When HNK Sibenik were promoted from Croatia’s second tier into 1.HNL last season, their driving force was a teenage midfielder who was born in Sibenik and had already been on the books at the club for a decade.
Marko Bulat is the team’s captain and has been instrumental in their modest but sturdy return to top flight football. His father, Josip, played for the club more than 200 times. The last came 20 years after the first, capping a career that brought him a Croatian championship as a NK Zagreb player in 2002.
Marko was born at the beginning of that season and Josip now chairs the supervisory board of the club led on the field by his 19-year-old son. The Oranges are an impressive outfit capable of exciting football under Krunoslav Rendulic and able to trip up Croatian football’s more celebrated clubs.
Bulat is the central figure in their on-pitch success this season, literally and figuratively, and links with a move to Barcelona have about them a ring of truth and substance.
Although he’s usually listed as a defensive midfielder Bulat is a central midfielder who does everything a central midfielder can be expected to do. He supports attack as well as defence and when he does sit as the deepest midfielder he is there to play.
With the ball
If Marko Bulat could be boiled down to one type of player – and he can’t, really – it would be a passer. The feted “metronome” role is too reductive a description of his game but he is Sibenik’s heartbeat. When he’s in form he dictates the play with real rhythm to his passing, which really comes into its own when his team leads and the game opens up to encourage him to be more ambitious.
He is efficient with the full range of passing and makes good decisions geared towards his team keeping the ball and getting on the front foot, whichever tool he needs to put to work in the moment. To that end he is also an accomplished ball carrier with a lovely drop of the shoulder and a keen eye for channels inviting him forward.
As Bulat matures he will become a powerful runner. He’s blessed with the ability to turn on the afterburners and glide past opponents. Throw the upper body strength of an experienced athlete into the mix and he’ll be difficult to stop.
Bulat has scored twice and assisted four goals in his 18 1.HNL appearances in the 2020/21 season, all of them starts as captain.
At 806.5 minutes per goal and 403.3 minutes per assist, it’s easy to pigeonhole Bulat as a deep-lying midfield maestro with little to offer in the way of goal involvements, but it’s also inaccurate. Bulat is very much a part of the Sibenik attack and will surely be keen to improve on a scoring rate of one in ten and an assist every four to five games. As the team’s attacking set piece taker in particular, he will ideally add more of both.
But to question his creative contributions would be unfair. Sibenik play through Bulat and his is more often the “pre-assist”, the pass before the pass that creates a chance. As such, he is key to the team’s attacking return without necessarily having the statistics to show it. They will come.
He also contributes by attacking with discipline. When Sibenik have numbers in the attacking third and possession of the ball, Bulat – at other times the furthest player forwards – will hang back. His team can then recycle the ball, playing out through him from side to side and keeping the pressure on the defence.
Bulat typically has a terrific first touch and is excellent at looking after the ball. He holds it well with his back to goal and an opponent on his case, and he also knows when that first touch must be a pass under pressure.
He helps his team maintain possession by constantly finding spaces off the ball. He plays on the half-turn and has fabulous balance and the utmost confidence in his ability to receive and retain the ball in tight spots anywhere on the pitch. And, although he can be tricked by his own feet very occasionally, he’s got a few little tricks in his locker that enable him to transform those tight spots into yards of clear space.
His Cruyff turn out of trouble is a frequent delight.
Without the ball
Bulat is often Sibenik’s deepest midfielder but his defensive work is obstruction rather than destruction.
He reads the game beautifully – evidenced by his knack for being in the right place at the right time – which allows him to occupy spaces and play a disciplined positional game. He is a hard worker by virtue of his ability to reserve his energy for when he needs it, so he tracks runners for the full 90 minutes.
When Sibenik are out of possession Bulat will sit in front of the defence and attach himself to opponents who run through his territory, and he knows when to step out of the shape to press the ball. His positional play and acceleration enable him to intercept or nick a loose ball. He acts on the pass after next, an invaluable skill for a team that wants to hit supposedly superior sides on the counter.
His tackling is often done with attack in mind. He does it during a transition rather than to instigate one, and that attack-minded defending is also on display in his marking. He always takes responsibility but frequently does so only when it becomes a matter of urgency; even out of possession it’s more important that he’s available to play.
When the ball is turned over and he’s not directly involved he’s off like a shot, looking to attack in the channels. Bulat is a sniffer of opportunities and looks to attack from deep at any and every moment.
His job is as much progressive as defensive, and, as such, it’s defending at close quarters that exposes his lack of experience. Opposition strikers looking to buy a foul in Sibenik’s defensive third can get some joy from a player who wants to muck in and lead by example, but isn’t as streetwise when the ball is pinging around his own penalty area as he is in the rest of his game.
Nevertheless, his defensive contribution overall is vital and determined. Bulat clearly takes the captain’s armband very seriously.
Prospects
He may be the captain of his home-town club but Bulat is not long for Sibenik. If it weren’t for the coronavirus pandemic he might already belong to Barcelona or Manchester City – the clubs most heavily linked with his signature, with the Catalan giants in pole position – and the class and maturity he displays will ensure he gets his move.
It’s likely that Bulat would be loaned out immediately if he signed for a club of such stature. In many regards he bears the hallmarks of a player ripe for one of Europe’s conveyor belt clubs. Landing in the Premier League or La Liga by way of a successful spell in the Red Bull system doesn’t seem far-fetched. Stylistically, Italian football might be the best fit in the long run.
Wherever Bulat goes next he will soon find consistency across all areas of the game. That it eludes him now, at 19, is no cause for concern. He will find the groove that takes him into a bright future, evolving into a player who bosses games against inferior opposition rather than getting dragged into a poor match one week and rising emphatically to a superior challenge the next.
Bulat has been capped by Croatia up to Under-19 level, and a senior international career is inevitably a big part of his footballing future.
Whether he makes his name in a Croatia shirt or in the glamorous, floodlit environs of Europe’s premier club competition, it’s a name we’ll be hearing for some time.
Name: Marko Bulat
Position: Central Midfielder
Club: HNK Sibenik
Nationality: Croatian
Date of birth: 26/9/2025
Height: 178cm
Data correct at 8th February 2021. Sources include: Transfermarkt, FBref.com, Understat
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Chris Nee
@SphinxFtbl