He looked off the pace for me today. Too passive with the ball. He usually gets the ball, links with other players and drives forward but here he just kept receiving and switching it wide. I think their idea was to play it through the flanks but in the first half England were dominant in the flanks - their fullbacks were on it defensively and even when the crosses came in, the centrebacks were winning everything. In the second half and extra time they did the same thing but managed to start winning the individual battles on the flanks and in the box. Their goal was like a 2 v 5 or something in the box but the Croatia player still managed to lose his marker and get in front of the other defender to score. And Stones then managed to lose Mandzukic and the game by switching off on his blind side. I am really surprised Croatia played this way, bypassing Modric very often. Even when they played through the midfield, most of their play was focussed on the left on Rakitic’s side. Plenty of times I saw Modric call for the ball and not get it. So whilst I love the player, I don’t think he was up to his usual excellent standard this game. (England marked him with Sterling a lot when they tried to build from the back and that probably hindered his play also). He will have a big test in the final against Pogba and Kante. I hope he passes it.
Modric is good but for me it was Messi. If Messi played power forward for the Lakers he would be the best power forward in the history of the game.
Messi is one game away from matching his 2014 performance by not scoring a goal all the way from the end of the group stages to the end of the final. He might get the best player award again if he goes goalless in the final.
I hope he wins the WC ( sorry Varane ) and gets the Balon D'or. Ronaldo can get all "muy triste" for all i care.
Such an elegant, meanwhile rock solid warrior. The best all round midfielder i have ever seen. How sweet would it be if Modric is the one who breaks Ronaldo and Messi dominance. Fingers crossed
My favourite player of this generation! Sooooooooooooooooo happy for Luka!!! Praying for him to win the whole thing!!!!! Lukita for Ballon d'Or!!!!!!!!!!!
When he was 6, his grandfather was shot dead. His family became refugees, in a warzone. He grew up to the sound of grenades exploding.Coaches said he was too weak and too shy to play football.Today, Luka Modric just led Croatia its first ever #WorldCup final.#CROENG pic.twitter.com/plOsy9nQcq— Muhammad Lila (@MuhammadLila) July 11, 2018
Even British pundits were marveling at his super human stamina. Just when you think he’s tired and slowing down he gets up and runs 50 yards with the ball. Guy has the heart of a lion. Man..... I really want him to lift the cup on Sunday. What a moment that would be. Although I my heart I think France might be too much for them what with their fatigue and injuries. If Croatia do win he will be a serious contender for Balon. I would LOVE to see the anguish on Cristiano’s face when he sits there and claps for Luka.
I’m curious how Real Madrid fans rate Modric. In my opinion, he has been the best midfielder in the world (or at least the best CM; hard to compare other roles) in the last 5 years. And he’s perhaps the only CM over the last decade or so that I think really can be compared to Xavi (maybe along with Pirlo). I’m pulling for Croatia in the WC final, mostly because I want to see Modric succeed. And, if they do win, I think he’d probably be my pick for the Ballon D’or. I’m wondering whether RM fans—who probably watch Modric a bit more than I do—regard him as highly as I do.
Would he clap for Luka? Even if Croatia does win the World Cup i don't think Modric will get consideration.
If Croatia wins, Modric will also get player of the tournament. There will be good BDR buzz if that happens imo. But yeah, France look pretty strong and I'd be surprised if they lose. Rooting for Croatia.
Yes it is. Obviously, I’d imagine RM fans like Modric, but there are ranges of regard fans can have for one of their players. And a team’s biggest fans also often are able to articulate the most accurate criticism of a player, even of players they really like. So I’m wondering how RM fans feel about Modric, and this seemed like the obvious thread to ask the question. The reason I wonder about this is because I rate him super highly (as in, all-time great level), but I basically want to know whether I’m wrong about that (from people who watch him a bit more than I do).
Okay, but the title of every thread on this forum about a player is about how great the player is. It doesn’t mean that fans don’t have nuanced views about that player. I’m honestly asking this question because I think Modric is one of the best midfielders I’ve ever seen and I want to know from RM fans whether I’m overrating him. So, for instance, if someone told me they regard Ivan Rakitic as one of the best midfielders they’d ever seen, I’d say that while I like him a lot, he’s simply not at that level. But if someone said that about Xavi, I’d say they are right. Both are Barcelona players that I like a lot, but I think I have a realistic assessment of their quality from having watched them a lot. So I’m wondering where RM fans fall on Modric.
I guess I’ll give a more detailed overview of my specific thoughts. I am wondering if you all agree or disagree with these assessments and why: - I’ll put the one negative upfront, in case people don’t read to the end, since this is something I’m particularly interested in hearing feedback about. For all his quality (a lot of which is described below), Modric does not have a lot of actual direct involvement in goals. He doesn’t score many goals, and his assist numbers are well off of most top CMs. When it comes to goals, my sense from what I’ve seen is that he’s just not a very good goalscorer. Obviously not ideal, but also not the end of the world for a rather deep lying playmaker. The assist thing is a bit vexing to me, though. He’s a great passer and the midfield focal point of his team but gets very few assists while playing on a team that scores tons of goals. My sense from what I’ve seen is that he gets quite a few hockey assists (i.e. makes the pass before the assist), because RM’s attack focuses on getting the ball to really dangerous spots in wide areas (“wide areas” being used loosely, since sometimes this would still be in the penalty area) and then crossing it in. It seems to me that Modric very often is making the pass that gets the ball into that really dangerous spot in wide areas, which would not get him an assist, even if it’s extremely important to creating the goal. Does this seem like a correct explanation? Or do you all think there’s some other reason for his oddly low number of assists? - It seems to me that Modric makes a ludicrously low number of mistakes (i.e. bad passes, bad first touch, needlessly getting dispossessed in a simple situation, etc. By this, I don’t mean misses on really difficult killer balls). To me, Xavi is the only player in recent memory I’ve seen who compares in this regard. Both players honestly seem to make only like 0-2 mistakes a match. This is extremely important IMO. - Related to the first point, Modric seems to have that quality where it’s basically just a fool’s errand to press him when he receives a pass to try to dispossess the ball from him, because he will either one-touch pass the ball away or turn with the ball away from the pressing man and get into the space behind that that defender left. Xavi and Busquets are the only players in recent memory I’ve seen who compare in this regard. - He seems to be extremely good at making marauding runs through the center of the pitch to advance the ball, particularly when the other team is ripe for a counterattack. And I just almost never see him get dispossessed when he does this. It reminds me of Zidane’s or Iniesta’s marauding runs through the center. Both of those two made these runs a bit more and would try them often from wing positions as well, though, so those comparisons aren’t perfect. - Modric breaks up the opposing team’s play more than I’m used to seeing from such a playmaker. - Modric looks to me like he has tremendous range on his passing. From what I’ve seen, he goes for long balls to the wing fairly often and is very accurate with it.