Jankt failed in the barrage, he lacked an automatic thought, thinks Podany

The Czech national team started the barrage match in Sweden (0::1) with many surprises in the line-up, one of them was the deployment of Jakub Jankt as a left wing-back. The Getafe midfielder was not very good in defence, which was also discussed in the CT Sport podcast.

Jaroslav Šilhavy did not have a number of supports at his disposal. Besides Patrik Schick, the complete defence from the summer European Championship (Jan Bořil, Ondřej Čelůstka, Tomáš Kalas and Vladimír Coufal) was missing, so the coaching staff had to improvise.

Few expected a variant with three stoppers, but Šilhavy’s move worked out anyway. David Zima, Tomáš Holeš and Jakub Brabec were excellent in the centre of defence, Lukáš Masopust also gave a solid performance on the right side of the defence, only Jakub Jankt was not comfortable with his unconventional position.

“Jankt didn’t do well in the game. I think it’s not the position for him, overall I would see him a number higher, where he would be more valid, which he showed all those years before,” said former defender Jakub Podaný on the Football Focus podcast.

Šilhavy’s charges outplayed the Swedes in the first half, even scoring a goal, but it was disallowed due to an alleged foul by Brabec. The home side were caught off guard by the confidence of the weakened Czech team and were happy when Michael Olivier called half-time.

Jankt’s good team performance stood out, but in a negative way. Unnecessary turnovers accompanied by a lack of thrust on goal hampered our national team’s actions, and the Getafe midfielder was showing signs of indecision.

“You could see that in the beginning he failed a couple of times, then he couldn’t find the position to have time to turn the ball around. There was a lack of that first automatic thought, which helps a player to go over the opponent intuitively,” Podaný continued.

After the change of sides, the home team tied the game and the Czech players were getting tired. Masopust and Jankt were the first to substitute, specifically in the 76th minute.

“You could see that Kuba Jankt was slow to recover from his injury, he is not so busy in Getafe. It was skeletal from him, he chose the wrong solution several times, although he played it backwards. Just a classic Czech saying, you can go forward, you have to go backwards,” added former youth player Petr Nerad.

Coach Šilhavý also followed the saying. Instead of Masopust and Jankt, he sent Milan Havel and Aleš Matějů, who are more defensive-minded, so there were seven players on the field whose main weapon is defending. It was evident in the performance, the team was almost harmless afterwards.

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