Bukayo Saka from the corner, he turned sharply into the box, and the goalkeeper nonchalantly jumped on the rival player and a second later watched the ball roll down his stomach and thigh into the net. Neither the first nor the last time the goalkeeper misjudged a cross, but what if that confident goalkeeper, as in our case, is called Emilio Martinez and has been the ‘unit’ of world champion Argentina for years?
Martinez’s cheap goal on the farewell to the Old Year sums up all the agony of the goalkeeper’s call. With this cute harakiri, the goalkeeper of Aston Villa opened the game that had been locked and very tense until then. In the next twenty minutes, Arsenal filled the visitors from Birmingham with four goals, and Villa’s fans – not for the first time – questioned the goalkeeper’s competence of the 33-year-old from Mar del Plata. More or less, Martinez is a ticking time bomb, can we really attack the title with him in goal?
Although he sometimes likes to perform circus in goal, Martinez is undoubtedly of high international class, as evidenced by his ‘palmares’ from the national team: 57 appearances for Argentina, one world title, two Copa Americas won. He will undoubtedly keep the status until the summer and the World Cup, because besides the fact that the championship line-up does not change without a big reason, for the calmness and stability of the team, a hectic rotation between the goalposts is not recommended.
And here we take a detour to Dinamo. Dissatisfied with fluctuations in form Ivan Nevistić and his second Ivan Filipovićhave often debated this topic in Maksimir in recent weeks. Although the team went on vacation as the leader of the SHNL and a candidate for another European spring, the club made a decision: for a happy outcome of the season, it will be necessary Dominik Livakovic. Aware that his place in the first eleven hangs in the balance Zlatko Dalićthe national team goalkeeper did his part by making sure he didn’t play a single minute on loan at Girona. On paper at least, the theory is still alive in which Martinez and Livaković will share the court, as they did in the semifinals of the World Cup in Qatar.
With a tactical maneuver, avoiding appearances for Girona, the Croatian goalkeeper saved himself the possibility of playing for two clubs in the season, which is the legal limit, but then an unexpected obstacle appeared. Livaković earns a lot of money in Fenerbahçe, the Turkish media reports a salary of more than 3 million euros per year, which means that Dinamo would have to alimony the loan with some nebulous amount or Livaković would have to give up the lion’s share of his salary. If you know that Dinamo has already borrowed Ismaëla Bennacera and paid 1.5 million euros to Milan for that ‘privilege’, it is clear that a new expensive loan would not make much sense. Dinamo is simply not that club: by hiring Bennacer, he blew his risk business bonus for one season, and now, due to his financial health, he should earn something. Or at least save…
In other words, Livakovic’s transfer to Maksimir is hanging dangerously and the first goalkeeper of the national team will have to come up with an alternative option as a matter of urgency if he wants to keep his place in the goal of the ‘fire’ until the summer. Even when he gets stuck in a career rut, the information that the competition is not in great shape comes in handy. Dominik Kotarski in the autumn, he strung together an impressive series of suicidal actions at the gates of Copenhagen and it is a real miracle that the coach still sees him as the first choice, while Ivica Ivušić in Hajduk gave way to a young woman Toni Silić. Ivor Panduras the fourth choice, can boast of a good season at Hull City, but ultimately it is only the second tier of English football. The winner of the World Cup medals at the start is looking for something more.
Everything mentioned in the context of Dinamo brings us to the beginning of the story. If they can’t afford Livaković, the Blues will look for a solution in their own backyard, between Nevistić and Filipović. His own Gigija Donnarummu they didn’t bring up, because in Dinamo there is never time to tolerate mistakes in the goalkeeper’s puberty. Dinko Horkas that’s why he is defending in Las Palmas today, Kotarski has already crossed half of Europe, Adrian Semper is in Pisa, and tomorrow the next goalkeeper from the youth school will start the same way.
In the half-season reviews of the SHNL, another former Dynamo player emerged as the league’s best goalkeeper in several places, Oliver Zelenika. Indeed, he already has several excellent seasons in Varaždin, but one cheaply conceded goal in Poljud, when he unprovokedly pushed a gift card to rival attackers, suggests that Zelenika is not Superman among Croatian goalkeepers. At the moment, Croatian football does not have its own Courtois or Donnarumma, at best it only has Martinez’s double in the form of Dominik Livaković, but you should not lose your head because of that. Goalkeepers make mistakes and will make mistakes, their mistakes are often expensive, but with a little more credit, Nevistić and Filipović can grow into quality solutions for Dinamo…
