What did the match between Slavia and Haifa show? Plavsic is not used to defending, Krmencik is getting up

Slavia lost ignominiously to Haifa in the Conference Europa League and dropped to third place in the table behind the Israeli champion. What did the match show towards a challenging schedule?

The Susians are already a mere shadow of the team that once chased Barcelona or Inter. Of course, the lingering injuries to a number of players are to blame, especially in defence, which Trpišovský is trying to glue as much as possible, unfortunately he is not very successful.

“Our performance was insufficient to get points here. We made a lot of mistakes defensively and we gave poor individual performances. We were not able to convert any chances and got a cheap goal. We lost a lot of duels,” Trpišovský pointed out at the post-match press conference the reasons for the defeat.

Lazy Plavsic

Srdjan Plavsic was given a chance in the starting line-up after his final recovery. Although he has been trying to repay his high salary with hard work since his arrival from Sparta, his form is poor and he is not helping his teammates at all towards the back.

He was involved in the only goal on Thursday. He was in the middle of the pitch when the ball was transferred to the right side and was only trotting towards the opposition. He took advantage, passed to Ali Mohamed, who only found the striker in the box and it was all over.

Plavsic thus confirmed that he has not got used to Jindřich Trpišovský’s system of play so far. But he should, the Slavistani strategist will require him (as well as others) to be active in pressing.

Krmencik will be useful

Not deploying Michael Krmencik in the starting lineup seemed risky before the game started, and wrong after it ended. After all, the national team striker played at least well against Slovan Liberec.

And he showed his quality after coming on the pitch. He held countless balls with his back to goal, won two standard situations in good positions, but at that moment Nicolae Stanciu was no longer on the pitch.

This is the third away defeat in a row for the Susians. So there is nothing else to do but to grit our teeth and keep working hard, that is what Trpišovský’s team was so adorned with.

In the next 9 days, Slavia will face Czech Budejovice, Sigma Olomouc and Plzeň. After that, they will welcome their Thursday’s opponents in Eden.

Source: Nova Sport 1