What line-up for the Croatians? Hložek and Holeš were the main ones, Čelůstka stood up with scratched ears

The Czech Republic entered the championship with a successful 2:0 win, complete with a wonderful goal by Patrik Schick. However, the performance was not so dazzling and some changes will be needed before Friday’s duel with Croatia.

Schick, Vaclik. Two main stars and saviours at least in Monday’s game. The 2: 0 scoreline didn’t reflect the game against Scotland and they will want to improve their performance against the Croats. So what changes could Jaroslav Šilhavý come up with?

Defence

Let’s skip the goalkeeper position and look at the composition of the defence. The four-man defensive line was formed from right to left Coufal – Čelůstka – Kalas – Bořil and the expected choice also turned out to be the right one.

Coufal also showed himself in the national jersey after a long time, and Jan Bořil also showed a solid defensive performance, somewhat surprisingly. However, he is the one with the problem in terms of playing load.

During the season he played an incredible amount of minutes and the fatigue was really noticeable at the end of the season. Even though he was given a few days off, he didn’t look his freshest in preparation. If we were to progress further in the tournament, it would require at least one missed game.

That’s why I don’t understand why Ales Matějů didn’t get a chance to play at least a few minutes in the preparation. So if Bořil had to be substituted in a game, Pavel Kadeřábek, who has been on the left sideline three times this season, would probably take the field. Against Croatia, however, I’m counting on Jan Bořil in the starting lineup again.

Now to the stoppers. Both of them made one mistake, when Kalas made a bad kick in the opening minutes and passed to McGinn for a goal, which he luckily managed to block. Celostka then missed a bouncing ball right in front of Dykes and was only saved by a great split from Tomas Vaclik.

Apart from that, the more controversial of the pair, Ondrej, put in a confident performance and managed to somehow cover up his mostly glaring lack of speed. On the other hand, he excelled in aerial duels, which he won eight (the most on the field).

Moreover, the whole tracking duo worked well in terms of blocks, so I wouldn’t expect any changes here, although Zima would certainly deserve at least one start.

Backup

In the midfield, probably the most proved that even the preliminary games show something. Alex King was without a doubt the worst player on the pitch in my opinion and he will have to make a strong case for his dream transfer to England in the next games of the tournament.

Soucek, as usual, did not disappoint and captain Darida started his engine again. It is the performance of the central triangle that could be crucial in the Croatia game and the replacement of Alex King should definitely be considered.

Moreover, Tomas Holeš, who came on in the 67th minute and did a great job. Moreover, this is not the first time that Alex Král has not impressed, as he did not do too well in any of the pre-Euro games.

So, in my opinion, the composition will be decided by whether to count on Croatia’s unchanged line-up. If that were the case, either Kramaric or Rebić, who are 177 and 185 centimetres, would be in the attack.

That’s not quite the header threat that would move the great Soucek to a more retractable midfielder in this area, and Alex Kral to a more drawn-out one, as he was against Scotland.

So if the composition of the Croatian offensive line should not change, I would opt for a retracted Holes and next to him a box to box Soucek. However, if Dinamo Zagreb cannonballer Bruno Petkovic comes in, more vigilance would be needed.

This would leave Soucek in the back and Holeš would have to perform more offensive tasks, such as pressing, which do not suit him as much as, for example, Kral.

If Petkovic comes in, there would be a variant with a more retractable Darida with Soucek and a more offensive Barak. However, given the Croatian midfield line-up, we will need all three midfielders capable of playing both forward and back, so this option seems to fall down.

Wings and a striker

Before the Euros, the biggest debate was about the right-back position. That has now shifted to the left side. Masopust played a very good game again, but Jankt’s performance was not so charming.

The public started calling for his replacement even more after the arrival of Adam Hložek. He only met the ball eight times, of which he managed to create a chance right after a successful dribble, when he set up Patrik Schick for probably the easiest shooting position of the whole game, but the hat trick was not completed.

With six accurate passes, he had a 100% passing success rate and left the field with a smile on his face, not only from the team performance.

Still, I would have preferred Jakub Jankt at left wing from the first minutes. Jaroslav Šilhavý also showed a good feel for substitutions in the match against Scotland and I would leave the two wing guns Vydra and Hložek only on the bench.

If their arrival in the match is well timed again, they can make a bigger contribution to our game than if they were in the starting line-up.

The spike forward position is now firmly set. Contrary to pre-match opinions, there is probably not a single critic of Schick around the world now, whose performance was hilarious outside of the two goals he scored.

The starting eleven against Croatia::