Oh wow that sounds terrible. I wasnt home for the game so thanks for the updates, much appreciated. It sounds like our best players from the Euros were playing terribly today. One positive I see from this is that we didn't concede. How were our strikers?
Lafata barely had a touch of the ball in the just under 60 minutes he played. Pekhart was better at working his way into the game, but still not especially dangerous. We didn't really have much creative spark in the midfield to get them the ball though. Between those two though, Pekhart has to be the starter.
If there was ever a time to try two striker formation though, now would be it. We simply don't have a like-for-like replacement for Rosicky at this time, but we do have some good central midfielders that can get involved in the attack from a deeper position and provide defensive coverage. So with the players available vs. Denmark. ------Pekhart-------Lafata/????--- --Krejčí---------------------------Petržela*-- --------Jiráček----Hübschman/Darida--- With an unchanged back-line. The star by Petržela is because that's who I assume Bilek would select to start in this formation, even though I'd personally pick Dočkal (even though that would mean two first time starters in a key match).
Wow. We are in trouble now. No more strikers, Pilar out for 6 months, and Rosicky contemplating retirement. I fear that we wont qualify for the World Cup. Right now the future looks very bleak.
The future has the potential to be fairly bright: we lost in stoppage time to Spain in the U-19 Euros 2011, the U-21 is cruising to qualification with the leading goal scorer in the age bracket, and the previous U-21 team made the semifinals. Darida and Krejci have already attracted big offers while still young and in Gambrinus Liga, Kalas is impressing at Chelsea, etc... It's the present that looks poorer, and in my opinion Bilek should have left after Euros. He's far too reactive, and only makes changes when something goes terribly wrong (so we should see some changes after that Ukraine match). His player selection in the friendly was beyond awful, he brought 3 goalkeepers, all over 30, and Cech played the full 90. Kolar, Rezek, Petrzela, all players that have yet to do much of anything for the national team and aren't exactly young up-and-comers. I give him a pass on Lafata only because of the injuries at forward. He did a passable job during the last cycle, but has never really shown himself to have much of a vision for how he wants the national team to play.
The Roster for the Denmark qualifier (8 September) and Finland friendly (11 September) has been announced... like the selections at forward this time, but we're really weak on the wings. GK: Petr Čech (Chelsea) 95 apps / 0 goals, Jaroslav Drobný (Hamburg) 6/0, Jan Laštůvka (Dnipro) 1 / 0 D: Theodor Gebre Selassie (Werder Bremen) 15/0, Roman Hubník (Hertha Berlín) 23/2, Michal Kadlec (Bayer Leverkusen) 39/8, David Limberský (Viktoria Plzeň) 14/0, František Rajtoral (Viktoria Plzeň) 6/0, Tomáš Sivok (Besiktas) 31/3, Marek Suchý (Spartak Moscow) 5/0 M: Vladimír Darida (Viktoria Plzeň) 4/0, Josef Hušbauer (Sparta Praha) 1/0, Tomáš Hübschman (Shakhtar Donetsk) 48/0, Petr Jiráček (VfL Wolfsburg) 13/3, Milan Petržela (Augsburg) 12/0, Jaroslav Plašil (Bordeaux) 75/6, Jan Rezek (Anarthosis Famagusta) 17 /3 F: Václav Kadlec (Sparta Praha) 1/1, David Lafata (Jablonec) 19/3, Tomáš Pekhart (Nurnberg) 14/0, Matěj Vydra (Watford) 0/0 My thoughts: A) A lot of national team fans are down on Plašil since he had a poor Euro 2012, but if nothing else he adds much needed experience. Darida and Hušbauer could be a great midfield pairing in a couple of years, but right now have a combined 5 caps. B) The only true wing players are Petržela and Rezek, and of course we've used Jiráček here to varying effectiveness this summer. Krejčí still hasn't returned from his shoulder injury and for Dočkal apparently there is no amount of success in Norway and Europa League that will earn a call up... not when you have a bench player from Cyprus ahead of you... C) What formation do we play? It's nice to bring 4 forwards, but Vydra (and also Kadlec) are talents that I want on the field.
I think we should play 2 strikers. Definitely Pekhart starts with either of those 3. Midfield we definitely need Plasil. Dont care that he was invisible in the Euros, we still need him. Plasil can change a game and our team is young so his experience is needed. I'd probably go a 4-3-3. Perkhart as the main striker and have the likes of Vydra and Lafata floating behind him. Then have Plasil, Hubschmann and Jiracek in the midfield.
Yeah, I'm won't get my hopes up that he'll play a 4-3-3 either (even though it really would allow the best possible line-up), and sadly, I don't think Bilek reads Bigsoccer. If we do go with one striker, I personally think Vydra would be best, he's the most versatile and can fall back into midfield to collect the ball and play-make. Pekhart has looked a bit too limited in terms of speed and ability with the ball at his feet to play the loan-striker roll, especially with the (lack of) service he gets. I would really like to have at least 2 strikers on the field though, since it would allow Pekhart more chance to utilize his strength and aerial ability in front of goal.
Limbersky will miss the match tomorrow with illness, my guess is that Kadlec will be moved to the left and Suchy will start along side Sivok in the center. The other possibility is Rajtoral starting on the left, but that isn't his preferred side.
Kadlec was awful at LB in the euros although the options are great and I'd like to see Suchy get a chance.
Good that Italy didnt win. Sadly I wont be able to watch the match today but I'll be checking the score when I am out. I am hoping we somehow get the win!
Čech - Gebre Selassie, Sivok, Suchý, Kadlec - Plašil, Hübschman - Vydra, Jiráček, Rezek - Pekhart Interesting line-up. 2 strikers which is nice to see
I'll be watching, a win would be huge. Starting Line-up, it's an interesting one Čech - Theo, Sivok, Suchý, Kadlec - Plašil, Hübschman - Vydra, Jiráček, Rezek - Pekhart I do like the inclusion of Vydra, he usually plays an outside forward position in 4-3-3, so hopefully that adapts well to a wing position. I'm never a big fan of Rezek, but we just don't have many options available for sticking with a 4-5-1 (this lineup is flexible though, could just as easily shift to 4-4-2 or 4-3-3). Glad Jiráček is back in the middle, and Kadlec, just needs to remember being on the left does not make you a midfielder, get back and defend.
It's funny to me that Bilek is cautious about bringing new players into the selection, but less cautious about putting inexperienced players into the starting line-up of important matches. Darida against Portugal, and now Vydra.
HT 0-0 Pretty boring half, although there was a bit of a flurry ~35 minutes, Rezek hit a good shot from 25 yards that forced a save, then the Danes answered with basically the same on the other end. Other than that our best chance was Vydra had a shot from close blocked out by a diving defender. Denmark probably have 65% of possession, but their best few chances have been from shots from 20+ yards. Overall I would call it a pragmatic and cautious performance by us, we've had a few promising counterattacks and for the most part kept it together in defense.
Plasil needs to come off now, he's not at full match fitness. Two lazy giveaways in just over a minute. Edit: and there it is, Darida on. Now Rezek is looking a bit slow.
FT 0-0 Čech had a huge save at the start of stoppage time. We took a road point from the team we are expected to battle with for 2nd, so overall a good result. I'll post more thoughts later. Next up a friendly against Finland.
Yeah my czech friend texted me telling me it was a snoozer. Apparently we didnt get much going with the attack and Cech saved it for us? Not liking our recent results.
Definitely a better result than performance. This pretty well sums up a major deficiency in our 4-5-1 It´s been almost 18 months since one of Czech forwards scored for national team in competitive match. Baros did it against Liechtenstein.— Karel Häring (@KHaring75) September 7, 2012 Though we came close to stealing 3 points a couple of times, in particular there was a moment when Theo (who was one of our top players for sure yesterday) got inside the box and got a low cross through the six yard box, but it was just in front of M. Kadlec who would have had an empty net to shoot at. The roster is slowly improving (minus the mysterious fascination with Rezek, Kolar, and Petrzela), but even so, every match we seem to look a team that hasn't practiced together, and then we usually look worse in the 2nd half as the other teams make adjustments and we don't. I've said it before, and know it won't happen, but Bilek ven!
Čech has been playing with a minor elbow problem, and has headed back to London. That means we'll get a rare chance to see Laštůvka playing keeper in the Finland friendly. Čech's minor injury won't cause him to miss any competitive matches for us or Chelsea, but it will require surgery next summer.