Serbia’s success rests on calm Mladen Krstajic melding many talents

The manager may lack experience but he has been a soothing presence for a traditionally combustible nation that has never fulfilled its considerable potential

The last time Mladen Krstajic worked at a World Cup he was the left-back in a Serbia & Montenegro defence that could only watch as Argentina passed their way to one of the tournament’s great team goals and a 6-0 win. Costa Rica are a notch or two below Esteban Cambiasso and company but today will be fraught with concerns of a different kind. These days Krstajic orchestrates from the dugout, a green coach seeking to impose order on a nation whose footballing psyche is complex, contradictory and, quite often, self-loathing.

The biggest puzzler is this: somehow, Serbia tend to overachieve and wildly underachieve at the same time. Should World Cups be decided on population, the country of seven million would be long gone before the latter stages; offsetting this is the fact that their production line is so accomplished, and talent pool so vast, that their record in tournament football can only be described as abysmal.

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