Europa League
The cursed Spartan trackers. What leads the defenders to individual mistakes?
In recent years, it’s been a carbon copy. Sparta’s stopper gets into a relatively decent shape, but then he makes a huge mistake that even a younger player might not have made. What is it?
In recent years, it’s been a carbon copy. Sparta’s stopper gets into a relatively decent shape, but then he makes a huge mistake that even a younger player might not have made. What is it?
In recent years, you can’t find a single Sparta stopper who has played a long stretch without a mistake. In the days of Stramaccioni, Hapal or Jilek, it was the most pressing post for Sparta, but the problems persist this year under Vrba.
What do Radakovic, Stetina, Lischka, Plechatý or Kaya have in common? All relatively quality stoppers, but whom fans associate with big mistakes bought at Sparta.
Uros Radakovic came to Sparta as perhaps one of the league’s best stoppers, and he performed excellently in Olomouc. In a red jersey, he was supposed to help them return to the cups, but it ended in disaster. Against Subotica he tried to go for a pointless tackle in the large whitewash, lost the ball, and then incomprehensibly shoved the visiting Djenic in the back with his hands, penalty and sending off.
Lukas Stetina had a horrible start to the engagement, he was quite clumsy on the pitch, the Slavic fans may never forget how he slapped himself with the ball and sent Van Buren on a breakaway. After that he picked himself up and put in a fairly decent performance until his injury, only to revert back to the errant stopper at Slovácko, who even with his weight got pushed off twice.
David Lischka was heavily relied upon, he was supposed to be the saviour. A modern day stopper who is excellent at crossing the ball. At the beginning he really got into quite good shape, but then came the game in Pilsen and a huge setback. Lischka crossed the ball to Krmencik into an empty net and Sparta lost 0:1.
Semih Kaya was supposed to bring great quality again, his salary and experience from Galatasaray matched it. But the Turkish stopper absolutely failed Sparta and made several mistakes.
In the summer, Filip Panák finally came back together after a long injury, thanks to his admirable story, he became a fan favourite and everyone wanted him to return to the pitch. At the beginning he was one of the best Sparta had to offer, but gradually the defensive misery of Letna pulled him down.
At Slovácko he was also not completely faultless, but against Rangers he prepared a huge shortcut. At 0:1, he tried to cross across the width of the whitewash, but smeared it straight onto Morelos’ head in front of an empty net.
Why is it that Spartans’ stoppers have such an error rate? Of course, as the last player on the pitch you have a huge responsibility and every mistake you make is the most visible. It’s just that no other team has made as many mistakes as Sparta’s players in recent years.
It is generally known that there is much more pressure on players in Sparta than in other teams. It can also be one factor why players find themselves under pressure and subsequently do things they would never do in training.
It’s just that, as is often said, offense wins games, defense wins titles. And if the Flyers continue to make similar mistakes, it won’t lead to much success.
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