‘Dismissal was not a result of public pressure. If it was, we would have replaced head coach earlier,' said Mijatović at the beginning. Kavčič’s successor is not yet known: ‘As I have said several times earlier, I did not speak until head coach was current, and I did not speak now either.’ The president of NZS refused to say much about potential candidates.
‘We have been thinking about a foreigner earlier, but we have to analyse everyone who will be available, everyone who will have the characteristics we want and will be available given our financial possibilities. A foreigner is an option, but there is no concrete idea at this moment,’ added Mijatović.
Mijatović accepts responsibility
'The president of NZS names the head coach and professional management, and he is also responsible for results. NZS is not just senior national team, it is a much broader story with a huge amount of other responsibilities. But it is true that the work of NZS and his president is linked with the work of senior national team. I do not avoid responsibility and I accept it,' stressed Mijatović at the conference. He thinks that the poor results of senior national team in the Nations League are not enough for his resignation.
He is aware that results were poorIt was with understanding that Kavčič accepted the decision, which also affects his assistants and the former forward of the national team Milivoje Novaković. However, NZS will continue to discuss his future role. 'Tomaž is aware that the results were bad, that outcome and play were not at the desired level. He saw that there were prospects for the future, but he accepted the decision with understanding,' said Mijatović.
Oblak did not like the way captain was selected
This is what Mijatović said about the best Slovene player, goalkeeper Jan Oblak:'The player wanted to meet only with the president. I respected his wish and this was the only reason why I met him.' Mijatović also added that the goalkeeper of Madrid's Atletico did not like the way captain was selected in the Slovene national team. ‘Oblak told me that the problem was not that he was not the captain and he will never condition his return on him being a captain. I can’t tell you anything about the way captain is selected.’
Slovenia in pot 4
On Tuesday, the match between Slovenia and Cyprus ended without a winner (1:1). After four matches in the Nations League, Slovenia has only one point and is about to be relegated to the lowest group of European football. Norway is coming to Slovenia in November, following which our national team plays an away match in Bulgaria. At these two matches, they will try to avoid being relegated, but chances are very slim. Qualifications for Euro 2020 are due in March and Slovenia will be in pot 4.
National team had bad luck
But the president of NZS is nevertheless convinced that national team has great potential and that they had a lot of bad luck in some of the matches in the Nations League. 'We would probably have achieved much more in some matches, but we lacked luck. There was a mistake in the match against Bulgaria and we scored a regular goal in the 89th minute in the match against Cyprus, but the goal was disallowed. In the end, Cyprus scored and the result was 2:1. There were many factors which lead to the current situation,' said Mijatović.
