2024/25 team preview: SK Sigma Olomouc
Up until March 2024, Andrův stadion was only iconic for its arc of a stand reminding everyone of Marseille’s Vélodrome or the floodlights resembling a pair of eyes overlooking the game action. Then it’s forever changed. Lines of posters cheekily alluding to Sigma board selling off the club’s assets at cut prices were a funny sight, much like messages inviting “pigs from the board” to resign; yet three pig heads and blood sprayed all over the main entrance were already a step too far. Surely the club must have undergone a shake down in the aftermath, right? Well, about that…
Just to be clear on the asset management: these were no ordinary rumours. It was already a second media battle of the spring; the first one led with Deník Sport’s Michal Kvasnica, who above all centered his criticism around the alleged (and all but certain) bossing and bullying of Sigma’s de facto boss Ladislav Minář. After Sigma’s chairman Petr Konečný wrote his first of many statements, defending his sporting manager, the front line moved. This time it was Vlastimil Blaťák of regional newspaper Hanácké Noviny who came out firing at all cylinders, citing numbers, posting scans of documents including a key power of attorney or disadvantageous purchase contracts. Personnel decision were questioned, too, such as never replacing a marketing director when all 3 post-covid seasons rank in the club’s all-time bottom 5 in season attendance average (outside covid era).
Sigma’s two-fold reaction arrived separated by one whole month: one website article threatened Blaťák to take him to the court, the other one triumphantly proclaimed it has been “confirmed” by an independent [citation needed] third party, company Grant Thompson, that Sigma — co-owned by the city of Olomouc, hence dealing with public assets and public money by definition — have never sold anything for a below-market price.
All clear, all happy, on we move… thought Sigma’s supervisory board.
In reality, of course, fans were far from satisfied. To some excitement, investor interest from Blue Crow Sports Group — already involved in second-tier Vyškov — was soon reported, but quickly died down and made way for weird moves like announcing a call for “brand manager” (to repair damage caused) and never introducing the newly hired person (if there was one), or the loud absence of any 2024/25 kit introduction or stuff that, you know, fans tend to like and enjoy. One fan filling out my questionnaire stated at the end of it: “I really want something to happen”. Quiet resignation.
The general anger directed towards the Sigma board isn’t just a result of club’s property handling, obviously. In more ways than one, it’s but a culmination of built-up frustration, with the once-proud academy at the forefront of it all. Remember those iconic floodlights I referred to in the perex? They were assembled using wind power plant’s poles in 1993 owing entirely to money cashed in for a homegrown talent’s transfer abroad (Pavel Hapal to Bayer Leverkusen); unimaginable prospect right now. In fact, the top flight has not featured a single Sigma debutant since September 2022, with the two latest ones (Tadeáš Stoppen, Jakub Trefil) representing more of desperate quick fixes for the goal rather than any product of systemic youth-promoting thinking across the board. Only Slovácko (30) had a higher age average of players used in 2023/24 (28,8).
Any optimism, with regards to youngsters cracking Sigma line-ups no less, is now based on Sigma reserves rolling over the rest of the second tier in the spring. Of the other four top flight greenhorns in 2021/22, three — midfielders Štěpán Langer and Jiří Spáčil, fullback Filip Slavíček — featured prominently as Sigma B, sitting 13th and only 3 points above the relegation zone at Christmas, rattled off 10 straight victories to close out the campaign. In the end, they stopped just three points removed from promoted Dukla Praha, and while luck inevitably played a role (Sigma were 6th/7th per Wyscout’s expected points), this club needed such a surge more than any other one. Fans were willingly hanging on every word coming out of coach Tomáš Janotka’s mouth in the many post-match dressing room speeches put out to public (so that it finally stops complaining, I assume).
Janotka often preached the sense of teamwork in those speeches, and that will likely be his alpha and omega after the promotion to lead A-team. The critical lack of arrivals (two 30somethings in Jan Kliment and Michal Leibl to date) suggests he’ll lean on his former B-team stars heavily, and fans are mostly on board — eagerly waiting for the likes of Jáchym Šíp and Matěj Hadaš to take the next step over three years (!) after their top flight debuts. The coach’s famous attention to detail, visible in decent U-19 NT’s showings in the final Euro qualification phase too, is also unequivocally welcome.
It’s never healthy when so much positivity is tied to just one person, but Sigma fans literally don’t have a choice. It increasingly feels that it is now either Janotka’s way (continuation of B-team success), or the highway.
Looking back on 2023/24
What went (particularly) right
My bold prediction from a year ago pegged Václav Jílek down for his longest winning streak yet equalling the great winning streaks of the club’s history (6 games). He not only didn’t manage to equal them, but didn’t even hit his own previous (underwhelming) heights of 4 straight victories, topping out at 3. The thing is, there were two such winning streaks, and both fit inside the first eight rounds. At that point, Sigma were third, with underlying numbers supporting their case. At Christmas, Olomouc ended up qualifying for international football in one third of Jakub’s simulations, dominating exactly half of their xG matchups (9 by over 0,8 xG margin). Were there concerns underneath? Absolutely. Sigma were too dependent on unsustainable high-quality finishing (and poor goalkeeping faced, with opposing custodians underperforming considerably in 9 games) and set pieces (which constituted over half of their total xG on five occasions). But things were quite rosy on the whole, with Sigma holding out on Top 5.
What went (especially) wrong
Just about everything from February onwards, you could probably guess. Midway through the season I wondered if the pending return of Antonín Růsek could fix Sigma’s league-worst success rate in cracking the penalty area from open play. Not only did he not pick up a single minute in the spring as well as in this pre-season, but Olomouc had never found an alternative internal fix, remaining stuck at 16th and dropping even lower in terms of success rate (from 41,2% to 40,4%). Sigma completely forgot how to attack, wrapping up the season with five consecutive efforts not going over 1 expected goal for, and 23/24 non-penalty xG ranked a shocking 14th.
What’s worse, their own penalty area was ultimately also defended with the lowest success, going from 10th to 16th within the spring, turning into the highest rolling xGA over the last 10 rounds (1,85); indeed a true recipe for disaster, especially deadly in combination with Sigma goalkeepers collectively allowing third most goals above expected (6,27 extra tallies).
Most valuable player (still on board)
per my MVP model (traditional stats): Jan Vodháněl (34th in F:LIGA)
per my positional models (advanced stats): Jakub Pokorný (90,8 pct at CB)
per Statsbomb’s On-Ball Value (OBV) metric: Jan Vodháněl
An equally good candidate for the “chip on the shoulder” section, Jan Vodháněl had a bit of a Jekyll-and-Hyde season. At the top of his game, he was unstoppable. In the first 9 rounds, he created 19 wasted chances by himself or his teammates, along with contributing to seven goals scored. With him on the pitch then, Olomouc celebrated 1,79 times per game; very fine rate. When he returned from his first injury troubles of the campaign following Christmas, he was hungry again; creating a further 19 wasted chances by himself or his teammates inside the first 6 (!) spring rounds. This time, though, his two goal contributions still constituted 40% of the total registered with him on the pitch, while Sigma’s goal rate dropped to 0,83. The perception and mood have shifted; Vodháněl was still a beast per my notes, but his body language became more irritated, manifesting in a dumb dismissal against Mladá Boleslav which led the otherwise diplomatic Jiří Saňák to publicly call him out after a 14-day suspense, citing wage cuts.
Now, with Ola Dele appearing to be his only real challenger, Vodháněl will be heavily relied on by the new coach as well — and there’s much to rely on, of course. Vodháněl simply makes things happen for you, one of only two regular wingers creating or finishing off over 45% of all goals/chances their team created per my notes (52,2% in Vodháněl’s case). He’s a rare dual threat; crawling over the 80-percentile bar for both high-danger shots and expected assists as the only winger not named Haraslín. He’s a rare versatile contributor, too, only getting flanked by another Sparta stud (Birmančević) in meeting the 80-pct bar for battling contributions (duels/fouls drawn), connecting with teammates and cross field passing.
Chip on the shoulder
who’s got something to particularly prove — either to himself, fans or the coach
At the conclusion of his first season spent as a regular Sigma starter, Juraj Chvátal was called up to the national for the first time at 26, participating rather heavily on the two embarrassing Kazakhstan losses. He was a surprise package then, immediately shooting up to 86,7 percentile among fullbacks on the back of some expansive, quality passing across the board. It was a well deserved albeit lowkey call-up, but he’s never been back — despite impressively staying the course the following term, landing in 86,5 pct while dealing with another shoulder injury through fourth surgery.
This time around, it wasn’t nearly as rosy, with a calf injury which robbed him of the starting role for half the spring proving particularly disruptive. Where Zmrzlý experienced wild positive uptick in performance to earn a big-ticket move to Slavia (+39,8 pct), Chvátal went in the opposite direction just as much (-40,5 pct), earning nothing but new-found doubts over his starting credentials with Hadaš especially pushing for his place (2 of my consultants even favour him to start the opener after solid pre-season, though that probably has more to do with Chvátal’s recent muscle troubles).
Compared to previous season when he was broadly part of the solution at Sigma, Chvátal was now much closer to being a part of the problem. Where he led the league in successful penalty area entries from open play (2,55), he was now just above average (1,81). Where his passing and crossing fetched him 0,29 expected goals and assists per game (6th among FBs), that number now dwindled to 0,15 — making him a below-average contributor. He didn’t even progress the play through his passes the way we had been accustomed to, gaining a rather significant 30 meters less on average.
The reason why I referenced the national team at the beginning is quite obvious: Pekarík will be 38 throughout the World Cup qualifiers, Tomič missed the Euros due to injury and faces stern competition at Slavia, and Kmeť wasn’t even trusted to be Pekarík’s backup in Tomič’s absence, with Calzona rather opting for a CB by trade (Gyömbér) as the designated alternative. In other words, there is an avenue for Chvátal to return. The time is no longer on his side either (he’ll be 30 when the WC fever hits) and it’d probably take Sigma to challenge for Top 4 for him to get noticed (very unlikely), but he’s got a fantastic partner on the right in Vodháněl and together they could get hot for long stretches. Sigma still generated the 5th most danger per xG down the right-hand side before Christmas, mind.
Inside the club’s off-season
with much thanks to @krokrocancan, @MichalNeveril, @gregor_vaclav and Tom for guiding me through the motions of Sigma’s pre-season
Squad turnover
When I did the same exercise last summer, Sigma retained the second highest portion of league minutes — 87,1% to be precise. They only parted ways with one significant contributor (Chytil), which was a bit of a departure from 2022 (when Hubník, González, Daněk, Zlatohlávek left), 2021 (Houska and Mandous both hurt in their ways) and 2020 (Jemelka, Plšek, Juliš cost them a lot of value too) — and a nod back to 2019 (Kalvach).
This year, the greatest subtracted minute muncher left in January (Zmrzlý), taking 10 goal contributions with him while the rest adds up to 11. That’s equal parts a good (Vodháněl and Pokorný, at least, definitely looked on their way out sometime before/in winter) and bad news (Zmrzlý was never replaced, effectively forcing a formation change halfway through spring).
Biggest upgrade
This is unnecessarily tough. Could a healthy Antonín Růsek be considered an upgrade? At his best certainly, but after a full lost season, it is a massive question mark whether he gets anywhere close to the best in 24/25 already. Besides, he’s only ever shared the pitch with Jan Vodháněl 14 times, with the team going an underwhelming 4-4-6 in that 2022/23 space, and while I don’t have a particularly strong recollection of that time, I’m not convinced their skillsets wouldn’t collide more than they’d complement each other.
Could Michal Leibl be considered an upgrade? On Filip Novák, perhaps, because he wasn’t very good, and he wouldn’t be of much use in the back four Janotka is looking to implement either (much like Leibl who’s only really ever thrived on this level at LCB in a back three). But in a general sense? Hardly. He’s a 32-year-old whose top flight diet has been steadily dropping down to last year’s 827 mins, in part due to various injuries (he’s amidst the latest recovery, in fact, maybe ready in November), in part due to alarming lack of pace to go with diminishing upside in crossing (his calling card). Novák was at least unbeatable in the air (10/12 in his own box) and did his fair bit of deep, solid defending while his reputation of a too-attacking-and-irresponsible-wing/fullback under Karel Jarolím in his ill-advised prolonged run as a NT starter was nowhere to be seen really.
With Leibl proving to be a dead end as well, we pretty much have to turn to Jan Kliment. Once again, not necessarily by virtue of him being a particularly strong addition himself (though I’ve always liked him outside the box, running the right channel especially), but mainly for him providing some stern competition to Lukáš Juliš; 5th most used centre forward by percentage of available minutes received (74,7%) and one of only 6 out-and-out strikers besides Kuchta, Kulenović, Fila, Vašulín and Chytil fitting inside his own team’s Top 5 of usage. If that doesn’t sound right to you, it’s because it arguably shouldn’t. Juliš is a very limited forward who ranks in the league’s basement (bottom 3) in some fairly important metrics such as xA, deep completions, pressure applied high up or offsides. He’s been trapped at Sigma, both physically (looking knackered for at least half of the season) and stylistically (he can combine, but barely has a chance to, instead being forced into aerials — won 9 of 36 in danger areas).
Players far more fit for purpose in terms of knocking balls down from air: Kenneth Ikugar, signed from Zlín to start warming up for reserves, and Yunusa Muritala, Janotka’s star man towards the end of the second-tier campaign. Never getting so much as a sniff from Jílek or Saňák, he helped out Janotka considerably, landing a hand to 8 goals (6+2) in his last 7 starts.
Who knows how the past season would’ve turned out had Jílek/Saňák showed more willingness to lean on strikers not named Juliš. Remember that Sigma ended up being so desperate to rest the former Sparta forward that they brought Zifčák back from the cold (not in the matchday squad for the first six spring rounds), giving him a chance to become momentarily overrated for his selfless goalscoring performance against Slavia (R29), which seemed to assure some he’s a Sigma striker solution (he never was).
Biggest downgrade
The good news for Sigma is that while they’ve barely upgraded there’s also not much downgrade to speak about. Olomouc have mostly bled lateral contributors who didn’t move the needle, sometimes to a vastly disappointing extent (like in the cases of Jan Fortelný or Ebrima Singhateh). An exception whom not a single fan seemingly rates but will be missed regardless: Denis Ventúra. His profile of a calm and collected passer was a bit special as a rival/partner to the career battler Radim Breite and Sigma are now betting high on Jiří Spáčil to finally come out of his shell and become a starter. He’s a fighter and got a nice deep pass as well, earning praise from Janotka throughout pre-season and while suiting up for B-team. That’s not to say Ventúra will be fully replaced from Day 1. Only Lukáš Mareček intercepted more passes than him when adjusted for possession, and only four CDMs charted accurate through passes at a higher rate. If you’re looking for an incisive passer who can stretch the play for you in a heartbeat, too, only Jakub Hora, Lukáš Kalvach and Tomáš Rigo did significantly better than Ventúra on both counts. Fantastic company.
New kid on the block
At 19, he was asked to step up to help save a stranger’s life. At 20, Matěj Mikulenka (b. 2004) could soon get asked to step up to save Sigma’s offence, and in the process, very much save Sigma academy’s waning reputation.
In fact, the noted chameleon might even have an inside track to start the opener on either wing, having previously admitted he feels the best in the hole (at AM) and mostly featuring in a more withdrawn midfield role in the second half of the B-team season. Agressive and cheeky, Mikulenka may be exactly what Olomouc A-team needs right now; an injection of urgency. He often gets into the box and in shooting positions, registering 3,43 touches in the attacking box per second-tier game, which is admittedly a different level, but compare it to Filip Zorvan’s 2,05 or even Vodháněl’s 2,26… and you can see the appeal. Mikulenka won’t fix the penalty box entry problem, himself finding the way only 15 times over 20 starts (good for 0,74 per 90; almost half the average of Jan Navrátil, for instance), but carrying, passing or crossing the ball in is just one part; the other is some opportunistic movement to feed, which Mikulenka appears to be offering in spades.
Michal Kvasnica is a big fan, and who am I to argue?
Looking ahead to 2024/25
Below is the team’s current(ish) depth chart with a maximum of 4 alternatives for one position. The depth chart is up to date as of 10 July and obviously subject to change since the transfer window is far from closed at the moment. Players highlighted in red are longterm absentees rather far from making a comeback and/or from making their last appearance, while players in italics are all-but-confirmed arrivals awaiting visa or other papework. Those likely to depart will be highlighted in the text below, as will some other depth options or changes occurring since the deadline. To add a little flavour, I’ve intuitively rated various positions/areas of the pitch — goal, right flank, left flank, central defence, central midfield, forward positions (incl. attacking midfielders) — on a simple scale consisting of 5 tiers, which is what the different shading (blue to red) represents.
Need left to be addressed
There’s a few of them, but none especially pressing. I think Ola Dele can be a fine RW alternative, but there’s little evidence backing that up right now.
The left back position is an interesting one, too. It’s not like you have a shortage of options, but none would be readily called “proven”. Mikeš Cahel was my 2023 new kid on the block, but the spirited pre-season turned into zero mins. Jakub Elbel was coming over in winter as a potential future Ondřej Zmrzlý replacement, but his introduction to first-team football has been very slow. Michal Leibl used to be a left back, and this could be the role he’s most suited to fill in a back four at this stage still. And then you have two guys who are presumably battling it out for the starter position; the “play me anywhere” option in Filip Uriča (who injured his knee at the end of June), and former sweet flavour of the week turned somewhat sour, Jiří Sláma, who might have a last shot at cementing himself as a Chance Liga starter. He decidedly didn’t take it in the wake of Zmrzlý’s departure, getting ditched after three spring full starts. His 2023/24 can’t be judged.
As for my third pressing need, I’m still not sure whether Štěpán Langer carries a top flight upside, meaning the central midfield deck certainly appears too thin, once again placing too much weight on the veteran shoulders of Radim Breite (soon 35) and Martin Pospíšil (freshly 33).
Breite is, of course, somehow a prototype of a bulldog who’s all the same ranked 2nd, 1st, 3rd and again 1st on Sigma in minutes played. I’m aware there’s a bit of a mythical aura surrounding Breite (for example leading people to suggest Sigma going 0-1-3 in his absence is somehow a proof of his importance rather than complete randomness), but I’d assume neither his legendary body can carry this insane load for much longer. Even if he stays healthy, though, Breite is too difficult to nail down positionally, always playing on his own terms as something between CDM/CAM, and so it’s extremely hard to build around him. For a CDM, he’s a very good deep defender and mediocre from his own box up; for a CAM — and he’s often supposed to be the more attacking-minded member of the double pivot, mind — he’s an absolute passenger. Between him and Pospíšil, Sigma potentially boast a CM tandem who don’t create anything for themselves, don’t create much for their teammates, and don’t get into the box at all.
Frankly, despite protesting Breite’s absurd 3-year contract last year already, I might have a bigger problem with Pospíšil’s year. The former Ekstraklasa stud has remained an elite progressor (going from 4th to 3rd among all attacking midfielders, pushing play both via running and passing), but his 5 assists mask some real concerns to be easily had with his final third contributions. Three touches in the box, combined (!) 0,13 xG and 0 shots on target (from 8 attempts) are laughable numbers for someone who once averaged 0,18 xG per game (2017/18 is deep in the past, but still his past).
One can indeed hardly be surprised that Olomouc have such a huge issue with cracking the penalty area when these two are the main supporters from deep. Pospíšil has a big role to play still, but Breite should now rather be his alternate instead of a partner if Sigma are to solve this riddle.
Some random notes on the depth chart:
- That being said, we shouldn’t focus too much on the two guys sitting deep(est). Fortelný, for his part, didn’t register a single high-danger shot in his 10 starts either and Zorvan is also at the bottom of the chart, acting almost exclusively as this cute one-two merchant who’s sometimes easier on the eye than on his teammates. If he’s supposed to regularly get you to the box (and he did, to be fair, enter it at a solid rate walking him to 80,5 pct), winning 18/53 offensive duels at the edge of it is kind of a drag. Whatever I’ve described is truly a collective problem.
- We are most certainly looking at the last dance of the formidable centre back partnership that Jakub Pokorný-Vít Beneš has been, and I’d suggest for everyone to just enjoy the ride one more time. While I did find him a tad less reliable than before, Beneš was still an excellent box defender, in fact slotting inside the Top 3 after ranking 18th last year. Pokorný was once again the dynamic element next to him, too, very clever in filling gaps and racing to loose balls and hitting space with his clearances. In the eyes of the superior Statsbomb database, they were both Top 5. The only negative difference compared to last term — and stop me if you’ve heard this before — is their non-existent attacking contribution, with especially Pokorný dropping by ~30 percentile points in forward passes completed into half spaces (from comfortable above average to 30,2 pct) and successful penalty area entries (from above average to 26,2 pct).
- If Beneš calls it a career next summer and Pokorný moves abroad to realize his dreams (strong-ish likelihood on both counts), we may witness Lukáš Vraštil moving to the forefront of Sigma’s depth chart, notoriously short on homegrown talent even as Vítězslav Pavlíček (b. 2005) captains their U-19 and Patrik Siegl (b. 2007) regularly flanks him at only 16. Vraštil is a frequent lightning rod for the fans and you can see how it’s his fault: while Pokorný and Beneš were implicated in 8-10% of goals conceded per my notes, for Vraštil that portion jumps up to 34,5%! The funny thing about (selective) memory is that he still enjoyed more net positive games than negative ones (9-6) and once again did well in his box. He too was far less of a factor in build-up, though, somewhat impressively swapping 1,43 halfspaces fed per game for a measly 0,48.
Roster battle to follow
Let’s start with some raw numbers, shall we? Since Aleš Mandous departed following the 2020/21 season in which he suited up for 30/34 games, Olomouc have fielded 5 goalkeepers in search of a new number one, willingly (excluding injuries) changing their starter at eight different points over the past two seasons. All this for… still not knowing their number one going into the season. It’s likely Tadeáš Stoppen, himself already dropped 3 times at 20 (!), but it may as well be Matúš Macík, who’s still awkwardly hanging around a year on after getting ill-advisely extended and a few weeks after reports emerged that he’s being actively shopped around. He has, of course, committed 4 grave errors leading to goals and 2 penalty fouls over the last two seasons spent in the role of a no. 1 favourite.
A sixth goalkeeper tested in three seasons, that might just be Jan Koutný, a late 2004 birthday, who finished off the marvelous second-tier job while saving around 2,5 goals above expected in the last 7 rounds of the campaign. The guy he was following up on? Tomáš Digaňa, by then already a disgraced first-teamer who got undone by two costly mistakes of similar kind vs Jablonec (failed claim) and Plzeň (failed set piece interception). Now he’s poised to open the campaign as a B-team backup. Harsh? My model kinda thinks so, but only insofar as Stoppen not being any better. He’s got the age and homegrown status going for him, but that’s about it.
If that’s harsh, think about Jakub Trefil, still a young goalkeeper (23) who didn’t get a single competitive minute under his belt in 23/24 before getting booted to Slovakia on 1 July (Komárno) despite turning into the best post-Mandous run by quite a distance in 2022 autumn. Yes, he did let in a few long-distance softies afterwards, but if you’re looking for consistency…
Season forecast
The projection is based on team quality assessed by Elo rating system. The system optimally weighs past results, taking strength of schedule and home field advantage into consideration. Just like last year, the model is additionally fed by my personal assessment of off season changes, for better or worse, to account for what the model can’t capture. MOL Cup is also simulated. The probability of qualifying for UEFA competitions takes both the league and the cup into account. For a more technical explanation of how the model works, kindly head here.
Sometimes, we tend to overrate the off-the-field developments, thinking they will tank most efforts on the field by default/extension. Budějovice delivered a timely reminder that might not be the case, when they hammered Europe-bound Ostrava at the height of their crisis in February (3:0), and now Sigma will be fighting a similar kind of a countercurrent.
It’s not like they don’t have experience with it, after all; in 1997, they were fighting literal currents as Andrův stadion became a temporary home to fish due to the sweeping Central European floods. The natural disaster covered the entire month of July, greatly affecting Sigma’s preparation for the season ahead, yet that season concluded with them finishing 3rd, setting up a famous European tie at ‘Andrák’ with Olympique Marseille.
You might well argue Sigma now don’t register another 20-year-old Tomáš Ujfaluši or 21-year-old Marek Heinz (two-time scorer vs l’OM), and you’d be right, but nevertheless, there’s value in the model not (over)reacting to off-field drama and still seing a decent Top 8 outfit closer to a UEFA football candidate than a relegation one. All told, Sigma are possibly the most mediocre of all Chance Liga teams come May 2025, but that’s fine with Sigma fans, as on-the-pitch drama is honestly the last thing they need. Olomouc are projected to earn about two less wins than in the last two years when they were a borderline Top 6 side worth around 43 points.
Bold prediction
The track record: 1/3. Sigma didn’t match their famed winning streaks
The prediction: Jan Navrátil will bag 3+ goals off the bench to lead the way
The rationale: One equation I fully expect to vanish with Václav Jílek is “healthy Jan Navrátil = nailed-on starter”. Over the 2,5 years since returning, Navrátil appeared in 62 top flight games for Sigma — and only 5x as a sub. That’s a staggering flurry of starts for a winger in his 30s; one that was never quite warranted by his performances (on the ball specifically), and never quite accepted by fans and neutral observers alike. Peculiar.
What was also peculiar: the lack of tangible off-the-bench impact Sigma have gotten over the past years, with even Jan freaking Sedlák acting as a joint-top scorer among Sigma subs over the previous two seasons combined.
I’m saying this will change courtesy of some emerging youngsters like Mikulenka and Šíp, but also the 34-year-old veteran who’ll stand the tallest with at least 3 goals scored after coming on. Navrátil isn’t too bad a box attacker who can still thrive on a counter, his 9 goals since spring 2022 actually narrowly beating Vodháněl’s 8 (in a smaller sample), and he may alternate in the hole should Růsek’s absence continue to stretch futher. Navrátil will have some remembering to do, since his last goalscoring sub appearance came in September 2018 at Slovácko, but let’s say I trust him.
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