5 minutes ago, drjonesy1994 said:

Maniche?

Maniche was very useful if you compare him to Mineiro. Kovacic is classes above those two. He just isn't fitting for our system. 

1 minute ago, evissy said:

Maniche was very useful if you compare him to Mineiro. Kovacic is classes above those two. He just isn't fitting for our system. 

Maniche's most useful moment was getting sent off when we were 1-0 down to West Ham, which led to us coming back and winning 4-1.

1 minute ago, drjonesy1994 said:

Maniche's most useful moment was getting sent off when we were 1-0 down to West Ham, which led to us coming back and winning 4-1.

I remember that. Was furious but it ended well ?

Two legends! Nice to finally see their faces ?

38 minutes ago, ForeverCarefree said:

I don't think he excels at anything so is never going to nail down a place in the team. 

There isn't any one position where you feel you'll get the best out of him. 

Would prefer us to bring in a more specialised player, such as a more suited replacement for Jorginho. 

One would hope Sarri would have learnt something by looking at how the season has played out, and looking at the 2 teams ahead of us. I hope we don’t go into the next season with a one dimensional approach. Pep & Klopp tweak their structure and personnel according to the team they are facing. 

Ideally you hope in some games he will sit Kante deeper in front of the defence, that way we wouldn’t waste resources on a backup for Jorginho. Our midfield lacks any creativity and bar RLC continuing his improvement no goals. Will make more sense to make  buying a 10 or an hybrid 8/10 a priority in the middle of the park.

13 hours ago, JMaher94 said:

I am genuinely wondering if Kovacic is the most pointless player we've ever had.

I'm laughing cause you are actually right but at the same time I still think he would be a good squad player to have around. 

I think that tells you all you need to know about our current midfield. 

He's not the worst player we've had, but he is one of the most frustrating.

Never have I seen so much technique married to so little substance.

At Inter/Real Madrid he showed genuine playmaking ability, but very little of that was on display this season. 

29 minutes ago, DaRick said:

Never have I seen so much technique married to so little substance.

 

You have never seen me inbetween the sheets then ? 

Thought he had a fantastic game. 

Would you keep for next season? I definitely would, not sure if we can though. 

Saw we were rumoured to get him for 35m Euros. At that kinda price i'd take him, can play all three of those CM roles. When Kante, Jorginho and RLC are all fit they should be starting though.

Always said he's a good player to have as rotation so I would have no issues with buying him.

Really good game from him last night, a couple of sloppy give aways in the first half, but the way he carried the ball through midfield was fantastic, and its what i thought he would do more regularly when we signed him, but for whatever reason, we havent seem him do it too often.

Im still not sure that we should keep him though, if its true we can sign him if we are banned, then it would be a no brainer if the fee was decent, however if the market is open to us, i think there are better options. 

We play a midfield of 3. Selling him makes no sense because who do we have to replace one of Kante/Jorg/RLC when one of them is injured? Barkley? Drinkwater? Bakayoko back from loan? 

Would rather have Kovacic instead of those 3, at least as a squad player who can rotate in

Outstanding last night, my man of the match and he was much more progressive and involved, more direct too. Thought it was fun that the commentator thought he was Hazard quite a few times last night.

1 minute ago, dkw said:

Outstanding last night, my man of the match and he was much more progressive and involved, more direct too. Thought it was fun that the commentator thought he was Hazard quite a few times last night.

One thing I really like was when he bombed forward a few times.  He’s such a technical player but physically he is a beast.  If he used his athleticism and physical tools more often, we’d see more performances like last night.

 A few good moments does not make up for a season of almost zero positive contribution. If we want to become the new Arsenal? then he's your man as a squad player. If we want to start chasing down City and Liverpool then we'll need far better than what Kova has brought to the team. 

13 minutes ago, Dixons said:

 A few good moments does not make up for a season of almost zero positive contribution. If we want to become the new Arsenal? then he's your man as a squad player. If we want to start chasing down City and Liverpool then we'll need far better than what Kova has brought to the team. 

You are truly deluded

1 hour ago, dkw said:

Outstanding last night, my man of the match and he was much more progressive and involved, more direct too. Thought it was fun that the commentator thought he was Hazard quite a few times last night.

It's annoying, I often mistake him for Hazard a lot, it's not just that he looks like him from long distance, he's the closest player we have who can move the ball like Hazard. It's weird why Kovacic doesn't take advantage of this ability, he's scary at times when he moves forward with it. 

1 hour ago, Dixons said:

 A few good moments does not make up for a season of almost zero positive contribution. If we want to become the new Arsenal? then he's your man as a squad player. If we want to start chasing down City and Liverpool then we'll need far better than what Kova has brought to the team. 

That's fair enough, I completely disagree but you're entitled to that opinion. 

He's been very "meh" for a Madrid prospect I'll admit, but there are signs there that he can become a really good player. 

I say why not? Yeah, Madrid doesn't seem interested but that's not a valid reason to say no to him, at worst he can make a good squad player, at best he can make a cracking player. He only turned 25 this month, he has a lot of time to improve his game and given where we will be next season we aren't at luxury for options. Although that's assuming that we can have him next season, his loan deal always seemed sketchy, the way he said bye to Madrid and thanks for the memories makes it seem that he's going to stay here. 

2 minutes ago, Slojo said:

It's annoying, I often mistake him for Hazard a lot, it's not just that he looks like him from long distance, he's the closest player we have who can move the ball like Hazard. 

Guess we won't be having that problem any more. 

 

Just now, ForeverCarefree said:

Guess we won't be having that problem any more. 

 

It's horrible but we should've accepted this months ago, it was obvious. 

I'm just glad he left in the best possible way, and it wasn't a Courtois situation. 

4 minutes ago, Slojo said:

It's annoying, I often mistake him for Hazard a lot, it's not just that he looks like him from long distance, he's the closest player we have who can move the ball like Hazard. It's weird why Kovacic doesn't take advantage of this ability, he's scary at times when he moves forward with it. 

I've done the same thing multiple times.  Wears Hazard's old #17 as well.

2-3 good games shouldn't merit a permanent switch. He has offered nothing most of the season. One of these players that have natural ability to do basically anything but wont do it in games. Plus he seems to be scared of the sight of goal. 

I like him as a person very much but we need players that will produce. Ruben is miles ahead of him in everything. 

I think we can do better. However if we serve this two window ban we might be forced to buy him which is sad. Seems to me that in every club he's been at it has been the same. 

1 hour ago, kiwi1691 said:

You are truly deluded

I don't think it was a deluded comment. I thought Kovacic had an excellent 2nd half last night, but we can't just ignore how poor he has been for us this season. He hasn't made enough impact to justify signing him in my opinion. The only reason I wouldn't mind us keeping him is because Loftus-Cheek is injured and we can't actually go out and sign anybody else right now.

6 hours ago, Slojo said:

Thought he had a fantastic game. 

Would you keep for next season? I definitely would, not sure if we can though. 

I would definitely keep him. like Jorginho, always have thought the criticism is OTT. Now Jorginho has been very good recently, fans are starting to realise he is a very good player but a large majority just don't have patience. There is a good player in Kovacic. I don't even think he has been poor, just not offered a lot but he has shown enough for me to want to keep him. His ability on the ball last night was amazing. After Hazard and Bernardo Silva, probably the best close-ball dribbler in the league. His balance is bloody brilliant too. He has only just turned 25 too and he can and imo will get better. This is his first season in the prem too which is the toughest league in the world. He will grow into a very good player imo. Transfer ban or not, I would keep him. No-brainer for me. Like Jorginho, I think Kovacic will eventually grow with our fans.