What did Sparta do against Brøndby? Incomprehensible (in)substitutions or reliable defensive performance at the expense of attractiveness

Sparta has played its first Europa League group stage match. In Denmark, they faced last year’s champion Brøndby IF, with whom they drew 0:0 after a hard fought battle. What did Sparta do? Not much, but there was something.

For the first time in a long time, a reliable defensive

Vrbas’ charges managed to keep a clean sheet on the European stage for only the second time in the last year. They allowed the Danish champion only one shot on target and Ondřej Čelůstka, who has played only Sunday’s game against Ústí nad Labem, which he took part in together with the Spartan B-team, also did well.

However, the reliable defensive performance came at a price. The match lacked attractiveness and the football was undoubtedly not attractive. Especially in the first half, the most interesting performances were those of the home supporters in the stands, from which relentless chanting was heard throughout.

Injury to Matej Polidar

Sparta suffered another injury in Denmark and are currently in the worst affected position. Casper Højer will apparently be joined on the sidelines by fellow left back Matěj Polidar. He picked up an injury while correcting a miss in his own half, forcing him to be substituted for Vindheim.

Pavel Vrba will probably have only one option until the next game, and that is to return to the failed option with Hanck at left back in Plzeň. The return of Ondrej Čelůstka will be in his favour, so we could expect him to play in the midfield with Filip Panak.

A possible, though unlikely, alternative is Wiesner playing through the leg as he did in the rest of the match in Denmark.

Incomprehensible (in)substitutions

Despite the failure in Plzeň, Pavel Vrba opted for the same midfield trio. While the trio of Pavelka – Soucek – Sacek brings better defensive stability, it lacks more creativity and especially the support of a spike player.

Adam Hložek has been left alone time and time again, which is almost always the case unless he plays as a sub or has a more attack-minded midfielder like Karabec behind him, who more or less sat on the bench with the injury to Dočkal, which should have been his chance. But it must be added that he didn’t shine during his chances.

However, I see a bigger mistake than in the selection of the line-up in the experienced coach’s reaction to the course of the match. Václav Drchal should have come on the field earlier, and Karabec could have come in as well.

Nevertheless, we saw only one tactical substitution in the form of piece for piece and only in the final minutes Václav Drchal came to run.

Satisfied with a point?

After the game, the interviews were full of phrases like a point from away is not bad etc… But should Sparta be satisfied with a point? Especially this year there is talk about Sparta’s great progress, there is always talk about the title attack and the good atmosphere in the club and then there is satisfaction over a point from such a match.

Yes, Brøndby is the Danish champion and without a doubt not an easy opponent. But in its current state, with a single three-point haul still counting from ten competitive games this season, Sparta should simply be the favourites.

Not to mention that especially in the last third of the game, the “Letenští” definitely did better than the home team. If we look at the values of the squads, Sparta is more than twice as good. Still, there is no dissatisfaction with the goalless draw.

Still, everything was definitely not wrong with the performance or the chosen line-up. There are still positives to take from a good defensive performance, with Filip Soucek, for example, who was heavily criticised after the game against Plzeň, playing a good game in his role.

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