Slavia is facing a duel with Arsenal in the European League. You played a match with Arsenal in 2007 in the Champions League. So you can probably imagine the thrill of Slavia’s cabin now before such a match.
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I can imagine it. Of course, I also played matches at Tottenham or Liverpool. However, the mood of the Slavists is completely different from ours more than thirteen years ago. Plus, I didn’t play the outdoor match at Emirates, so I could focus on retaliation. But it must be said that the Arsenal team at that time was completely different from what it is today.
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When you remember the match at Arsenal, which ended 7-0 for the home team, weren’t you a little sorry for your colleagues who had to start? At that time, I think Hubáček and Suchý played in a two-stop pair.
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I was mainly upset that I couldn’t play the match. Maybe it would end 10: 0, maybe it would end 5: 0 or 3: 0. I don’t know. But football is simply done because of these matches and at that time it was Slavia’s first participation in the Champions League and I got injured in the first match, which I was sorry about. The boys did not sit the match from the first minute until the ninetieth and Arsenal showed great quality and deservedly won.
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When I looked at the facts of this match, I found out that only Cesc Fabregas had a much higher price on the transfer market than the complete staff of Slavia. It’s a completely different time than today…
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Well, of course, that says it all. Today, there are players in the Slavia cadre who at least match the prices of Arsenal players on transfers. And we’re not talking about their current performance.
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Erich Brabec helped home draw with Arsenal 0-0.
It was the first participation of Slavists in such a prestigious competition as the Champions League. I can imagine that they definitely entered this match with some concerns about what could happen. Today, the situation is completely different, because the Slavists have proved that they can eliminate the Rangers, Leicester, that they have been able to play a balanced match on Chelsea. Their self-confidence is definitely pushed to a completely different level than it was in your case.
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You think absolutely right. At that time, we did not have the quality or confidence that players have today. Because they have played so many hard matches in Cup Europe in the last three seasons and they are constantly showing and proving that they have the quality to do so. They move to better clubs than Slavia. And this is, of course, a great business card for both the club itself and the coach. And then the whole league. These players crystallized not only in Slavia, but came from provincial clubs and in Slavia they took them to the next level, which is now blasted from the whole league.
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You have spent most of your career as a midfielder, so you can probably guess quite well what is going on in the head of the stopper, when he has a very difficult period behind him as well as Ondřej Kúdela. He was supposed to be Slavia’s support against Arsenal as well. Now I will omit the fact that he cannot start due to an injury, but for him it is certainly not an easy time mentally.
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First of all, it must be said that Ondra Kúdela is now constantly proving that he is the best stopper in Slavia, but at the moment I would also say for the entire Czech national team. So definitely the loss for Slavia is big.
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And when I return to the question of how he feels at the moment, only he knows. I can only imagine what feelings he may be experiencing. However, he is an experienced player, for whom I was very surprised and surprised by how he reacted on the Rangers field. I think it was poorly evaluated by him. And it is a pity for himself and therefore for the whole of Slavia. That the case completely overwhelmed the fact that Slavia advanced through the Rangers to the quarterfinals.
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Ondra Kúdela is a very intelligent player and I believe that if he could, he would take it back. Now, in my opinion, he is currently experiencing a huge disappointment in his head about the direction in which it has all moved. That he himself had become such a hunted sheep. For me, the intervention on him in Wales was over the edge, it was at least on the yellow card. And to be there VAR, so maybe even red. And it is a pity that at this moment Ondra, instead of being praised as the best stopper of the Czech national team and Slavia, is considered as an outcast.
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You can evaluate it today from the position of a coach. If I look a few months ahead, Ondřej Kúdela will definitely fly to the European Championships if he is healthy. And of course he will have matches with Scotland in Scotland and with England in England. Nothing easy for the player himself, but I would say for the atmosphere around the team, which will be around the match in Scotland?
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Of course, this will be a difficult situation. However, Ondra Kúdela has now shown in the national team that he can cope with the pressure that will be exerted on him at the moment. And he handled the matches very well. So I can imagine that if he is healthy, he will start matches either with England or Scotland. And that he will show what the coach expects from him, that he will be the Ondřej Kúdela who goes to the Euro to hold the defense and was the article that seals the whole defensive four.
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It is known that Slavia will have to do not only without Ondřej Kúdela in the first match against Arsenal, but also without Deli, Hovorka is injured for a long time, Kačaraba is not on the list for European cups. So four hitchhikers actually dropped out and only one young Winter remained. It is necessary to build someone from either extreme defenders or midfielders. Hromada, Holeš, Bořil. It is certainly a difficult situation for Jindřich Trpišovský. Would you guess who will board next to Winter?
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If I had to guess, I think Bořil will be there. For one simple reason, because he already played in this position. I don’t think he looked as good there as in the position of extreme defender, but he already has experience with that. And I don’t know if it’s time for some experimentation, even though Jindra Trpišovský is famous for always pulling a surprise out of his hat. I can’t imagine that now in the quarterfinals of the European League on the ground of Arsenal he would put the Pile as a stopper. No, I can’t imagine it, but it can happen.
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It will also be more complicated in that two trackers and a goalkeeper may have to completely re-set the triangle. Because as far as the goalkeeper is concerned, it is not clear who will board the Emirates?
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Of course, this is another huge challenge for the coaching staff, because even now in Brno, the stopper duo Kačaraba, Zima, played in the Vágner gate and after the initial pressure that Slavia created, the first serious situation was suddenly a red card and it affected the whole match. . I think that being in the Kovář gate and playing Kúdel, this situation did not arise at all. So, certainly from this point of view, it will be interesting to see for which cast as a goalkeeper, or. the stopper pairs the coaches decide.
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It is clear that one of the stoppers must always be the one who heads, controls the defensive part of the game. And now the question is whether to entrust this role to Borel, for example, if he takes up this position, but is he used to playing on the edge? Or Zim, who always, like the younger stopper, always listened more? Whether he played Kudel or Deli?
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Interesting question. I personally believe that Bořil is the leading figure of Slavia, whether he plays from the ground up or would play from the middle. So in my eyes, he would be the one to control the defense. However, it must be said that Winter has made tremendous progress. Both in their game and in the management of the defense itself. And that’s why I think he could handle Bořil.
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But the main thing is that despite all the problems that the Slavists have, they do not go to Emirates as a pre-defeated…
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I don’t think they will go. It helped them now to see Arsenal playing at home with Liverpool. They watched the game Liverpool presented itself. What applied to Arsenal. Needless to say, Arsenal will not go into that match as a complete team either. There will be no players who would normally play, as on Slavia’s side. And then it will depend on the current form. I think that if Slavia starts the match as she started the Rangers or Leicester matches, or in the last seasons against Seville, then she has a huge chance to succeed again and advance to the semifinals of the European League.
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