Serbia's outlook is bleak, injury problems, its own stubborn illness, one game was played by Brazil, if not for Xiaomi Linkovic's high contact, Brazil almost sent a tragedy.
Originally, the negative news before the match was that the two strikers Mitrovic and Vlahovic might not be able to play, and as a result, "Iron Man" Kostić hung up first. Head coach Stojkovic is an honest man, and at the press conference he generously admitted that Kostić's muscles were fatigued, and when the media was still speculating whether it was a smoke bomb, the starting list was released, and Kostić really hung up the no-fight card.
The negative impact of Kostić's absence was enormous, forcing Stojkovic to temporarily adjust his formation. It can be said that Kostić is the eye that supports the original 3412 system, and his presence can make Serbia feel more comfortable sending two strikers to play at the same time, because there is one less person in the midfield, Serbia's conductive organization will be biased towards the wing, and Kostić's wing organization attribute allows the team to bypass the center and focus on making a fuss from the wing, or transferring, or passing directly to the penalty area, forming a substantial threat. Kostić was not there, and neither Mladnovic nor Lazovic had this ability, so Stojkovic had to remove a striker and add a midfielder to help complete the task of switching from defense to attack.
Therefore, the main reason why there is no double striker against Brazil is not Vlahovic's form, but Kostić's absence. The 3511 formation Serbia is not unused, the last life and death battle with Portugal in the qualifiers, Stojkovic took the initiative to adjust to this style of play, except for the opening one, the rest of the time worked well, Mitrovic came off the bench to kill hugely, and finally completed the kill, and directly qualified for the World Cup at home in Portugal.
But today Vlahovic also had problems, as a substitute is obviously unable to withstand it, a midfield pass error, Serbia backfield to play less, he is not active in defense. This is not in line with Vlahovich's past character, he is a very strong young man, has a sense of honor, willing to fight, so "numb" there is only one reason, that is, he cannot take care of it. At the same time, almost every time he got the ball ended in a miss, it is enough to show that his groin injury is far more troublesome than previously predicted. This is his old injury, but also a problem that is difficult to cure, and without a miracle, Vlahovic will not be able to heal this World Cup.
It is worth mentioning that Kostić and Vlahovic are both Juventus people, after the two returned to the national team to report, one was injured and the other was disabled, I have to say that Allegri's training method has an amazing effect, even Brazil's Danilo has a physical inability to withstand the situation, I don't know if the two team coaches called Allegri after the game to "settle the score".
The above are external factors that are difficult to control, and when it comes to Serbia itself can control, there is currently no way to solve it, such as the problem of the general height of central defenders. Among the 6 defenders signed up by Serbia, the shortest is also 1.86 meters, and the starting Pavlovic, Velikovic and Milenkovic are 1.92 meters tall, relying on area defense to compress space is enough, but Brazilian players are fine, so you can often see three central defenders stretching out their long legs to put tackles, various extreme moves. After 60 minutes, finally couldn't stand it, the three towers could not keep up with the movement of the ball, when Richarlison hit the second world wave, he was 5 meters around, and no one came up to block the ball for two seconds, which was really embarrassing.
In the second round against Cameroon, the situation is slightly better, but the ideal solution should be to let Lukic or Ilić retreat to the back line and participate in scheduling and defense, which can increase the resilience of the defense, as Torino coach Yuric has done in the past, and letting Lukic play as a guest central defender is also an idea, but Stojkovic may not take the risk.
If Kostić can't come back in the next game, the left side is simply changed to the impact type Radonic and striker Vlahovic is replaced by Jovic, the overall strength is of course declining, but the thickness of Serbia's front court is still reasonable, and there are more people who can be used. Fortunately, in the first game, the ceiling of Switzerland and Cameroon in the same group is not very high, see if you can mix through the group stage first, and then welcome back the full main force in the knockout stage, which truly reflects the strength of the Balkan team.