Marked for Martynas Šetkus
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad5 Apr 2027
A shoot-out is remembered by its ending, and this one ends with Edgaras Eliosius: 4 kept out, and a set of supporters who will describe every one of them for the next twenty years.
Squad5 Apr 2027
Ignas Mikoliunas damages knee ligaments — 71 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 71 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Match31 Mar 2027
Stumbras through in the cup
A 2‑2 win over Suduva, and the draw for the next round can be watched with some interest for once.
Match5 Apr 2027
Every point is an argument now for Stumbras
Position 8 and 3 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
Match3 Apr 2027
0‑3 to Kauno Zalgiris, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
Market5 Apr 2027
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Stumbras, and it is not being withdrawn.
Match3 Apr 2027
8 matches without a win for Stumbras
The run now stands at 8, and the questions being asked around Stumbras are no longer polite ones.
The terraces5 Apr 2027
The boos come down from three sides
“We pay for this every fortnight. The least we want is somebody who looks like he cares.” 13 of the 34 senior players walked off into it; the rest were not playing.
Squad5 Apr 2027
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Stumbras may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match20 Mar 2027
Nobody wants to play Zalgiris right now
3 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
Squad22 Mar 2027
Words at Zalgiris training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Matouš Krulich 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 terraces22 Mar 2027
At 21 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.
Player ratings22 Mar 2027
A performance of 8.79 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Squad22 Mar 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Eduardo Figueroa, and the manager let it.
Match20 Mar 2027
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Bryan Teixeira. 1‑0 against Trakai, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Loan watch22 Mar 2027
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Zalgiris, and 2 appearances in 6 say he has earned the hearing.
Squad22 Mar 2027
Kajus Bička 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 Zalgiris this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad22 Mar 2027
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad8 Feb 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Stumbras this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad8 Feb 2027
Andrius Novikovas 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.
Squad8 Feb 2027
Too much change too quickly at Stumbras
5 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market8 Feb 2027
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Squad8 Feb 2027
Grigore Turda 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.
Squad8 Feb 2027
Too much change too quickly at Zalgiris
7 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
Squad8 Feb 2027
Nobody at Zalgiris will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
Squad8 Feb 2027
There is a level at which a footballer stops being tested and starts being contained, and he reached it some time ago. Zalgiris know it, and so does everybody who watches him.
Market8 Feb 2027
A season-long look at somebody else’s player: Matouš Krulich arrives from Mlada Boleslav with something to prove and a return ticket in the drawer. Good loans make everybody richer; this one starts Saturday.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market1 Feb 2027
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Zalgiris, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market1 Feb 2027
The phone has started ringing about Vincentas Šarkauskas again, and this time the name on the line is Suduva. Zalgiris are listening politely and promising nothing.
Squad1 Feb 2027
Words at Zalgiris training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Grigore Turda 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.
Squad1 Feb 2027
Arvydas Lasickas was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Market1 Feb 2027
Both sides expect a conversation in the coming days. Zalgiris will name a price, and everything after that is arithmetic.
Squad1 Feb 2027
Carlos Olses has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Zalgiris will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.