He had the same stats in INTER if not better..He never got real chance here when he was bought Even now he was introduced into the first team after injuries of other players
This guy is insanely talented. With a bit of fine tuning and experience, he can be the best attacking CM in the world. He will make people forget Iniesta.
The run from him in the CWC final today. Maybe could have gone for a direct pass to CRonaldo rather than the through ball at its end, but his energy, pace and ability to quickly advance the ball is pretty awesome -
Vasquez and Casemiro shouldn't start. Kovacic and Isco should. Much more Jogo Bonito with them. Isco with a free role and one of Kroos/Modric/Kovacic as DLP.
Yet this summer everybody wanted to loan him out, so that he could 'develop' Pogba would have been a dream in the white shirt, to fill the hole that Modric will soon leave. But if a guy like Llorente can stake his claim for a spot, we will be good anyway.
Let's be real though, the only reason he got so much play time to shine was because of the injuries so people who wanted to loan him weren't wrong to think that. He's pretty much back on the bench now that Modrid, Kroos, and Casemiro are back.
Doesn't matter. He's obvious quality. Why should be loan players who can add more to the team than their possible replacements? And the reason I didn't want him loaned is exactly because of the high possibility of such injuries.
I think he should start ahead of Casemiro. We only really need casemiro like once or twice a season..
Dribbling god. I have yet to see a midfielder with such dribbling skills. One of a kind and deserves more praise for his defensive efforts. He is a entertaining player, but doesn't mind doing the dirty work too. I love it.
Repeat after me: He's only 22 !!! (and basically all of the shortcomings in his game can be fixed...)
Best dribble success in whole of La Liga. "Of the 67 players to attempt 50+ dribbles in La liga this season, Kovacic has the best success rate (80,3) %. "
To be fair you don't want that from your holding midfielder. Kovacic' assets are best utilized further up the field and still he has to improve his decision making.
That attribute is actually very useful in that deep position. He can easily turn around his 'presser' and create a man more situation on midfield, Redondo-like. Unlike Casemiro or Kroos who lack dribble and pace.
I'm not sure I agree actually. In that situation it's more valuable to be able to turn with the ball and shield it with your body to relieve pressure. We see that Casemiro lacks it under pressure and we remember Xabi suffering from it too. Being able to dribble allows you to carry to ball forward and gain terrain. But if you do that when you have the entire team minus the 2 CBs in front of you, you're giving away possession cheaply and potentially you're gifting the opponents a goal scoring opportunity. Remember that 1/5 times in that stat, he doesn't succeed.
The marauding runs from deep are certainly an asset, but when he is tasked with playing the holding role then his decision-making does have to improve as @9Qui said. There were a few occasions yesterday when he managed to burst through the middle only to carelessly pass the ball straight back to Depor. Thankfully the turnovers amounted to nothing.
Exactly. It's dangerous as hell to do that from the deep mid position. He has a lot of growing to do in terms of his footballing brain, but his skills and stamina seem top notch already. Hope ZZ can bring him to where he needs to be. Also, he needs more of Luka's minutes.
I still keep think about this: The talent is right there for everyone to see, but he's still in pretty much the same position as last summer when @surgeon wrote this. We (including himself) don't know his best position and he needs to play to develop tactically.