Power Rankings: Slovenian Prva Liga

After game week four, how are the sides going...

Rotating this season will be power rankings in some of the leagues I follow - I’m aiming to rotate with Slovenia, Croatia and Serbia and may add some to the mix if you’re enjoying them…

Four games in and the Slovenian Prva Liga is beginning to take some shape or, at least, we know who the bad sides are, at least. Here’s where we are after week four. Obviously, these are power rankings and don’t necessarily match the actual table, just my feeling of where the sides are at this point in quality and form.

1st - Olimpija Ljubljana

I didn’t write Olimpija off completely pre-season, just believed that they’d be decidedly behind Maribor and Celje. They’re a hell of a lot closer to that level than anyone expected.

Quite aside from anything else, it’s been impressive just how much Victor Sanchez appears to have done his homework on Olimpija before joining the club. He seems to have knowledge not just of the first team situation but of the NextGen Liga prospects that he can call upon. Okay, they haven’t had the most challenging of starts to the season domestically and huffed and puffed a little bit against Primorje, but add on the sprinkle of three consecutive wins in the Conference League qualifiers and you have a side on a roll, particularly considering they hammered Sheriff in the latest of those at Stozice. It’s a pity their likely Playoff tie will be of the very difficult variety as they do appear a step above the side that played in the groups last season and the speed of their play is definitely troubling sides. Their next two league games are Celje and Maribor - we’ll know if Olimpija are in this for the long haul after those, but this has been a flawless start. 

They rounded off their opening four games with a 0-0 draw to Domzale but it was a rotated side that dominated and just couldn’t make the breakthrough. They’re topping things for now…

2nd - Maribor

Their eternal rivals come in second - like Olimpija, unbeaten and arguably only three points back because of the postponement of their clash vs Celje to make way for European exploits. They hammered Domzale on the opening day before huffing and puffing to a draw over Bravo.

Mura had gone three wins from three before meeting them at Ljudski vrt last night and even took the lead before Arnel Jakupovic put them in their place in spectacular fashion - highlighted by his wonderful equaliser. He was named July’s player of the month and has certainly continued in that vein. Arguably, he is the most dangerous right sided striker in the region, never mind Slovenia, and has perhaps opened this season in the best form we’ve seen from him - at 26 now, it’s quite a handy period in which to put yourself in the shop window. 

There’s been a bit more struggle and a little less surprise than Olimpija, and that’s what puts them second in these rankings.

3rd - Celje

On one hand, it’s impossible not to put a side with Celje’s strength in the top three. Adding Juanjo Nieto and Nikita Iosifov to the squad is a wild bit of quality on top of what Celje already had.

On the other, Celje are a bit chaotic, aren’t they? Sacking Damir Krznar between Champions League legs to bring back Albert Riera after the demise of Bordeaux did make sense - Krznar wasn’t especially impressive and Riera won the title for them last season. Except Celje have not impressed since.

Slovan Bratislava demolished them in Europe and Shamrock Rovers were beaten in a first leg far less handily than you’d expect. Mura beat Celje and Albert Riera sounded rather miffed about the whole experience. Radomlje ran them far closer than you’d expect too - albeit they’ll be happy Ivan Brnic got off the mark and less so that Aljaz Krefl went down sharply with a clear muscle issue as Celje fell to bits for a period at the start of the second half. They haven’t yet performed as you’d expect and there’s a physical reason to that (in terms of the volume of games they’re playing) but also a mental aspect to that (in that they appear fragile). They could do with an international break.

4th - Bravo

Not Mura? No, they’re next.

Bravo have had a punishing start to the season - following 120 mins in Wales with an away game against Celje to open the league campaign, then another two weeks of Thursday-Sundays with league matches seeing a highly impressive win over Primorje and a draw against Maribor. We’re yet to really see the real Bravo just because they’ve not had a period of normality yet but if they can be that competitive in a period where it will be as stressful and taxing as their season will get, they’re going to be absolutely fine and should see their results tick up quickly.

5th - Mura

Until losing to Maribor this weekend, they’d been faultless. So why are they below Bravo?

In short, where Bravo haven’t been perfect against a challenging line-up, Mura have been close to it against a not very challenging one. Their opener against Nafta will have been forgotten by the crowd as soon as it finished, they squeaked past Domzale and took advantage of an error to beat a well below par Celje. They remain reliant on performances from the older guard in the side - Matic Marusko has opened the season well as has Amadej Marosa - but the jury is still very much out on them as to whether they’re good or if they’ve just had a kind schedule. For now, I’d lean towards the latter.

6th - Koper

Beat Primorje and Radomlje (and were fortunate in the latter), lost to Olimpija. Koper were a side likely to be stuck in a hinterland between sides fighting for something and sides fighting against something and those results do nothing if not conform to that.

7th - Radomlje

7th in the table and 7th here, all their points came in beating Domzale while down to ten men and, if we’re being fair, for a squad that’s awfully weak on paper, they’ve been close to every opponent - even Celje. You still struggle to see where the goals will come from and they’re absolutely still a player short in that regard (although Niko Gajzler is easing into things now), but that they’re resolute and in every game puts them a little ahead of the remainder of the bottom four of this ranking.

8th - Domzale

Benefit of the doubt time - Domzale did win the xG battle vs Maribor on the opening day, in spite of losing 4-1 and they did get their first point of the season against Olimpija. They do have a stronger squad on paper than the sides around them at the bottom given that, already, a top six-bottom four grouping is appearing in the table.

They also have to beat Primorje next time out. If they lose that one, it’s going to be a long old season.

9th - Nafta

While losing 3-0 to Primorje without threatening at all during the game has to be a worrying result for Joszef Boszik’s side, they can take some heart from the fact that it was a result almost entirely self-inflicted. They hung with Mura on the opening day and were worth their win vs Radomlje. The fact that they’ve signed more players and have the sort of squad size that would make even Chelsea raise an eyebrow means they’ll improve as we go, but there’s a paper thin gap between the bottom three on these rankings.

Can I also just say that their kit is terrible. Minus one place in the rankings at least for wearing this every week.

10th - Primorje

Which means that the other promoted club sit bottom here. They nullified Olimpija for a half, but then got swept away. Bravo gave them one of the most comprehensive lessons in football I’ve seen in the Prva Liga for quite some time and Koper dismissed them easily. They’re averaging under 0.75 xG per game and, if you take the Nafta game out of that for the reason that Nafta were their own worst enemies there, it’s 0.13 xG per game.

If you can’t create, you can’t score and, following their next game against Domzale, their schedule runs Celje (A), Maribor (H), Mura (A). It’s tough to see where their results come from over the next month and they desperately need a bit of quality.