That still doesn't explain why is Čop in the squad.
We have Mandžo, Kalinić and Krama and him for one CF position (I doubt we will play with 2 attackers).
And wings : Perišić, Pjaca and ??
That's why Halilović is a must
About Cop, theories say that it is about Southern Croatia, so that they get a few players from their area (politics).
On the right side: Pjaca a first choice. Perisic if needed. Srna as a MR if needed and someone else as a RB then.
Rakitic and Kovacic can also play as Mrs or Amrs, Rakitic played a lot of times a few years ago as a Mr in an NT team.
Brozovic can play as a hybrid Mr also, if really needed.
Since Croatia won't play too many matches on Euro, we are covered well even with 2-3 injuries to wingers, imo.
Plus, it seems that all of these players mentioned above are infront of Halil in coach's pecking order, so...
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Has this been a outrageous debate in Croatia about Čop being selected of Haliovic?
Halilovic is a guy whom majority of fans in Croatia either:
1. love and rate as a next Messi or as a very talented young player, a future Croatian NT key player
2. or think that he is an absolute crap of a player (me, for example) and that in any way he shouldn't be nowhere near NT's team
So, comments are usually: why didn't he call Halil? He is awesome.
The answer: because he is a total crap of a player who can't play even in Sporting Gijon.
More or less...
well, not an outrageous debate, but generally people are not satisfied. Our NT manager explained his decision this way : "There's a great future ahead of Alen and I think it's better for him to rest and prepare for new challenges. "
Our federation is corrupted, surely.
But about Halil, there is really a chance that a coach doesn't rate him at all and that he wants totally different players.
Also there are some comments from a coach:
"Ćorić and Rog were preferred to Halilović and Antolić because I assessed the latter two would find it more difficult to handle being fringe players at Euro 2016" - in other words, why bring them if you are not going to play them and you know they would create trouble in the locker room because of it."
It seems that he wouldn't play Halilovic either way nor in the starting 11 nor as a squad player.
And he thinks that Halil would cause troubles then, so he picked guys who won't play but who won't have troubles with sitting on a bench.
On the other hand, my view:
Halilovic was meh in Dinamo Zagreb, Dinamo and Mamic shipped him way too soon and way too easily...
They are always getting much better prices for much weaker players. If they believed that much in Halil (that he is a gem), they would have kept him and sold for 20-30M one day.
The same as how they did with a 23-years old Modric, kept for a few years and sold to Tottenham for 20-25M back in 2008.
Dinamo sold 19-years old Kovacic for fixed 11 Millions to Internazionale.
And the transfer could have go up to 15m with some bonuses.
Then, Dinamo sold young Halil to Barca for a crappy amount of only 2,2 M (fixed amount without additional bonuses).
Imo, if Dinamo thought that Halil is such a gem, there is no way that they would let him go so fast and for peanuts of 2,2 Millions.
It smelled even back then as: take the money and run.
After being shipped way too easily by Dinamo and Mamic:
-- Young NT teams were horrible when he was a key star-player. No end product...
-- In Barca B he was meh in the last Season
-- In Sporting, he started well, but was benched in the 2nd part of a Season
-- now he is sold for a low amount with a buy-back option again
-- Croatian NT team: kicked out after some time, again...
I may be biased around Halil, because I really don't rate him at all, but till now, his whole career has the same pattern:
He comes in a team as a big star, a bright young superstar with awesome technique, who seems as really special and out of this world on a first look.
But very soon, he get benched, get sold or shipped to another team for not too high transfer fee (take the money and run, again imo).
Plus, his end product on the field is always meh, and we get a bunch of shiny moves, but without too much impact on assists, goals, lots of victories to his teams etc...
Honestly, if we forget for a second that Halil plays for Barca (and that we are biased), a guy who can't earn a starting spot in Sporting Gijon really shouldn't play in one decent NT team, like Croatia.
For me, he is still just a guy who resembles on Messi when he runs with the ball, and who is offering some nice tricks (nutmegs, dribbles etc) in every match.
But more or less, this is all what you get from him in this moment.
Some tricks and entertainment.
Nowhere near enough to earn a NT starting 11 or top 15-16 spot, imo.
I am personally having much more faith in young Pjaca:
Makes much bigger impact. Has much better end product.
And his footballing IQ is 5-10 times higher than Halil's.