Joined
·
8,545 Posts
I think most of us would agree that our defence is our strongest part of the team and we'll be very dependent on it for any success we might have.
There is one problem though, the defence isn't very experienced at this level.
Tudor's been great for Juve and great for us in the qualifiers. He's really come into his own and is among the best defenders in the world....but he lacks world cup experience. Sure he made a couple of appearances as a sub last WC but that doesn't mean too much. The burden is mostly on him as he's supposed to be the marshall back there, running the defence. I'm pretty confident he'll pay well, but then maybe he'll choke under the pressure and make costly mistakes.
Simic has world cup experience and was an important part of the defence last time around so I'm not worried about that. However, last time around, he was playing regularly in club football and playing well. This year and a lot of last year, he hasn't had a regular run in the team and his form has suffered because of it. Granted, every time he put on the Vatreni shirt, he played great but you never know.
Kovac is another who lacks WC experience but he's had a very good season with Bayern and plays regularly. He's once again earned the title of best "one on one" man in the Budesliga having entered the most one on one battles and having the highest winning percentage.
Jarni, if he plays on the left side is of course our captain but he's older now. He hasn't played a lot this year and his transfer to Pana was a good one, but he's not playing regularly there. Of course he's a veteran and I'm pretty confident he'll play well but he's definately lost a step.
Zivkovic if he's a starter is kind of hard to predict. I saw him play today against ManU and other than that fluky own goal he had, he played rather well. The commentators thought he was a good stabilizing force in the center of defence....but he won't play in the middle for us. Another one without WC experience.
The starting line up will most likely come from these 5 players, I can't see anybody else being a starter. Simunic seems like a good back up but he's definately a question mark considering he doesn't have any big game experience. Playing in the BuLI is great and Hertha are in a good position but I don't think he's even played in Europe yet. We also have Tomas and Soldo who can play in defence even though they probably won't in the WC. Niether are spectacular defenders, but nevertheless effective.
If our defence doesn't hold up, I don't think we can expect much. Sure we can score goals, but we're not nearly as potent up front as we were 4 years ago and our offence just can't compete with any of the "big boys."
Our lack of WC experience at the back is cause for some concern, something that I never paid much attention to before.
There is one problem though, the defence isn't very experienced at this level.
Tudor's been great for Juve and great for us in the qualifiers. He's really come into his own and is among the best defenders in the world....but he lacks world cup experience. Sure he made a couple of appearances as a sub last WC but that doesn't mean too much. The burden is mostly on him as he's supposed to be the marshall back there, running the defence. I'm pretty confident he'll pay well, but then maybe he'll choke under the pressure and make costly mistakes.
Simic has world cup experience and was an important part of the defence last time around so I'm not worried about that. However, last time around, he was playing regularly in club football and playing well. This year and a lot of last year, he hasn't had a regular run in the team and his form has suffered because of it. Granted, every time he put on the Vatreni shirt, he played great but you never know.
Kovac is another who lacks WC experience but he's had a very good season with Bayern and plays regularly. He's once again earned the title of best "one on one" man in the Budesliga having entered the most one on one battles and having the highest winning percentage.
Jarni, if he plays on the left side is of course our captain but he's older now. He hasn't played a lot this year and his transfer to Pana was a good one, but he's not playing regularly there. Of course he's a veteran and I'm pretty confident he'll play well but he's definately lost a step.
Zivkovic if he's a starter is kind of hard to predict. I saw him play today against ManU and other than that fluky own goal he had, he played rather well. The commentators thought he was a good stabilizing force in the center of defence....but he won't play in the middle for us. Another one without WC experience.
The starting line up will most likely come from these 5 players, I can't see anybody else being a starter. Simunic seems like a good back up but he's definately a question mark considering he doesn't have any big game experience. Playing in the BuLI is great and Hertha are in a good position but I don't think he's even played in Europe yet. We also have Tomas and Soldo who can play in defence even though they probably won't in the WC. Niether are spectacular defenders, but nevertheless effective.
If our defence doesn't hold up, I don't think we can expect much. Sure we can score goals, but we're not nearly as potent up front as we were 4 years ago and our offence just can't compete with any of the "big boys."
Our lack of WC experience at the back is cause for some concern, something that I never paid much attention to before.
:tongue: stop scareing all of us!
