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Otto Baric is the new Coach!!!!!!!!

1.5K views 37 replies 17 participants last post by  Ljubuski  
#1 ·
Croatia look to 2004 after Baric appointment

Friday 12th July 2002

Otto Baric has been appointed coach of Croatia, replacing Mirko Jozic who resigned after the World Cup.

"I am convinced that under Baric we will achieve our primary goal and secure a place at Euro 2004 in Portugal," said defeated candidate Marijan Vlak.

Baric, who coached Austria in the World Cup qualifiers, beat off competition from Vlak, Ivan Katalinic and Zlatko Kranjcar for the job.

"For me there is more time," said former Dinamo Zagreb coach Vlak. "I am not disappointed and I haven't lost the ambition to become national-team coach."

Baric, 69, has a distinguished coaching record in central Europe.

He has enjoyed spells with Lokomotiva, Rutsselheim, Wacker, LASK, Zagreb, Dinamo Vinkovci, Sturm Graz, Rapid Vienna, Stuttgart, Salzburg, Fenerbahce and Dinamo Zagreb.

Well i am definitely not happy about this :mad:

Cico IMO should definitely have got the job :mad:
 
#2 ·
a neznam....

Cico has plenty of time, but I wonder how Baric will handle the task. Surely he has acknowledged the mistakes of Jozic, and also his good decisions.

Either way, I hope Cico does take the helm sooner or later and Croatia plays classic Cico lineups, 5 forwards and everyone in support of them. :)
 
#3 ·
Don't know what to think. Would have liked a younger coach but can't help but think Vlak wasn't ready for the NT and Kranjcar I feel has what it takes but his time will come I suppose.

I will of course support him and hopefully he can get the results. I also think as all of us do, that it is time to introduce the youngsters and from what I have heard he is looking at doing that.;)

AJMO VATRENI!!
 
#6 ·
Ye i like most of u am not to sure about this one.

As long as he gets back to our roots and focuses on attacking football as opposed to defensive i will be quite satisfied.

Surely he along with any other croatian coach which may have been appointed will look back at the WC and learn from the mistakes.. attack is the best form of defense and its the way the game should be played.. just to use the italy game as an example.

As with all thing i guess time will tell ;)
 
#8 ·
I don't like it but there's only one way to see if it works.

Good Luck Otto!!
 
#9 ·
This guy should be recieving a pention rather than coaching a NT. To old in my opinion...guy might have a heart attack running drills....would rather have seen a younger guy take over who could last for years not a short term replacement. I don't know what HNS is thinking.

That being said, good luck to him as he is our new NT coach...
 
#10 ·
Gentlemen, I, as always, will be diplomatic on this issue. I am not happy, but I am also not dissatisfied. I also think we could have used a younger coach, but honestly the candidates who were younger just don't have the experience to deal with this job. We have to wait and see what Herr Otto can do with these guys. If there is no improvement within the first couple of matches, then give him the noga u guzicu! Puno pozdrava svima od Grbe
 
#11 ·
"Then give him the noga u guzicu!"

Yep, you know you are from the diaspora when you can fluidly mix the English and Croatian languages...Cro-English Rules!!!!!

Grba, were you at the Center about 7 years ago when they had that comedian from Croatia who made some great jokes with his Cro-English routine...it was a great.

Anyway, you know, maybe an older guy is better till those other guys like Krajncar are ready, but, this guy is a bit to old...at 69 this guy should be living out his days on the Jadran and enjoying life.

A guy like this may have been a good replacement for Ciro, heading into Euro Qualifying and WC qualifying with our older group of players...but, I think I would have preferred that the HNS went with a younger guy...a guy like Krajncar. Our older players are on the way out or are already retired, and we have a good group of young kids that have made contributions, Olic for example. I would want a coach who can relate to them and a young guy can do just that. Plus, style of play....is Baric a guy that likes to play more defensive??? OR is he a guy who likes to open things up and attack?? Austria was never a great attacking team and played boring at times....we shall see.
 
#12 ·
What we need is a coach who can play both styles. I agree that it mainly should be an attcking philosophy but there are times when a defensive game and a change of tactics is also needed. Kranjcar would never have set the NT up like he did with Zagreb. International football is different. I don't know alot about Baric's style of play except for he built a great Sturm Graz team that did good things in the CL and used to win almost every match at home.

I guess we will have to see but I don't think this is a decision for the future, just one to fill the gap for a while. It goes against everything Markovic was saying in the lead up about wanting a young coach etc etc. But then what do you expect from HNS.:(
 
#15 ·
this is absurd, he will be lucky if he is around in 4 years time. but jebiga, hopefully it works out....we have a relatively easy group so we should qualify.

what i'm worried about is the fact that some of our key players will be playing in lower divisions. Vugrinec is still at Lecce who relegated, Verona now own Seric which means if another club doesnt pick him up he'll be playing serie B aswell. I suppose we can thank Jozic for this as they should have played more than what they did at the World Cup.

from the candidates....katalinic should have been given the job.
 
#16 ·
I thank GOD Katalinic wasn't given the job.
 
#18 ·
Well...if HNS is serious about bringing up a younger coach, they better tell Baric to put some of the young up and coming guys as his assistants...like Krajncar. This way, he will be able to grasp the internation style of soccer and also he will be around the NT players...it wouldn't be a bad idea...but if they choose to have the starci as assistants as well, then we get nothing out of that...
 
#19 · (Edited)
I am sure that will happen Jure.:)

Kranjcar and Vlak were involved in the NT under Jozic so I expect it to continue.;)

Placebo where would Jozic have played Seric? In place of Jarni? And Vugrinec did play 2 games in the WC but I think teams judge players more for their club form and Seric and Vugrinec both are good Serie A players so I hope they will be picked up by somebody.

and Ero I agree about Katalinic!!
 
#22 ·
I read in Sportske Novosti that surprisingly many ppl (both in HNS and players) wanted to see Ivica Osim as the head coach. Thankfully Osim said he would never coach a NT from former yugoslavia again.

I think Vlak was the man for the NT. Ok, he´s not that experienced but i love his attacking football. I don´t know much about Baric but i know he´s done well in many clubs and let´s just hope he can do some miracle with the croatian NT.
 
#23 ·
POPES XI said:

I don´t know much about Baric but i know he´s done well in many clubs and let´s just hope he can do some miracle with the croatian NT.
A miricle is not what the Croatian NT needs. They still have very good players and a good team. As long as the Otto can come up with the right tactic's for the players at his disposal and can motivate them, then Euro 2004 will come easy. The fact that he is a 100 years old doesn't bother me. As long as he's healthy he should do fine.
 
#24 ·
POPES XI said:
let´s just hope he can do some miracle with the croatian NT.
Miracle? We do not need a miracle, I think it would be a miracle if we fail to qualify. :D
 
#25 ·
I also hope that Kranjcar is not making a mistake because afterall he is not a big enough coach yet to say such a thing as I won't be anybody's assistant in the NT.


Otto Baric has been appointed as the new coach of the Croatian national side, the Croatian Football Federation (HNS) said today.

Jozic replaced
Baric will replace Mirko Jozic who stepped down as Croatia coach after they failed to reach the second round of the FIFA World Cup following a disappointing 1-0 defeat against Equador in their final Group G game. The new coach was chosen by the HNS Executive Committee ahead of Jokic's assistant and recently appointed chief of Croatian champions NK Zagreb, Ivan Katalinic by a margin of nine votes to four on the 14-man board.

'Our best candidate'
Committee chairman Miroslav Uljan said: "Baric was our best candidate because of his huge experience. He has been coaching for 36 years, won 12 Championships, six Cups, led 14 clubs, and has already been a national coach for Austria."

International experience
The 69-year old Baric left his post as Austrian coach last November after they failed to qualify for this summer's World Cup finals following a 6-0 aggregate play-off defeat by Turkey and his contract was not renewed by the Austrian Football Association (Ă–FB). While coaching in his homeland, he won the Croatian Premier League title with NK Dinamo Zagreb, who at the time were named Croatia Zagreb.

Looking to the future
Baric's first task is to successfully guide Croatia through qualifying for EURO where they have been drawn in Group 8 alongside Belgium, Bulgaria, Estonia and Andorra. Ironically, Croatia beat Belgium in their final group game last October to qualify automatically for the finals by one point ahead of their rivals. However Baric looks likely to have to begin to rebuild the Croatian side without the likes of Robert Prosinecki and Davor Ĺ uker, who are both likely to quit international football.

'I have many ideas'
An enthusiastic Baric hinted that he may look within domestic football to replace any retiring stars. "I thank the HNS for their decision," he said. "I am very pleased. I am aware of the great responsibility of the job, for per cent of my career I have managed to fulfil my goals. I have failed only when something was impossible. I am already intensively thinking about the job. I have many ideas, and one of them is that I give more chances to the players from the Croatian Premier League."

uefa.com


also:

http://www.vjesnik.hr/html/2002/07/14/Clanak.asp?r=spo&c=1

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sounds positive.:)
 
#26 ·
I think that a miracle is just what we need. I mean, the croatian NT has never been worse and we are a small country. We can´t expect to go through to every european championship or world cup. For me it was no surprise that we were that bad in japan/korea.