Pre-Season Preview: Spartak Trnava

Blog written by ad_wilkin
Published: 10th July 2023 21:45

In the first of the season's pre-match previews (a double RB Leipzig and Werder Bremen one to follow), we take a look into a Spartak Trnava side that McKenna’s side will be facing on the 15th July as part of their first pre-season trip to Austria.

The Slovakian side where former Liverpool player Martin Skrtel ended his career should provide stern opposition and be a step up from Town’s last two friendly opponents.

They have won the Slovak Superliga once (2017/18) and the Slovak Cup in the previous two seasons (2021/22 and 2022/23). This season they finished third in the league meaning they will be playing in the Europa Conference League once again next season.

They are managed by former player Michal Gasparik who has a lot of history for the club, making 154 appearances for them over three separate spells. He has been at the club in a coaching capacity since 2016 and stepped up to take over the first team in 2021. Gasparik has now managed 106 competitive games at the club, winning 62 of them with a points per game record of 1.94

Last 20 competitive games

Formation	Wins	Draws	Losses	GS	GA
3-4-3	2	0	0	7	3
4-3-3	3	1	3	10	8
4-2-3-1	1	2	2	5	5
4-4-2	1	0	0	6	1
4-1-4-1	0	0	1	1	4
4-3-2-1	1	0	0	2	0
3-4-2-1	2	0	0	5	3
4-1-2-3	1	0	0	2	1

Looking back at the formations played last season, an experimental first half of the season eventually led to Gasparik settling on a 4-3-3 formation with a flat back four, two holders and one more advanced in the centre with a narrow three up top.

They had success with this in the Slovak Cup final, sitting deep but pressing as a unit when the ball got to the halfway line. In possession they looked to launch long balls and pick up the pieces with the front three’s dribbling ability winning them plenty of free-kicks and getting them into decent positions.

They have started this season’s pre-season campaign with a fair bit of squad rotation so far but are starting to field a more settled side. Results have been mixed. A 3-1 defeat against Croatian side Rjeka has been followed up with a 1-1 draw with Hadjuk (also Croatian), a 2-1 win against Wisla Plock (Poland) and a 4-0 defeat against Sturm Graz.

Goalkeeper

Minutes in goal last season were split between Dominik Takac (2,430) who started the season in goal and played every game of the regular season and Martin Vantruba (1,470) who played the majority of the cup matches and interestingly came in to play the majority of the games in the Fortuna League â€" Championship Group.

This is an extension of the league season where the top six teams play an extra set of fixtures against each other as do the bottom six, in two separate groups. Both aged 24, it’s likely that one or maybe both of them will be taking to the field against Town.

Third-choice keeper Dobrivoj Rusov only featured once last season but did start against Rjeka in their first friendly. During that game he let a long-range shot squirm underneath his body so won’t have made the best case for inclusion. Highlights of that game are here.

Defence

The Defence is a mixture of youth and experience and can be very fluid changing slightly in terms of positioning. Sometimes it is a back three with either the left-back or right-back pushed forward or sometimes a four but in terms of personnel it was pretty consistent across last season, Kristian Kostra (29), Lukas Stetina (31), Sebastian Kosa (19) and loanee Filip Twardzik (30) who has now left the club.

Twzardzik will leave a gap down the left to fill as he was their main set-piece taker. So far in the friendly matches it has been experienced Martin Mikovic who has filled in there. He also started the majority of the league matches at the start of last season before suffering a meniscal injury that saw Twardzik take his place.

Alternate competition for the attacking left-back role left by Twardzik is 19-year-old Miha Kompan Breznik, who has signed from Slovenia League side NS Mura.

However, he has yet to start any friendlies and looks to be seen more as one for the future. Twice-capped Slovakia right-back Martin Sulek also joins from Wisla Plock to provide competition on the right-hand side and slotted in there for their first friendly match of that campaign.

Stetina hasn’t started any of the friendly games so far, possibly suffering from an injury so it could be another 19-year-old Marek Ujlaky alongside Kosa at centre-half. Kostra is almost a certainty to play with his versatility crucial to the way that Trnava play.

Midfield

The strong base of the midfield was made up of Kryiakos Savvidis (who was out of contract at the end of the season and has decided to move on to rivals Slovan Bratislava) and 34-year-old Roman Prochazka.

The pair played together with one of the more attacking midfielders in games where Trnava were the weaker side with the more attacking players coming in for the games where Trnava were more dominant.

The three players than mainly rotated in the more advance midfield position(s) were Martin Bukata (four goals), Samuel Stefanik (five goals) and Jacob Paur (two goals).

With Savvidis leaving, there was a defensive midfield gap left and this has been plugged by the free transfer signing of Filip Bainovic who has joined from AS Trencin. Bainovic scored six goals from midfield last season and has also slotted into the middle of the park, starting Trnava’s first three friendly games. Paur was trialed as a central striker against Hadjuk with some success as he got himself on the scoresheet in that game.

The most likely trio to start this one is Prochazka, new signing Bainovic and Stefanik. Against Wisla Plock Prochazka started as a right-back with Kostra moving to right centre-half. In possession Trnava switched to a back three and Prochazka attempted to overload the midfield. Town have trialed something similar to this with Leif Davis in their first two friendlies so it will be interesting to see how that match up goes.

Forwards

Leading the line for Trnava for the majority of last season was Abulrahman Taiwo, who finished fourth top goalscorer in the league with 11 goals. Taiwo’s loan was up at the end of the season however so it is likely that it will be Macedonian international Milan Ristovski leading the line against the Super Blues.

Ristovski was an unused substitute for Macedonia in their recent Euro 2024 qualifying defeat to England. He made 27 appearances for Trnava last season netting just three goals.

Either side of the main striker will likely be Erik Daniel and Kelvin Ofori. Ofori is a 21-year-old Ghanaian who was signed from SC Paderborn in February. He started 10 games on the left-hand side as narrow winger, looking to pick up the ball out wide and dribble into the box.

Daniel, a 31-year-old Slovakian, plays a similar role on the right-hand side. Daniel is very much the creative threat and is always looking to get onto the ball. He’s equally confident with both feet and is arguably Trnava’s star player.

In terms of numbers, however, neither player has delivered outstanding stats with their focus more on providing the ammunition for Taiwo. With him gone the wide players will need to step up or they could end up being toothless in attack.

In addition to Ristovski, Trnava do have 22-year-old Nigerian Kenneth Ikugar to call upon. He spent the 2022/23 season elsewhere with two different loans but has made an impression coming off the bench this pre-season with two goals (both scrappy affairs) in three friendly appearances. A tall bustling striker, his pace and height will look to cause Ipswich problems later on in games as effectively as it has done in previous friendlies.

Predicted starting XI

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