14 hours ago, EdinburghBlue said:

Strange I seen it completely different - he was bang average. A few nice dribbles as always but as usual when it comes time to play the ball forward to someone and weight the pass through to an attacker - he can’t do it. 

First you should see some off the ball movement of our attackers.. And when you look closely you will se that its not easy to make killer pass.. Off ball positioning and movement is bad in whole team... You think that attacker just need to stand and wait for pass direct into his legs? Thats not how it works... Even KDB wouldnt have much Asissts with these forwards..

 

1 hour ago, WhiteWall said:

Although I have no axe to grind this has to be done in pairs and Jorginhos lack of pace often leaves Kova in a last ditch tackle scenario imo. If Mount is going to press high up the pitch and Kova is going to go hunting the ball then the other midfielder need Jorginhos  ability on the ball but a level of mobility similar to Kova which we don't. Throw in a sprinkling of cheers when it comes to defensive duties and we are so easily exposed 

Which is why I always prefered Kanté & Kova to Jorgi & Kova, but with the constant injuries this season it wasn't meant to be. Imo Jorgi is a player that needs to play in a system that relies heavily on posession and a million passes to be efficient, he's very similar to Busquets; a highly intelligent DM with bad physical attributes.

4 hours ago, Dbstf0222 said:

First you should see some off the ball movement of our attackers.. And when you look closely you will se that its not easy to make killer pass.. Off ball positioning and movement is bad in whole team... You think that attacker just need to stand and wait for pass direct into his legs? Thats not how it works... Even KDB wouldnt have much Asissts with these forwards..

 

Valid points.

4 hours ago, Vagabond said:

Which is why I always prefered Kanté & Kova to Jorgi & Kova, but with the constant injuries this season it wasn't meant to be. Imo Jorgi is a player that needs to play in a system that relies heavily on posession and a million passes to be efficient, he's very similar to Busquets; a highly intelligent DM with bad physical attributes.

Jorginho has made the most passes into the final third in the whole PL. His forward pass led to our goal yesterday. Kante and Kovacic do many things in the same way, when they play together it's redundant. I think most deep-lying playmakers rely on possession and passes, Kovacic and Kante are no different when it comes to that.  

8 minutes ago, Gol15 said:

Jorginho has made the most passes into the final third in the whole PL. His forward pass led to our goal yesterday. Kante and Kovacic do many things in the same way, when they play together it's redundant. I think most deep-lying playmakers rely on possession and passes, Kovacic and Kante are no different when it comes to that.  

In my opinion all deep-lying playmakers depends havily on good forwards and attacking midfielder... Both jorg and kova would have at least 7+ assists if they had better front 3. Also i think that kova have more open play assists then mount if i read corectly. 

42 minutes ago, Dbstf0222 said:

In my opinion all deep-lying playmakers depends havily on good forwards and attacking midfielder... Both jorg and kova would have at least 7+ assists if they had better front 3. Also i think that kova have more open play assists then mount if i read corectly. 

All 3 have in total of 10-12 assists which is nothing special. Mount has the most goals and Jorginho has scored all penalties, Kovacic has only scored once in over 30 games in the league.

Tomorrow we announce Havertz and we drastically improve our midfield.

5 hours ago, Dbstf0222 said:

First you should see some off the ball movement of our attackers.. And when you look closely you will se that its not easy to make killer pass.. Off ball positioning and movement is bad in whole team... You think that attacker just need to stand and wait for pass direct into his legs? Thats not how it works... Even KDB wouldnt have much Asissts with these forwards..

 

Ah OK, we’re back to the ‘it’s everyone else’s fault bar X player’ - gotcha. Feel free to run me through the stage in Kovacic career where he had end product? Let me guess, Real Madrid & Inter Milan forwards didn’t have movement either? Bollocks.

1 hour ago, Dbstf0222 said:

In my opinion all deep-lying playmakers depends havily on good forwards and attacking midfielder... Both jorg and kova would have at least 7+ assists if they had better front 3. Also i think that kova have more open play assists then mount if i read corectly. 

You’ve also said both he and Jorginho would have 7+ assists if they had a better front three. He barely managed it in 100 games at either club never mind one season.

109 games at Real Madrid 8 assists.

97 games at Milan 11 assists. 

I look forward to you explaining to me how he needed a better from three than Ronaldo - Benzema - Bale😂😂

2 hours ago, EdinburghBlue said:

Ah OK, we’re back to the ‘it’s everyone else’s fault bar X player’ - gotcha. Feel free to run me through the stage in Kovacic career where he had end product? Let me guess, Real Madrid & Inter Milan forwards didn’t have movement either? Bollocks.

You’ve also said both he and Jorginho would have 7+ assists if they had a better front three. He barely managed it in 100 games at either club never mind one season.

109 games at Real Madrid 8 assists.

97 games at Milan 11 assists. 

I look forward to you explaining to me how he needed a better from three than Ronaldo - Benzema - Bale😂😂

I think you're way overly critical, why is one of our best players of the season getting so much criticism? Shouldn't you be at least going after the players we need to be concerned about and get rid of. Kovacic has massively improved this season, everyone who hated him last season has said that, he's a quality player, could he do better? Yeah of course, but I think it's obvious he's improved. And I've seen him put in many good passes that haven't been finished, if Tammy and Willian had their finishing boots on his assists would've been higher. 

But personally, I don't judge midfielders who play as deep as he does on goals or assists, same with Jorginho, unless they're someone who goes more forward like Mount. Not a great deal of goals or assists come from the Liverpool midfield either, it's all their forwards and fullbacks. 

4 hours ago, Gol15 said:

Jorginho has made the most passes into the final third in the whole PL. His forward pass led to our goal yesterday. Kante and Kovacic do many things in the same way, when they play together it's redundant. I think most deep-lying playmakers rely on possession and passes, Kovacic and Kante are no different when it comes to that.  

I was talking about what he lacks out of posession. Both Kova and Kanté can bully a player off the ball or win a physical duel on to the ball, Jorgi can't. He relies on reading the game and interceptions and he's doing that surprisingly well, but with our backline and keeper that just isn't enough.

2 hours ago, Slojo said:

I think you're way overly critical, why is one of our best players of the season getting so much criticism? Shouldn't you be at least going after the players we need to be concerned about and get rid of. Kovacic has massively improved this season, everyone who hated him last season has said that, he's a quality player, could he do better? Yeah of course, but I think it's obvious he's improved. And I've seen him put in many good passes that haven't been finished, if Tammy and Willian had their finishing boots on his assists would've been higher. 

But personally, I don't judge midfielders who play as deep as he does on goals or assists, same with Jorginho, unless they're someone who goes more forward like Mount. Not a great deal of goals or assists come from the Liverpool midfield either, it's all their forwards and fullbacks. 

This whole debate started because Nibs said he thought he played well. I simply stated I disagreed, I thought he was average in the cup final. - basically what a forum is for.
 

But don’t bring up bullsh*t arguments like it’s the movement of the front three when he’s had one of the beat front threes in word football in front of him before and got 8 assists in 109 games. You’re right he has improved and I’ve said that before, but just because he’s performed well doesn’t make him immune from criticism. 
 

Also, so much criticism? Don’t be so dramatic. It’s one criticism about his end product. Tammy has scored 15 goals in his first season at 22 years old but it’s fair game to criticise his all round game but heaven forbid someone criticises something about Kovacic. I’ve criticised and praised players at different stages of the season depending on their performances and I’m entitled to the opinion he was not above average in the final (not sure anyone bar Pulisic was after 15 minutes).
Let’s not kid ourselves on either. I’m not a massive Jorginho fan but Kovacic is not in there to play as deep as he does particularly when we play a three - maybe more when it’s just the two I’ll concede because his legs are needed to cover Jorginho. He drives through the midfield exceptionally well. It’s not asking much to at least weight a ball well in my opinion. If he could add the end product to his game it would take him to the next level.

 

Whether you like it or not he lost his place to Ross Barkley when Kante was fit for that exact reason. Is he a better player than Barkley? 100% yet frank played him ahead of him, why was that? Because at least Barkley can do something with it at the top end of the pitch. 
 

Much more likely if Havertz comes in then it’s him and Mount playing either side Kante than Kovacic.

Edited August 2, 20205 yr by EdinburghBlue

People are talking about Kovacic and killer passes but when he is in a midfield 3 and gets forward I would just be happy with a shot or even making the right decision, killer pass is getting into dreamworld territory. Kovacic is not good in a midfield three and my personal view is I would rather have a sitting midfielder and two more attacking players next to him. In a midfield two I think Kovacic is good but in a three specially at home I dont see the point.

 

1 hour ago, EdinburghBlue said:

This whole debate started because Nibs said he thought he played well. I simply stated I disagreed, I thought he was average in the cup final. - basically what a forum is for.
 

But don’t bring up bullsh*t arguments like it’s the movement of the front three when he’s had one of the beat front threes in word football in front of him before and got 8 assists in 109 games. You’re right he has improved and I’ve said that before, but just because he’s performed well doesn’t make him immune from criticism. 
 

Also, so much criticism? Don’t be so dramatic. It’s one criticism about his end product. Tammy has scored 15 goals in his first season at 22 years old but it’s fair game to criticise his all round game but heaven forbid someone criticises something about Kovacic. I’ve criticised and praised players at different stages of the season depending on their performances and I’m entitled to the opinion he was not above average in the final (not sure anyone bar Pulisic was after 15 minutes).
Let’s not kid ourselves on either. I’m not a massive Jorginho fan but Kovacic is not in there to play as deep as he does particularly when we play a three - maybe more when it’s just the two I’ll concede because his legs are needed to cover Jorginho. He drives through the midfield exceptionally well. It’s not asking much to at least weight a ball well in my opinion. If he could add the end product to his game it would take him to the next level.

 

Whether you like it or not he lost his place to Ross Barkley when Kante was fit for that exact reason. Is he a better player than Barkley? 100% yet frank played him ahead of him, why was that? Because at least Barkley can do something with it at the top end of the pitch. 
 

Much more likely if Havertz comes in then it’s him and Mount playing either side Kante than Kovacic.

You just seem overly negative to me when it comes to our players and rarely have a good thing to say about them. He's had a good season and he's improved, and yes I will talk about Liverpool because if you look at the Liverpool midfielders they don't exactly have amazing stats either, for a team that's 30 points ahead of us, it's all their forwards that do the work. 

I would rather watch him play than just strictly go off stats, and when he plays he's usually our best player on the pitch and makes things happen, but because he doesn't go down in the assist books enough people think he's got no end product when if you watch the majority of our goals especially earlier in the season he was the catalyst for a lot of them and started the play. 

In a match where your forwards got lots of attentions, and your midfield and defense stays relatively quiet; you know you had a good game. The midfield and defense do their jobs, when they're not talked about often. These are the types of matches you want, you're guarantee to get many points from them.

 

Edited August 3, 20205 yr by haviet1

2 hours ago, Slojo said:

You just seem overly negative to me when it comes to our players and rarely have a good thing to say about them. He's had a good season and he's improved, and yes I will talk about Liverpool because if you look at the Liverpool midfielders they don't exactly have amazing stats either, for a team that's 30 points ahead of us, it's all their forwards that do the work. 

I would rather watch him play than just strictly go off stats, and when he plays he's usually our best player on the pitch and makes things happen, but because he doesn't go down in the assist books enough people think he's got no end product when if you watch the majority of our goals especially earlier in the season he was the catalyst for a lot of them and started the play. 

You clearly don’t read all of my posts then. Just because I look at things holistically and don’t fan girl after the latest flavour of the month doesn’t mean I don’t rate our players. Fortunately, I don’t need to justify myself to you.

I never said you couldn’t talk about Liverpool? Are you just making your own versions of my post up in your head? But by that token, every single one of Liverpool’s midfield has matched or beaten Kovacic output this season - that includes Fabinho who is by sedition a defensive midfielder, Keita & Milner who have played significantly less. Like I’m about to say that doesn’t make a huge difference but your argument is they don’t contribution. A lot more production comes from their midfield than ours.

 

I agree, stats are not the be all and end all (again if you read even half my posts you’d know that - in fact, I recent had this conversation in the Abraham thread) but if you have eyes you can see that Kovacic ususally makes the wrong decision in the final third of the pitch or misplaced the final ball. 
 

Why you’re getting so upset over me criticising one aspect of his game which is clear for anyone to see (and I’m pretty sure he even said early in the season when he scored had been spoken about in training) is beyond me. Just because I think he can improve his end product (which anyone should be able to see he can) does not mean he’s not a good player and at no point in this thread (this season) have I said he’s not. The whole thread doesn’t need to be everyone w**king off over the performance of players - it’s for discussions which include areas they can improve. If you don’t like that you can always put me on ignore mate.

3 hours ago, EdinburghBlue said:

You clearly don’t read all of my posts then. Just because I look at things holistically and don’t fan girl after the latest flavour of the month doesn’t mean I don’t rate our players. Fortunately, I don’t need to justify myself to you.

I never said you couldn’t talk about Liverpool? Are you just making your own versions of my post up in your head? But by that token, every single one of Liverpool’s midfield has matched or beaten Kovacic output this season - that includes Fabinho who is by sedition a defensive midfielder, Keita & Milner who have played significantly less. Like I’m about to say that doesn’t make a huge difference but your argument is they don’t contribution. A lot more production comes from their midfield than ours.

 

I agree, stats are not the be all and end all (again if you read even half my posts you’d know that - in fact, I recent had this conversation in the Abraham thread) but if you have eyes you can see that Kovacic ususally makes the wrong decision in the final third of the pitch or misplaced the final ball. 
 

Why you’re getting so upset over me criticising one aspect of his game which is clear for anyone to see (and I’m pretty sure he even said early in the season when he scored had been spoken about in training) is beyond me. Just because I think he can improve his end product (which anyone should be able to see he can) does not mean he’s not a good player and at no point in this thread (this season) have I said he’s not. The whole thread doesn’t need to be everyone w**king off over the performance of players - it’s for discussions which include areas they can improve. If you don’t like that you can always put me on ignore mate.

You're getting really emotional about it, not me, look at the way you're saying things. I'm just saying from what I've seen of you, and even though I agree with you on plenty of things and your match assessments, you do come across extremely negative, especially when it comes to our players. I'm not saying this is just about Kovacic, but just from what I've seen, I don't think you rate any of our players, Reece James and Kovacic are overrated, Jorginho is sh*te, Zouma is also crap, Willian is crap, am I missing anyone else? 

I am reading your posts, and I'm saying you are overly negative when it comes to our players. I've even said Kovacic could be much better in the final 3rd, I didn't disagree with you on that...  

12 minutes ago, Slojo said:

You're getting really emotional about it, not me, look at the way you're saying things. I'm just saying from what I've seen of you, and even though I agree with you on plenty of things and your match assessments, you do come across extremely negative, especially when it comes to our players. I'm not saying this is just about Kovacic, but just from what I've seen, I don't think you rate any of our players, Reece James and Kovacic are overrated, Jorginho is sh*te, Zouma is also crap, Willian is crap, am I missing anyone else? 

I am reading your posts, and I'm saying you are overly negative when it comes to our players. I've even said Kovacic could be much better in the final 3rd, I didn't disagree with you on that...  

Because you’re “reading” my posts and taking them in a context which fits your agenda. Let’s go through that list of players one by one shall we?

 

Willian - ‘Willian is crap’ I suggest you go in to that thread and actually read my posts over the last few pages. As snippets off the top of my head... big game player,  would like him to stay if his attitude is right as not a starter - Conte second season implies it’s not if he doesn’t play. 

James - again,go have another read. Multiple times I’ve said he’s a top talent and will improve but he absolutely is overrated as a player at the moment and I’m not the only one who has criticised his performances this season. Folk on here were claiming he was better than TAA pre-season and he is nowhere near it. 

Jorginho - You’re right I’m not a fan of him as a player as I prefer energy and athleticism in my midfielders, but again, if you go have another wee read a page or so back you’ll see I state something along the lines of ‘quality player and I can see what he brings to a team but not suited to the PL’.

Zouma - all our CB’s are crap and if you’re debating that I’d be questioning what games you’ve watched, but, again... another read a few pages ago in that thread I said he was our best out and out and out defender. Admittedly, he’s not got much competition in that field. 

 

And finally, in terms of Kovacic, I’d suggest again you read my post in our POTS thread, where I’ve actually listed him as one of our top performers this season. - why you seem to be so upset that I’ve dared to criticise his final third performance only to eventually agree with me is bizarre.

 

If you want players I really don’t rate: Kepa and Rudiger from the first team are front and centre. I’d also give you Jorginho as like I say, I think his lack of athleticism is a weakness in the Prem which is why he excelled in Italy. 

20 minutes ago, EdinburghBlue said:

Because you’re “reading” my posts and taking them in a context which fits your agenda. Let’s go through that list of players one by one shall we?

 

Willian - ‘Willian is crap’ I suggest you go in to that thread and actually read my posts over the last few pages. As snippets off the top of my head... big game player,  would like him to stay if his attitude is right as not a starter - Conte second season implies it’s not if he doesn’t play. 

James - again,go have another read. Multiple times I’ve said he’s a top talent and will improve but he absolutely is overrated as a player at the moment and I’m not the only one who has criticised his performances this season. Folk on here were claiming he was better than TAA pre-season and he is nowhere near it. 

Jorginho - You’re right I’m not a fan of him as a player as I prefer energy and athleticism in my midfielders, but again, if you go have another wee read a page or so back you’ll see I state something along the lines of ‘quality player and I can see what he brings to a team but not suited to the PL’.

Zouma - all our CB’s are crap and if you’re debating that I’d be questioning what games you’ve watched, but, again... another read a few pages ago in that thread I said he was our best out and out and out defender. Admittedly, he’s not got much competition in that field. 

 

And finally, in terms of Kovacic, I’d suggest again you read my post in our POTS thread, where I’ve actually listed him as one of our top performers this season. - why you seem to be so upset that I’ve dared to criticise his final third performance only to eventually agree with me is bizarre.

 

If you want players I really don’t rate: Kepa and Rudiger from the first team are front and centre. I’d also give you Jorginho as like I say, I think his lack of athleticism is a weakness in the Prem which is why he excelled in Italy. 

Ok, so basically:

Willian - not a starter, somehow has a bad attitude

James - massively overrated

Jorginho - too weak for the PL

Zouma - crap but not as crap as the other CBs

And this is you attempting to contradict Slojo's observation that you tend to be rather negative about our players. Fyi, he's not the only one who's noticed.

4 minutes ago, bluedave said:

Ok, so basically:

Willian - not a starter, somehow has a bad attitude

James - massively overrated

Jorginho - too weak for the PL

Zouma - crap but not as crap as the other CBs

And this is you attempting to contradict Slojo's observation that you tend to be rather negative about our players. Fyi, he's not the only one who's noticed.

Do you think Willian is a starter over Pulisic and Ziyech? Exactly what do you mean ‘somehow’? He displayed it in Conte’s second season when he put a whole load of ‘🏆’ emoji’s across Conte after the FA Cup Final. Do you think that demonstrates professionalism from a senior player in the squad? 
 

If it’s negative, so be it. It is factually correct. There’s a reason the players linked with being sold are Zouma & Jorginho, clearly the management and the club are seeing the same things I am otherwise they wouldn’t constantly be linked with moves away by people like Matt Law etc who are regarded as close to Chelsea . Nor would they be dropped and barely feature (in Jorgi’s case) until Kante got injured.

Re Kovacic, I don't think he is a great midfielder yet a good one.

We are short of midfielders that do the hard work.

He does a lot of covering and makes several breaks in a match through the middle. 

For me these breaks are important especially when our full backs can't get past their men as it moves the opposition players who rush to cover.

Noticed recently he is working to offload the ball  more not killer passes (if only) just getting the ball in their half. 

He has only scored two goals for us, if he could do this more he would be a perfect midfielder for me.

1 hour ago, EdinburghBlue said:

Do you think Willian is a starter over Pulisic and Ziyech? Exactly what do you mean ‘somehow’? He displayed it in Conte’s second season when he put a whole load of ‘🏆’ emoji’s across Conte after the FA Cup Final. Do you think that demonstrates professionalism from a senior player in the squad? 
 

If it’s negative, so be it. It is factually correct. There’s a reason the players linked with being sold are Zouma & Jorginho, clearly the management and the club are seeing the same things I am otherwise they wouldn’t constantly be linked with moves away by people like Matt Law etc who are regarded as close to Chelsea . Nor would they be dropped and barely feature (in Jorgi’s case) until Kante got injured.

Willian has been one of our best players this season, even though I'm against giving him more than one year, we could've desperately done with him in that final. 

But anyway, that's just my observation, maybe you're right and I'm being harsh, but you just seem to be overly negative with a lot of our players. I'm not saying you can't do that, I'm just saying it surely can't be all that bad, defensively we are a mess for sure, but every other area I think we're doing well in. The only issue I had here regarding Kovacic was how you kept aggressively dismissing other people's points when they were talking about forwards, you weren't having it. It's a reasonable point to be made, we create a sh*t load of chances and don't finish them, that's been our problem all season, not so much since the restart but before the restart we were creating chances for fun. 

1 hour ago, EdinburghBlue said:

Do you think Willian is a starter over Pulisic and Ziyech? Exactly what do you mean ‘somehow’? He displayed it in Conte’s second season when he put a whole load of ‘🏆’ emoji’s across Conte after the FA Cup Final. Do you think that demonstrates professionalism from a senior player in the squad? 

Whether or not he's a starter would depend on the form of the individual players, which tends to fluctuate a lot over the course of a season. Willian was our stand-out player for a good chunk of last season (just ask Lampard). Pulisic only really hit top-form post lockdown. 

Regarding the Instagram thing from two years ago, personally I think that's a really petty thing to hold against him and it baffles me that people hold this up as 'proof' of a bad attitude despite seven years of evidence to the contrary. I'm sure if you asked any of his other managers if he had a bad attitude they'd laugh in your face.

18 minutes ago, Slojo said:

Willian has been one of our best players this season, even though I'm against giving him more than one year, we could've desperately done with him in that final. 

But anyway, that's just my observation, maybe you're right and I'm being harsh, but you just seem to be overly negative with a lot of our players. I'm not saying you can't do that, I'm just saying it surely can't be all that bad, defensively we are a mess for sure, but every other area I think we're doing well in. The only issue I had here regarding Kovacic was how you kept aggressively dismissing other people's points when they were talking about forwards, you weren't having it. It's a reasonable point to be made, we create a sh*t load of chances and don't finish them, that's been our problem all season, not so much since the restart but before the restart we were creating chances for fun. 

Fair enough. As I already said I agree with you about Willian, I’d actually be happy if we gave him the 2 year deal. I just think there needs to be an understanding that he’s not a starter week in, week out anymore. If he’s happy with that then great, as I also said I totally agree we could have used him in the final - he’s a big game player and gives us something none of our other wide players do. But would I want him in a lineup where we’re trying to beat a Bournemouth team sitting with 10 men in the box, probably not - unless we get a free kick.

 

So you think it’s fair to blame the front three? So what’s your views on my point that he had one of the best front three’s in world football in front of him and still couldn’t get over 10 assists in 100 games? Surely that completely negates the argument it’s the forwards fault? 

14 minutes ago, bluedave said:

Whether or not he's a starter would depend on the form of the individual players, which tends to fluctuate a lot over the course of a season. Willian was our stand-out player for a good chunk of last season (just ask Lampard). Pulisic only really hit top-form post lockdown. 

Regarding the Instagram thing from two years ago, personally I think that's a really petty thing to hold against him and it baffles me that people hold this up as 'proof' of a bad attitude despite seven years of evidence to the contrary. I'm sure if you asked any of his other managers if he had a bad attitude they'd laugh in your face.

Of course it will depend on form as does any player selection - but I’m asking you, on paper. Does Willian start over Pulisic & Ziyech? If you think so, then that’s fair enough but I disagree. He’s brilliant in big games and I’d definitely play him in them as he gives us something none of our other wingers do (I’m kind of repeated what I said to Slojo so I won’t continue that). 
 

I didn’t say it was “proof” but it’s certainly a red flag? The fact he’s your avi tells me you’re a big fan & I have no issue with that. But did Pedro ever do that while not in the side for example? It does show a lack of professionalism in my opinion. Does that mean he should be written off, no. I actually said in the post you replied to I’d like him to stay provided his attitude is right a neither you, nor me have any idea if it is. Only Frank and Willian will truly know and if he’s saying he’s happy with whatever is on offer then great give him the extension. I do still feel 3 years would be excessive. 
 

This has gone massively away from Kovacic so I don’t want to drag the topic any further off course - if you want to discuss Willian more then we can go in to it in more detail on his thread or you can PM me.

I would prefer Kovacic to have more end product in assists and goals. There are times when the pass is on after he has made a fantastic dribble and then he goes for a sideways pass or turns back and plays it safe.

We need more from our midfield next season, and I really hope we get Havertz to increase our attacking potency.

 

4 minutes ago, Malcolm9 said:

I would prefer Kovacic to have more end product in assists and goals. There are times when the pass is on after he has made a fantastic dribble and then he goes for a sideways pass or turns back and plays it safe.

We need more from our midfield next season, and I really hope we get Havertz to increase our attacking potency.

I used to think that as well, but I think hes a player that whilst not boasting in assists or goals definitely brings a lot to the table. He is one of the very few world class players we currently have here.

I do think he can be a bit more attacking in the sense that he could make more killer forward passes instead of just passing sideways, but then again its not like there's much to pass forward to outside of Pulisic in recent weeks.

Very right on needing someone like a Havertz to drive the ball forward more though, and Kovacic next to him can be a bit deeper like he prefers