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Former Croatia coach Miroslav Blazevic has slammed the tactics of current boss Mirko Jozic, claiming that his negative approach gifted Mexico a 1-0 win on Monday.
Blazevic, who guided Croatia to third place in the 1998 World Cup, said: "It was terrible to watch. The Croatia that played under me in the 1998 World Cup never played like that. On Monday, we were weak, we were poor and I'm not surprised we lost."
The former Iran coach admitted that he was puzzled by Jozic's decision to play Davor Suker in a withdrawn role behind Alen Boksic. "He adopted his own peculiar strategy for the match," continued Blazevic.
"But the way they played went against the philosophy that I adopted - and that was to play attacking football. Pulling Suker back into midfield was clearly a mistake.
"He has such a big reputation and if he had played up front, he would have taken at least two defenders with him. That would have created more space for Alen Boksic, but as it was, Boksic was totally isolated."
Despite Blazevic's lack of confidence in Jozic's tactics, he believes that they will bounce back with a victory Italy in the next game. "Croatia must improve, and if they do that then I believe that are good enough to beat the Italians," he said.

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