Old news but Stanek suffered a dislocated shoulder and torn ligaments, and will be sidelined for the remainder of the year. Hopefully he makes a full recovery as that can be a difficult injury to manage in that position. Regardless, it was always time for Kovar to gradually become the starter after this tournament and I expect Jedlicka will now break into the team as a result. Huge opportunity for Kinsky at Slavia too. Unfortunately, the most recent update is that Vlcek has severely injured his knee and is done for the season. Terrible for him and for Slavia as I feel he was poised for a transfer next summer. These injuries to players nearing their primes are so infuriating.
Few more injury notes ahead tomorrow’s squad announcement: Jurasek broke his forearm in a preseason friendly with Hoffenheim and is out indefinitely with no return date knowm. Sadilek has yet to return and only recently began walking normally again. Turns out this was far more serious than initially reported and he’s lucky he didn’t end his career in that stupid accident. In addition to those injuries, I believe Barak and Chory will serve suspensions for their red cards against Turkey, so I don’t expect either in the team (even if available for the second game). Definitely a first call up coming for Rynes, one of Kinsky or Jedlicka, and possibly Janosek. Those in contention for recalls would be Kral, Gabriel, Kusej, and Cvancara.
And Kinksy continues the tradition of "well he's developed enough to play in Champions League qualifying, but clearly not ready for the senior team yet..." If Yamal were Czech he'd be lucky to be on U-21 at his age.
Those back up goalies are so random and terrifying. The Euros have shown that we need more players in top leagues, not playing for Banik Ostrava and Hradec Kralove. I guess Jaros must be injured otherwise he’d be called up. Zeleny still lingering in the team is shocking for that reason too. I was a big advocate for Kalvach while Silhavy constantly ignored him, but now it feels like we missed his peak to be an international. At least Provod will now play in his actual position further forward and not beside Soucek.
Yep, this stupid practice of lending players to help the U-21 team is plaguing Czech football. Hasek probably said to Suchoparek, “Well I get Vitik and Jurasek, so you can have Kinsky. That’s fair.” Vitik is the other most recent example of this nonsense. Silhavy lent him to the U-21s last September and then Hasek did it this past March even after playing in his second U-21 Euros last summer and clearly outgrowing the level. There should be no negotiating between managers whatsoever. The senior team is always the priority.
I don’t usually cheer for Lithuania, but today I can’t help but hope they put an end to this miserable U-21 campaign and an end to the Suchoparek era.
As for a team that really knows how to underwhelm, I think the lineup tomorrow is fairly straight forward assuming no formation change. Kovar - Vitik, Hranac, Krejci - Coufal, Soucek, Kral, Rynes - Provod, Hlozek - Schick Maybe Cerv starts instead of Kral, but I’d prefer the experience of the latter. I’ll be most intrigued by the back three and how they function as a unit.
Zima over Vitik is a choice... also I don't dislike Cvancara but he's not played enough to justify staying over Hlozek.
Zima and Cvancara? Seriously? I mean, Zima I can only understand due to his pace, but we need to start building on Vitik who has a much higher ceiling. Unbelievable how we coddle our young talent at this level. Cvancara is most similar to Schick, so starting them both doesn’t really make sense to me, especially when he’s not started for club or country in forever. I hope the rest of the team is ready to play out from the back the way Kovar is.
I also somewhat expect a continuation of our last meeting with them, meaning we’ll resort to lots of crossing with little invention. Krejci will probably be instructed to step into the attacking half space to cross and Coufal to long throw right from the start because we have no real strategy.
To no surprise we’re trying to emulate Slavia and their current 3-4-3 where Provod plays out wide. This feels very much like a Silhavy lineup before the end of his tenure.
Basically a repeat from the game in June except we created far more chances at the Euros. This is utterly terrible. Enough of this three at the back bullshit.
Just as last summer, Georgia is everything we aren't. Bold, organized and playing above their ability. We play so far below its a miracle these players even accept the call up anymore when they can enjoy success at the club level.
Hasek had six months to prepare for Georgia ahead of the Euros. That was always going to be the game we absolutely needed to win. We failed, but there was enough shown to come away feeling unlucky and that we would beat them next time. To have another opportunity right after and blow it like that is inexcusable. Everyone knew exactly how Georgia would set up to play and yet we turned up so unprepared. It’s one of the worst managed games I can remember. I don’t see any signs of improvement or feel any reason to be optimistic of a turnaround at this point. There’s no distinct style, no tactics, no vision, and no fight. Hasek is truly what everyone feared he would be. The same animosity that was directed at Silhavy needs to be aimed at Fousek tenfold, and thankfully it already is from what I’ve seen. He’s the one to blame for the national team going in the complete opposite direction of our clubs over the last two years. Thank god the NFL is back to somewhat distract me from this garbage.
I think they only accept call ups because our national team currently resembles more of a raging frat where they can escape the accountability their clubs enforce. And to be fair, we do very much play like an intramural team made up of a bunch of randoms.
To put into numbers of just how bad we’ve been when playing in any back three formation since we started using it in 2022, here are the results: 22 - 7 W 7 D 8 L Our 32% winning percentage is flattering since we’ve only actually won three competitive matches, the rest being meaningless friendly wins against weak opposition. Out of those 22 games, we’ve managed to keep TWO clean sheets (both against Moldova), so clearly it’s not improving our defensive record either. I thought our best performance since 2022 was the Nations League loss to Switzerland when Silhavy switched back to 4-2-3-1 after the Portugal debacle… if that’s an indication as to what Hasek should do tomorrow.
If we lose, I hope we lose bad so that change is forced. If we win, I'll be happy too because I enjoy winning even if I think things aren't going well... I just loathe the idea of a boring draw that allows this failed staff to continue, which also feels like the most likely outcome.
I hope we win today for the sake of the players more than anything. There were some terrible individual performances on Saturday, but the whole team was set up to fail and has been this entire year under Hasek. In my opinion, this is nearly a must-win game and the performance better be our best in a longtime. To his credit, Silhavy was always able to inspire a response after his bad results and usually correct his mistakes (prior to 2023 that is). If Hasek can’t do the same, then it should be obvious to the FA that he’s not cut out for this job, but they can never be trusted to do the right thing. It’s different at the U-21 level where there’s a tournament every two years that we usually qualify for. We can afford to miss out next year knowing Suchoparek will then be replaced and the cycle of players will continue regardless. I couldn’t care less how they do today.
I don’t think Hasek has fielded a lineup where someone wasn’t out of position. This is incredibly desperate. Sure, leave both Schick and Hlozek on the bench because you don’t know how to play a modern style and surround them with players that suit them. He clearly has no plan but to hope that the club familiarity in defence and in attack will bail him out. We’re 100% going for the brash, emphatic physical approach that Slavia deployed in the second leg versus Lille. It may work, but it won’t be pretty. I’m not denying that Chory can be effective today, but it really speaks volumes of our coaching staff’s inability to work with one of our most technically gifted players ever.