Marked for Vojtěch Stránský
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad21 Dec 2026
7 saves, and a scoreline the ten men in front of him had no right to. Goalkeepers only get noticed on the bad days; this was one of the other ones.
Player ratings21 Dec 2026
Successful dribbles: 21. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Squad21 Dec 2026
Words at Slovan Liberec training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Vasil Kušej is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Match19 Dec 2026
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad21 Dec 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Petr Hodouš and Slovan Liberec agree another 4 years.
The dugout21 Dec 2026
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Squad21 Dec 2026
8 goals and a season average of 7.22. Form like that gets noticed well beyond this town.
The dugout21 Dec 2026
“I could talk about decisions and I could talk about luck. I will not. We lost.” The manager, 0‑1, and a press conference that lasted four minutes.
The dugout21 Dec 2026
When it matters, Vasil Kušej plays
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Player ratings7 Dec 2026
Two goals and a mark of 9.61 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Vasil Kušej is in the form of his life
A season average of 7.64 with 20 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.
Player ratings7 Dec 2026
Age has not caught Lukáš Masopust yet — 8.03
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.03 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Match5 Dec 2026
6 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Slovan Liberec and Teplice in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Match5 Dec 2026
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Vasil Kušej. 4‑2 against Teplice, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Vasil Kušej falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
The terraces7 Dec 2026
He is 23 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
Match5 Dec 2026
Another one collected away from home
3 on the bounce on the road for Slovan Liberec. The coaches leave early, arrive at unlovely grounds in the dark, and keep coming home with three points.
Player ratings7 Dec 2026
Raimonds Krollis was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.55. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match14 Nov 2026
The 88th minute, half the ground already edging towards the exits, and Vojtěch Stránský decided nobody was going anywhere. Slavia Prague had no time left to answer.
Match16 Nov 2026
34 points on the board and a place in the leading group. Nobody at the ground is saying the word out loud yet.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Lukáš Mašek in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Slovan Liberec this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Vasil Kušej falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
The terraces16 Nov 2026
The crowd has taken to Petr Juliš
At 23 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
The dugout16 Nov 2026
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Player ratings16 Nov 2026
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.09, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Squad16 Nov 2026
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Slovan Liberec can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
In brief
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Squad
Too much change too quickly at Slovan Liberec
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The dugout
Vasil Kušej has become a man the manager trusts
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The dugout
The view from the dugout
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match24 Oct 2026
A European night to forget for Slovan Liberec
0‑3. Zenit play this football every year and it showed in every part of the pitch. The lesson is expensive and, for a club at this stage, probably necessary.
Player ratings26 Oct 2026
Age has not caught Lukáš Masopust yet — 8.24
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.24 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Squad26 Oct 2026
14 goals and a season average of 7.46. Form like that gets noticed well beyond this town.
Match24 Oct 2026
Three points for Slovan Liberec, 4‑2 the final word against Jihlava in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Words at Slovan Liberec training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Vasil Kušej is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
The terraces26 Oct 2026
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Vojtěch Stránský has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
Player ratings26 Oct 2026
A performance of 8.28 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
The team sheet said everything about Jan Bořil
Warm-up bib, ninety minutes of watching, and a handshake at the end that fooled nobody. Big matches tell you who a manager trusts; this one told Jan Bořil.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match28 Sep 2026
Position 3 and 19 points on the board. Nobody at the ground will say the word out loud yet, and everybody at the ground is thinking it.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Lukáš Mašek and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Words at Slovan Liberec training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Vasil Kušej is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
The terraces28 Sep 2026
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Lukáš Mašek has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
Defensive actions: 20, and a clean sheet at the end of it. A centre-half's best afternoons look like nothing happening, which is precisely the point.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Vojtěch Stránský, and the manager let it.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
7.91, and no serious argument from anybody who was there. Slovan Liberec had eleven men on the pitch and one of them decided how it went.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Slovan Liberec are still strangers to each other
13 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.