Picking the squad of 23 players for the World Cup can be an incredibly difficult task for national team managers and then selecting your starting XI can be even more challenging. It is extremely hard to keep all members of a 23-man squad happy when you can only name eleven players and bring on three substitutes. This can often cause friction amongst the squad that can be a distraction, so when a player shows signs of discontent, the manager has to decide how to handle that best.
Kalinic refused to come on as substitute for Croatia
Nikola Kalinic gave his coach Zlatko Dalic a real headache after refusing to come on as a sub in Croatia’s first group game against Nigeria, which they comfortably won 2-0. He told his coach that he could not come onto the pitch due to a back injury, which echoed his approach to being brought on as a sub in the game against Brazil in the warm-up match. Dalic took the decision to send striker Kalinic home, rather than keep him amongst the team when he is reluctant to come onto the pitch to help his team when they need him.
Croatia down to squad of 22 players
This leaves the Croatia squad with a player less, so Dalic must have had concerns that Kalinic’s attitude would have a negative impact on the rest of his players. It seems a shame when another player could have happily taken his place in the squad, prior to the tournament starting. Whether he genuinely has some fitness issues or was simply upset at not starting is unclear but either way, his World Cup is over as his team-mates look forward to their match against Messi’s Argentina on Thursday.
Croatia’s 4-2-3-1 formation left Kalinic the odd man out
Kalinic was behind Mandzukic in the pecking order, as the coach went for a 4-2-3-1 formation, with Perisic, Kramaric and Rebic lining up behind the target man. The AC Milan player will no doubt be going home to rest up before the next season starts and watch his team-mates’ World Cup endeavours on TV instead.
