That was an outrageous back pass from Zima. Understandable though when you're used to playing with Kolar in goal.
It's a remarkable progression: 2 Seasons ago - "Cesky Mbappe?", always dangerous and becomes the most expensive domestic transfer ever. Last season - Okay, that was too much but still an above average pacy midfield/striker with an eye for goal. This season - out of form back-up
So the first half after the goal was about the same as the senior teams vs Israel. Rather than take the initiative we seemed surprised by a trailing team actually trying to equalize. We have no real ideas outside of set pieces and crosses. Vydra is probably the best comparison since he had an explosive start on a poor Czech team and then made a jump in class he wasn't prepared for (also just probably most similar in style of play). Vydra made that jump 2 years younger than Matousek did though so he still benefited from being a "prospect" at Udinese. Slavia clearly purchased Matousek wanting him to be play immediately and instead put have put him in the loan army to offset their overspending
I'm not watching closely anymore. Hard to really be drawn to this team in all honesty. Certainly not the same feel and play of the 2015-2017 generation that had Schick, Jankto, Cerny, and Cermak cruising through that qualification run.
That Lithuania counterattack is directly a result of us depending on Sadilek and Janosek to drive attack instead of just provide linkup. Luckily their player didn't take advantage. I think any ambition of this U-21 team to accomplish much ended when Hlozek was promoted to the senior team.
We've started to get some actual attacking chances from combinations between Janosek and Bucha the last few minutes. A second goal would definitely put it away, and I've not seen much from Lithuania to make me think the 1 goal isn't enough. Matousek just missed on a header on the cross from Zitny... I already covered Matousek but Zitny had a fairly similar (lack of) progression the last few years.
Jedlicka makes a kick save to protect the result, honestly should have been an offside anyway. Uninspired performance again, but we may have accumulated enough points earlier in the campaign to survive despite worsening. We have Greece next, and they have lost every match since qualifying resumed. The result we most want from opposing teams is for Scotland and Croatia to draw.
I'm not expecting any changes to the lineup that defeated Israel and I'm fine with that. I'd say a win in Glasglow today will probably confirm our promotion to League A. I'm quite confident we'll beat Israel and Slovakia again in November (both at home) with a full strength squad hopefully. This game in particular (and all Nations League games really) is very important in determining our seeding for the World Cup 2022 qualifying draw. We're currently in Pot 3, and I already spoke of how I was skeptical we'd even rise to Pot 2 (had honestly given up hope after needlessly gifting Scotland a victory in September), but it appears we might be in a more promising position than initially thought... We go once more in October! 20 matches today to finish off a wild October in UEFA. Here’s how we project the World Cup qualifying pots and the remainder of the Nations League. Full update after tonight’s fixtures. pic.twitter.com/qVTHDYUaGV— We Global Football (@We_Global) October 14, 2020
I won't be bothered by same formation/ine-up, but personally I'd swap Kral & Darida's place within the midfield and maybe start Kaderabek/Sevcik over Masopust (who didn't do much against Israel).
No changes in lineup or formation confirmed. 🏴🇨🇿 Vítězná sestava se nemění. #Ceskarepre nastoupí proti Skotsku stejně jako v nedělním utkání. pic.twitter.com/qiRjolArdk— Česká fotbalová reprezentace (@ceskarepre_cz) October 14, 2020
Apart from McTominay, I think the rest of them are rather inexperienced Scottish league defenders. Have to like Vydra's chances of scoring again tonight.
I think Hovorka is actually our best CB despite his inexperience so this may be addition by subtraction.
This first half is not going to silence the Vydra haters missed the clear chance at the back post and only produced a tame header from the best crosses of the match.
Aside from the early goal giving Scotland more freedom to counterattack this is about what I was expecting. Lots more possession than purpose on our part. If we can hold them to one goal then I think we can probably stumble into an equalizer from a corner or cross, but we don't have enough goal-scoring potential in this lineup.
It's also a shame because he's otherwise along with Provod the only player doing anything in attack. I really don't think Kral - Soucek work as a holding pairing and with our current lack of attack think it makes since to put Kral in the Darida role or to replace Soucek with Sevcik.
I'd probably first replace Masopust with Sevcik, who add some creativity through the middle. Agree about playing Kral ahead of Darida though, he has played a few beautiful passes in behind the Scottish defence. Vydra has been super positive for us. I know our fans won't be happy with that miss, but he's been our most active and threatening player.
Our players seem very rattled though. They look almost discouraged, playing quite frantic and desperate towards the end of that half. Boril in particular needs to cool down as he's now on a yellow, although I can understand his frustrations because this ref blows. This is where it sucks not having our main voices in the team in Silhavy and Dockal.
I honestly forgot Masopust was playing. The goal was so stupidly preventable though, bad clearance by Vaclik, poor job by Kral/Provod to possess the ball from the back, and Kudela and Celustka both over commit to Dykes.
Now, we have shown that we can score two goals in quick succession on numerous occasion in the last year and a half: • going up 2-0 away to Montenegro • crawling back in that Northern Ireland friendly • the infamous Kosovo comeback and victory • again going up 2-0 in Slovakia in September Let's hope we can continue this run..