Luka Modrić is now the king of Real Madrid! Modrić has now surpassed the legendary Ferenc Puskas as the oldest player in history to dawn the Real Madrid shirt at 39 years. 40 days. Modrić assisted Vini with an exquisite pass just 3 minutes after coming on Saturday night in the 63rd minute. We’ve said it a million times. Fine wine!
Modrić received a 8/10 grade from Goal.com as he “Came on and teed up Vinicius for the second goal with a classy pass.” The man has become an absolute juggernaut in the twilight of his career. Absolutely unreal performances for the biggest club on planet Earth.
Joško Gvardiol has done it again! With City down 1-0 to Wolves Sunday afternoon, Gvardiol sent a perfectly placed shot from outside the box to beat the keeper top-corner. It would equalize the match before City scored the winner at the death to win 2-1.This isn’t the first time Gvardiol has scored like this. He is getting more and more comfortable shooting the ball from range and it is showing. Gvardiol now has two goals in eight Premier League matches this season. Not bad fro a defender. Mateo Kovačić returned to the pitch after missing the international break; as he and his wife had their second baby. Kova got the start and played 85 minutes.
Gvardiol was given 8.6/10 MOTM honors from Yahoo as “The goal came down his side but he stepped up to level the game with a fantastic effort, and made plenty of excellent defensive contributions. Kovačić had more of a an average game, receiving a 6/10 grade: “Still (understandably) doesn’t seem to give the team the same control as the world-class Rodri, although he improved as the game went on.”
Andrej Kramarić scored his 5th Bundesliga goal of the season Saturday in a 3-1 Hoffenheim win over Bochum. He was voted MOTM with a 8.8 FOTMOB rating in his 90 minutes of play. Krama now has five goals and one assist in six Bundesliga matches this campaign.
Luka Sučić played the full 90 minutes Saturday and received a 7.8 FOTMOB ratings in a 1-0 Real Socieded victory over Girona.
Anonymous has Dalic out
He must be a fan of Alf Ramsey – you know – the coach who won England the WC in 66
Ramsey – previously at Ipswich – used “bold” and “innovative” tactics at the time – but not playing traditional wingers – but rather flooding the midfield centrally w/ CAM / #10s
His team’s were know as the “Wingless Wonders”
At least we know were he got it from
***.si.com/soccer/2019/06/17/sir-alf-ramsey-man-behind-wingless-wonders-englands-sole-world-cup-triumph
stratmangaming.wordpress.com/2019/11/22/tactics-through-time-england-1966/
Crnac Norwich start 20 min gone
Tunic watford bench
Crnac Norwich start 20 min gone
Tunic bench watford
Bartol Franjic on bench
So far he’s only played 2 90s and 27
As a sub
Wolfsburg let him down loaning him to a club where he’d get playing time ie should have gone to a lower ranked team and/or league
Anyone else catch comments from Ivanusec manager saying he’s not playing bc he doesn’t run enough and is too slow ?
Anonymous recognize many folks don’t like when they bring up running / speed – but we should be realistic that players that are at BEST average in all other elements of their game (like ivanusec) we should be excluding them from consideration if they don’t / can’t run and/ are slow
Running ability / speed matters – even Baturina (who has potential to be elite in some elements of the game) has started running / sprinting more since Anonymous pointed out this is lacking previously – so if Baturina can take feedback and improve upon – than players like ivanusec need to transform themselves into running demons asap
I caught that. Ivanisiv is slow to begin with. Now injury .
No good
If he’s slow why did they sign him? Before his injury he was starting most games and playing well. He should find a new team ASAP.
Dalic did him no favours as well by giving him 0 minutes.
Orsic & Ivanusec back ti Dinamo.
Telling that Arne Slot didn’t bring him to Liverpool with him after working with him – when he was in the market for a player in his position – instead he went with Chiesa for gbp 10 m
Perisic can’t even make bench PSV (while dalic 90 min every game) lol
King Luka start
Moro bench
Lovro and Grgic bench
Yeah Anon.
Perisic must go. No more fooling around. It was time a while ago.
He’s just wasting our time at this point
Perisic is ineligible for Champions League. PSV submitted their squad list in Sept before he signed. Perhaps they can add him in the winter?
Rafa
You’re right
Would be available for knock out round (psv currently 27th – cut off at 24th)
https://eindhovennews.com/news/2024/09/psv-signs-ivan-perisic-for-one-year/
Every time I say Gvardiol needs to stay back on defense on the national team, he hits a cracker for man city, too funny. We just need him to have a twin brother is what we really need I guess.
We have 8 striker prospects around the same age (Ljubicic, Beljo, Simic, Frigan, Matanovic, Ivanovic, Crnac and Matkovic).
Just need one to pan out.
To remember them, I guess we can use an acronym. Maybe use the name a Croatian DJ would use like “MC BS MILF”.
Nailed it.
Spot on
We also have Sandro Kulenović (who is older than this group at age 24) but looks like a late bloomer.
Has 6 goals in 6 games in HNL. Could become at least a solid depth striker for us.
On Sunday, Atalanta won 2-0 at basement club Venezia. Mario Pasalic opened the scoring, marking his first goal this season.
youtube.com/watch?v=ofNJEwnD750
(Highlights begin with Pasalic’s goal)
On a separate note, I realize Beljo has been in good form for club and country. Scored and assisted in the U21’s crucial win over Greece. Then scored for Rapid Vienna over the weekend; he’s currently the league’s joint 4th topscorer and his club is 2nd in the standings, just 1 point behind Sturm Graz.
He misses a lot of scoring chances though. His usage is high and his conversion rate isn’t as high as it should be.
He’s still a decent prospect for us though.
Marin Ljubicic is probably having a better season offensively.
Beljo has 5 goals and Ljubicic has 4 goals…but Ljubicic takes less than half of the shots that Beljo does and puts away his goals at a decent 22% (to Beljo’s 13%).
Beljo, however, is the bigger player and seems to have better technical skill and (likely) defense.
Interesting update on Beljo. Thanks Bartolec.
Frigan has also played well this year at Westerlo. If I am not mistaken, we have Ljubicic, Beljo, Simic, Frigan, and Matanovic (and probably some others I am missing) all in that exact same age group as striker prospects. The more prospects, the more likely we develop a top striker…I think Simic’s stock might have fallen a bit in the past year but perhaps he will come alive in Belgium.
Maybe one or two of them will develop into a dangerous striker?
With Modric, Kovacic and Majer, already available and now Sucic, Sucic, and Baturina coming on very well with the recent midfield youth movement, and possibly Zvonarek coming into the midfield lineup right behind them, the midfield looks solid moving forward.
Giving Sutalo the benefit of the doubt—he has played so much better for Ajax this year—and assuming Stanisic comes back strong from his injury, with Gvardiol and in due course Vuskovic rounding out the back four, we have the makings, as someone said a week or two back, of what could be one of the best or perhaps even THE best defence in the world.
What about the young strikers? We need goals…
Maminjo has weighed in on Ljubicic v Beljo. I guess Matanovic has the inside track right now, and looks to be the best prospect of the five. Any of you nogomet gurus want to go a step further and rank the other four (or all five) in terms of current ability and/or potential? Or is there another name lurking out there as a potential striker that we should keep an eye on?
Instead of Šimić, you have to put Franjo Ivanović. He seems to be playing very well.
Yea we also have Ante Crnac and Anton Matkovic too.
https://www.theguardian.com/football/2024/oct/21/luka-modric-real-madrid-la-liga
Still got it !!
Great write-up that only a legend deserves.
Remember the days .. like 8 years ago .. we were debating the end of the Modrić era.
Whether or not he could continue for 2022 World Cup?
Now he is working on his 5th generation cycle, 20 years in and counting!!
Real Madrid can’t even replace him.
We finally see the young talent coming through. Kovačić stepping up to support this transition.
Pockets of quality popping up all over the pitch.
His power and quickness have remained.
His intelligence keeps on expanding and his technique is always world class.
The more our squad can progress and take the load off of him the longer he can continue to express his magic.
Yes sir
Let the kids work hard around him
Not that luka will not want to run but it’s a way for him to stay out there longer and be more like messi where he just walks around and picks his spots
Again not sure if that’s in luka but he has the legs around him
How do we really line up the midfield
It confuses me
Ante always said kova and luka can’t play together
Kova as DM? Petar as DM?
It does look like Petar and a baturina have that Dinamo connection
It’s like I always said with orsic and petko together. It was like 2.5 subs or 3 for 2
We don’t have a ton of that club chemistry
Like Spain in the 2010s
Hey man, I always said that he was going until 2026.
The problem with all this is that Dalić still builds our offence around the older players.
Perišić, Modrić, Kramarić shouldn’t be the source of all our offence and creativity.
Krama is having a great season, but it’s not like we simply cannot play him off the bench some games where we need speed or width.
Modrić is doing good at Real, but we don’t need to play him the entire 90+ minutes per game.
Perišić has barely played at club levek, but we’re still looking to him to produce. This is a big mistake.
We need to play the younger guys 90+ minutes and the vets need to support them. This way, we’ll be ready for 2026.
100% agree. I wish to God izbornik could and would listen to what you just said.
If Dalic requires 90min from Modric & Perisic to beat teams of the caliber of Scotland and Poland Croatia are not in such a great position as you are suggesting. We have enough young talent where we don’t need to have the veterans playing so many minutes.
We’re in a great position playerwise.
Not in a great position coachingwise, where it looks like every player on the team seems to be dominating their club team or league (Gvardiol, Budimir, Krama, Kova,Sučić, etc.) but can’t seem to get them to do the same for the National Team (against inferior opposition mind you).
Dalić needs to figure this out.
The Euros were an embarrassment, but he was given a longer leash out of respect for the medals in the past…but it’s beginning to look like a mistake.
Pasalic 50th goal in Serie A, Moro with an assist
Watched the first half of the Lovren v. Vida match today. Dominik Kotarski looks like a very strong keeper aside from getting nutmegged for AEK’s first goal. The guy positions himself very well and is strong in the air. Also, to the guy who said the Greek league isn’t good: it’s a great place for a keeper to come up because the style of play of the top teams is very direct. Kotarski is exposed to a lot of attempts on his goal on a weekly basis. He surely has a great career ahead of him.
Messi is winning a championship with inter Miami while the real goat is still bossing and being a leader at the best club in the world;)
While luka is just at Madrid;)
Jebes Ronaldo I Messi
There is only one LM10 for us and one true Goat herder and that’s king Luka
His God damn humility is one of my favourite aspects. Legend. I know that Messi doesn’t come off as a self-promoter like Ronaldo does, but at Inter Miami he ducks out of playing whenever he feels like being a piece of glass. Pravi LM10!
And Gvardiol hit that with his right foot…..wow.
Modric is amazing. Quality. Class. All the words have been said here. He is such a competitor. I don’t think we can overstate the importance of our young guns—Baturina, Sucic, Sucic, etc)—sharing the field with a hard-working legend like Luka. It has to make them better in the long run, it has to rub off on them. There are very few young players who ever get to line up and compete alongside a world class legend like Luka.
Well, slightly better news to report in Mainz where Vidovic has not been playing. Vidovic finally saw the field…..with his team down 2-0 to Leipzig he was subbed on late, and played less than ten minutes. I watched the game from the point he was subbed on. I thought he played well with what little time he had. In his few touches of the ball, he moved the ball quickly, delivered accurate passes, seemed skilled and fit in well with the pace of the game…..from all I saw he showed he could be a starter in the Bundesliga. Hopefully he soon gets a start and makes the most of the opportunity…
👍 <– (Thumbs-up emoji, in case it's not displayed)
We haven’t had a need for a weekly ziva istina bet on a Croat scoring outside the box in years now
Gvardiol goal
0.02x G
0.07x GOT
https://x.com/tekkersfoot/status/1847994726286327907
I still don’t get the numbers but damn gvardiol likes his golazos
Luka Modric—9: The oldest player to ever play for Real Madrid and proved why he is still a critical member of the team. The best player on the pitch after he entered the match. It was a magic pass from Modric that found Vinicius to seal the game-winner. The Croatian gave Madrid control and never stopped running and setting the tone defensively.
Over at Frankfurt, Matanovic an unused sub for the 2nd straight match… dang.
Hope he’ll get his opportunities in the midweek cup matches… versus some Latvian side called RFS in Europa League on Thu, and Gladbach in the German Cup the following Wed.
May Igor keep plugging away and wait for his time to shine.
Someday we’ll have a young CF who plays regularly in liga petica, right?
Moro top-rated player today for Bologna in 2-2 with Genoa. Tops on both Sofascore (8.2) and FotMob (8.6).
Bravo Moro, and let’s all bow down to King Luka again.
Crnac first goal Norwich
Really nice finish driving it off grass to top shelf
https://x.com/GoalsXtra/status/1847650676580474956
https://www.pinkun.com/sport/norwich-city/24654981.inside-story-ante-crnacs-rise-poland-city/
Interesting read
Seems like a good kid.
That was a great read on Crnac. Dannyj, thanks for posting it….
https://twitter.com/footballespana_/status/1847636318626730442
Luka Legend continues..
Some games Sat – pls check for accuracy / completeness:
Underway Orsic bench
Underway Moro start Bologna vs. Badelj bench
09:30 Igor Frankfurt bench
09:30 Labrovic & Jokic Ausberg start
09:30 Vidovic Mainz bench
10:00 Vuskovic & Frigan Westerlo start
10:00 Crnac Norwich start
10:15 Budimir start
11:00 Zvonarek & Leon Grgic Sturm Graz
14:45 Ivanovic Union St. Gilloise
14:45 Perisic PSV
15:00 Ivanusec Feyenoord
Igor Frankfurt on bench 09:30
Dalic’s idol Ange starts 07:30 Sat
London derby vs Jarrod Bowen’s West Ham
Hammers up 1 – 0 after 20 min.
3 goals in 8 min 2nd half 😊
Nice pass by Bowen on their goal
Craziest ref decision ever seen
82 min
Kudus kicks Mickey VDV twice on the ground
Than hand to face Mickey
Than elbow to Richardlison face
Than another hand to face PM Sarr
All within 10 seconds
Ref only gives him yellow
VAR intervenes to review
Thereafter ref changes mind and changes yellow to red
Unreal
3 game ban
https://croatiansports.com/croatia-0-poland-0-245pm-et-kickoff-nations-league-2/#comments/512564
This is so frigging true Maminjo. There’s this recent pattern of us screwing up the first half as well as that other recurring problem of conceding goals near FT or HT.
I dunno how much of this mess is on Dalic but boy, am I hoping that things will somehow stabilize by the time WC qualification kicks off next year. And Dalic had better wake up to the fact that he needs to start reducing minutes for the very old veterans in the team and stop defaulting to them every time. He needs to plan for 2026 and stop living in 2018.