Over the weekend, one of the historic moments happened in the Chance League. Only the fifth team was able to climb to 40 or more points in the middle, now only the regular season, of the league. After the win in České Budějovice, Slavia jumped to 41 points and, together with Plzeň, they are the only two clubs that succeeded after the 15th round.
At the beginning of today’s edition of the regular column, I will try to empathize with the feelings of Jindřich Trpišovský and think about what the men with the cap are thinking about when they think about the current Slavia.
I would probably see how his thoughts of well-being and worries about the future are mixed. I am convinced that the current squad of the red and white team is one of the best for Trpišovský with whom he had the honor to work. I wouldn’t be afraid to call it a dream team. In many ways, it is similar to the team with which Slavia crushed the league a few years ago, and the professional public used terms like total football.
Rysy and the team headed by Tomáš Souček and then, for example, Ondřej Kúdela, are strikingly similar in many respects. There’s a glove man in goal who’s admired by the entire league, but he’s farther from the number one national team than you’d think, the defense is putting up abnormal numbers and conceding as few goals as the best defenses in league history, there’s an energetic fullback running rampant on the sidelines who transfers for a large sum to the Western League, any attempt to hit is broken by the dominant center of the field, and one does not know whether there is a better striker in the starting line-up, or the one who can step in for him in the 60th minute. After all, they are both representatives.
Do you see it there? But enough of the pathetic reminiscing. Let’s summarize the facts that cannot be belied by impressions and subjective opinions.
I wrote about the fact that Slavia has the best defense in the league before the weekend. In the metric of average expected opponents’ goals per game, Slavia is the best team in the league, and when you compare teams from the top seven European leagues, you won’t find a club that would push their opponents below such a low number with their approach. After the weekend it was definitely not difficult for the people of Prague. České Budějovice shot seven times, once on goal, and the total xG was 0.37. That is, in the Slavic norm.
The club from Eden is inconspicuously hooking quite possibly one of the record seasons, although coach Trpišovský does not want to talk about it at all. I would definitely take his words about not following the table at all with exaggeration. And if it’s really true, someone should tell him that Slavia once again took the Czech Republic by storm with total football.
If you look at the table, you will find that after 15 rounds played, i.e. half of the regular season of the Chance League, they have 41 points on their account. It might not sound like that to you, but what if I told you that in the last 25 years, only Plzeň had more in 2017 (43 points) and Sparta never reached 40 points in half of the independent Czech league?
If it weren’t for Plichty in Hradec Králové, Trpišovský would have caught up with Pavel Vrba in the entries. And if it weren’t for the loss in the first round in Slovácko, Slavia’s coach would have set a new record… Even so, the club from Vršovice leads the league by eight points ahead of Pilsen and 14 ahead of Baník and Sparta. Fifth Jablonec loses 17 points and sixth Karviná two more…
Yes, this is also where my admiration for the current performances of the Slavists begins. And not only in what kind of cushion they sewed during the autumn, but in what way they manage to excel in European cups and at the same time manage to lie about fatigue. While Sparta approaches the rotation very cautiously and put Qazim Laci on the stand next to his namesake Veljko Birmančevič after his return from Albania, on Sunday afternoon you saw Malick Diouf running under the Black Tower, who arrived from Africa just before the weekend.
I’ll admit that this is one of the many things that surprises me about Sparta and its rivals. How is it possible that the Slavists (in addition to Diouf, for example, Tomáš Holeš or Lukáš Provod) and the Victorians (Lukáš Červ or Pavel Šulc) manage to wring out entire matches in the league after the representative block, they are key figures in the point gain of three points and Sparta weakens and as argument use rest?
Also, this is a recurring problem. Remember how Laci was given time off with Liberec after the international break in October, followed by (in my opinion, pointless) 90 minutes at Manchester City, so that he could not feature in the starting line-up in Pilsen, but instead started three days later against Brno in the MOL Cup.
Even though the Spartans say they have to rethink some things and some say that the league was a priority from the beginning, there is still a sense that the Champions League is at stake. But in the meantime, the main rival on the domestic scene is slipping through their fingers, and the third title in a row is becoming more and more a utopia. Erasing 14 points to first place would be a difficult task even for Brian Priske’s Sparta, let alone for the current one, which does not even remotely resemble a championship team. When I think that the Spartans can be fresh and fully focus on the league at a time when it will only be a matter of who will and will not be packing their lockers in Strahov in the summer…
If anyone can realistically position themselves as Slavia’s main challenger, it’s Pilsen. And we can already state that it will not be an equal fight, as their mutual encounter in Eden indicated.
Even so, all credit to Victoria for what she has gone through in the last two years on the football map and where she is at the moment. From the abnormal indebtedness of the owner, the championship title, participation in the Champions League, redemption from debts, changes in the ownership structure to incredible sports growth and a squad full of young players with potential. At the end of last season, Pilsen finished 17 points behind Sparta in the table. 15 autumn matches were enough and they are six points ahead of Letenský.
In addition, after a turbulent summer, when she had to go through the preliminary rounds to get to the cups and lost Tomáš Choré and Robin Hranáč. Does it remind you of something?
Yes, the association with Sparta is spot on. With the difference that Plzeň endured the summer departures with grace, supplemented the squad appropriately, has a solid Czech axis, interesting players for foreign clubs in the squad, and even if things creak here and there between the cabin and the oldest coach in the league, what is shown applies. Viktoria does not play good combination football in all matches, in the fall she allowed slips in Slovácko or in Eden, but it works. In short, you don’t doubt her and you know she’s on the right path.
In addition, in addition to the staff, the sports section also complements it appropriately. Having Jan Říčka on board, who worked as a scout for Manchester City in the past, or getting along with František Mysliveček, who has an eye for players in the Czech Republic like few others, is just confirmation of how Šádek “sees around the corner”.
The West Bohemians have players for the national team, they sign talented youngsters, they reach out for foreigners with potential in the second league, they build up youngsters. The price/performance ratio is, on the one hand, a lecture for future managers, but also a great indictment of Sparta, which works with far different figures, but the performance is lacking. By the way – did the most expensive signing in the history of the club really sit out the match with Teplice on the bench? Phew…
Back to the west of Bohemia. It’s actually quite funny that Plzeň won six points in the Europa League, quite possibly they will advance, on the home stage they have a six-point advantage over Sparta + a better match against each other, and yet behind the scenes there is talk about whether it is time to make a change and show to the vacant coach Martin Svědík.
You can feel the hunger, ambition and demandingness of it without sitting in an office in Štruncový sady.
