I’ll just leave this video right here. There’s not much more to say. Nikola Vlašić is the real deal and he’s only 22 years old. Vlačić scored a scorcher of a goal from outside the box earlier today against Dejan Lovren and Russian champions Zenit St. Petersburg. CSKA Moscow would lose 2-1.
Everton sold Vlašić to Zenit for only £14 million. Boneheads!
Just wait until he starts scoring goals like these in a Croatian jersey. Just wait.
Nikola is on fire
What a player
What award was Vlašić accepting at the beginning of the video?
Vlasic scores again today.
https://youtu.be/lm29IjfU-Hw
@Maminjo-
I do watch the games. I said Brekalo plays well for us. I was one of the few who even liked the idea of him playing RB in Vrsaljko’s absence. I think that experiment would have worked wonders for him ala what Canada did for Alphonso Davies (unfortunately we were struggling to qualify, so the experiment had to end prematurely.)
I take Brekalo over Halilovic right now, but I’d take Halilovic over both Caktas and Krovinovic, right now.
In the end, I think all this early disappointment will ultimately help Halilovic. He WILL eventually find a team that can utilize his talents, and he will look great.
Again, Halil and Brekalo are not my brand, Perisic and Rebic…yes please.
@Anon-
That whole Everton spell was strange. Even when they played Vlasic out of position, he always looked to me as their best player. Enough so, that I wanted him on our WC 18 roster.
agreed, what a goal. He’s legit on fire right now. Very consistent.
Another wonderful goal by Vlašić today Everton was crazy for letting him go.
I love this healthy debate.
Košarku was my sport as a player so I do not have direct experience of what it is to be a nogometaš.
But I know there is symbiotic nature to team sport.
Full disclosure I think Brekalo is the gods and believe Halilovic as real talent.
BZ makes a good point that any decent RW coming on in the second half would look good in our squad.
The same way that Brekalo looks limited at VW.
I am just glad we actually have decent players to even have a discussion.
For years we had zero wing depth.
On a different note how consistent is Brozovic?
Dude doesn’t always play great but rarely plays bad.
His range passing is money.
Curious who will figure into the team in two weeks?
Who will be available?
Brekalo up for a breakthrough?
Watch the games, and stop using general stats.
You throw out Brekalo’s 0 goals thing, but he singlehandedly won us the Nations League game against Spain.
He also was the catalyst that turned around the game in England which led to Krama’s goal. He was also great in his start against Wales (I believe he assisted Vlasic’s goal in that game as well).
This is an astronomical impact, considering he played only a handful of minutes for our national team (in various positions, with zero consistency). I believe his total minutes doesn’t even amount to five games, with I believe only one start… which was that critical Wales game…(where he made an immediate impact).
Very, very impressive for such a young kid to walk into the senior team and show everyone how it’s done every time he’s subbed into a game.
He was also a monster for our junior teams, at every level.
He is much better than Halilovic and he’s younger too.
His inconsistency at club level is the reason for the decision not to give him more minute at NT level. That’s all. The moment he gets out of Wolfsburg, we’ll be talking about how we can integrate him more into our National Team. Meanwhile, Halilovic (at best) may get a standby callup.
Brekalo is already our third winger right now (behind Perisic and Rebic).
Whereas I don’t think you can call up Halilovic ahead of guys like Mijo Caktas or even Filip Krovinovic yet.
@Maminjo-
You keep talking like Brekalo has been a world beater for us on the NT. The fact is, he hasn’t done much.
0 goals
2 assists
11 appearances
Yes, Brekalo looks good when playing on the NT.
Yes, Halilovic with same amount of space might look better (Halilovic has better shooting ability.)
No, I would not recommend either start. Not my brand of Croatian soccer. I am simply making the argument in support of Soul Champ’s “hope for Halilovic” movement.
No, I am not spinning any statistics regarding Brekalo at Wolfsburg. They are what they are (not so good.) He IS better than his stats reflect, but he has a long way to go before he gets my full endorsement.
Yes, he will likely produce as a sub in the nations league. I will be celebrating with you when he does. I am just not sure how much better than Halilovic he is.
@”Pero”, discrimination IS freedom. Croatia having borders, Croatia being for Croatians IS discrimination.
All those third worlders literally risk their lives to get into white countries, to “suffer injustice and discrimination” right?
“Diversity” means chasing down the last white person. White genocide is not a theoretical debate, it is a CRIMINAL charge.
All lives matter is somehow taken as a racist comment “deflecting!” From the REAL CAUSE??
Crazy how Asian lives or East Indian ,Bangladeshi etc etc don’t matter …only our BROTHUS!
God knows it’s only the blacks who experience injustice and discrimination!
A black player on the Dallas MLS team said the Dallas fans booing him and his teammates kneeling during the U.S. national anthem was “disgusting”. He was shocked to find out that EVERYONE doesn’t agree with what EVERYONE is FORCED to say publicly. There’s MILLIONS of us.
And notice how white antiWhite traitors such as Gregg Popovich and Mike Krzyzewski and the rest of the BLM crowd keep saying “it’s not political, it’s human rights”? Those of us who aren’t morons and are honest can clearly see this is clearly an attempt to block any disagreement; but then they say “we must continue the dialog” – they’re lying fucking rats.
It’s not that those of us who are telling the truth CAN be more violent than the dishonest hordes, we have no choice but to be MORE violent then they are. This is a WAR between the truth and bullshit, not between “who’s nice and who’s mean”.
@Ante Kvartuc, you made an erroneous comment in a previous article that no one corrected, you said: “He was the better fighter on the night even though a unanimous decision was a bit generous, in my opinion.”
If you thought he won he the fight, why do you think each of the 3 judges thinking the same thing is “generous”?
And the judges don’t even judge the totality of the fight, they only judge each round. So 2 out of the 3 judges gave Miocic 4 out of the 5 rounds and one judge gave Miocic 3 out of 5 rounds. There was nothing “generous” about it.
Sarri chose this fat scrub over Mandžukić ?!
https://www.juvefc.com/higuain-contract-will-be-terminated/
https://sempreinter.com/2020/08/22/italian-media-report-inter-antonio-conte-have-reached-the-end-max-allegri-ready-to-step-in/
Croatia has this wonderful mix of team movement, intelligent creators.
When you add more and more attack 1v1 players then you become unstoppable.
Both Brekalo and Halilovic benefit from the space all the other players create for them.
This is the opposite on their club teams.
Halilovic struggled to understand team movements on the field but what I saw in La Liga was a mature player that knew when to release the ball to open teammates. And him doing this with a lot of other scrubs.
Halilovic needs this club year to play consistently and solidify his game.
For us he can play out on that right wing.
You can’t have enough wingers as it is an area where you want fresh legs pressing the opposition both with and off the ball.
We have seen too many nogometaši get into together at 24 to write him off.
@ Inter
Hire Allegri.
Sign Mandžukić
Bring back Perišić.
Buy Vlašić.
Win the scudetto!
@BZ
… Because no matter how much filtering or twisting of stats you can do to fit a narrative, ultimately the only thing that matters is how they play for their country.
Brekalo is very impactful when he plays for the National Team.
Brekalo’s worst game for us, is better than Halilović’s best.
That’s it. That’s what matters.
Let me take a guess at what the video is without watching it: Blacks once had great civilizations before an evil magic spell made them 3rd world and forget their history. And now they are learning this lost history from white mommy professor on the white invented internet. Am I right?
Or, blacks had great civilizations before dumb white barbarians somehow completely erased it, by some magic trick dumb white barbarians became first world and blacks went from first world to third world. Right moron?
https://wethoughttheywerewhite.tumblr.com/
Learn stupid white man.
A few days ago was a great day in Black History, the White man hired a Black man for a job the Black man had never had before: “the first Black……”
If that reality isn’t fucked up enough, not one black person seems to realize that this is nothing to be proud of.
Imagine if your entire race’s entire history is based on how another race handled your race? Here’s where my empathy ends: I simply cannot comprehend reminding everyone of this “history” every February.
Zubac and the clippers are looking good at the moment against the hog doncic
Man could you imagine if Halilovic gets it going?
Playing on that right wing cutting inside and Vrsaljko over lapping deep down the right flank.
I love all the dribblers we have with Vlašić, Brekalo, Kovačić and maybe Halilovic.
With our vertical wings creating the width defenders will be scrambling.
Then we have our creative Modrić pulling the strings.
Brozovic underrated as a long range passer as well.
I would like to see some big athletic CB’s along with a dominant GK.
No reason we should struggle on set pieces going forward.
Lovren and Vida are athletic but slightly on the small side.
You can have one of them along side a larger player.
The truth
I am praying for it
Bring back the Mandzo
50/50 shot mandzukic Plays in the next tournament for Croatia
I think the expectations were bigger on Alen due to his move to Barca which in hindsight was a bad move
I think both players are quality and will work out fine but our depth is soooo good at the moment is that it won’t be the end of the world if one of them don’t work out
You could say surplus to requirements
Interesting thoughts Soul Champ. Argument could be made that Halilovic was better in La Liga 2/3 years ago than Brekalo in Bundesliga in the past 2 years. Take away Brekalos games against bottom dwellers and you have worse numbers than Halilovic’s La Liga numbers.
Yet everybody hates Halilovic and loves Brekalo.
Allegri to Inter
Mandžukić back in effect!
Intercroazianale
Inter is a joke they can suck cock
What happened to Inter today had to work?
I guess Conte didn’t need Perišić … NOT!
Perišić CL winner this Sunday.
Halilovic and Pjaca have a LONG way to go before either of them can even get a callup (let alone become a key player for our squad).
Pjaca has done nothing since his injury 3 years ago, and actually started a near full season for Fiorentina (doing very little). Not being picked up by Anderlecht is pretty bad. I have very little faith in him returning to what he was.
Halilovic seems to be in a better place (mostly because he never got a devastating injury) but he’s really been just bouncing around in okay leagues, and struggling to start games. That’s not Croatia NT caliber.
If players like Krovinovic and Caktas (who are starting and playing major roles for their clubs) are not getting callups, then neither will Halilovic or Pjaca.
Never give up on the halilovic however I have given up on pjaca though
Halilovic would be behind Perisic, Rebic, Brekalo, and probably Orsic…and we have some guys who technically could play out of position a bit (and be moved to the wing) like Vlasic or Kramaric. Although I’m not of fan of putting these guys out of position, I’d rather have them there than Halilovic.
We also have some guys like Mijo Caktas and maybe Krovinovic, who are better and probably ahead of him in the ‘next to call up’ order. Plus, there are probably some U21 players that make strides over the next couple years.
It’s tough for him. Unless he completely explodes at Benfica…I don’t see Halilovic ever playing meaningful minutes for us in the near future.
https://sempremilan.com/gds-milan-could-use-halilovic-as-part-of-bid-to-land-e30m-midfield-target-from-benfica
Halilovic has to have the best week of his career starting this Monday.
I still have not given up on him.
I like what I saw at his brief spell with the yellow submarine.
If he can somehow be kept at Milan he will stabilize his career with this project.
Benfica would be good as well.
At 24 he is now at his physical maturation.
His dribble attack has always been there.
He needs to compete for his team.
Yet another nogometaš claimed off the scrap heap?
All Croatians Milan?
When does Boban return to claim the credit for drop kicking Ragnick?
Top croatia coaches in order goes …
Dalic
Ciro
Bilic
Bilic could be higher up as euro 2008 was ours to lose – bad luck once again on our side, equalizer at the death – did the Italian ref play more then extra time and not blow whistle when should have ? / rakitic shoulda went to the corner instead of dumping it. Bilic knew how to position /keep consistency with lineup – Eduardo Epl injury surely cost us as he was such a threat/ on fire that year ! When comparing that team – 08 to 18 we have way more quality now and depth but back in 08 we were stronger then most/all euro teams as most/all had inferior starting 11 then us – couldn’t finish in Turkey game- quality striker ala dudu missing (took a post op surgery klasnic to bag one at death ) the rest is history
Would u guys rather win a euro or be a world
Cup finalist is my question – even tho old euro 16 t team tourney was perfect with quality not watered down like world cups and champions league of today I’d personally rather wore
Cup finalist as the exposure is much more immense
Turns out that Bilić tried to get Grbić on West Brom, and everything was agreed to (with Grbić wanting to go there) but then Atlético offered more money to Lokomotiva.
Shame. I would rather had him playing under Bilić where he could start in the EPL (rather than be a backup at Madrid).
I know why we get these refs/there calls but it makes the beautiful game not so beautiful if your a sports person as the reffing is a joke in many ways- var is pick and choose depending on the team progressing – uefa and FIFA are jealous of our talent and don’t wanna see us (labeled as hooligans…by a few fans) win a major tournament as such a small country (money in the big teams)- France, Germany, Spain, England, Italy always getting the calls –
Regarding18 semi final – after watching many times seems that ref – Turkish ref – actually was on our side for once lol minus the missed penalty for taking down Lovren shoulda last play of 1st half. Many calls went our way tho – 1 on 1 boot to boot Vida tackle in the box (our luck it’s called all day long) a few throw ins that shoulda been corner kicks for the English (god knows set pieces were out Achilles)- perisic goal was one of best of World Cup but if ref wanted to be prick he coulda said high boot (I don’t think so as Ivan evaded the defenders and found open space where there was none) but coulda went against us as worse calls have. A few Rebic tackles like bull In China shop also but is what it is – if that Turk ref final I guarantee score would be different – actually quality ref all way around even tho he missed some calls on our side – bottom line – why we always get these misfits reffing our games like that jap who called the Fred flop penalty 14 and that dumb pinata Argentinian with 2 brutal calls that he didn’t VAR properly led to goals – crying over spilt milk but it’s the flaw of the greatest game that makes it a joke in some ways – as a diaspora Croat from Canada – hockey would never let that shit slide with refs! Prolly the only true ref sport there is as most other major sports have corrupt refs
https://www.egypttoday.com/Article/8/90995/I-hit-Ramos-for-what-he-did-with-Salah-Lovren
We all know Lovren destroyed Ramos. Ramos is a prick for dirty hits on Mandzukic too.
Maybe Šemper or that Horkaš kid.
Who knows.
We don’t develop keepers in Cro. Nobody wants to play the position.
We need someone to take the mantle at keeper and hold it for the next decade or more…a Buffon lite would be nice…a guy to slot in consistently and not bounce from one to another to another,after a shaky start.
We seem to have an abundance of young keeper prospects ,let’s hope if it’s not Livaković it’s somebody else who shines and prospers long term.
Why is it we never seem to have stud keepers like midfielders or forwards?
Atlético also sent a young Brazilian goalkeeper to Lokomotiva as part of the deal.
Train with Atletico.
Learn from Oblak.
Hang with Vrsaljko.
Live in Madrid.
ZDS
Grbic to Atletico?
Damn. Who would have called that? LOL.
He’s obviously just going to play backup, but maybe they see something in him.
They will probably eventually sell Jan Oblak for the crazy money that’s being thrown around. Maybe they plan to try and groom Grbic as a replacement. They paid about 3.5 million euro, which isn’t nothing. Atletico is pretty shrewd like that. You never know.
Can’t get a start on Hajduk, goes to Lokomotiva, and gets sold to Atletico a year later for a few million, lol.
Petkovic? I don’t recall him contributing anything.
Do u think he even wants to come back??
I’m sure he is still hungry
Any cro players retire and come back before?
Not talking Rakitić saying he will
Question?
Let’s say MANdzukic gets to a new club in Europe and begins to start to feast in front of goal like when he was at Bayern.
You don’t call him up next summer?
With this team all he would do is play his 60 minutes and attack the box.
It’s like Germany leaving off Klose.
Ask Sweden if they should called up Zlatan.
Who brings big game goals like Super Mario?
Vlašić would make him even more effective.
Mandžukić goes on a goal binge then he needs to come to Euro 2021.
He plays 60 or 30 minutes.
Let Petković apprentice.
Kramaric he slotted in at the 9 or 10.
Ya Mandzukic is hard to replace his chip on shoulder attitude
We have tougher guys now who will not be intimidated
Why can we win
Croats are fighters even when we aren’t that spirit is in us
Who u going to mark
Perišić Rebić Vlasic Petkovic
All strong physically and of course gifted to to score
Have we ever had a more dangerous forward lineup potentially?!
98 I don’t even know
Europe is so lucky we didn’t have euros
If luka is luka for another two years
We win something
Vlašić IS a playmaker.
As he creates space for other playmakers.
We have enough creative midfielders.
In the middle he creates havoc on the defense.
And then our super stud wingers are coming.
Grbic Signed with Athletico Madrid, maybe he has a future.
https://slobodnadalmacija.hr/sport/domaci-nogomet/sada-je-i-sluzbeno-ivo-grbic-potpisao-je-za-madridski-atletico-u-lokomotivu-stize-dosadasnji-treci-vratar-simeoneove-momcadi-1039430
@Maminjo
I just don’t see Vlasic as a play maker which would be required for the CAM role but I could be wrong. I’d rather see him dribble at people and cut in from the wing. Due to passing and dribbling abilities, I’m not sold on Rebic starting for now.
I’d much prefer to start a 26 yo Kovacic instead of Raktic and allow Modric to roam.
Pretty crazy how much depth the Repka has now.
@Andrej
We’ve been starting all of Petkovic, Perisic, Rebic and Vlasic foursome the last few qualifiers (with the exception being Brekalo starting over Rebic in that Wales game).
These guys have scored 6 of our last 7 goals.
The person replaced would be Rakitic (and Brozovic/Modric would be the two midfielders playing deep).
This is why we can’t mess around with these Nations League games.
We truly need to see if this winger/striker/CAM foursome of Perisic, Rebic, Petkovic and Vlasic is our best forward lineup.
Sitting Rakitic and Kramaric (two elite players in what they do) is a very tough decision that could bite us in the tournament. We need to use all six Nations League games to test the various forward and midfield combinations to confirm what we have.
I think we all agree that Vlasic needs to start but who do you replace and where do you play him. With Petkovic coming back to collect the ball; if the CB follows, it allows for runs in behind the defence for guys like Rebic and Perisic. I think this could easily be a Vlasic, Petkovic, Perisic front 3. Love Rebic as a sub for now. While Rebic’s scoring ability is on the same level as those 3, I think his dribbling and passing skills are below those 3. Rebic’s energy as a sub is how I think he would fit into our squad and allow Vlasic to start up top.
I still think we have to leave the Modric, Brozovic, and Rakitic midfield intact until they prove otherwise. Kova is the first one up to replace any of those 3.
Just watched the Vlasic highlight, and watched some others as it’s been awhile since I’ve seen him play.
Geez, he’s better than I remember, and I remember him being incredible.
Euros can’t come soon enough.
No injuries please.
When the four horsemen (Rebic-Petko-Vlasic-Perisic) start running at backlines, opposing fans gonna shit their pants.
Penaldo, we know Mario retired, it is a theoretical conversation regarding how to best complement Vlasic the impaler.
Petkovic and Kramaric coming back to the ball to receive it, overlaps with Vlasic’s skill set. A Mandzukic type would open space for Vlasic, in my opinion.
Regardless, the Petkovic-Vlasic-Rebic-Perisic combination has produced some undeniable results vs mediocre teams. Can’t wait to see it vs top teams.
Amazing dribbling, speed and power.
BTW, you do know Mario retired from the national team, right? Why do you guys keep talking about him in the NT. Man U need to sign him. Imagine him at AC with Ibra and Rebic up front in 4 3 3.
Rangnick is an idiot. He said if he joined AC he would have got rid of Ibra. Just another Sarri-like idiotic move. Boban got fired for this douchebag. Watch AC dominate next season WITH Ibra.
@ BZ
I have lost track on how many pive I owe you!
Vlašić allows Mandžukić to come back next summer!!
I meant to convey who complements Vlašić.
Mandžukić compliments Vlašić the best in our limited striker pool.
If we had 4 to 5 big #9’s then I’d agree with some that Mandzukic is surplus to requirements.
But we don’t.
Petković at the highest level?
Kramaric is finisher but he is slight.
Mandžukić
Vlašić
Perišić
Rebić
ZDS
Soul Champ- I think we all give compliments to Vlasic. I say he is by far and away our best young player. Leaps and bounds ahead of Brekalo.
The better question would be who complements Vlasic?
The answer would be Mandzukic. Watching defenders follow Mandzukic while Rebic and Perisic beat their defenders on the flank. whilst forgetting about Vlasic waiting at the 18 would be sublime.
Petkovic complements Vlasic better than Kramaric.
Lol, someone send this to the Everton fan page
Vlašić is the explosive #10 we have been praying for.
Haven’t had someone like him since Boban and Prosinečki.
Dalić needs to build the attack around him.
Vlašić can’t wait for Portugal and France.
I am curious to see his next step.
He needs to choose based on playing time and system that suits him.
He quickly rectified the Everton fiasco with CSKA.
There are so many clubs that need a legit #10.
Petković benefits big time with the Vlašić ascension.
I ask who compliments Vlašić?