I was watching the U19s this week and they said Croatia's LB was playing for Roma?
He did score an own goal though
Silvio Anocic, yeah... It's very difficult to say with 18 year old kids.
He may end up being decent (I don't see potential for anything better than "decent"), or he may fizzle out and end up having a mediocre football career (which tbh, is much more common with promising 18 year olds).
It's really hard to say with Croatian kids atm, Dinamo Zagreb and the FA have basically killed all the other academies (slowly and methodically over the last 10-15 years), and most of these kids end up in Dinamo at one point or another.
Meaning it's hard to judge how good they are... They had a decent tournament in the WC, but now lost all their games in the U-19 EURO.
We haven't had a proper LB since Jarni retired, that's 14 years now, and I don't see anyone being on a top level to be there.
Same with strikers. Mandzukic has become very one-dimensional (amazingly, he became a top player playing wing and beating people all over the place in Wolfsburg, then somehow morphed into a box-only striker in Bayern) and is looking like he's past his prime, Kalinic is very ordinary and Kramaric, like I said, may be decent, but not much more.
If we had a Lukaku, I'd be pretty optimistic about the 2018 WC, but as it is, I'm pretty sure we're gonna run into an organized team like Portugal was in the EURO, and not be able to score.
Modric should still be in his prime, Rakitic and Perisic as well, Brozovic and Pjaca and Halilovic will only get better, Rog might end up being a top DM (or not)...
Either way, midfield's covered.
If we can somehow develop a top striker and a half decent LB, they'll be as good as any team in Europe.
Assuming we don't have a mumbling disaster of a coach like we did in the EURO.
But hey, I guess the Belgians know something about that.
