FC Partizan expects an important match for the weekend and to reduce the impressions from another season without a trophy. Before the black and whites, there are inevitable cuts and the basic question – will Duljaj make the new Partizan team?
After being eliminated from the Cup in the derby with Zvezda, Partizan returns to the reality of the Super League, in which it lags behind Red Star by a whopping 10 points with six rounds to go. At the moment, the black and whites are thinking about Sunday’s important match against TSC, in which a win could eliminate any excitement in the fight for second place. And then to dedicate himself to the next goal – building a team for the next season.
To begin with, the black and white will have to deal with the status of the coach. At the end of his second season at the club, Igor Duljaj did not want to talk about it, neither in front of the journalists nor in front of the board members. After the derby with Zvezda, he revealed that general manager Miloš Vazura raised the issue a few months ago, but that Duljaj did not want to bring it up until the end of the season. Now, when the end is approaching, the issues of creating a new team and resolving the status of individual players in the existing squad are being raised in Humska. Duljaj’s desire to stay is indisputable, although he is aware that “his status in the club has been questionable since day one.”
Who is the first to leave Humska?
In two months, the contracts of long-time Partizan goalkeeper Nemanja Stevanović (31), forward Andrija Pavlović (30), offensive midfielder Danilo Pantić (27), stopper Siniša Saničanin (29), and defensive midfielder Danila Castilla’s loan from Shakhtar will expire. It is certain that this group of players bound by contracts will leave the club, which has been known for most of them since the winter, since Pantić and Pavlović have not been part of the competitive team.
Goalkeeper Miloš Krunić has a contract for the next half-season as well (until December 31), and with the game against Zvezda in the Super League derby, he showed that he was a good choice for Jovanović’s reserve, and it would not be a surprise if he gets the option to extend the cooperation.
Among the players who are under contract for the whole season is first of all Bibras Natho (36), who will obviously conduct the game of the black and white as much as he is able to do so at this stage of his career, and there will also be Gayas Zahid (29), the more consistent Partizan’s creator, under contract until June 2026. Whether Duljaj stays or not, the future head of the profession will make plans counting on the Israeli and the Norwegian in the center of the field, and around them Partizan will count on the players the coach talked about at the “Rajko Mitić” stadium on Wednesday.
“My status in the club has been under question since the first day, I am not burdened by it, it is up to the people from the club to resolve my status. What is more important is what I leave to the next coach, whether it is a team that has potential. If we look today, who are those players performed for Partizan today, and let’s start from the beginning, we have Kovačević, who is 19 years old, Sveta Marković, 24, Goh, Baždar, Severina… These are players who have a present and a future. As I have said many times so far, time will tell whether it was the right way or not,” said Dullaj.
Partizan’s biggest problem? It is obvious…
What there is no doubt about is that the reconstruction of the team will start from the defense, which is conspicuously the weakest part of the black and white team. In the 31 rounds so far, Partizan has conceded an unacceptable 38 goals, and six more matches await. In the Serbian Cup, the net of the black and whites was not shaken only by Jedinstvo from Ub, and then Grafičar and Voždovac scored in Humska and won penalties, while Zvezda scored twice on Wednesday. This is the total number of goals conceded by Partizan in domestic competitions increased to even 42.
In a game in which Partizan’s attack was not able to “deliver” its usual contribution and score goals, the defense was lucky to have the black and white player of the season behind them, goalkeeper Aleksandar Jovanović. While the defense buckled before Zvezda’s attacks, he was often the only reason why the final difference was not too unpleasant for the black and whites. And that’s why it seems that he is among the few in Partizan’s half of the field who have a safe and “fixed” place in Humska since the summer.
Consecutive games against Zvezda and as many as seven conceded goals in those derbies revealed what was known both before and after those games – that Partizan was squeaking where it was strongest when it was champion.
The most valuable player of Partizan – Mateus Saldanja
The Brazilian goalscorer had big problems with injuries this spring, so a fitter would certainly improve his performance of 17 goals this season and raise the price, currently estimated at eight million euros. Partizan will certainly try to make it bigger in the summer in negotiations with interested clubs for the 24-year-old forward.
“I don’t regret not selling Saldanha. I don’t want to reveal the official offer. I will only reveal that it was more than ten million. At the end of the autumn part of the championship, we said that there is no sale of key players like the Brazilian, that’s how we behave. I believe if Saldaña continues to play at the same level in the spring, the same, if not a higher offer will come in the summer“, Partizan general manager Miloš Vazura told “Sportski Journal” during the winter break.
Partizan’s “capitalist” missed as many as six games this spring due to a hamstring injury and did not play for more than a month. Regardless, he left such an impression that it is clear to everyone that this is a reinforcement that will certainly bring profit to the black and whites after investing 1.3 million euros in his arrival from Japan.
At the end of the fifth consecutive season without a trophy, while the memory of the Cup won in 2019 at “Marakana” with a goal by Bojan Ostoj and under the leadership of Savo Milošević is fading, Partizan is once again approaching the summer for which cuts await it. If TSC falls in Humska over the weekend and there is no further complication of the black and white season, planning could become the first and basic task at the Partizan stadium from Monday.
