He's just a nice passer, that's all he does and we have too many players that just pass. We need a shooter, a  creative player it that position, more like RLC for example. 

16 hours ago, Scott said:

He's just a nice passer, that's all he does and we have too many players that just pass. We need a shooter, a  creative player it that position, more like RLC for example. 

He is fantastic with the ball at his feet...great dribbler. He can pass and has good vision, with high work rate can put in a good tackle and track. 

But you are right he does not offer enough of a goal threat. 

Not the player we need long-term.

Apparently it's now been 90+ games for club(s) and country since Kovacic last scored a goal. 

In a team containing Kante, Jorginho and Willian can we really afford to be playing another player with such a low goal return? 

It's little wonder we've comfortably scored the least amount of goals out of the top 6. 

2 minutes ago, Zeta said:

Not the player we need long-term.

After getting stuck with duds like Drinkwater and Bakayoko, I'm going to respectfully disagree. 

1 minute ago, Remodez said:

After getting stuck with duds like Drinkwater and Bakayoko, I'm going to respectfully disagree. 

Two wrong un's don't make a good un !

2 minutes ago, Remodez said:

After getting stuck with duds like Drinkwater and Bakayoko, I'm going to respectfully disagree. 

We'd have to pay probably about 50m for him. I just don't see the value in that.

With the way Jorginho has been playing in the last month I'd be keen to see us try Kovacic in that role, he has all of the technical ability Sarri wants from his regista and would allow Jorgi some rest. Then of course it would free up the left midfield role for someone with a bit more attacking instinct

1 hour ago, Zeta said:

We'd have to pay probably about 50m for him. I just don't see the value in that.

We would get about that much just from offloading Drinkwater and Bakayoko. Seems like a no brainier to me if he wants to join us that is. 

£50 million? For Kovacic? Really? Wow! What would he be worth if he could actually score a goal!!

.... or even manage a shot on target.

3 minutes ago, just said:

£50 million? For Kovacic? Really? Wow! What would he be worth if he could actually score a goal!!

.... or even manage a shot on target.

I would be all for signing him if we still had Conte (he would be perfect in the 343) or didn't have Kante.

@OhForAGreavsie actually summed up our middle three in a nutshell a while back, all of the required standard but too imbalanced offensively to go together as one. We basically have ourselves a CM version of the Hazard, Mata, Oscar trio.

8 hours ago, just said:

£50 million? For Kovacic? Really? Wow! What would he be worth if he could actually score a goal!!

.... or even manage a shot on target.

Just to clarify, I don't think he's a £50m player at all and I highly doubt he would actually cost that much in reality. The point was more that I would gladly have him as a squad player if he wanted to join.

1 hour ago, Remodez said:

Just to clarify, I don't think he's a £50m player at all and I highly doubt he would actually cost that much in reality. The point was more that I would gladly have him as a squad player if he wanted to join.

Precisely how I feel.

I think he’s a very good player, just not a goalscoring threat.

I think he’s definitely worth keeping, he would be a very good option off the bench if we wanted to see out games.

I'm actually thinking he could easily deputise for Jorginho if need be and it might be worth trying him out there.

Watching him in the first few months, it's like he is playing a different game. There is quick passing and movement and third man runs to release people, after the Spurs match we seem to have put that in the locker in favour of more defensive stability. We now resemble the worst of Spain's tiki taka.

The kid has more to give. We just need to get out of this slump!

12 hours ago, just said:

£50 million? For Kovacic? Really? Wow! What would he be worth if he could actually score a goal!!

.... or even manage a shot on target.

What's the obsession with Kovacic and goals exactly? Liverpool are 1st in the league and Keita, Fabinho and Wijnaldum have 2 goals between them. Our midfielders not scoring goals isn't the issue, the forwards are supposed to score most of the goals. 

11 minutes ago, Slojo said:

What's the obsession with Kovacic and goals exactly? Liverpool are 1st in the league and Keita, Fabinho and Wijnaldum have 2 goals between them. Our midfielders not scoring goals isn't the issue, the forwards are supposed to score most of the goals. 

...... and Milner has 5 goals and 5 assists. Is it not reasonable to expect some sort of offensive goal threat from Kovacic?

1 minute ago, just said:

...... and Milner has 5 goals and 5 assists. Is it not reasonable to expect some sort of offensive goal threat from Kovacic?

How many penalties?

3 minutes ago, dkw said:

How many penalties?

Three. One in the EPL, two the CL.

https://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/james-milner/elfmetertore/spieler/3333/plus/0?saison_id=2018&wettbewerb_id=

1 hour ago, Slojo said:

What's the obsession with Kovacic and goals exactly? Liverpool are 1st in the league and Keita, Fabinho and Wijnaldum have 2 goals between them. Our midfielders not scoring goals isn't the issue, the forwards are supposed to score most of the goals. 

For the very reason that the forwards aren't scoring goals. 

Liverpool have a system where their front 3/4 players are scoring the majority of the goals and plenty of them (currently 14 more goals than Chelsea in the league). 

We're picking Wiliian who's never scored double figures in the Premier League and Hazard who has never scored twenty goals in the Premier League during a season. Jorginho who has no goals from open play this season and Kante who has managed to best his goal scoring record in a season with a whopping 3 goals. 

So stands to reason that you're looking elsewhere in the team for players to be scoring goals? Kovacic plays in the most advanced position of the midfield three so there is an expectation that he'd take on some of the goal scoring burden. 

At the moment we have too many players in the starting XI who either aren't tasked with or don't feel it is their responsibility to score goals. 

Kovacic doesn't even shoot let alone score.

6 minutes ago, ForeverCarefree said:

For the very reason that the forwards aren't scoring goals. 

Liverpool have a system where their front 3/4 players are scoring the majority of the goals and plenty of them (currently 14 more goals than Chelsea in the league). 

We're picking Wiliian who's never scored double figures in the Premier League and Hazard who has never scored twenty goals in the Premier League during a season. Jorginho who has no goals from open play this season and Kante who has managed to best his goal scoring record in a season with a whopping 3 goals. 

So stands to reason that you're looking elsewhere in the team for players to be scoring goals? Kovacic plays in the most advanced position of the midfield three so there is an expectation that he'd take on some of the goal scoring burden. 

At the moment we have too many players in the starting XI who either aren't tasked with or don't feel it is their responsibility to score goals. 

We definately need some more goals in the team. 

Will it be easier to find a goal scoring midfielder, or a decent striker? There's doesn't seem to be an abundance of either these days. 

I think kovacic is a good player, he's neat and tidy on ball, but I was hoping he would have chipped in with more goals than he has so far.

Optimistically, higuian hazard and pedro have more goals in them, than what we have seen so far though, but I guess time will tell whether it's enough, without a goal scoring midfielder. 

2 hours ago, big blue said:

We definately need some more goals in the team. 

Will it be easier to find a goal scoring midfielder, or a decent striker? There's doesn't seem to be an abundance of either these days. 

I think kovacic is a good player, he's neat and tidy on ball, but I was hoping he would have chipped in with more goals than he has so far.

Optimistically, higuian hazard and pedro have more goals in them, than what we have seen so far though, but I guess time will tell whether it's enough, without a goal scoring midfielder. 

I think Barkley has potential, he’s definitely one of our most adventurous players we have when it comes to trying to score goals. RLC too has shown glimpses too of being a goal threat. 

I’m not overly up on football outside of England so don’t know whether there’s a lot of midfielders out there scoring with some level of regularity. I saw us linked with Fekir again today and maybe he could play that attacking midfield role?

3 hours ago, ForeverCarefree said:

For the very reason that the forwards aren't scoring goals. 

Liverpool have a system where their front 3/4 players are scoring the majority of the goals and plenty of them (currently 14 more goals than Chelsea in the league). 

We're picking Wiliian who's never scored double figures in the Premier League and Hazard who has never scored twenty goals in the Premier League during a season. Jorginho who has no goals from open play this season and Kante who has managed to best his goal scoring record in a season with a whopping 3 goals. 

So stands to reason that you're looking elsewhere in the team for players to be scoring goals? Kovacic plays in the most advanced position of the midfield three so there is an expectation that he'd take on some of the goal scoring burden. 

At the moment we have too many players in the starting XI who either aren't tasked with or don't feel it is their responsibility to score goals. 

I take no issue with what you just said, I just take an issue with people who keep saying "But he doesn't score goals" when it's the forwards job. 

I know given the circumstances it's annoying but it's really a low priority for a midfielder to be scoring the goals, we've been spoiled with the likes of Lampard for so long that people often forget midfielders don't often bang in over 10 goals a season. What we should be complaining about is our forwards being ineffective, not our midfielders to scoring goals. 

Should we get the suitable forwards and the rhythm in the side, there's no reason why Kovacic can't play. Like I said look at Liverpool, a handful of their players score a good 98% of the goals for them, if were going to criticise Kovacic we can do better than criticising his ability to not score goals. 

15 minutes ago, ForeverCarefree said:

I think Barkley has potential, he’s definitely one of our most adventurous players we have when it comes to trying to score goals. RLC too has shown glimpses too of being a goal threat. 

I’m not overly up on football outside of England so don’t know whether there’s a lot of midfielders out there scoring with some level of regularity. I saw us linked with Fekir again today and maybe he could play that attacking midfield role?

RLC has definately made strides this season, I'm just hoping he grows out of these injuries and niggles he seems to pick up fairly regularly. 

Barkley im not keen on. I think when we have spent 60 minute playing 5 yard passes, it's refreshing to see him actually have a go from distance, however I don't think he has the vision or intelligence to play at the very top. 

Then there's also mount, but I really can't see the club bringing a player straight from the championship to the 1st team, and he has slowed down a bit a derby in the last couple of months.

 I like fekir, not sure whether he has the defensive acumen to play in that 8, he would definately be a threat going forward though. I like his team mate Aouar aswell, he looked great against city.

 

He played well when he went into Jorginho position in the second half, swapping with Ampadu who struggled there. I think we don't need to find a backup now for Jorginho until the summer and hopefully Kovacic stays  permanently.