Croatian League - Hrvatska nogometna liga

[Daniel91]

/snip
The winner of the Croatian Cup no longer has a direct place in the qualification for the European League due to the poor rating of Croatian clubs in European competitions.

Oh, that's too bad. I read it in some last year's article that the winner of the cup will play in the Europa league. Probably Croatia's coefficient changed since that article was published. I remember the headlines last year saying how there's a chance that half of the HNL could play in the European competitions but since then our coefficient dropped drastically due to clubs playing badly last season. It would be great if that was the case.

The biggest problem of Croatian club football is that for the last 3-4 seasons only Dynamo has achieved good results and is competitive in European competitions.
All other Croatian clubs are very weak and uncompetitive in European club competitions and are eliminated very early in European club competitions, against objectively weaker clubs from Malta or Kazakhstan, for example.
Only one club cannot push the entire Croatian club football, someone has to join. Previously it was Rijeka, but currently only Dinamo has a notable role in Europe.
In the end, I think we should congratulate the new or old champion of Croatia in football, and if anyone doubted it, it's Dinamo again. 

[slackovic]

The biggest problem of Croatian club football is that for the last 3-4 seasons only Dynamo has achieved good results and is competitive in European competitions.
All other Croatian clubs are very weak and uncompetitive in European club competitions and are eliminated very early in European club competitions, against objectively weaker clubs from Malta or Kazakhstan, for example.
Only one club cannot push the entire Croatian club football, someone has to join. Previously it was Rijeka, but currently only Dinamo has a notable role in Europe.
In the end, I think we should congratulate the new or old champion of Croatia in football, and if anyone doubted it, it's Dinamo again. 

Yes, congratulations to Dinamo who secured another title in the row. As for the European competitions, when you look at the teams that are competing in the HNL, there really is no need for more than four teams to compete in the European competitions. I don't follow other "weak" nation's leagues but I don't see how Istra, Slaven, Varaždin or some other club could beat some team in Europe.

The struggle to avoid the last place in the league continues. Yesterday Gorica manages to get one point after losing 2-0 against Lokomotiva. It's an important point because Šibenik lost to Istra and is now at the last place of the league.

[Daniel91]

The biggest problem of Croatian club football is that for the last 3-4 seasons only Dynamo has achieved good results and is competitive in European competitions.
All other Croatian clubs are very weak and uncompetitive in European club competitions and are eliminated very early in European club competitions, against objectively weaker clubs from Malta or Kazakhstan, for example.
Only one club cannot push the entire Croatian club football, someone has to join. Previously it was Rijeka, but currently only Dinamo has a notable role in Europe.
In the end, I think we should congratulate the new or old champion of Croatia in football, and if anyone doubted it, it's Dinamo again.  

Yes, congratulations to Dinamo who secured another title in the row. As for the European competitions, when you look at the teams that are competing in the HNL, there really is no need for more than four teams to compete in the European competitions. I don't follow other "weak" nation's leagues but I don't see how Istra, Slaven, Varaždin or some other club could beat some team in Europe.

The struggle to avoid the last place in the league continues. Yesterday Gorica manages to get one point after losing 2-0 against Lokomotiva. It's an important point because Šibenik lost to Istra and is now at the last place of the league.

Dinamo is really dominant in the Croatian league, they were champions 17 times in the last 18 years. I don't know if there is such an example in any other European league.
The other Croatian clubs are simply not at the level of Dinamo in terms of organization and finances, and this is clearly visible when they compete in European club competitions and when our clubs are regularly eliminated in the first preliminary rounds by clubs from Malta, Ireland or Kazakhstan.
On that side, you are right, if we were represented in Europe by clubs like Slaven or Istria, the situation would probably be even worse for Croatian club football.
In any case, it seems to me that 4 rounds before the end of the Croatian league, almost everything is clear. Dinamo is the champion of Croatia again, in the European club competitions we will be represented by Hajduk, Rijeka and Osijek, and Gorica or Sibenik will be eliminated from the league.

[Slow death]

The biggest problem of Croatian club football is that for the last 3-4 seasons only Dynamo has achieved good results and is competitive in European competitions.
All other Croatian clubs are very weak and uncompetitive in European club competitions and are eliminated very early in European club competitions, against objectively weaker clubs from Malta or Kazakhstan, for example.
Only one club cannot push the entire Croatian club football, someone has to join. Previously it was Rijeka, but currently only Dinamo has a notable role in Europe.
In the end, I think we should congratulate the new or old champion of Croatia in football, and if anyone doubted it, it's Dinamo again.  

Yes, congratulations to Dinamo who secured another title in the row. As for the European competitions, when you look at the teams that are competing in the HNL, there really is no need for more than four teams to compete in the European competitions. I don't follow other "weak" nation's leagues but I don't see how Istra, Slaven, Varaždin or some other club could beat some team in Europe.

The struggle to avoid the last place in the league continues. Yesterday Gorica manages to get one point after losing 2-0 against Lokomotiva. It's an important point because Šibenik lost to Istra and is now at the last place of the league.

Dinamo is really dominant in the Croatian league, they were champions 17 times in the last 18 years. I don't know if there is such an example in any other European league.
The other Croatian clubs are simply not at the level of Dinamo in terms of organization and finances, and this is clearly visible when they compete in European club competitions and when our clubs are regularly eliminated in the first preliminary rounds by clubs from Malta, Ireland or Kazakhstan.
On that side, you are right, if we were represented in Europe by clubs like Slaven or Istria, the situation would probably be even worse for Croatian club football.
In any case, it seems to me that 4 rounds before the end of the Croatian league, almost everything is clear. Dinamo is the champion of Croatia again, in the European club competitions we will be represented by Hajduk, Rijeka and Osijek, and Gorica or Sibenik will be eliminated from the league.

I believe that the problem is always with politicians who, when they come to power, don't know how to look at sport, soccer is a business, when the government looks at soccer as a business and takes politics aside, then soccer evolves in the country, I don't I know the Croatian laws about soccer, but I imagine it must be the same as in countries where in leagues there is only one team to dominate the league. what needs to be done in my opinion is that laws be passed that allow clubs to be bought by anyone, that foreign players can be placed in teams but leave only 3 players native to the country, that encourage companies in the country to sponsor the league and teams, which encourage people to go watch the games

as for the teams, they need to have properties that allow them to rent in order to have more money to pay operating costs, they need to use social networks to have more money, they need to sell players to have more money, everyone knows that currently they win team with more money, in a league a team with very low budget will be relegated and unlikely to be in the main league again, in a league where there is not much money as a prize for the winner and does not have good laws about soccer will not attract rich people to buy the teams, because the rich want to make a profit, he buys a team to make a profit and when he knows he won't make a profit he won't buy the team

[FatFork]

I stumbled across this graph on Twitter yesterday and I thought it'd be pretty cool to share it here. It really puts into perspective just how crucial Livaja is for Hajduk.

Minimum minutes per direct participation for a goal in the #HNL this season provided the player has played at least 1000 minutes

The graph compares the number of minutes played and the number of direct participations in a goal (goals and assists) and includes all 328 players (excluding goalkeepers) who have played this season.

1️⃣ Bruno Petković - 90 minutes
2️⃣ Marko Livaja - 91 minutes
3️⃣ Diona Drena Beljo - 114 minutes
4️⃣ Ante Erceg - 125 minutes
5️⃣ Matija Frigan - 128 minutes

Source: https://twitter.com/MarkoSilov/status/1654047796423426050?s=20

[slackovic]

I stumbled across this graph on Twitter yesterday and I thought it'd be pretty cool to share it here. It really puts into perspective just how crucial Livaja is for Hajduk.

/snip

Yeah, I can't stand that guy but he is Hajduk's most important player. But in my opinion he is not that good player and it only shows how bad the other players in the team are.

[Daniel91]

I stumbled across this graph on Twitter yesterday and I thought it'd be pretty cool to share it here. It really puts into perspective just how crucial Livaja is for Hajduk.

/snip

Yeah, I can't stand that guy but he is Hajduk's most important player. But in my opinion he is not that good player and it only shows how bad the other players in the team are.

Let's not exaggerate, Livaja is really important for the Hajduk team, but he is not their only quality player.
Some other very experienced and quality footballers like Kalinić, Krovinović, Melnjak, new young hope Vušković and others also play for Hajduk.
So, the problem is not in the lack of quality of the Hajduk team, but in the concept and strategy of their game, which is based on a simple formula: "Give Livaja the ball and he will do something".
That is why Hajduk is actually very easy to stop, and all of his opponents already know in advance that if they stop Livaja, they have also stopped Hajduk. Hajduk without Livaja simply has no alternative solutions.

[slackovic]

Let's not exaggerate, Livaja is really important for the Hajduk team, but he is not their only quality player.
Some other very experienced and quality footballers like Kalinić, Krovinović, Melnjak, new young hope Vušković and others also play for Hajduk.
So, the problem is not in the lack of quality of the Hajduk team, but in the concept and strategy of their game, which is based on a simple formula: "Give Livaja the ball and he will do something".
That is why Hajduk is actually very easy to stop, and all of his opponents already know in advance that if they stop Livaja, they have also stopped Hajduk. Hajduk without Livaja simply has no alternative solutions.

I'm not following Hajduk games so I wasn't sure about the quality of other players. I guess you are right that the problem is in the tactics. But if every coach they had is doing the same tactics, why do they change the coaches at all? I thought that changing of a coach means that the management is not happy with the tactic that he is using. But if everything stays the same after they change a coach, what's the point?

[Daniel91]

Let's not exaggerate, Livaja is really important for the Hajduk team, but he is not their only quality player.
Some other very experienced and quality footballers like Kalinić, Krovinović, Melnjak, new young hope Vušković and others also play for Hajduk.
So, the problem is not in the lack of quality of the Hajduk team, but in the concept and strategy of their game, which is based on a simple formula: "Give Livaja the ball and he will do something".
That is why Hajduk is actually very easy to stop, and all of his opponents already know in advance that if they stop Livaja, they have also stopped Hajduk. Hajduk without Livaja simply has no alternative solutions.

I'm not following Hajduk games so I wasn't sure about the quality of other players. I guess you are right that the problem is in the tactics. But if every coach they had is doing the same tactics, why do they change the coaches at all? I thought that changing of a coach means that the management is not happy with the tactic that he is using. But if everything stays the same after they change a coach, what's the point?

In my opinion, Hajduk is a club with a great history, with great fans, but amateurish management, without a clear strategy and plan. That's why they haven't been champions for almost 20 years and won't be champions for the next 20 years either.
The club's coaches probably don't have the courage to go against the expectations of the club's management and especially the fans, which means that the game has to go through the fans' idol Livaja, and everyone else is just his assistants.
Dinamo also has its own problems because of the Mamić brothers, but that will soon be resolved, and the club is already professionally managed and therefore at a much higher organizational and financial level compared to the rest of the Croatian league, including Hajduk.
Rijeka and Osijek are slowly rising as the end of the season approaches, so it seems that there will be no surprises in the Croatian league this season.

[slackovic]

In my opinion, Hajduk is a club with a great history, with great fans, but amateurish management, without a clear strategy and plan. That's why they haven't been champions for almost 20 years and won't be champions for the next 20 years either.
The club's coaches probably don't have the courage to go against the expectations of the club's management and especially the fans, which means that the game has to go through the fans' idol Livaja, and everyone else is just his assistants.
Dinamo also has its own problems because of the Mamić brothers, but that will soon be resolved, and the club is already professionally managed and therefore at a much higher organizational and financial level compared to the rest of the Croatian league, including Hajduk.
Rijeka and Osijek are slowly rising as the end of the season approaches, so it seems that there will be no surprises in the Croatian league this season.

It will be interesting to see who will leave Dinamo and who will they sign because this season some important players already left (I'm mainly talking about the captain Ademi) and other big names are announced to be leaving the club too. I hope they will bring some good new players so they don't end their European season too early.

As for other teams that will compete in Europe, I don't have high expectations so every positive result will surprise me.

[Lucius]

~snip~
But if every coach they had is doing the same tactics, why do they change the coaches at all? I thought that changing of a coach means that the management is not happy with the tactic that he is using. But if everything stays the same after they change a coach, what's the point?

I think that by frequently changing coaches, the club's management just wants to somehow justify doing something, because if they don't replace the coach after a series of bad results, someone will wonder if they (the management) should be replaced. It's hard to keep track of how many times a club has changed its coach in one HNL season, but if a club does it 3 or 4 times during the season, then the problem is definitely not with the coaches, but somewhere else.

If we take the example of Hajduk and Leko, who was brought in with great noise, we see that he is a man who is not and will not change anything. For those who followed a little better what happened around his arrival, it was possible to read that his vision of the game and the players that Hajduk has were not compatible from the beginning.

[Daniel91]

In my opinion, Hajduk is a club with a great history, with great fans, but amateurish management, without a clear strategy and plan. That's why they haven't been champions for almost 20 years and won't be champions for the next 20 years either.
The club's coaches probably don't have the courage to go against the expectations of the club's management and especially the fans, which means that the game has to go through the fans' idol Livaja, and everyone else is just his assistants.
Dinamo also has its own problems because of the Mamić brothers, but that will soon be resolved, and the club is already professionally managed and therefore at a much higher organizational and financial level compared to the rest of the Croatian league, including Hajduk.
Rijeka and Osijek are slowly rising as the end of the season approaches, so it seems that there will be no surprises in the Croatian league this season.

It will be interesting to see who will leave Dinamo and who will they sign because this season some important players already left (I'm mainly talking about the captain Ademi) and other big names are announced to be leaving the club too. I hope they will bring some good new players so they don't end their European season too early.

As for other teams that will compete in Europe, I don't have high expectations so every positive result will surprise me.

According to current information, Livakovic will most likely leave at the end of the season, and probably Petkovic too. Along with Orsic and Ademi, these are 4 key players in Dinamo's team this and previous seasons and it will be very difficult to replace them.
The new sports director of the club Šimić will have a very difficult task to find worthy replacements for such players and for Dinamo to be competitive again in European club competitions.
As for the other Croatian clubs in Europe next season, Hajduk, Rijeka and Osijek, they are too weak for European competition and we should not expect much from them, possibly to pass one or two rounds of European pre-qualifications.

[Daniel91]

The Croatian football league is coming to an end, there is currently a dramatic fight for places that lead to European competitions, but it seems that no one is paying attention 
Currently, Rijeka, Osijek, Varazdin and Istria are fighting for 2 places that lead to European club competitions and two rounds before the end of the championship, everything is completely uncertain and open.
It seems that the match in the last round between Osijek and Rijeka could decide one or both clubs that will play in Europe.
Varazdin has not played in European club competitions for 20 years, and Istria has never, so for them playing in Europe would really be a huge success.

[slackovic]

The Croatian football league is coming to an end, there is currently a dramatic fight for places that lead to European competitions, but it seems that no one is paying attention 
Currently, Rijeka, Osijek, Varazdin and Istria are fighting for 2 places that lead to European club competitions and two rounds before the end of the championship, everything is completely uncertain and open.
It seems that the match in the last round between Osijek and Rijeka could decide one or both clubs that will play in Europe.
Varazdin has not played in European club competitions for 20 years, and Istria has never, so for them playing in Europe would really be a huge success.

There's also a battle to avoid relegation between Šibenik and Gorica. Šibenik is playing against Osijek who is fighting for a place that leads to the European cometitions and Gorica is playing against Varaždin who has nothing to fight for as they are sitting comfortably in the middle of the table. Gorica needs to draw in order to avoid relegation while Šibenik needs to win and hope that Gorica will lose their game.

As for the upper part of the table, I think that Osijek will beat Šibenik and that Rijeka will lose against Dinamo which will put Rijeka on the third place and Osijek fourth.

[Daniel91]

The Croatian football league is coming to an end, there is currently a dramatic fight for places that lead to European competitions, but it seems that no one is paying attention 
Currently, Rijeka, Osijek, Varazdin and Istria are fighting for 2 places that lead to European club competitions and two rounds before the end of the championship, everything is completely uncertain and open.
It seems that the match in the last round between Osijek and Rijeka could decide one or both clubs that will play in Europe.
Varazdin has not played in European club competitions for 20 years, and Istria has never, so for them playing in Europe would really be a huge success.

There's also a battle to avoid relegation between Šibenik and Gorica. Šibenik is playing against Osijek who is fighting for a place that leads to the European cometitions and Gorica is playing against Varaždin who has nothing to fight for as they are sitting comfortably in the middle of the table. Gorica needs to draw in order to avoid relegation while Šibenik needs to win and hope that Gorica will lose their game.

As for the upper part of the table, I think that Osijek will beat Šibenik and that Rijeka will lose against Dinamo which will put Rijeka on the third place and Osijek fourth.

Sibenik convincingly lost against Osijek and is now in a very difficult situation and most likely the main candidate for relegation from the league.
I would not really agree with you that Varazdin has nothing special to fight for. Varazdin actually has a historic chance to play again in a European club competition after almost 25 years.
If Rijeka loses to Dinamo, they will be fourth, not third, and will find themselves in a very difficult situation in the ranking of the first Croatian league, because they play in Osijek in the last round, and it could very easily happen that they do not qualify for the European club competition.
In any case, a very uncertain championship awaits us until the end.

[slackovic]

So, before the last round of the HNL the only question is which club will finish at the third place and play in the UEFA Conference league. And it will be the winner of the match between Osijek and Rijeka. Since Osijek has 1 point advantage, they will be OK with a draw while Rijeka needs a win.

All other important places are secured so Šibenik will be relegated, Dinamo is the champion and Hajduk is the second and will play in the UEFA Conference league.

[Daniel91]

So, before the last round of the HNL the only question is which club will finish at the third place and play in the UEFA Conference league. And it will be the winner of the match between Osijek and Rijeka. Since Osijek has 1 point advantage, they will be OK with a draw while Rijeka needs a win.

All other important places are secured so Šibenik will be relegated, Dinamo is the champion and Hajduk is the second and will play in the UEFA Conference league.

In fact, it doesn't matter which team will end up third and which fourth, because both teams will play in the European conference league.
Even if Sibenik beat Hajduk today in the final of the Croatian Cup, they will not play in European club competitions because they are the only Croatian first league club that did not pay for the UEFA license to participate in European club competitions.
Obviously, at the beginning of the season, the club did not hope for such an opportunity to play in the European club competition 
So, in the round before the end in the Croatian league, everything is completely clear, Dinamo is first and will play the qualifiers for the Champions League, and Hajduk, Rijeka and Osijek will play the qualifiers for the European Conference League.

[slackovic]

In fact, it doesn't matter which team will end up third and which fourth, because both teams will play in the European conference league.
Even if Sibenik beat Hajduk today in the final of the Croatian Cup, they will not play in European club competitions because they are the only Croatian first league club that did not pay for the UEFA license to participate in European club competitions.
Obviously, at the beginning of the season, the club did not hope for such an opportunity to play in the European club competition 
So, in the round before the end in the Croatian league, everything is completely clear, Dinamo is first and will play the qualifiers for the Champions League, and Hajduk, Rijeka and Osijek will play the qualifiers for the European Conference League.

Right... I forgot that the cup winner gets a place in the qualifications for the UEFA Conference league. Nothing can be changed in the last round. I know that Šibenik didn't pay for the license so we know all the clubs that will compete in the European competitions.

[Trofo]

I stumbled across this graph on Twitter yesterday and I thought it'd be pretty cool to share it here. It really puts into perspective just how crucial Livaja is for Hajduk.

Now do that same graph but without penalties 

Sorry had to do it. Congrats to Hajduk for taking the cup, I just hope they will not destroy too much of my city while celebrating. Some parts of the stadium already paid the price.

[Daniel91]

I stumbled across this graph on Twitter yesterday and I thought it'd be pretty cool to share it here. It really puts into perspective just how crucial Livaja is for Hajduk.

Now do that same graph but without penalties 

Sorry had to do it. Congrats to Hajduk for taking the cup, I just hope they will not destroy too much of my city while celebrating. Some parts of the stadium already paid the price.

Yes, Hajduk once again won the consolation prize, the Croatian Cup, while they can only dream of the title of national champion.
It's unbelievable to me that instead of enjoying football, we have to talk about the fans and the city was almost a war zone with a lot of police.
Dinamo will continue to dominate the Croatian league for years to come, and what interests me now is how much our clubs can do in the upcoming qualifications for European club competitions.
I think that only Dinamo has a real chance to get into the group stage of a European competition again.