Gospodine Dalić, what are you doing???
Croatia have two more UEFA Nations League matches later this month versus Denmark and Austria to close out international play in 2022 before the World Cup kicks off in November. That’s only two months away! Vida and Lovren in the squad scare the shit out of me! And how can you not call up Čolak? Hallo.
Our young defenders have been playing some great ball for both club and country the past few months. The new generation is here. Play them! If Lovren and Vida are in the squad to ride the bench in a senior role the rest of the year, I’m all for that. But if they play these UNL games that only means Dalić is seriously thinking about starting Lovren, Vida, or both of them together in Qatar. And I don’t like the idea of that one iota.
Juranović has been lights out for Celtic on the wing. The same can be said for Sosa in the Bundesliga, even though he didn’t get the transfer he was looking for next week. He will be fine. Gvardiol will be a top-10 defender in the world in the next season or two. Then there’s Erlić, DCC, Šutalo battling for the last spot central defensive spot. But they will never get their shot if Dalić keeps playing Lovren and Vida.
And what about poor Antonio Čolak? The guy has been on absolute fire for Rangers in the young season and single-handedly helped them qualify for Champions League football this season. Sure, he doesn’t play in a top-5 league, but scoring seven goals in as many matches to start the new campaign (domestic and Europe) should have earned Čolak at least a bench spot for Nations League. The Vatreni still do not have a solidified striker for the World Cup in my opinion. Kramarić has one goal in the Bundesliga this season. Petković scored a nice bicycle kick for Dinamo in CL qualifying, but Čolak has been the most consistent. Shame he is not getting the call.
I just don’t understand the logic behind it. At least give Čolak the nod ahead of Budimir who has not done anything in La Liga this year.
Wow.. The over-reaction on this site… Nations league was always a joke for us… It was used to test and look at different lineups. And you can see from the selections what he is trying to do. There are couple of things i have seen from Dalic trying… The first is finding a striker. He is still looking for a better option then Kramaric. Unfortunately, i think we will be stuck with him. Would love to see Livaja given a chance…. Been killing it for a while. The second thing is he is trying to find the perfect partner for Gradivol. That will be Erlic. He was solid and great. Sutalo looked good, but he is young and it was only 2 games. The third thing is he is testing 3 CD systems to play with 5 back. He is looking for other formations to use and move into during different times in the game. So he is trying to test these in the Nation League games. But Lovren is not the best Centerback, he is still a good option. The main problem with Lovren is that he is slow, well playing with Gradivol will allow him to be a better option. As none of these CD’s are as good as him in the air… And that is a big part of the game. Sometimes we want to push all these young guys too fast. Even Gradivol in the last tourney was weak… And cost us two goals.. Remember the water break in the Spain game…. Young kids make mistakes… Much rather have Lovren in there with Gradivol then Sutolo. But Erlic to me, would be the first choice with Gradivol.
Personally I don’t really much care for Budimir from what I saw in the last games. I would rather see Musa as we haven’t given him a shot to play I think that that is very stupid that Dalic didn’t give him a shot. Or Colak for that matter he is just way too afraid to experiment.
Colak>Budimir
0 goals compared to scoring every 104 mins (4 goals). 31 yo compared to 28 yo. We need a striker and Budimir is not that man.
Toma Basic>Vida
We need a back up CDM. Badelj served us well in that role in several tournament games. Basic plays it well at a good club. Stanisic and Barisic can both play CB positions as well. So much like everyone has already stated, no 5 CBs. Sorry no 100 games for Vida either…I understand going with proven vets but Dalic’s choices seem rough.
All four players you just mentioned are not good. So there’s that.
Where’s Rebic? I meant for his club. In Giroud’s shadow?
Oh snap!
Have never been a fan of Petkovic, definitely not a classic number 9 forward. Luckily we get a chance to see if he’s got anything today vs. Chelsea.
I’m also quite surprised Colak doesn’t get a look in nations league. I’m thinking Dalic might pull a switcheroo after today’s Champions league game depends on how Orsic or Petkovic play.
My pick for starting forwards would be Kramaric paired with either Budimir or Colak (whoever’s playing better at the time).
I do understand his choice to keep a few more veterans from Russia on the team, especially with all the young guns we have. The attitude of a team can be just as important as your skill set. A group of unmotivated and timid superstars will lose to a hungry, aggressive team all day long.
Ajmo!
Bog i Hrvati
Do we really need 6 central defenders and 4 strikers?
sloppy pass by Lovren and interception by Marocconian
let’s see this team –> suffering a loss
that idiot manager will open his eyes!
Just bring in bilic right before World Cup
He will motivate and as usual gets a hot streak from teams at the start
It’s all we need
Can we all mostly agree dalic showed serious weakness here
For sure he knows things we don’t but from the outside in…. It looks bad
We’ll see who he picks to start during the Nations League matches.
My guess is he goes with Lovren/Gvardiol one game, and Vida/Gvardiol the next game.
Not sure if Sutalo is still injured, but I think Dalic will use it as one of the reasons not to start the kid.
I think Dalic is afraid to make the decision of going forward with a Sutalo/Gvardiol partnership right now, and is hoping to do this AFTER Lovren decides to retire.
I would have preferred Erlic, Stanisic (and maybe even Duje) to start in case Sutalo was not available, but it seems like both Lovren and Vida are ahead of all of them for the CB roles.
It will also be interesting to see if Livakovic will be our starting keeper for both games.
I think he will start one of them, but it will be interesting to see if he gets both or not (and which keeper gets the more important Denmark game).
colak definitely seemed worthwhile to give a look to
i’m concerned about brekalo not being on the team. to go to the world cup without him would be a shame
he has his flaws, but he is still one of the most talented players and brings something on the wing that croatia really doesn’t have, particularly as a joker off the bench
you can’t go to the world cup with petkovic, livaja, and budimir all on the roster. that will be trimmed down by at least one.. so this seems more like a tryout period again after perhaps petkovic showed some pulse. ultimately though, that guy can’t be trusted
In regard to vlasic, i’m not ready to totally give up on him. He simply seems allergic to england, but as i’ve always said his main talent is delivering shots on goal.
It is important to remember that he was player of the year in Russia as a 20 year old and russia a better league than croatia. lets look at the other 20 year or so year olds who were player of the year in the lesser hnl. Niko kranjcar 2003, eduardo 2005 and 2006, luka modric 2007, mandzukic 2007 2008, andrej kramaric 2014, dani olmo 2018
busts. Ivan santini 2011 (age 21), sammir 2012 (age 23),
Most of those young players of the year went on to become very legit players, so there is some pedigree on vlasic’s side.
Lets not forget about a 21 year old ivan perisic being player of the year in belgium
Most positive “the truth” post in recent memory.
Good goal for Dinamo but that bicycle kick gave life to petkovic on the repka. I feel 9/10 of us are done with him for the repka
Colak I feel will get some time somewhere
He played well in Sweden last year as well
It’s not like we have anyone else really scoring
you really can’t write a player off completely. Petkovic is extremely talented but he was out of form for almost a full year. He’s recently been working harder and it shows….it wasn’t just that bicycle kick he scored, I’ve watched him in every fame this year and he’s just all around working harder.
I hope your right, because what I have seen in the past from Petkovic was not I pressive.
Pongračić and Caleta-Car screwed up big time during their opportunities earlier in the year, when Lovren was stranded in Russia. Poor matches against Bulgaria and Austria meant they didn’t secure higher rank within the team. Lovren continues to play at Russia’s best club, even being one of the team captains. He may not the best defender in the world, but Pongračić and Caleta-Car failed to prove that they were any better. However, Erlić and Sutalo did. The rank of CBs now is Gvardiol, Erlić, Sutalo, Lovren, Vida. Vida will be on the bench for sure. It’s up to Erlić and Sutalo to stay ahead of Lovren in the ranks. The logic of the defensive choices and keepers seems pretty clear. But Petković is a big surprise, and Čolak should be there instead.
Do you really think Dalić has Erlić and Šutalo ahead of Lovren in the CB pecking order?
I hope so, but I think he has Lovren second (only behind Gvardiol).
It’s hard
While erlic and sutalo show the goods they have such a tiny sample size
I fear as we all do lovren and or vida will play
As others have stated, one will probably be fine. It’s both I will not like
Maminjo you’re usually spot on with your opinion/insight but I hope to Bog you’re wrong this time. Maybe these 2 Nations League games will shine a light a little more on what he intends to do but Lovren to start the first game of the WC 22??? I cant see it
My worry always was if Lovren starts playing again.
When he was in Russia, on the bench and not playing…it still took a very long time for Dalic to stop playing him.
Now that Lovren (and Vida) are back playing again, Dalic pretty much jumps at the first opportunity to get both of them back in the lineup.
Sutalo played a half against Rijeka on Friday, so hopefully Sutalo gets back into form and the pressure for Dalic to start Sutalo next to Gvardiol piles on him.
Erlic has played every minute of Serie A football for Sassuolo this year (and obviously should be ahead of Lovren too) but something tells me that he’s not quite ahead of Lovren in the pecking order.
Sutalo is far too hyped by domestic and foreign media to ignore, so there’s risk to Dalic there if he plays Lovren or Vida over him (and they make a gaffe).
We need Sutalo to get back into form asap.
you’re absolutely right about everything you said here, Pograncic cannot be trusted on the field….he seems to be a guaranteed card every game and he was very poor when he did play. DCC has been up and down, I’d bring him as insurance and nothing more. Gvardiol, Erlic and Sutalo are all excellent centre backs and I do think they are starters while Lovren and Vida (only one of them should be there as a sub) will be watching from the sidelines.
In my opinion, Petkovic has done enough to win himself a spot back on the National team. Look, he’s been on and off regularly while Colak has been called up and played a total of 83 minutes in his entire career so that tells us something. If we are going to decide on whether Colak gets on the team or not he should not be compared to Petkovic who has done well enough to get on…we should be looking at Budimir….he’s probably further down on the pecking order.
I really dont know what dalics tactics are anymore im guessing Denmark game if no injurys will be Livakovic Juranovic Lovren Gvardiol Barišić Modeic Broz Kova Vlasic Petkovic Perisic.
My lineup would be Ivusic Juranovic Gvardiol Erlic Sosa Modric Kova Broz Majer Colak Perisic.
I am sorry to say to Dalic, despite all that he is done, but it may be time for a new manager/coach for team Croatia. You have had way too many chances to make the difficult decisions you have had to and you simply refuse to do so. Your not capable of doing what is necessary.
It’s hard to part ways with the guy but he never seems to want to play the youth yet even though he once said we need to develop them. A bit ironic if you ask me. I think he doesn’t have the gall to make the tough decisions that are necessary. If these same individuals in defence are called up for the World Cup than I am afraid that we will not make it far.
What does it take for the guy to change his perspective?? Croatia beat France for the first, pardon my language, fucking time! That alone should be enough to make that change in the line up. Lovren and Vida need to be dropped. They are a liability and not able to keep up I am sorry. Vida played like shit against Austria.
He is not choosing the best options, unless they are there strictly as backup options. Look, the younger players may make mistakes, and they will it’s expected. But they will not learn how to play with eachother without the chance to start plain and simple. It’s a fact that Dalic doesn’t seem to understand.
Colak should have gotten the call up I’m sorry, but you go with the person who currently is scoring goals as we have no consistent option save Perisic. I don’t know what he’ll Petkovic is doing on the team, and Livaja hasn’t showcased himself this year at all either. Orsic has also been lackluster. Kramaric has had a slow start and hasn’t done much… So basically Perisic is your one guy to score goals. I dunno, Dalic doesn’t seem to look at the stats at all I think that this is very problematic.
I am pretty sure we all new Livakovic was gonna get the call but to be honest with the role of the goalie I am not sure who we really have at this stage. So for that position I don’t really care to be honest But for the rest, this stupid plain and simple. We will be lucky to manage anything in Nations League and if this is the call up list we may be lucky to get passed group stage come World Cup. The reason I speak this plainly is the defence was the one thing we had going for us and like this it won’t happen.
Nailed on there, people need to wake up and kick him out cos he will continue this right through qatar and will have yet again, another disappointing campaign.
These selections were abysmal. He hasn’t sorted out the Goalkeeping, the striker, underperforming players and CB depth and he has had more than a year to figure this stuff out!
E.g. Petar Musa has been doing very well and I would say one of our in-form strikers of this year, not called up.
Colak as of now has been killing it for Rangers and can’t do much more to prove his scoring output this year at Rangers, not called up.
Kotarski the keeper in PAOK, look I know it is only in Greece but what more can he do wrong compared to the likes of Livakovic who has been very inconsistent?
I would’ve rathered Vuskovic as a back-up compared to Vida because Vida
probably wouldn’t even make the Bosnian defence let alone Croatia’s.
Mate1, do you have Croatian tv? Have you been watching Croatian league? I was the 1st to criticize Petkovic but I’m going to now say that he’s been really good lately and does deserve a call up. Livaja? He has a mural so Hajduk fans would be pissed if he wasn’t called to the squad but he’s been average this season so far. Orsic has finally picked it up a few notches…finally starting to be a constant threat…I was a bit surprised to see your comment about him when we really don’t have an abundance of options.
I agree with you regarding our defenders and regarding Dalic. There are some Croatian type coaches that get stuck with their personal theories vs what they really should do and I believe Dalic is one of them. He’s the type of coach that will offer an opportunity to an older player out of respect because he might believe he’s the less risky option and that he’s demonstrating some type of respect to that player. I’ve seen it done by a few coaches and they stand their ground on their decisions. I believe Dalic thinks he knows what he has in Petkovic and he’d be taking a BIG chance relying on Colak…who has literally been nowhere for most of his career. Budimir is also an unknown type of player to me. If someone asked me what are his qualities I’d really not know them other than he looks really tired all the time.
I’m glad to bring Vlasic back into the equation. Even if its only 3 games and 3 goals…to me, that says he’s working and eager…hungry…whereas Brekalo has worked his way off the team, no surprise there for me!
Fair enough Slavonac. Maybe I have missed something in both Petkovic and in Orsic. With Petkovic specifically, he didn’t play the best Euro and from what is saw in Champions League qualifying I didn’t see the best in either of them, despite the goal that Petkovic scored. Petkovic especially in the Euro for Croatia was exceptionally lazy, but maybe that has changed. If what you say is true of Petkovic, and Orsic, then I am fine to give them a shot. But if that inconsistency shows and there is no running back to assist the team when things aren’t going your way then I would bench them. That is my one fear, how well will they do with possession in the overall game when things are tough. A lot of these players are a concern that way.
That seems to be Dalic’s plan I believe, and it seems to be the way that the team progresses in the games they play where there is great difficulty. It is afterall how we won against France.
Who would be Dalics fall guy this time around if we don’t fire up at the World Cup
Something tells me it would be him and therefore a wasted World Cup cycle
We’ve seen Dalić use standby call-ups before. Maybe he has a trick up his sleeve, like pissing Lovren off and then having no choice but to kick him off the team when the guy overreacts
However, calling up Bruno Petković ahead of Čolak makes no sense. The reason Čolak plays abroad is that he already mastered the HNL in 2019 when he led the league in goals. The kid is turning into a first-rate striker. Petković, on the other hand, has some serious flaws when it comes to competing against great teams.
Time is Midnight and it’s not very Christmas Eve like to have a 33 year old ( Jesus’s age when he died and resurrected ) against a fresh faced 21 year old. This is not fair for our Marin from Medjurgorje. If he pulls out of this Midnight Special madness and gets to play in 2 days from today then he will WIN this US Open. Presently 1 set to 1.
Well said Ante, Dalic needs calling out because he’ll screw us up again if he continues this.