Andrija Novakovich at Calcio Lecco 1912 (Serie B)

Why didn't Venezia come for him?

 

Venezia, or Spezia before the transfer ban? That's what I wondered. The same went for Horvath.

From those club's choices, it indicates to me they have motivation to tap the American market, but not so much the knowledge of the pool. They could pick the brains of some of the posters here, and it would work better, frankly.

 

Plays tomorrow afternoon against Veneziamerica in the Cup. It's an audition, before the window closes, to join the fun.

That may be the YA game to watch. But KDLF has a shout.

 

Unfortunately tonight's game won't be the Yankfest it could have been. Novakovich has missed the entire preseason so far and is not in the squad for the game. As far as I can tell from the club's news, he underwent surgery in the US in June for what I interpret to be some kind of hernia ("problema inguinale"), and will be re-assessed by the team after Aug. 20.

This would also make me doubt the rumors of Red Star Belgrade (or any Serie B clubs) trying to line up a transfer in this window.

Moderately off-topic...Tessmann is the only one of the two Venezia Americans in their squad for tonight's game.

 

May have explained not being considered for the GC or NL games?

 

There's such poor coverage of him/Serie B that nothing was mentioned on Twitter of an injury or surgery until today.

That, and Busio being surprisingly excluded from Venezia's roster, certainly kills the interest of what potentially would have been a very compelling game.

 

Busio only got there a few days ago. Not surprising if they leave him out of the first game after his arrival. Will be interesting if Tessman gets a start today.

 

It's actually worse than that. I only checked the Frosinone and Venezia sites since I noticed this morning that the game was being carried by DAZN here, and was deciding whether it was worth taking a couple hours to watch it. Novakovich was just listed as "Infortunio" in the squad announcement, so I had to dig back to their mid-July team news before I found a couple more words about what's going on. I think teams are a bit more limited nowadays on what they can report on injuries due to tightening of European privacy laws.

With Busio, I'm not surprised he's out of this one since he just joined the team a few days ago. If they integrate him quickly, he'll have a much more eye-opening trial by fire next weekend in their opener against Napoli.

 

Back in the squad:

Sono 2️⃣3️⃣ i giallazzurri convocati da mister Grosso per LR Vicenza - Frosinone

👇🏻 pic.twitter.com/ug9UCCYKiW

— Frosinone Calcio (@Frosinone1928) August 27, 2021

 

According to kicker.de it seems he was dropped from the final roster. My guess is they are just bringing him back slowly. The team update from Thursday listed him as "partially" in training ("Parzialmente in gruppo Novakovich").

 

Another tease?

Sono 2️⃣5️⃣ i giallazzurri convocati da mister Grosso per Frosinone-Perugia

👇🏻https://t.co/Fpv92t00Im pic.twitter.com/3MYtNhvh3O

— Frosinone Calcio (@Frosinone1928) September 10, 2021

 

He didn’t start and they drew 0-0. I think he stayed on the bench.

 

I don't understand the career arc his agent wants for him. He's already proven he can score at a higher level than Serie B, imo.

 

Then I guess Grosso is benching him to be fair to the other teams.

 

Injuries may give him a shot at getting back into the lineup:

Grosso announced his squad for the trip to Reggio Calabria and both Canotto & Charpentier will be out due to injury. Expect American striker Andrija Novakovich to step up in their absences pic.twitter.com/gYDDi8CzLz

— Reggina Fans (@regginafans) September 24, 2021

 

Well, not into the starting lineup today:

Scendiamo in campo così 👊🏻 #RegFro pic.twitter.com/wVf59VcXS3

— Frosinone Calcio (@Frosinone1928) September 25, 2021

Should be on the bench:

Sono 2️⃣3️⃣ i giallazzurri convocati da mister Grosso per Reggina-Frosinone

👇🏻https://t.co/vW4MbMIR6b pic.twitter.com/dSEa3NoXei

— Frosinone Calcio (@Frosinone1928) September 24, 2021

 

🔴 LIVE #RegginaFrosinone

71’ | 🔄 Doppio cambio per il Frosinone
⤴️ Dentro Novakovich e Lulic
⤵️ Fuori Ciano e Garritano

— Frosinone Calcio (@Frosinone1928) September 25, 2021

 

It's ending with Frosinone trying hard, but they don't seem to find the final pass. They should beat Reggina, last season they beat them away 0-4.

And as I type this Frosinone misses the best chance in the game. Nova not involved, though.

 

Nova back-passes in midfield to a Reggina guy who steals the ball with empty room ahead. Nova retreats in a panic and fouls him. Yellow for our guy.


It's over. Reggina nearly steals it at the end. The problem with Nova is that they always missed the final pass and he was the guy at the end of that final pass. So he didn't see much of the ball.

And, then, there's the pass to the Reggina guy completely unmarked. I guess the cost/benefit analysis forced Nova to become a bencher.

PS: He had a good run on the left, but no one was supporting it so it fizzled out.

 

This is dishonest. He's coming back from surgery. Before that he was one of their key players.

 

He's been on the bench four games already. Today he finally played.

Were he still injured, he wouldn't be on the bench. Bottom line: you're on the bench = you're fit to play. If you don't play, then you're a bencher.

We'll see how it goes, but that's what he is right now.

 

Came on in the 57th and scored the tying goal in a 1-1 draw.

 

This may help him regain his starting spot. Good game for him, actually. He was a constant threat since coming in.

 

Played the last 30 minutes of a 2-1 win. Both Frosinone goals were before he came on.

 

Off the bench in 61st:

🇮🇹 Serie B

🧐🇺🇸 Novakovich subbed on for the last 30+ minutes in Frosinone's 2-1 victory over Ascoli today pic.twitter.com/aYTkDmPC8w

— 🇺🇸 ⚽ east (@eastdeflection) October 23, 2021