Croatia:
GK: Livakovic, Ivusic, Grbic
Defence: Gvardiol, J. Sutalo, Stanisic, Erlic, Caleta-Car, Sosa, Juranovic, Lovren, Vrsaljko
Midfield: Modric, Kovacic, Brozovic, Sucic, Majer, Pasalic, Moro, Vlasic
Forwards: Perisic, Kramaric, Brekalo, Orsic, Livaja, Budimir/Musa
Pretty much agree to this other than some depth pieces
- If Grbic doesn't find a club where he will start he won't go and that spot will go to a HNL keeper or possibly Kotarski if he starts at PAOK. Interestingly, Kahlina seems to be getting rave reviews at Charlotte but moving to MLS probably puts him outside of Dalic's radar
- Completely agree with the defense, Barisic is not NT material and as you said they have cover there anyway with Juranovic now and even Gvardiol in emergency situations. I don't know what his club situation will be but for some reason I can see Vida making it over Lovren, to me Lovren lacks character and will probably cause a stink if he doesn't start where that won't be an issue with Vida. Uremovic moving to Hertha is interesting, another versatile player to look out for and somebody who has played for the NT before
- Agree with the midfield, only question is of course the "backup DM" which is realistically between Moro and Jakic, Vlasic seems like he will make the squad regardless of his club situation
- Forwards is not the most impressive, they need to hope one of Musa or Simic really explode this season, Petkovic I guess is still in the frame if he wakes up at Dinamo next few months but after his Euro performances I'm good with him never getting called up again, effective when he wants to be but too lazy at times. I know people rave about Orsic but I'm not huge fan of his, also it doesn't seem Dalic rates him either. Somebody mentioned Colak, he was tried out during the qualifying and didn't impress but at this point if your a striker who scores goals at decent level you will get a look and same with Uremovic, he played with Dalic before so not totally outside the picture. This is the one big issue I notice with the HNL last few years, not a lot of Croatian strikers being developed, let's see how Beljo does at Osijek, though more for the future than this upcoming WC
I think the "old" Croatia is a misconception by mostly English and US pundits (or crappy British pundits on ESPN etc.).
Totally agree, listen I'm not some super optimistic Croatia fan usually, I think Canada on their day could beat Croatia, but this analysis is very lazy, I understand Croatia is not a team most mainstream pundits follow or watch in their free time but one look at the lineups post Euro will show Dalic has gone through a generation change (albeit probably forced moreso than his choosing
). I have feeling most of these pundits think its essentially same lineup as 2018 final which is far from the truth, if anything Belgium, in the same group, has a bigger issue with this than Croatia, albeit they are still very talented
My one concern is Dalic honestly, I can't take away his results but I don't think he is a great manager other than motivation, we don't play great football under him and against anyway halfway serious opponent we struggle to create chances, I will say we have improved defensively especially defending set pieces but that's only when he incorporated the younger players. He isn't a great tactical manager hence why I think once he leaves the NT he will probably be stuck with going to the Middle East/China rather than a top five Euro league. Call me crazy, but I doubt even Dinamo, Hajduk or Osijek would hire him if he was available right now