach also got cautioned today by some incompetent ref. Zapata looked dominant against Erlić btw
Some of our guys are rounding into form or something of the sort. Getting Krama back is crucial more than ever in my opinion because Perišić is out. Ivanušec playing more is good but it looks like Budimir might get the start unless petko comes back this week and scores. Defense would be a different story if Livi doesn’t get lobbed twice. Our attack looked stale
Vlasic came in as an early sub for Torino and ended up scoring the winner, 2-1.
Come on Niksi, keep going keep goin’ 👏
I think Erlic was the captain for Sassuolo in the same match.
Vlasic for me has been one of the biggest disappointments over the last 2 years. He has gone backwards and Dalic has done the right thing by dropping him. Hopefully being dropped might spur him on.
Reading in SN it looks like Dinamo is unlikely to buy Gabriel Vidovic from Bayern for 4 million at the end of the season. They use him on the left wing where he is not suited with his lack of pace. Vidovic was another player that we had great hopes for, however from what I have seen of him playing for Dinamo he may be another one of those promising youth players that fails to transition into senior football.
I would put brekalo and pjaca up there with the big pickle as well when it comes to disappointment…I had such high hopes for ALL 3!
Erlic has had a very solid season. Have to think we will see him in the next year or two at a bigger club.
Whether or not you have despair about Croatia’s future outlook is dependent upon if you have realistic expectations or not.
If your expectations are that the past 5 years will and should be the norm for Croatia (2 world cup final fours, nations league final,), then you will be disappointed.
If your goal is for Croatia are to be a semi-competitive team that is a rung below the top 10 to 15 teams, but has a punchers shot any time they play them and if you want to define great success as emerging from the group stage of the world cup, Croatia can still leave you with something to be excited about over the next 10 years.
1) At the end of the day though, Croatia has an incredibly small population so it’s unlikely for them to compete with consistency as even the biggest countries struggle with that. Over time the diaspora conveyor belt will grind to a halt as well as more intermixing marriages leaving children with less ties to Croatia. Currently, Croatia has a bit of an opposing force from its recent successes.
2) Croatia’s huge strength has been an incredibly productive Dinamo farm system which with Mamic away from the helm, is slowly becoming less and less productive. Not to mention the key man and concentration risk that if you’re one major talent production factory weakens, you are really out of luck…and that could/maybe is happening with Dinamo.
3) A massive talent gap continues to exist in the prime player age group (21-29)… maybe just Gvardiol is a legit starter and he is very injury prone.. The offensive third talent has been weak for sometime. The midfield engine held everything up. There was some hope that a new young defense could emerge as a cornerstone, but what was hoped would be a decade long pairing of sosa, gvardiol, sutalo, and stanisic (maybe) has quickly crumbled to just gvardiol.
4) Upcoming prospects: Based upon recent experience, its tough to have much faith in any of these upcoming prospects. Outside of Gvardiol, who is the last prospect to have materialized???? Brozovic? Kovacic? I mean, these guys are pushing 100 caps.
I don’t say this to be a huge downer. Just to be realistic. But it doesn’t mean you can’t still delight in Croatian soccer and set your threshold for joy at a more modest level than world cup finalist.
They really need to wipe away mamic’s charges and let him come back. He should be celebrated as a national hero not treated as a criminal (who hasn’t broken a law or two). The Dinamo factory needs to continue to pump out top talent if Croatia is to continue to be a legitimate footballing nation. Hajduk haven’t really pumped out anyone top quality for a while. Their last top tier pick (aside from Vuskovic) went to LA FC and is wasting away his development days.
Sure there are young prospects, but you never know how that will turn out. Vlasic (although scored today) was supposed to be a top tier player. And he isn’t the only one who has not lived up to the initial hype.
Really hope this isn’t the end. If Croatia can continue to rank 8-12 in the world I think that will be a positive outcome
Where is your evidence that Dinamo aren’t as good at producing players as they once were. There are an array of extremely talented young players who are currently in their academy. Think about how many players during the Modric era were touted to become great players and never materialised into anything more than an average player. It’s too early to make any judgement calls about what might happen in the next 5-10 years, just as it was 5-10 years before 2018. Football and the development of players can be too unpredictable, especially if they’re Croatian. Let’s just enjoy what we have, see how things pan out, and not speculate so negatively or act so defeatist. I know you’re trying to be realistic but a lot of what you just said doesn’t have any real grounding. Just my two cents.
He’s just talking out of his a$$.
Just like how he keeps repeating how injury prone Gvardiol is.
Our future is fine. If we don’t qualify for the next 6 major tournaments it will be the coaches/HNS fault. We have the talent.
I agree. There are some pretty baseless negative takes in here.
Suggesting that even if Baturina and Sucic pan out, it won’t be enough to even qualify for tournaments?
That’s a bit too much.
Big time. But that’s because people have never seen Baturina or Susic play.. especially Susic.
Id bet $1000 that 80% of people here haven’t seen more than 90min of Susic play.
Dalic is still around –
and he is just wasting our talent ‘
seriously he will put –> Vida vs Latvia
he will not dare to take Brozovic out !!
Super Latvia will beat this team for 1 – 0
https://www.instagram.com/p/CzTbX7VI6Yd/?igshid=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==
Baturina has been called up.
Hopefully he gets to play, rather than just making the numbers on the bench.
He probably gets in for final 20 minutes. You cant start him unless you bench Modric or Kovacic. He doesn’t play the wing.
He deserves to be called up. No reason for him to be with the U21s.
If Kovačić continues to stink it up, then Baturina might see some minutes (since Dalić seems to think Majer is a winger, and Sučić is probably still getting back to full form).
I feel like from sucic is more winger possibility then majer
What say you guys?
Look we all want kova to be something he isn’t
Both baturina and sucic are young and hungry and are looking to make their mark. Kova has to step up Nothing like young competition to fire him up. Or he doesn’t and the kids take his spot
Kovačić doesn’t like to push forward so he’s probably best suited to be the one that sits back while the other central mids push forward.
Sučić, Majer and Baturina all look more offensively capable and willing…so if we ever want to give Luka or Broz a rest, then we should.
Sucic can play the wing, but he isn’t really a winger. But he is more of a winger than Pasalic (who best role in central and behind the forward) or probably Majer or anyone else that has played that spot in the last year.
I still dont see Dalic benching a long time starter. Broz playing in the arab world eliminates himself, but Dalic wont bench him.
who was dropped from the callup list?
Looks like Petković?
Dalic will play this shit formation…
……………………Petkovic…………………..
Ivanusec ………………………….. Pasalic
…………….Modric…….Kovacic………….
Bor Sosa………Brozovic…….Juranovic
…………….D Vida…….Gvardiol………….
…………………..Livakovic………………….
then will be defeated by Suuper Latvia
Lovren is shit, have you not heard Lovren is coming out of international retirement and will be playing against Latvia.
Is Marin Ljubicic Injured? Wasn’t in the lineup for Last today
Yeah it looked like he had come off injured from the previous game when he scored 2 goals, I’m going off by the sofascore fixture where it recorded he got injured.
The most amazing thing is sucic may be better now after injury
Hope his health stays strong
Kid is showing himself more and more
Good to hear.
Baturina and Sucic’s development will help to decide whether or not we can sustain a top-15 ranking in the World during the transition from Modric, and continue to be a team that advances to the knockout rounds in every tournament (like we have been doing these past four tournaments).
Anything can happen, as it’s way too early to assess these teenage kids that are looking good for us. For all we know, we will have some elite prospects come through for us in the next 2-3 years…but in regards to those who have already hit the age of 20, these two are our biggest central midfield prospects.
If they pan out to something above average and if the D can become solid as we expect
Sooner or later we will get someone who can score alright
And we should stay competitive enough
There are hungry Croatian kids
They will come
We are going to need more players than just Buturina and Sucic to be successful when Modric retires. What do I mean by successful ? qualifying for World Cups and EURO’s, forget about advancing to knock out stages. I thought, like most people on here that we were a certainty of qualifying for EURO 2024 ? however that is in doubt now and we will most likely need to qualify through play offs in March?
I was always worried about us qualifying for the 2026 WC with Modric retiring. Modric to us is what Messi is to Argentina and he will be impossible to replace. We need to be among top 12 ranked European teams to be seeded for the WC qualifiers. Only the group winners are guaranteed a spot at the WC. Our ranking is on the slide and if we do not qualify for the EURO and perform badly in next year’s NL our ranking will dip even further making the task of qualifying for the 2026 WC very difficult.
We still have Broz and Kova for 2026. We also have depth with guys like Ivanusec and Majer, in addition to Baturina and Sucic. These are all creative and technically gifted central midfield players. Plus you never know who will take a step in the next year.
It’s more about chemistry, depth, and form, than it is about talent.
Look at Denmark’s team in the WC2018 and Euro2020. Their team was mostly filled with solid but not elite players, and they went almost two years without a loss. They also should have been in that Euro 2020 Final. They did well at Nations League too.
We have the talent and depth, and this recent hiccup is moreso about our depth and form being an issue. We just need to hope that we have good form and good chemistry (the coach manages this last one).
The depth and talent will always be there to at least be a knockout round caliber team.
Sosa came in at the 83’ today with Ajax up 2-1. Sutalo played the full game in a 4-1 win
I think these examples of possibly nationalized foreign youth is yet another proof that there is nothing special about Croatians genetically that has lead to their soccer success. To think otherwise is racist. Instead it is the soccer culture and soccer institutions that have driven it…mainly dinamo
Whenever we take foreign talents and put them in this Croatian system they end up becoming excellent and better than the Croatian players
The key examples being dani olmo who became the best youth in croatia and eduardo who was on pace to become croatias best goal scorer ever
Our best ever players all born and raised in hrvatska with the exception of rakitic
That’s only two players out of hundreds of foreign players that have gone through Dinamo’s youth ranks (and Olmo was already a well developed player at Barcelona before he came over at age 16).
Eduardo is the only foreign player (who is National Team caliber) to truly be developed at Dinamo.
If anything, you’re proving that there is something special genetically about Croats.
https://www.goalstube.online/2023/11/wolfsburg-werder.html?m=m4
Lovely little assist from Majer. A very difficult redirection from behind.
Watching Baturina and Sucic gives me great hope for the future of our midfield
So good
I guess they are on top of it (TBD if they can pull off Pusktas too – especially as we don’t have any other super-star type talent emerging at that age/position i.e. none good enough to break-thru to start for us yet)
https://twitter.com/TheCroatianLad/status/1720178326352851004
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The talented 14 year-old Brazilian Rafael Gomes Cirino known as Belinho has attracted attention in Croatian media several times as a kid who could become a football ace, so the HNS has initiated the process for him to obtain Croatian citizenship and play for Croatia’s national team.
However, he is not the only one. The same goes for the Greek Iason Nempis, who, like Belinho, plays for Dinamo. The difference is that HNS has not yet submitted a request to the state authorities for Nempis to acquire citizenship.
Sretan Ćuk: “I initiated that Belinho and Nempis get Croatian citizenship and play for our national team. Both of them want that. These are boys who live in Zagreb with their parents, train in Dinamo, and speak Croatian excellently.” 🚨
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Kramaric came on in the 78 minute in 3 – 2 home loss to Bayer Leverkusen.
In the same match Josip Stanisic came on at the start of second half to replace an injured player for Bayer and had a good match at right back.
With Juranovic and Sosa injured I guess it will be Stanisic at RB and Gvardiol at LB with Sutalo and Erlic as the two CB unless Dalic goes again for Vida. Petkovic and Kramaric will not be fully match fit and I cannot see them starting against Latvia and Armenia.
The new coach doesn’t seem very big on Beljo… since taking over the reins, Augsburg has achieved 2 wins and a draw. Can only hope he’ll give Beljo more chances once Augsburg starts to hit a rough patch.
Good sign. Ivanušec started and still in at the 34th min
Musa super efficient and scores again. We have strikers- our system/coach don’t get the best out of them.
VAR ruined it but still the point stands
Just watched the man city game. My god what the hell is Kova doing? He was sooooo useless all game. All he does is pass back to defender to lateral to another MF. Honestly don’t know what he is thinking, zero hustle or heart. Not creative. Frustrating to watch wow.
Pretty poor showing, but coach must like it since he wasn’t subbed.
It’s Pep Guardiola… He does that with players
Sucic with an assist already, while wearing the captain’s armband. This is very good news.
Another full 90 min for Sucic, and highest rated player according to sofascore (9.0) and fotmob (9.3). Notable stats include succeeding in 10 out of 12 dribble attempts, and a clearance off the line. Way to go Luka, you’re gonna score next.
Gvardiol not starting….explain? Is he hurt
City have champions league this Tuesday and were facing a Bournemouth side fighting to avoid relegation
made sense to sit him, esp given the score
Some of you must have started watching soccer yesterday. Explain what?
Budimir with TWO. 😏
Budimir with a brace against Girona
https://www.goalstube.online/2023/11/osasuna-girona.html?m=m4
Very nice goals. I’ve always liked Budimir. I feel like he’s never really been given a consistent opportunity. Maybe he will this time.
Looks like he’s in form after all.
If Petković isn’t ready then Budimir is starting.
Based on form you gotta start Budimir over Petkovic. I never thought he a got a really fair shake. At the very least he will press and has a good work rate unlike what we’ve seen so far with Musa. Does Dalic dare sit Kova given his lousy play as of late?
Great to see Sucic coming back and playing well.
I don’t remember a time that we’ve had so many injuries and players out of form/not playing regularity.
Kova’s gonna warm the bench for 80 something minutes then come on for a few. Just as he did at Real.
Kovacic the Blacksmith, is making shoes for everyone else. Thought the move to Manchester was going to be the crowning finishing experience, to send him over the top.