How good would a Yugolsavia squad be?

[Furball]

How far do we reckon this squad could go?

Goalkeepers:

Asmir Begovic (Bosnia)
Samir Handanovic (Slovenia)
Stipe Pletikosa (Croatia)

Defenders:

Branislav Ivanovic (Serbia)
Neven Subotic (Serbia)
Darijo Srna (Croatia)
Dejan Lovren (Croatia)
Alexsandr Kolarov (Serbia)
Matija Nastasic (Serbia)
Vedran Corluka (Croatia)

Midfielders:

Ivan Rakitic (Croatia)
Luka Modric (Croatia)
Mateo Kovacic (Croatia)
Miralem Pjanic (Bosnia)
Adem Ljajic (Serbia)
Nemanja Matic (Serbia)
Zvjezdan Misimovic (Bosnia)

Forwards

Eden Dzeko (Bosnia)
Vedad Ibisevic (Bosnia)
Mario Mandzukic (Croatia)
Stefan Jovetic (Montenegro)
Goran Pandev (Macedonia)
Mirko Vucinic (Montenegro)

 

[Pothas]

Yeah thought about this before. It would be really good.

 

[Furball]

From a footballing perspective it's such a shame the country blew up when it did; they'd have had a phenominal team throughout the 90s.

 

[Pothas]

Fall of communism bad for football in general.

Would be way better if the Soviet Union were going to kick of rather than Russia in a couple of days time.

 

[FaaipDeOiad]

Was thinking about this the other day too. There's at least three countries there that would be highly competitive at this world cup.

They'd have a comparable squad to France, Italy, Netherlands, Belgium etc for sure.

 

[BoyBrumby]

Czechoslovakia made a couple of finals back in the day before the Czechs and the Slovaks received their Decree Absolute.

Beat Jerry on pens in the 76 Euro Championship final too.

 

[flibbertyjibber]

What about a Britain team them?

Add Bale and Ramsay to the current England squad and that about it.

 

[GIMH]

What about a Britain team them?

Add Bale and Ramsay to the current England squad and that about it.

Haha I was thinking the same but, and don't get me wrong I'd take those two in a heartbeat, I don't think it would make much difference given where our woes lie.

Turn of the century when we had left-sided issues, Giggs would have been perfect

 

[GIMH]

That being said, we could have had Bale in Rooney's place on Sat. Baines would have been far better protected.

 

[wpdavid]

Oddly enough, Yugoslavia never did that much in the majors when they were one side. IIRC reaching the final of the 1968 Euros was the height of it. Always very solid, and plenty of quality, but you never fancied them to win anything, Maybe it was too hard to bring together a combination of Serbs, Croats and whatevever, given the appalling events that followed the fall of communism.

 

[Furball]

Oddly enough, Yugoslavia never did that much in the majors when they were one side. IIRC reaching the final of the 1968 Euros was the height of it. Always very solid, and plenty of quality, but you never fancied them to win anything, Maybe it was too hard to bring together a combination of Serbs, Croats and whatevever, given the appalling events that followed the fall of communism.

They would have pissed in the 1992 Euros if they'd stayed together.

 

[Furball]

What about a Britain team them?

Add Bale and Ramsay to the current England squad and that about it.

A British team with a proper British League structure would be interesting.

 

[Uppercut]

Haha I was thinking the same but, and don't get me wrong I'd take those two in a heartbeat, I don't think it would make much difference given where our woes lie.

Turn of the century when we had left-sided issues, Giggs would have been perfect

I think it would make a huge difference. They're probably both better than all of your players.

Lots of World Cup winning teams have prank full-backs and backup CBs, you can cover it up quite well with players like Bale and Ramsey that score loads of brilliant goals.

 

[Pothas]

Yeah Bale is miles better than any England player. 4-3-3 with Gerrard, Ramsey and Henderson and then Bale, Sturridge and Sterling looks pretty damn good. But you know in football terms you may as well talk about combining England and France, always been separate (Olympics don't count.)

 

[GIMH]

I'm not disputing they'd improve the side btw, but still think our defence would cost us in the end

 

[Furball]

Nobody really has a top quality defence though. If you've got loads of talent going forward then in this current era I think that outweighs carrying a couple of crap defenders.

 

[Uppercut]

Is their defence even that bad? They didn't concede many in qualifying IIRC.

Argentina's defence is infinitely worse and the consensus still seems to be that they have a decent shot.

 

[GIMH]

Is their defence even that bad? They didn't concede many in qualifying IIRC.

Argentina's defence is infinitely worse and the consensus still seems to be that they have a decent shot.

They have Messi though. Which I guess lends itself to the Bale theory.

 

[Furball]

Is their defence even that bad? They didn't concede many in qualifying IIRC.

Argentina's defence is infinitely worse and the consensus still seems to be that they have a decent shot.

Cahill's defending for the 2nd goal was absolute village. And Cahill's easily, at worst, the 2nd best English centre half in the game just now.

Argentina are the South American England btw. They're fancied because they've got some sick options up front and are playing in near enough home conditions. Their midfield is terrible and their coach clearly has some tactical issues with the nonsense lineup he sent out against Bosnia.

 

[Uppercut]

Cahill's defending for the 2nd goal was absolute village. And Cahill's easily, at worst, the 2nd best English centre half in the game just now.

I don't agree at all because I think it was just good movement and an incredible cross, but even if it was, he's still a decent player coming off an excellent season.

Netherlands are another team with a frontline to compensate for not having a defence.