No real changes from manager Zlatko Dalić for the crucial November matches away to Malta and against first-placed Russia in Split. Ivica Ivušić misses out due to injury, meaning Dominik Livaković will almost certainly remain the starting goalkeeper moving forward. Mateo Kovačić is once again available after missing out against Slovakia due to a yellow card suspension. Duje Ćaleta-Car and Marin Pongračić remain in the squad after only being called up due to injuries last time around, while Mile Škorić and Filip Uremović drop down to the stand-by list. Josip Stanišić also remains in the squad after starting both matches against Cyprus and Slovakia in the absence of Josip Juranović. Luka Sučić misses out on the squad entirely and will likely be playing with the under-21 squad after making his senior debut towards the end of a 2-2 draw with Slovakia. Another U21 star that has missed out is Roko Šimić. Many fans were calling for Šimić to make the roster after his recent goal scoring form with the under-21 national team and Red Bull Salzburg affiliate, FC Liefering, but it looks like Dalić is going with more experience up front for these last World Cup qualifiers. Also worth noting, still no Ante Rebić after his outburst following Croatia’s exit at the Euros. It looks like both Rebić and Dalić are set in their ways and neither side will give in to the other just yet.
Even with Croatia currently sitting in 2nd place behind Russia, they still control their own destiny. Two wins from two will mean direct qualification to the World Cup in Qatar. Croatia should definitely handle Malta with relative ease and Dalić may possibly be tempted to rest some key players for the showdown with Russia, but they should not at all take them lightly. And barring Russia suffering an unlikely slip up and losing at home to Cyprus, Croatia will need to defeat Russia at Poljud. Will Croatia do what is expected of them or will they have to hope to get through the tricky play-offs?
Didn’t even realize grbic is a big younger then livakovic
I know it’s a keeper so development is slower
But look how hard most of us including myself have been on Kova and he is 27 tearing up the epl
Livakovic is scooping out balls from NK selovic in the HNL at nearly the same age and up until recently he was guaranteed starter
Vlasic pulled. He has been a nothing burger at Spam.
He did okay today, would have had an assist if soucek wasnt shit.
Modric injured
Had to pull out Real Madrid lineups
Vlasic started as a cf today so thats interesting.
What if Grbić gets the start and scores an own goal off a botched clearance attempt?
Everyone here would be broken, lol.
What if Livakovic hits the ground flat before a guy actually shoots- he’s already pulled that one in a game- Grbic one I would consider far more hypothetical – either way- we probably have the worst stretch of goaltending in Croatian history-
I’m kidding.
I’m all for trying out Grbić or Ivušić (once he’s back).
Grbić plays steady in France.
He technically should be our #1 option as he plays in a much better league…and especially since Livaković has been all over the place lately for Dinamo.
Grbić’s manager has stated quite openly that Grbić is still young and up-and-coming. He played well against Seville and is generally considered a fairly clean keeper, but he has a lot of development ahead of him if he wants to be a top-class keeper. He has the potential for sure. He’s still very young though!
Another interesting thing I just noticed is that given we qualify for the World Cup, we will have the Nations League group stage beforehand to HOPEFULLY test some things out. But not things like Pasalic in defensive midfield or Marko Rog at right back.
I think that would be a great time to try out a 3 at the back formation given the fact that we now have CBs who are good on the ball and actual wing backs. I feel like we need to find a few different setups that work for us so we are not one-dimensional with the same 4-2-3-1/4-3-3 that we’ve been playing almost all the time. A 3-5-2 might just be beneficial for someone like Kramaric too because it will give him a strike partner. Whether it’s Perisic or someone else.
Also it would be a good opportunity for the likes of Sucic, Simic, and other youngsters or fringe players to play with the senior team against some of the best national teams. Maybe give all the different GKs a game to see what they all can do.
Ivusic had an operation and will be out for at least 4-6 weeks.
We have 5 players in the squad on yellow cards : Brozovic, Perisic, DCC, Vlasic and Stanisic with Barisic being suspended for Malta. Therefore I don’t think that Dalic will or should risk playing Brozovic, Perisic and DCC against Malta unless absolutely necessary.
I don’t think that he will experiment with Grbic and will stick with Livakovic unless forced into it due to injury. Keeping this in mind and barring any injuries I think he will go for the following.
v Malta:
Liva – Stan, Ponga, Vida, Gvard – Jakic, Kova – Pasalic, Modric, Brek – Krama
Hopefully if we can score a few early goals ? Modric, Kovacic and Kramaric can be rested in the second half.
v Russia:
Liva- Jura, Lovren, DCC, Sosa – Broz, Kova – Vlasic, Modric, Perisic – Krama
Seven changes, with fresh players coming in for a must win.
UEFA.tv is showing the Russia game.
Awesome! Good to know
Awesome! Thanks for the heads up
I really believe that Grbic gets the easy assignment against Malta. Assuming he doesn’t do anything stupid, he’ll get the call vs. Russia as well. Livakovic simply cannot be trusted. Dalic knows this.
Also, changing your goalie is probably the easiest change to make. It doesn’t have any bearing on formation and affects team chemistry the least. We saw the swagger they played with when Ivusic filled in and gave them the confidence to not have to worry about everything.
i sure hope you are right Becar- Livakovic makes me bloody nervous- he has no confidence
@ Maminjo
I always thought Lovren was a CDM at heart.
He used to move well and had a cannon for a shot.
A tad small for CB but as CDM he would have been a beast.
He likes to initiate offense as well.
Grbic gonna shut down psg as caleta just did and dalic gonna be lovren/vida/livakovic for life;)
But for sure sadly for grbic he has to play lights out against psg as a tryout where livakovic has to let in less then 4 against whatever bottom dweller hnl club to retain his starting position
Too bad prime Kranjcar didn’t play with this bunch. He was a fine player
Ivanušec reminds me of Kranjčar actually
Closest comp to him.
Yeah I see that
I would be very surprised if we don’t see Grbic play in one of these games. Guy is playing well at a better club than Livakovic. Livakovic was a decent shot stopper when we were getting peppered in Nations League after the WC but he has a clear weakness with high balls and his shot stopping/decision making has been quite poor of late. I wouldn’t be surprised if Grbic played BOTH games and I think Dalic will do that.
The Vlasic/Brekalo debate is interesting. I personally like Brekalo and Ivanusec to come off the bench and run at tired defenses. I also don’t trust them as much defensively as I do Vlasic. But Vlasic hasn’t even established himself as a clear starter for West Ham so I guess who performs better at the practice sessions in my books…
As much as I’d like to see Grbic start, I’d be surprised to see him simply due to Dalic past record of painfully slow integration of deserving players (unless it’s a major tournament opener, ie Gvardiol)
Vidicemo…He did bench Livakovic after the shutout against Russia to allow Ivusic to start. It’s hard to gage what Dalic is thinking because he obviously can tell us full details. I just think that Livakovic’s performance last month was too bad to ignore and not test out a guy who’s playing at a higher level. I used to back Livakovic but there’s too many poor performances imo.
I’m with you 100%. I’d love to see a change from Livaković as he’s become untenable. I thought Dalic benched him after Russia due to injury.
My bad, I vaguely remember that. I just saw that he was on the bench but I think he was carrying an injury. Still there’s hope…
Starting 11 against Russia
Grbic
Juranovic Lovren. Gvardiol. Sosa
Brozovic. Kovacic
Brekalo. Modric. Perisic
Kramaric
I think Dalic will go with this line up it’s not particularly what I’d go with. I think he will bench vida I don’t t see him benching lovren yet, I can see him going with brekalo as he playing well and getting minutes. Vlasic has been poor for repka lately 1 goal in all of World Cup qualifying, and he’s not playing for west ham currently, unless he starts getting minutes be surprised he starts.
Pasalic for Modric
Vlasic for brekalo
Livaja for Kramaric
I’d be interested to see Grbic in there. Although, it is definitely a risk to change things up at such a crucial time. He does seem to be decent in what little I’ve watched Lille this season. Their defense is atrocious compared to last year and he does pretty well.
I’m interested in who will be our starting defense. I would prefer Sosa, Gvardiol, Caleta-Car, and Juranovic. I think Gvardiol should be a lock at left CB after his performances in the last two matches and Caleta just kept a clean sheet against ‘the best attack in the world’ of PSG, so I’d start him. However, I think Dalic will start at least one of Lovren and Vida against Russia.
Sosa should start every game against a decent team at LB. He’s just simply better than Barisic and I don’t like that Barisic gets to play just because Dalic thinks he needs to every so often.
I currently like Juranovic more than Stanisic at RB. Especially against teams that are going to play more defensively against us. He provides a lot more in attack than Stanisic does and is faster to stop counter attacks. Stanisic is decent and still very young so he’s got time to improve.
Kramaric is going to start up top and I have a feeling he will bag some goals like he did in the crucial match against Ukraine in the last World Cup qualifying cycle.
Another interesting question is who will play at right wing. I’m honestly not sure why we never seem to have Perisic play on the right anymore. Yes he prefers playing on the left, but so do ALL of our other wingers. But the difference between him and the others is that he is almost as equally strong on his right as he is on his left. So much so, that I used to think he was right-footed years ago. Doing this would allow either Orsic or Brekalo to start on the left and play to their strengths. I think what they will probably do is Perisic on the left and Vlasic or Ivanusec on the right like they have been. I just would prefer an actual winger there. Brekalo scored the other day so maybe if he bags another goal or two in his next few games we’ll see him in there.
We need to produce a true right wing soon. Maybe ‘the god of Halilovic’ will finally start to produce something of note instead of constantly being hurt and inconsistent, but probably not.
Hmm. I’m starting to believe this ‘goalkeeping change’ talk.
I forgot that Ivo Grbic is from Split.
We all know that Dalic LOVES to play players in their hometown. It seems to be the main factor that drives his strategy and formations, lol.
I can totally see Dalic playing Grbic in Split.
Maybe test him out for the Malta game, to see how well he does. Then if all goes well, he can roll out a Hajduk-heavy squad for the game against Russia.
Not the best thing to drive your decision-making, but if it can get us to test out our other keepers, then fine. Too bad it has to come in such a critical moment.
Ljubičić with 2 goals in 60 minutes of play in the Croatian Cup.
vs. a team from Treca HNL….
With that logic shouldn’t every attacker on that team be scoring? Biuk didn’t. Sahiti didn’t.
Mrmić about to go watch Grbić vs PSG this weekend.
Confirmed no lineup has been set yet.
We might actually see a goalie change from Dalić
Sigh.
I’m glad that these idiots have finally decided to watch a game.
Someone needs to text the HNS and let them know that Mrmic doesn’t need to actually go anywhere to watch Grbic play. He can watch it in Zagreb.
Rather than waste the money to send a former untalented keeper in Mrmic to physically go watch a Lille game in person, why not just spend the time (and save the money) and have all the HNS coaches & scouts watch the 11 games Lille has played this season (from the comfort of their home in Zagreb).
Larger sample, and there can be a consensus from the group about Grbic.
But no, let’s just send Mrmic off to France and he’ll tell us what he saw that day.
Livakovic is a 3rd tier goalman that should not see the field under any circumstances- I trust the players but not Dalic. He has no strategy. No understanding of tactics and has shown nothing during the WC qualifiers that helps us understand why he should be coaching at all- I wish our boys the best but we should be concerned in net and the hairboy Dalic.
SN reports that the goalkeeping spot for both games is open. Could we see Grbić against Malta? I hope so…
Pasalic as striker is crazy too try now thats for friendlies to experement the false 9.
Poljud is sold out for russia game i will be going barley found a ticket na sjever was hoping for istok but it was sold out in half hour.
32000 is expected. That is if we beat malta.
Im reading livakovic isnt garanteed number one for the 2 games.
LOL, Sjever.
It’ll be a mess. You may miss the game, but the experience will be fun.
Croatia games on sjever arent like hajduk games no torcida at croatia games they only go to hajduk games i went v slovenia svjever vas empty
best lineup we can form with the players that were called up:
Perisic…………….Pasalic………………Orsic
…………Kova………Brozo……..Modric……..
Sosa……..Gvardiol….Caleta…..Juranovic
……………………..Livakovic…………………….
what dalic will probably do:
……………………….Kramaric…………………..
Perisic………………Modric……………Vlasic
…………………Brozo……….Kovacic………….
Barisic………..Vida……Lovren….Juranovic
……………………..Livakovic…………………….
Orsic can’t play on the right wing and it would hardly be a good idea to try Pasalic at striker in two crucial matches.
Rest of the lineup is good.
If we’re trying out Pasalic at striker, we may as well try Lovren at CDM.
Can we put him back on free kicks too?
Sosa needs to start.
Brekalo needs minutes.
Modrić plays #10 role for Russia and should be rested for Malta.
Vlašić should start at Malta to get his mojo going.
Two for World Cup .. I’ll take it any day of the week and twice on Sunday.
Rebić has an injury, but you’re probably right that he just is not considered part of the team anymore. Take a look at that depth on defense! Dejan Lovren is a wild card (played well last time he wore the checkers), but we now have an enviable number of solid options at the back. I see us getting an unexciting but dominant win against Malta and then a hard-fought, hair-raising win late in the game against Russia. We just need better finishing to improve upon the 0-0 draw last time. I think the home crowd will help, just as it did against Slovenia.
I’m not afraid of Malta or Russia. We had a fairly good performance in our last cycle snd were unlucky. We are quality and superior the those teams and as long as we approach the games with full concentration and seriousness, we will win both games. Sure, we have our problems but so do our opponents. One factor I usually like to include in a do or die situation is our players playing for the grb!!! That adds extra motivation and I do feel confident we will qualify in these next two games!
Can you please share how you watch these games?
Seriously scared about these two games. We could easily drop points to Malta and if that happens, it’s likely all over red rover, let alone the next game v Russia. Man we might actually miss the WC, fark i hope not, so scared tho! SOMEONE HOLD ME !!
Some good news should we qualify for the World Cup
Budimir is back in full training
Game is in Split.
My only worry with this is that Dalić possibly starting one (or more) of Vlašić, Livaja and Pašalić on account of them all being Hajduci.
None of these guys should start right now.
Well… Other than the standard worries like starting Lovren/Vida
I think it’ll be DCC with Lovren.
I also prefer to start Vlasic albeit on the wing as opposed to his number 10 role that needs to go to Luka. Bring Brekalo to off the bench to dribble at a tired defence. I was disappointed in Pasalic’s output last go around so I don’t see him starting but who knows.
Can’t see Gvardiol not starting.
Even in Dalić’s world, Gvardiol is our top CB.
He’s definitely our best defender with the ball at his feet. But I’m still suspect on his and frankly DCC defensive positioning but lean more towards DCC. I would not be upset with any combination of the CBs; DCC, Lovren, Gvardiol, or Vida. Prongracic needs to prove himself more defensively and start some games for his club.
Crazy to think that we actually have 9 players for our LB, CB, and RB position who actually get playing time on quality teams. This was not the case a couple of years ago.
Plus what if these guys find new clubs in the winter transfer window and regain form/potential; Bradaric, Vrsaljko, and Benkovic. Also, Jedvaj has been getting consistent minutes and is doing well in Moscow.
Strong squad, lets hope no one gets injured in the next two weeks.
According to Croatian media, Perisic has a groin injury. Lets hope he is fit for the Russia match.