Paunovic on wave of pull-outs: no one is crossed off
Serbia coach Veljko Paunovic in Stara Pazova ahead of friendlies against Cape Verde and Mexico. A squad without the big names, but the message is clear: nobody has lost their place.
- Veljko Paunovic named his squad for two friendly matches in Stara Pazova.
- Serbia play Cape Verde on 31 May in Lisbon and Mexico on 5 June in Toluca.
- Missing from the list are Mitrovic, Vlahovic, Milenkovic, Jovic, both Milinkovic-Savic brothers, Kostic and Rajkovic.
- The coach's message: no one will be crossed off, the withdrawals will not become a drama.
In the hall of the Football Association of Serbia’s Sports Centre in Stara Pazova, on Friday afternoon, the reporters already knew half the story before the coach walked in. The squad list was lying on the tables, and the names you usually read first were not on it. When Veljko Paunovic sat down, the opening question asked itself: why are so many of them gone at once.
The coach did not dodge it. He admitted he was surprised by the number of pull-outs, but said he would not turn it into theatre.
We are not going to make a fuss about it, no one will be crossed off, Veljko Paunovic said at the news conference in Stara Pazova.
He then turned to what, by his own account, bothers him most, namely that a situation like this arose at this stage of preparations at all.
I am surprised, I am a bit sorry that we have ended up in this situation, the coach added.
The squad and the withdrawals
The list for the June matches looks unusual for Serbia. It does not include Aleksandar Mitrovic, Dusan Vlahovic, Nikola Milenkovic, Luka Jovic, nor the brothers Sergej and Vanja Milinkovic-Savic. Filip Kostic and Predrag Rajkovic are absent too. In other circumstances, that roll call of absentees would be a headline on its own.
Paunovic broke the reasons into several groups, so that everything would not be blamed on one cause. Some players are coming back from injury, some have scheduled surgery, one group has logged maximum minutes in the recent period, and there are also weddings and the births of children.
There is a group of lads coming back from injury, others have surgical procedures, one group had maximum minutes in the previous period, there are weddings and the birth of children, Paunovic explained.
The practical consequence is that as many as eleven players from the domestic SuperLiga ended up on the list, something not seen at a preparation camp for a long time. Among the goalkeepers is Filip Stankovic, the Venezia keeper and second son of Dejan Stankovic, who gets his chance in the national shirt.
Whether this is necessity or a quiet changing of the guard will be decided on the pitch itself. Paunovic, it seems, has chosen to view it as an opportunity rather than a hole.
What comes next
The calendar is short and packed. Serbia first travel to Lisbon, where on 31 May at 16:30 they face Cape Verde, a World Cup participant. Less than a week later, on 5 June at 04:00 Serbian time, comes an away match against Mexico in Toluca, at altitude and in the early hours for the home audience.
Both opponents are headed to the World Cup, so these are not games for resting but for testing. The national team training session in Stara Pazova was open to the media for the first fifteen minutes, just enough to see who had arrived and what mood the squad set off in for this brief camp.
For those who see a crisis in lists like this, the other side is worth stating. Paunovic has been handed two matches against serious rivals to look at players he would not otherwise hand minutes to so easily. If one of the eleven SuperLiga men takes his chance in Lisbon and Toluca, the withdrawals will later be remembered as the moment someone new walked in through the front door.
The first test is already on Sunday, 31 May in Lisbon. Will anyone from this list of surprises seize the opening that the wave of withdrawals has handed them?
