Lukáš Štetina is back, so Sparta has four stoppers. What will this do to Martin Vitík’s position?

There is one very good news for all Spartans and coach Pavel Vrba at the start of the preparation. Lukáš Štetina returns after almost a year-long injury and is such a “hidden” reinforcement. Sparta has 4 stoppers, which is certainly great, but not for everyone.

Due to the high turnover at the beginning of the spring, Václav Kotal opted for the so-called emergency option. He pulled young Martin Vitík into the lineup, who rewarded him with great performances.

the 18-year-old stopper remained in the line-up after Pavel Vrba’s arrival, who even moved Dávid Hancko to left-back for him. One could almost say that, at least at the beginning of the spring, Vitík-Celůstka was the better Sparta player.

However, towards the end of the season, Pavel Vrba had already dropped the young stopper, betting on the pair of Čelůstka-Hancko, with either Matěj Polidar or Matěj Hanousek at left-back.

The arrival of left-back Casper Höjer is certainly unwelcome news for Vitek, with Dávid Hancko moving permanently to full-back. In addition, Sparta’s number 1 stopper from last year, Lukas Stetina, has recovered. And he definitely won’t want to just sit on the bench.

Leten’s currently have four quality stoppers, but all of them are making demands on the starting lineup. Ondřej Čelůstka, Dávid Hancko, Lukáš Štetina, Martin Vitík. Moreover, Pavel Vrba relies on a 4-2-3-1 formation, so a three-stopper format is out of the question.

What to do now with this overload? If Sparta make it to the European Cups, the burden can be spread out a bit However, it is 100% unlikely that Pavel Vrba will rotate the stopper pairing for every game, he will make as few changes to this position as possible.

Ondřej Čelůstka will probably be the number one stopper. The national team stopper came from Turkey before the season and had a lot of trust from both coaches. Dávid Hancock, on the other hand, was bought by Sparta from Fiorentina as their fourth most expensive player in history, so his place in the lineup is also almost certain.

And there are two stoppers whose future is uncertain. It is not yet known how Stetina will fare after a long injury, and Sparta should have registered offers from abroad for Vitik, but they have been rejected.

So far, it looks like Letná’s players will have completely opposite worries after a long time at the stopper position. While there were few quality players available before, now there are too many.

Source: AC Sparta Praha