Bilic back at Croatia helm for second spell as England Nations League clash looms

Slaven Bilic is back in charge of Croatia, nine years after insisting he wanted no part in football comebacks and 14 years since his first spell as national-team manager ended. The 58-year-old is now preparing to face England in Rijeka in the Nations League on Saturday.

The return marks a remarkable reversal of the stance Bilic struck in a rare interview with Croatian media nine years ago, conducted in a Canary Wharf hotel while he was preparing for a third Premier League season as West Ham manager. Wearing a black Soundgarden T-shirt and dark denim, he insisted: “I don’t believe in comebacks.”

“I have nice memories and wouldn’t want to spoil them,” he said at the time. “I don’t like coming back. It’s not the fear of failure, just the feeling that something has run its course.”

And yet, here we are. Between that interview and his return, Bilic coached in the Saudi Pro League and Chinese Super League, took charge of West Brom and Watford, and was out of work for 23 months from August 2024. Age has added some sophistication to his appearance – a patchwork of homages to great managers of the modern game – but he remains unmistakably himself: direct, eloquent and above all passionate, a striking contrast to the restrained, almost priest-like persona of predecessor Zlatko Dalic.

A fresh wind after Dalic’s era

On Bilic’s first public appearance back in the job in July, “it was as if somebody had opened the windows and let in fresh air.” No coach would find it easy to succeed Dalic, who made history by leading Croatia to second and third at the World Cup, but Bilic was always seen as the best choice – not only for his intimate knowledge of the set-up but because of a lingering sense that he laid the foundations for the country’s success.

The suggestion is that Bilic began to plant what blossomed into the Luka Modric and Dalic team; that he made Croatia dream big for the first time since his own 1998 playing generation, a cornerstone being the famous 3-2 victory at Wembley in 2007, secured not out of necessity but out of confidence in Croatia’s strength.

Fittingly, the 41-year-old Modric scored the first goal of the second Bilic era, in a 2-1 win in Prague against Czechia last Saturday, and rushed to embrace his manager. “Luka is everything to us, he’s just incredible,” Bilic said.

Bravery, belief and a new blueprint

Where Dalic’s team often waited, relished their underdog role and were deadly on the counter despite not having many quick players, Bilic wants to dominate. He wants his players to press high, take more risks and for more men to arrive in the opposition area. He wants his centre-backs to step up with the ball rather than wait for Modric or Mateo Kovacic to drop back and take possession. He wants his team to be brave, attacking and as passionate as he is.

Whether he can impose that on a squad still dominated by veterans such as Modric, Kovacic and Ivan Perisic remains to be seen. His second game in charge ended in a 4-1 away defeat by a vastly superior Spain, for which he rotated heavily, so it is too early to judge after just two matches. But Bilic always believed – in 2012 he believed his Croatia could win the Euros (they went out in the group stage), and now he says he can match Dalic’s success. Maybe he really didn’t believe in comebacks nine years ago. That didn’t stop him keeping faith in bigger things.