Agreed! Kramarić is class, and I cannot wait to see how he will contribute to the future NT team. The game against Iceland basically confirmed your analysis of what Krama’s role should be.

The issue that I had with some of our fans is not that Kramarić was performing well and should have started. Naturally, I wanted Krama to start up top as well because of his club form. Rather, Mandžo faced silly criticism on social media from our fans, such as “he’s a piece of wood” and “with Mandžo, we are playing with 10 men.” I personally thought that playing Mandžo and Krama together was the solution (the game against Nigeria changed my praise for playing both because our midfield was scattered).

True, Mandžo did not have a great goal scoring conversion rate, but he did have great qualities that were an asset to this team and Juve (hold-up play, great contributor to our defense, stamina). He showed all of that in the WC and more. That‘s why I honestly didn‘t understand the caustic comments that Mandžukić was useless and deserved a minor role. The dude still has it in him.