Croatian League - Hrvatska nogometna liga

[swogerino]

It looks like Rijeka is sinking more and more. After a terrible start of the season, they are sitting at the seventh place out of ten teams. And if that's not enough, yesterday they have lost a cup match against Bijelo Brdo (the club is sitting in the last place of the second Croatian league). I really don't know what is going on with Rijeka and for how long will Rijeka's coach stay in the club.

Wasn't Rijeka just a couple of years ago fighting and dominating this league if I recall correctly,I follow all the Western Balkans leagues because I live and work in this region from many many years now,I feel a Balkaner now  .

I don't know for how long the coach has been there but I think that a coach needs a lot of time to improve the team,if he is there from a lot of time and has not improved anything in the team and in addition to that to go and lose a game with the last place team of the second league,I am afraid only firing him is the way forward.

[slackovic]

Wasn't Rijeka just a couple of years ago fighting and dominating this league if I recall correctly,I follow all the Western Balkans leagues because I live and work in this region from many many years now,I feel a Balkaner now  .

I don't know for how long the coach has been there but I think that a coach needs a lot of time to improve the team,if he is there from a lot of time and has not improved anything in the team and in addition to that to go and lose a game with the last place team of the second league,I am afraid only firing him is the way forward.

Yes it was. OK, I wouldn't say that they were dominating the league but they were in the top 2-3 teams. They were even champions few years ago. Serse Cosmi was appointed as a head coach in September so he is still relatively new. But it wouldn't surprise me for him to be sacked because of bas results. Especially after they lost in the Cup.

[swogerino]

Wasn't Rijeka just a couple of years ago fighting and dominating this league if I recall correctly,I follow all the Western Balkans leagues because I live and work in this region from many many years now,I feel a Balkaner now  .

I don't know for how long the coach has been there but I think that a coach needs a lot of time to improve the team,if he is there from a lot of time and has not improved anything in the team and in addition to that to go and lose a game with the last place team of the second league,I am afraid only firing him is the way forward.

Yes it was. OK, I wouldn't say that they were dominating the league but they were in the top 2-3 teams. They were even champions few years ago. Serse Cosmi was appointed as a head coach in September so he is still relatively new. But it wouldn't surprise me for him to be sacked because of bas results. Especially after they lost in the Cup.

Serse Cosmi,ex Periuggia coach in Serie A?Lol how things change in football,he was coaching in Serie A not that many years ago while he was also one of the good coaches there and now he is directing Rijeka in Croatia.I am not saying that Croatian league is a bad one but Serie A is a much stronger and competitive league.

The reason that they don't sack him maybe is exactly this,he is new as a coach and needs time and beside that I assume they pay him a lot since he has moved in a lower quality league compared to Italy,even if he was in other low quality leagues compared to Italy before coming here,I am sure he is being paid well.

[slackovic]

Wasn't Rijeka just a couple of years ago fighting and dominating this league if I recall correctly,I follow all the Western Balkans leagues because I live and work in this region from many many years now,I feel a Balkaner now  .

I don't know for how long the coach has been there but I think that a coach needs a lot of time to improve the team,if he is there from a lot of time and has not improved anything in the team and in addition to that to go and lose a game with the last place team of the second league,I am afraid only firing him is the way forward.

Yes it was. OK, I wouldn't say that they were dominating the league but they were in the top 2-3 teams. They were even champions few years ago. Serse Cosmi was appointed as a head coach in September so he is still relatively new. But it wouldn't surprise me for him to be sacked because of bas results. Especially after they lost in the Cup.

Serse Cosmi,ex Periuggia coach in Serie A?Lol how things change in football,he was coaching in Serie A not that many years ago while he was also one of the good coaches there and now he is directing Rijeka in Croatia.I am not saying that Croatian league is a bad one but Serie A is a much stronger and competitive league.

The reason that they don't sack him maybe is exactly this,he is new as a coach and needs time and beside that I assume they pay him a lot since he has moved in a lower quality league compared to Italy,even if he was in other low quality leagues compared to Italy before coming here,I am sure he is being paid well.

Don't worry, I know that Croatian league is not that good. Besides two or three teams, there are no more teams that I could consider do something in the European competitions.

It could be that he requested a lot of money in case they let him go so they don't have a choice. I don't think that constantly changing a head coach can bring any good to the team. Every new employee needs some time to adjust and coaches are no different. But in the way Rijeka is playing lately, I think it will be a success if they stay in the first league.

[Trofo]

The reason that they don't sack him maybe is exactly this,he is new as a coach and needs time and beside that I assume they pay him a lot since he has moved in a lower quality league compared to Italy,even if he was in other low quality leagues compared to Italy before coming here,I am sure he is being paid well.

I don't know the exact deal but I am sure he is paid much less then you think. Mišković (owner) is businessman and he runs a club like a business not a toy to play with it. All wages are quite realistic and on the low side. His favorite move is to take players that were destined for big things but their carrier went the wrong way. He made a lot of successful moves like that and he never gives problems to players when they want to leave, that makes Rijeka a nice place by the sea to come and revitalize your career.

[slackovic]

I don't know the exact deal but I am sure he is paid much less then you think. Mišković (owner) is businessman and he runs a club like a business not a toy to play with it. All wages are quite realistic and on the low side. His favorite move is to take players that were destined for big things but their carrier went the wrong way. He made a lot of successful moves like that and he never gives problems to players when they want to leave, that makes Rijeka a nice place by the sea to come and revitalize your career.

Honestly I didn't even know that he was once a successful coach in the Serie A so I didn't have any idea on how much he is being payed. Maybe he is good coach but the players are bad. I don't know. I just know that if they continue to play like this, they will end up fighting to stay in the first league and not fighting for a spot that takes them to some of the European competitions in the next season.

[swogerino]

I don't know the exact deal but I am sure he is paid much less then you think. Mišković (owner) is businessman and he runs a club like a business not a toy to play with it. All wages are quite realistic and on the low side. His favorite move is to take players that were destined for big things but their carrier went the wrong way. He made a lot of successful moves like that and he never gives problems to players when they want to leave, that makes Rijeka a nice place by the sea to come and revitalize your career.

Honestly I didn't even know that he was once a successful coach in the Serie A so I didn't have any idea on how much he is being payed. Maybe he is good coach but the players are bad. I don't know. I just know that if they continue to play like this, they will end up fighting to stay in the first league and not fighting for a spot that takes them to some of the European competitions in the next season.

So much foreign coaches from bigger leagues have come into Western Balkan leagues like in Vardar in N.Macedonia,like in Bosnia Hercegovina,Serbia and also Albania to bring their superior mentality but many of such times they could not.The problem is not the coaches coming from bigger leagues,the problem is the Western Balkan players mentality having a lot of trouble to harmonize themselves with this new mentality and as Trofo said most probably these coaches come by to enjoy nature and get a nice pay compared than doing nothing in their home countries.

The Western Balkan leagues need to believe more in their local coaches and to improve more their leagues by promoting local ambitious persons rather than importing,this is just my opinion after seeing so many failures from the "big coaches" coming here.

[slackovic]

So much foreign coaches from bigger leagues have come into Western Balkan leagues like in Vardar in N.Macedonia,like in Bosnia Hercegovina,Serbia and also Albania to bring their superior mentality but many of such times they could not.The problem is not the coaches coming from bigger leagues,the problem is the Western Balkan players mentality having a lot of trouble to harmonize themselves with this new mentality and as Trofo said most probably these coaches come by to enjoy nature and get a nice pay compared than doing nothing in their home countries.

The Western Balkan leagues need to believe more in their local coaches and to improve more their leagues by promoting local ambitious persons rather than importing,this is just my opinion after seeing so many failures from the "big coaches" coming here.

Actually in Croatia there hasn't been that much foreign coaches in the past. There were some, but most of the teams in the first league are trained by Croatian coaches. I'm not sure what is the problem with our clubs and why they can't perform at least as good as Dinamo Zagreb. That would bring more points in European competitions and as a result, more teams would play in those competitions. To me it looks like all of them are OK with Dinamo being number one and competing in the UCL and the rest of them are fighting for spots 2-4 that leads to UEFA European League and UEFA Conference League.

[Slow death]

So much foreign coaches from bigger leagues have come into Western Balkan leagues like in Vardar in N.Macedonia,like in Bosnia Hercegovina,Serbia and also Albania to bring their superior mentality but many of such times they could not.The problem is not the coaches coming from bigger leagues,the problem is the Western Balkan players mentality having a lot of trouble to harmonize themselves with this new mentality and as Trofo said most probably these coaches come by to enjoy nature and get a nice pay compared than doing nothing in their home countries.

The Western Balkan leagues need to believe more in their local coaches and to improve more their leagues by promoting local ambitious persons rather than importing,this is just my opinion after seeing so many failures from the "big coaches" coming here.

Actually in Croatia there hasn't been that much foreign coaches in the past. There were some, but most of the teams in the first league are trained by Croatian coaches. I'm not sure what is the problem with our clubs and why they can't perform at least as good as Dinamo Zagreb. That would bring more points in European competitions and as a result, more teams would play in those competitions. To me it looks like all of them are OK with Dinamo being number one and competing in the UCL and the rest of them are fighting for spots 2-4 that leads to UEFA European League and UEFA Conference League.

to solve this problem it is necessary for the person who manages football to put laws that facilitate the hiring of foreign coaches and players, most of the time the laws even allow the hiring of many foreign coaches, but as for the issue of hiring foreign players they are limited in numbers and to make matters worse, the salaries that teams pay are not pleasant for foreign coaches, but this is partly the fault of the people who run football who do not create laws so that teams can have many means of having money and being bought. by whoever wants

[Trofo]

So much foreign coaches from bigger leagues have come into Western Balkan leagues like in Vardar in N.Macedonia,like in Bosnia Hercegovina,Serbia and also Albania to bring their superior mentality but many of such times they could not.The problem is not the coaches coming from bigger leagues,the problem is the Western Balkan players mentality having a lot of trouble to harmonize themselves with this new mentality and as Trofo said most probably these coaches come by to enjoy nature and get a nice pay compared than doing nothing in their home countries.

The Western Balkan leagues need to believe more in their local coaches and to improve more their leagues by promoting local ambitious persons rather than importing,this is just my opinion after seeing so many failures from the "big coaches" coming here.

Actually in Croatia there hasn't been that much foreign coaches in the past. There were some, but most of the teams in the first league are trained by Croatian coaches. I'm not sure what is the problem with our clubs and why they can't perform at least as good as Dinamo Zagreb. That would bring more points in European competitions and as a result, more teams would play in those competitions. To me it looks like all of them are OK with Dinamo being number one and competing in the UCL and the rest of them are fighting for spots 2-4 that leads to UEFA European League and UEFA Conference League.

to solve this problem it is necessary for the person who manages football to put laws that facilitate the hiring of foreign coaches and players, most of the time the laws even allow the hiring of many foreign coaches, but as for the issue of hiring foreign players they are limited in numbers and to make matters worse, the salaries that teams pay are not pleasant for foreign coaches, but this is partly the fault of the people who run football who do not create laws so that teams can have many means of having money and being bought. by whoever wants

And now there will be one less foreign coach in Croatia. Everybody in Rijeka considers Cosmi as a history and I would say there is 99% chance he gets fired after Dinamo game. That is the last game before WC and whoever is managing our team would be expected to loose anyway. Better to count that loss under Cosmi, then fire him and give new manager a cleaner start and full month to work with the team.

[slackovic]

And now there will be one less foreign coach in Croatia. Everybody in Rijeka considers Cosmi as a history and I would say there is 99% chance he gets fired after Dinamo game. That is the last game before WC and whoever is managing our team would be expected to loose anyway. Better to count that loss under Cosmi, then fire him and give new manager a cleaner start and full month to work with the team.

This is to be expected. It doesn't matter which teams a coach was leading in the past, if the team that you lead is sitting at the end of the league table, a coach will be fired. It could be that they simply sold all the good players and signed bad ones but for the manager it's easier to let go the coach than to change the team.

Anyhow I hope that Rijeka will recover in the next part of the season.

[Daniel91]

And now there will be one less foreign coach in Croatia. Everybody in Rijeka considers Cosmi as a history and I would say there is 99% chance he gets fired after Dinamo game. That is the last game before WC and whoever is managing our team would be expected to loose anyway. Better to count that loss under Cosmi, then fire him and give new manager a cleaner start and full month to work with the team.

This is to be expected. It doesn't matter which teams a coach was leading in the past, if the team that you lead is sitting at the end of the league table, a coach will be fired. It could be that they simply sold all the good players and signed bad ones but for the manager it's easier to let go the coach than to change the team.

Anyhow I hope that Rijeka will recover in the next part of the season.

The saddest thing in the whole story is that the coach is the least guilty and will be fired because of the mistakes of others, first of all the owner of the club Miskovic.
Miskovic never had a long-term vision for Rijeka, but every year he did a big sale of players and every season Rijeka entered with a lot of new players.
It is always a very risky transfer policy because you never know what the new players will be like and whether they will show the necessary quality.
Former coach Kek was very good at creating a strong and good team from a lot of new players every new season, but in the long run that strategy was doomed and that's exactly what is happening in Rijeka now.
In my opinion, the current coach is doing a very good job, the best he can with what he currently has, and the one who should be replaced is actually the owner of the club, Miskovic. 

[slackovic]

The saddest thing in the whole story is that the coach is the least guilty and will be fired because of the mistakes of others, first of all the owner of the club Miskovic.
Miskovic never had a long-term vision for Rijeka, but every year he did a big sale of players and every season Rijeka entered with a lot of new players.
It is always a very risky transfer policy because you never know what the new players will be like and whether they will show the necessary quality.
Former coach Kek was very good at creating a strong and good team from a lot of new players every new season, but in the long run that strategy was doomed and that's exactly what is happening in Rijeka now.
In my opinion, the current coach is doing a very good job, the best he can with what he currently has, and the one who should be replaced is actually the owner of the club, Miskovic.  

True, but it's the same thing in every club when they start to have problems. It's always the coach who is guilty and fired even though they are rarely guilty. The same thing was modus operandi in Dinamo when Mamie was in charge. But for the management (Mišković in this case) it's the only thing they can do to change something. The only thing except firing a coach would be management leaving, but that will never happen if they see earning posibillity. I agree that Kek was a really good coach and he did great things with Rijeka. Too bad that current coach won't be able to show what he can do.

[Daniel91]

Did anyone watch the match between Hajduk and Slaven Belupo yesterday?
Again we saw a lot of things that have nothing to do with football and it turned out that Hajduk fans are probably the craziest in the country.
However, this match also showed what is the difference between Dinamo and Hajduk and why Dinamo will be champion again without any problems, and why Hajduk is far from that goal.
Dinamo has a lot of quality players in the team, and based on their great individual quality, Dinamo often wins matches in which they play worse than their opponents.
On the other hand, Hajduk does not have many quality players in the team and depends too much on one player, Livaja.
Because of this, it often happens that when Hajduk is close to victory, they don't know how to end the match and are left without important points.

[slackovic]

Did anyone watch the match between Hajduk and Slaven Belupo yesterday?
Again we saw a lot of things that have nothing to do with football and it turned out that Hajduk fans are probably the craziest in the country.
However, this match also showed what is the difference between Dinamo and Hajduk and why Dinamo will be champion again without any problems, and why Hajduk is far from that goal.
Dinamo has a lot of quality players in the team, and based on their great individual quality, Dinamo often wins matches in which they play worse than their opponents.
On the other hand, Hajduk does not have many quality players in the team and depends too much on one player, Livaja.
Because of this, it often happens that when Hajduk is close to victory, they don't know how to end the match and are left without important points.

I didn't watch the game but heard about fans throwing stuff at the assistant referee. And then someone asks why must fans at Croatian league games be in "cages". Exactly because od behavior like this. There is no excuse for this kind of behavior! No matter what referee did, he should never fear that a bottle or some other thing will hit him in the face.

As for the stuff you said, you are right. Hajduk will never overcome Dinamo until they solve problems in their game. Dinamo can afford to play without Petkovic and Hajduk can't afford to play without Livaja (even though I don't like him, he still is the best player in Hajduk).

[Daniel91]

As expected, after Rijeka's disastrous defeat against Dinamo, 7:2, Rijeka's coach was fired.
It seems to me that this is Rijeka's biggest home defeat in history.
The long-standing wrong club policy and the large sale of players after each season led to this disaster.
Once a big club that always fought for titles in the Croatian league and in Europe often participated in the group stages of European competitions, now it is fighting for survival in the Croatian league.
It's a shame how the club's management destroyed this club with wrong decisions and the president of Miskovic should be the first to leave because he is the most responsible for the current state of the club, not the former coach.

[hahay]

As expected, after Rijeka's disastrous defeat against Dinamo, 7:2, Rijeka's coach was fired.
It seems to me that this is Rijeka's biggest home defeat in history.
The long-standing wrong club policy and the large sale of players after each season led to this disaster.
Once a big club that always fought for titles in the Croatian league and in Europe often participated in the group stages of European competitions, now it is fighting for survival in the Croatian league.
It's a shame how the club's management destroyed this club with wrong decisions and the president of Miskovic should be the first to leave because he is the most responsible for the current state of the club, not the former coach.

After all, if I look at the history of Dinamo, it is indeed the team that has dominated the league the most and also, head to head against Reijeka, in fact, in the past, Dinamo also often won with big scores, such as 3-0, 4-0 and also 5-0. So this 7-2 defeat is the same as a five-goal gap which means Rijeka has also been used to this defeat before.
Also, in the last three seasons, Rijeka has also been inconsistent to be in second place or no longer able to compete in the title race.

Therefore, with Rijeka's performance declining during the last three seasons, I think it is only natural that Rijeka did not recover during that period.
So of course, their position will fall further but even so, Rijeka is still safe to be in the league next season because I believe they will still be able to survive at least in the middle of the table.

[slackovic]

As expected, after Rijeka's disastrous defeat against Dinamo, 7:2, Rijeka's coach was fired.
It seems to me that this is Rijeka's biggest home defeat in history.
The long-standing wrong club policy and the large sale of players after each season led to this disaster.
Once a big club that always fought for titles in the Croatian league and in Europe often participated in the group stages of European competitions, now it is fighting for survival in the Croatian league.
It's a shame how the club's management destroyed this club with wrong decisions and the president of Miskovic should be the first to leave because he is the most responsible for the current state of the club, not the former coach.

Yeah, too bad for Rijeka. Everyone expected that Cosmi will be let go after the game against Dinamo. I honestly did not expect them to lose 7-2. It's not a matter of the goal-gap, the problem is that Dinamo scored seven times against Rijeka. For someone who doesn't follow Croatian league it wouldn't be that surprising that Dinamo scored that many goals against the club who is sitting near the bottom of the league. But for those who remember Rijeka as the club who is always in one of the first spots of the league, it's surprising. But like you said, the management and their lousy decisions should be the first to leave. Not the coach.

[Daniel91]

As expected, after Rijeka's disastrous defeat against Dinamo, 7:2, Rijeka's coach was fired.
It seems to me that this is Rijeka's biggest home defeat in history.
The long-standing wrong club policy and the large sale of players after each season led to this disaster.
Once a big club that always fought for titles in the Croatian league and in Europe often participated in the group stages of European competitions, now it is fighting for survival in the Croatian league.
It's a shame how the club's management destroyed this club with wrong decisions and the president of Miskovic should be the first to leave because he is the most responsible for the current state of the club, not the former coach.

Yeah, too bad for Rijeka. Everyone expected that Cosmi will be let go after the game against Dinamo. I honestly did not expect them to lose 7-2. It's not a matter of the goal-gap, the problem is that Dinamo scored seven times against Rijeka. For someone who doesn't follow Croatian league it wouldn't be that surprising that Dinamo scored that many goals against the club who is sitting near the bottom of the league. But for those who remember Rijeka as the club who is always in one of the first spots of the league, it's surprising. But like you said, the management and their lousy decisions should be the first to leave. Not the coach.

I think that Cosmi is a very good coach, but he simply did not have the right support from the club management and the right players to achieve better results.
Rijeka fans are very bitter and angry, currently there is a lot of negative news and energy around the club and I think that this season is definitely lost for Rijeka.
Next season, they will not be placed in the European competition, for the first time in a long time, because of this they will be much less attractive for new players and sponsors, and I think that Rijeka is waiting for a very long period of recovery and returning to the old paths of glory.
Dinamo will continue to be untouchable in the Croatian league, while Hajduk, Osijek and the ever-improving Slaven will fight for European competitions.

[slackovic]

I think that Cosmi is a very good coach, but he simply did not have the right support from the club management and the right players to achieve better results.
Rijeka fans are very bitter and angry, currently there is a lot of negative news and energy around the club and I think that this season is definitely lost for Rijeka.
Next season, they will not be placed in the European competition, for the first time in a long time, because of this they will be much less attractive for new players and sponsors, and I think that Rijeka is waiting for a very long period of recovery and returning to the old paths of glory.
Dinamo will continue to be untouchable in the Croatian league, while Hajduk, Osijek and the ever-improving Slaven will fight for European competitions.

I agree and that's really sad for a club like Rijeka. I hope they will recover from this but it will take a long time. I don't understand how the club management thinks that this is a good way to do business. This way they will lose many of their fans and with that, a lot of money that comes from sponsors and tickets. I'm not sure what kind of deal Miskovic have but he too probably have someone to answer if the results are bad. I mean, he probably doesn't own the club. Or does he?