Marked for Daniel Perisic
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad8 Nov 2027
Words at Zadar training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Milan Bjelica 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.
Squad8 Nov 2027
Tempers go at Zadar
Robert Ćosić 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.
Match6 Nov 2027
Beaten 0‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad8 Nov 2027
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Zadar know it.
Squad8 Nov 2027
Ante Boric is the division's best young player this month
At 21 he has spent a month being better than everybody his age in the league, which is a different and harder thing than one good afternoon. Zadar will try very hard not to make too much of it.
Player ratings8 Nov 2027
Successful dribbles: 9. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match2 Oct 2027
Cruel end for Imotski as Zadar pounce
There is no crueller way to lose a football match. Zadar scored in the 98th minute, the restart barely happened, and the away end was still standing when the whistle went.
Player ratings4 Oct 2027
Two goals and a mark of 8.96 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Squad4 Oct 2027
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Daniel Perisic and Zadar agree another 2 years.
Match2 Oct 2027
Zadar are shipping goals every week
Two or more conceded in each of the last 5 matches. It is not one mistake repeating itself, which would be the easier thing to fix; it is a different one every week.
Match2 Oct 2027
Zadar get the job done against Imotski
A 3‑2 win over Imotski, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Squad4 Oct 2027
Milan Bjelica 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.
Squad4 Oct 2027
Tempers go at Zadar
Boris Kasalo 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.
The terraces4 Oct 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 ratings4 Oct 2027
Ninety minutes of Boris Kasalo at his very best
Marked 8.01. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Zadar.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match4 Sep 2027
Chastening afternoon for Zadar
A 0‑3 beating by NK Varazdin was the sort of result that empties a stadium long before the final whistle.
Squad6 Sep 2027
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 8 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Market6 Sep 2027
The deal that would have taken Milan Boric to HNK Vukovar 1991 has collapsed at the last stage, and he reports back to Zadar with a summer to forget and a season still to play. Nobody is saying which side walked away.
Squad6 Sep 2027
The medical room confirms 41 days on the sidelines for Daniel Perisic, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
Squad6 Sep 2027
Robert Ćosić 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 Zadar this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad6 Sep 2027
Milan Bjelica 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.
Boardroom6 Sep 2027
Doors closed at Zadar
The music was off and the showers ran late. What was said in that dressing room stays there, but Saturday will publish the minutes.
Market6 Sep 2027
Imotski are about to pick up the phone
A conversation is coming this week. Zadar will put a number on him, and from there it stops being football and becomes arithmetic.
Player ratings6 Sep 2027
Successful dribbles: 6. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match7 Aug 2027
No end in sight to Zadar's wait for a win
5 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Zadar has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad9 Aug 2027
71 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
Squad9 Aug 2027
Luka Šimunović 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.
Match7 Aug 2027
Segesta left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad9 Aug 2027
Daniel Marín gets it from the manager
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Squad9 Aug 2027
“The easiest signature of my career.” Fran Brekalo and Zadar agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad5 Apr 2027
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Ivan Lagundžić commits to Zadar for another 4 years.
Squad5 Apr 2027
Bojan Bilic 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 Zadar this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad5 Apr 2027
Zadar will explain it as a decision about the team, and it may well be one. A dressing room has never once read it that way.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad8 Mar 2027
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Daniel Perisic and Zadar agree another 2 years.
Squad8 Mar 2027
Tempers go at Zadar
Luka Šimunović 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.
Squad8 Mar 2027
Words at Zadar training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ivan Lagundžić 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.