Dalić: England is forgotten, we are returning to our old system

Speaking at a press conference on Thursday, the coach of the Croatian national team said that the England game is all but forgotten, and announced a return to Croatia’s traditional system of four defenders. He also said that the team was now solely focused on its upcoming game against Panama.

After opening its World Cup campaign with a 4:2 loss to England on Wednesday, the Croatian national football team has returned to its base camp in Alexandria Virginia to prepare for its do-or-die game against Panama on June 23rd in Toronto. At Thursday’s press conference reporters wanted to know what coach Zlatko Dalić thought went wrong for Croatia in the loss to England.

"We lost to a better opponent. In the first half, we managed to come back from a goal down twice, but then we quickly conceded a goal in the second half that finished us off. For the next ten minutes, we were in a knockdown, and Livaković saved us. We knew what was coming. I don't remember ever having a lineup positioned so far forward, but I also don't remember defending set pieces so poorly. If you exclude the left side, they didn't do much to threaten us from regular play in the first half. Everything else came from set pieces. They created six 100% chances from eight corner kicks. We defended set pieces extremely poorly, even though we practiced them in training, showed them to the players and knew they would try to block us out. We fell short in discipline, concentration and responsibility. Later, we changed our system a little bit in an effort to better cover the left side. At halftime, we specifically addressed set pieces and agreed to rotate coverage to the left, and that's exactly how we conceded a goal in the first minute of the second half. Again, we lost to a better opponent. An opponent who was faster, more aggressive and had better position on the field. But we will not stop believing. We knew going into the World Cup that we had two decisive games ahead of us Ghana and Panama. We have to forget what happened and turn our attention to Panama," Dalić told reporters in Alexandria.

Coach Dalić also announced a return to Croatia’s traditional formation with four defenders: “We planned this formation for the game against England. But we needed to show a higher quality on the pitch, especially on defense, for it to be effective. Instead, we conceded four goals and everything went down the drain. You can't expect a better result against an opponent of this quality when you hand them three goals. The problem is not in the system. You have to defend your goal with your life, just as Kane did at the end of the game. However, I have announced that we will return to our traditional system because I’m not going to calculate or risk anything right now. Everything that Croatia and I have achieved during my tenure, we achieved in the 4-3-3 and 4-2-3-1 formations. In the qualifiers the only time we played with three defenders was against the Faroe Islands, when we brought Vušković up. We only started playing this formation with his arrival. But I want to emphasize once again that it is not the system that is to blame, it's the three goals we handed them. The third goal we conceded saw Bellingham begin his run from the middle of the field and make it all the way to our goal without a single player from our side even touching him. That's a lack of concentration.”

Coach Dalić was also asked to comment on the penalty shot awarded to England in the 12th minute of play, which was initially saved by goalkeeper Dominik Livaković, only to have French referee Clement Turpin awarded a second attempt after ruling that Livaković had left the goal line early. Kane would succeed in his second attempt.

“I saw the footage. I just wonder what would have happened if the situation had been reversed. Then it probably wouldn't have even be discussed. But that's how it goes. A saved penalty would have lifted us emotionally, the whole team would have risen, and they would have fallen. However, they repeated the penalty kick and we conceded a goal. As for the referee's explanation, I didn't even bother to ask him for one. The explanation that Livaković left the goal line too early depends on what frame you stop the footage at. But, we’ve seen this all before.”

Commenting on the fact that this was the first time in his long and illustrious career that captain Luka Modrić committed a foul that resulted in a penalty kick coach Dalić simply said that it was a team failure not an individual one: “The problem wasn't just Luka, none of us did our best. Obviously the defeat was hard for us, but now it is behind us.”

Croatia will play Panama next on June 23rd in Toronto. Here’s what coach Dalić had to say about the Panama game: “Panama is not harmless, but they’re not England either. We will have much more possession and more chances. But we have to prepare well. We will do our analysis. Ultimately, this is about responsibility. On Wednesday we lost to a better opponent at that given moment. There is no pessimism or need to look for someone to blame. I am the coach and the responsibility is mine. The players and I take our share of responsibility. We will move forward positively and relaxed. We have our own path and we believe in what we are doing. We have to concentrate and focus on what awaits us. This is behind us, and everything is still in our hands. Sučić and Baturina played brilliantly, and Baturina scored a fantastic goal. Musa also scored. We gave him the nod over Budimir or Matanović, because of his defensive play. But we’ll start with Budimir against Panama.”

Source: HRT