March 2023 has all the makings of a pivotal crossroads for Czech football. We can’t afford to ignore it
Jaroslav Šilhavý has failed to meet the Nations League goal per Petr Fousek, Czech FA chairman. Šilhavý has got the FA’s trust nonetheless per Fousek. However absurd that sounds, given that the coach was already supposed to be on a borrowed time (and a mere year-long contract!) coming into the packed June action and oversaw the longest goalscoring drought of his tenure, I can’t bring myself to care anymore. Fine, let him stay. But devise a plan for our football pyramid and make him follow it.
You know my opinion on Šilhavý and him staying in charge. That much hasn’t changed. He’s finally shown some tactical flexibility, ditching his usual 4-1-4-1 formation (or its variation) for a little thrill, but then decidedly overstayed his welcome as this new proponent of a 3-at-the-back formation —kinda returning to his “conservative” tag, just from a different direction.
His brand of football on and off the ball is still way more physically tanking for us than it is for the opponent and it’s failed repeatedly to get the most out of our biggest teenage sensation in over a decade (now 20), something that is somehow still interpreted more as an indictment against Hložek than Šilhavý.
He’s not taking us any further. We should wave him goodbye.
Instead, our bosses have chosen to poke fun at us. Qualifying for 2024 Euro is the target now? Are you fucking kidding me? We’ve made the tournament seven times in a row, including five times when the qualifiers were actually competitive. Sure, chronologically, it makes sense — there’s nothing else to look to at this very moment. But on all other counts, it’s absurd. If you set an under-fire coach this goal, you’re basically setting him up for automatic success. Huh. That’s far from a prove-it challenge Šilhavý should be looking at after squandering yet another opportunity for favourable seeding.
It is what it is. We don’t have a bad coach, just not a great one, and we’ve repeatedly chosen not to look for a better one, rather throwing around cheap alibi like “but even more famous sides like England got relegated” (sod off, Fousek) or suddenly branding Switzerland the favourites (Šilhavý).
And hey, I get it. There are just five full months between now and the next competitive game. Including Christmas, so that leaves you with, like, four actual working months or whatever. I’m in civil service; believe me, I know how difficult it is to interview and hire a person on such a short notice.
In all seriousness, all shall be forgiven if the Czech FA spends the following 4-5 months by devising a plan on how to more effectively manage talent. It might be an unusual arrangement, but who goes with A-team and who goes with U-21 should no longer be just up to both coaches having a quick chat and feeling each other’s needs whereby Šilhavý’s “need” for the Kúdela’s, Tecl’s, Novák’s of the world ultimately always prevails, giving us a ridiculously deep U-21 and A-team full of experience that doesn’t move the needle. We know the drill; someone else has got to step in and make it stop.
David Heidenreich … 9/9 top flight games started in 2022/23
Jakub Kolář … 9/9 (as both a CB and CDM)
Tomáš Solil … 7/9 (unavailable for two)
Matěj Ryneš … 6/7 since moving to Hradec (unavailable for one)
Pavel Šulc … 6/9
Jan Knapík … 5/9 (unavailable for two)
Petr Jaroň … 5/9
That’s just a brief rundown of those who did not even crack the Iceland squad. It’s not an exhaustive list, just some of the more deserving regulars. Knapík has played some of his best football ever this season, Ryneš offers the same explosive set of tools David Jurásek possesses and Kolář has fairly easily lived up to the tag of the biggest Zlín breakout candidate.
Others — like booming right (wing)back David Pech, seasoned FORTNA:LIGA “veteran” Martin Cedidla or up-and-coming centre back Tomáš Vlček — sat through the double header without taking the field.
This, on one hand, showcases admirable depth. On another hand, it suggests serious mismanagement of resources. It’d be no exaggeration to expect a reserve team built around the names listed above to progress, too.
To be fair, I can see why June wasn’t picked as the stage for a thorough makeover. Youngsters would be thrown into the deep end against Portugal and Spain, while U-21 would have to re-stock at a crucial stage of the qualifiers. I appreciate why there was no appetite for the same this month, either, with Suchopárek focused on preserving continuity for the play-offs.
In November 2022, beginning of a quiet period crucially stretching all the way to March 2023, there won’t be any excuses or good reasons anymore. A-team opens a new cycle — one where anyone above 30 who doesn’t ply his trade abroad, in a top competiton, should never take part in — while U-21 plays those awkward friendlies that are too close to Euros to not matter at all and simultaneously too far from Euros to serve as any sort of a tune-up.
It will be a fantastic opportunity to send a signal to current U-21s who are aging out that they still have a role to play internationally (David Jurásek, Matěj Kovář, Matěj Valenta, Lukáš Červ, Tomáš Čvančara to name a few), offer a first taste and potential promotion to those who may be too good for the next U-21 cycle (some of, say, Kryštof Daněk, Michal Ševčík, Daniel Fila, Václv Sejk, David Pech, Lukáš Endl, Martin Vitík, Adam Karabec), and take a look at a few intriguing names currently on the fringes of the U-21 squad to see if they could offer something come summer tournament.
If we miss this window, we get inevitably stuck in a revolving door of excuses, complaints and alibi. “But we are working on chemistry now” or “but we are too close to 2024 Euro now” will take over soon enough, and we may suddenly be looking at a 24-year-old David Jurásek or a 22-year-old David Pech waiting behind Jaroslav Zelený, Václav Jemelka, Aleš Matějů or Milan Havel. Čvančara is 22, Ševčík is 20, Daněk is 19 — that’s not too soon. That’s a perfectly appropriate age right freaking now, let alone in half a year.
Yesterday I suggested we should immediately start playing David Zima, now 21, with his peer — be it Vitík, Endl, Vlček, Knapík, whoever. It’s fair to say that suggestion didn’t sit well with plenty of you, and I don’t blame you.
But it’s worth remembering Tomáš Řepka debuted at 19, in qualifiers, with 35 top flight starts under his belt — ie. the Vitík/Knapík/Endl range. Two years later, he suited up next to a 21-year-old Petr Gabriel. Jiří Novotný was 21 when he faced France and Spain inside his first 3 appearances in 1991. Alongside him against Spain was Jan Suchopárek, then 22 and fresh off a mere two full seasons at the top Czech level, and a debuting Miloš Glonek.
Suchopárek played for Dukla who had finished 7th and 11th. Řepka played for a Baník Ostrava side with Top 6 aspirations, not much more. They had combined for 6 starts in Europe, which is more than 0 but nothing ground-breaking either. Different times, different era? Maybe. But maybe not? Until those lads above are given a shot and bomb at a tender age, I won’t budge. If they are and they do bomb (not once, but repeatedly — like the veterans now preferred to them), I will happily admit I was wrong.
As I wrote in my David Horejš piece from this March:
And sure, the clubs will continue to carry the greatest share of responsibility in developing these players. But the national team is also here to showcase and to provide experience, not just build a squad of the already showcased. It can’t just be Slavia doing the heavy-lifting all fucking along (or Plzeň before 2016, for that matter). If you want an experienced yet talented squad with a genuine shot at a World Cup, there’s really nothing easier than to stop recycling Kopic’s, Doležal’s and Tecl’s of the world to keep re-assuring ourselves they are indeed not cut out for this level, and start investing in those who may not come any better, but are still in the process of coming (through).
In a way, we are currently opening a different era anyway — the first alumni of the Czech FA’s regional academies, designed to produce shinier and modern prospcts, are aging out of their teens as we speak, and we need to be ready for them. We need to change our mindsets and stop inherently treating 25/26-year-olds as young-ish, inexperienced guys who might be worth a shot but perhaps not because whatever. Just look at Marek Havlík. He’s finally about to be ready, lucky fella — just inside his 10th season at 27!
That’s another matter altogether: we should make sure that Mojmír Chytil, Ondřej Zmrzlý, Filip Kubala, David Buchta and other players in their early 20s don’t follow the same path. They are just entering their peak; harness it! They are not “young-ish, inexperienced guys” we’re not sure about.
This is the moment we ought to be unconventional for once in order to move forward. If we don’t make the unpleasant cuts here and there now, we may as well never emerge from this overwhelming, suffocating mediocrity.
If we don’t get radical now, I’ll see you in 2024 when we congratulate ourselves on another unspectacular, largely adequate Euro participation.
A thrilling prospect, truth be told.
