1 hour ago, Scott Harris said:

Well, now that it's official, I hope he will be playing a deeper role next to Kante rather than playing in a more advanced position like he did for the majority of the time under Sarri.

And  where would we play Jorginho?  

2 minutes ago, Dixons said:

And  where would we play Jorginho?  

He'll be at Juventus or another italian team within a year. Not suited to Lampards system.

3 minutes ago, Dixons said:

And  where would we play Jorginho?  

Start with him on the bench.  Rotate the 3 of them.  We need to give Kante some rest from time to time.

Edited July 1, 20197 yr by mwblue10

34 minutes ago, Dixons said:

And  where would we play Jorginho?  

He'll have to share the position with Kovacic.

4 minutes ago, Scott Harris said:

He'll have to share the position with Kovacic.

Funny how simple it is, when you consider things like substitutions during games.

If our 2019/20 coaching team can get Kovacic playing week in week out like he did in the second half in Baku against Arsenal, then £40M will be a steal.

He seems to really like the club, so that's one huge positive. He really WANTS to be here ...

3 hours ago, Gem said:

No. Don’t want. 

However, maybe under a better Manager with better tactics he might shine. I should give the benefit of the doubt. 

This...

 

I hope he finds his mojo this season, I realy do.

25 minutes ago, mojo said:

I hope he finds his mojo this season, I realy do.

If it hasn't been hidden in the opposition's penalty box I'll wager he has a fighting chance.

7 hours ago, Dixons said:

What we saw is what he is. Everyone keeps hoping and expectiing him to actually start doing something  and become a good player, but it ends up being the same old every year.  

Possibly.  Or, maybe now that he's settled and seems to actually want to play for us he might start to show improvement.  You just don't know, nobody really does, despite how much you have watched him.  I'm personally willing to give him another chance because I'd rather look at his positives rather than focus on his negatives.  He's a Chelsea player now, the least we can do is give him a crack to prove himself after a difficult loan period with us.

He's 25 guys... Yeah he didn't blow people away last season, but he's always been a scouted talent for years, and we've seen at times he can possess great ability. 

He has all the time in the world to improve and even if he doesn't, he's still a valuable addition to the squad. With how negatives things have been looking I think losing Kovacic aswell would have really hurt us. 

 

Great example of what Kovacic brings to the game. Not much is the answer. Maybe Valencia sits deep there and Kovacic has miles of space so his best attributes are not that apparent which for me is to run past midfield line and pass the ball to a creative player. He has great legs and good close control but he doesn't use it for anything. Maybe he needs a Fabregas partnering him there who is able to make a killer pass after Kovacic passes a couple of players with a run.

A couple of times he makes that run nothing happens as all Real players are just static as they know Mateo won't pass that ball to a dangerous area. 

If he was a goalthreat he would bring much more attention to him close the opponent box but he isn't. That could open up other players. 

Maybe I expect too much of him but in many ways he is so frustrating. He has so much more in that athletic body of his than we see today. Frank should teach him how to shoot. 

He clearly does have the potential to be a great player, the europa league final is proof of that.

its just now whether Frank and the coaching staff can get the best out of him. If he can play even 50% of games this season like how he was against Arsenal, then that would easily justify the 40m. Especially considering last season he had maybe 5 "good" performances all season

17 hours ago, ENygma said:

He clearly does have the potential to be a great player, the europa league final is proof of that.

its just now whether Frank and the coaching staff can get the best out of him. If he can play even 50% of games this season like how he was against Arsenal, then that would easily justify the 40m. Especially considering last season he had maybe 5 "good" performances all season

I would say he's a managers dream for rotation.

Say we get to the CL quarter final next season, he could easily slot in for the PL match in-between the two legs while one of Jorginho or Kante get rested for the crucial second leg.

7 hours ago, Argo said:

I would say he's a managers dream for rotation.

Say we get to the CL quarter final next season, he could easily slot in for the PL match in-between the two legs while one of Jorginho or Kante get rested for the crucial second leg.

Yeah thats a very good point. Even if he doesnt play every game, having someone of that caliber in rotation is what we need to compete with the top clubs

On 28/06/2019 at 17:30, dkw said:

How is it a ridiculous amount?

50m with add-ons for a player who didn't work out for RM and hasn't done anything note-worthy in the one season with us is what I'd term as ridiculous. I'll bet my ass that if the transfer ban wasn't in place, there's no way we would have signed him.

15 minutes ago, Girish said:

50m with add-ons for a player who didn't work out for RM and hasn't done anything note-worthy in the one season with us is what I'd term as ridiculous. I'll bet my ass that if the transfer ban wasn't in place, there's no way we would have signed him.

But it wasnt that much at all, why make up figures?

51 minutes ago, Girish said:

50m with add-ons for a player who didn't work out for RM and hasn't done anything note-worthy in the one season with us is what I'd term as ridiculous. I'll bet my ass that if the transfer ban wasn't in place, there's no way we would have signed him.

Err Euros maybe. I thought it was reported that we paid £40m for him

As far as i know we paid £35 million plus certain add ons that could make it £40 million if met.

You couldn't get a midfielder on Kovacics level for any less then that in todays market. It's a good price for a good player and he will be very useful for us this season.

 

Kovacic is one of those players who has a high rating in FIFA but in real life is not very useful. I really like him and he seems a great person but there never seems to be a good role for him in his teams. 

If I was Kovacic or Lampard I would take one area of his game and try to improve it working overtime. Make it one year plan. I would go for shooting or freekicks. Scoring is a big commodity. 

For Kovacic this isn't probably even a problem. He just secured a 40m move and enjoys big salary. As far as he is concerned he is doing fine as he is...

9 minutes ago, evissy said:

Kovacic is one of those players who has a high rating in FIFA but in real life is not very useful. I really like him and he seems a great person but there never seems to be a good role for him in his teams. 

If I was Kovacic or Lampard I would take one area of his game and try to improve it working overtime. Make it one year plan. I would go for shooting or freekicks. Scoring is a big commodity. 

For Kovacic this isn't probably even a problem. He just secured a 40m move and enjoys big salary. As far as he is concerned he is doing fine as he is...

He doesn't seem like the kind of guy that would have that attitude, though I would say he seems very happy about the move and enjoys being a Chelsea player.

If he had ended this past season with something like 5 goals and 5 assists, I think everybody would be very glad we signed him.  Like you said, hopefully Frank can hone in on his shooting ability along with his decision making in the attacking third and add that to his game.

1 hour ago, Sindre said:

As far as i know we paid £35 million plus certain add ons that could make it £40 million if met.

You couldn't get a midfielder on Kovacics level for any less then that in todays market. It's a good price for a good player and he will be very useful for us this season.

 

I read that the £35m included a loan fee we had already paid so it was more like £30m. 

56 minutes ago, dkw said:

I read that the £35m included a loan fee we had already paid so it was more like £30m. 

Could very well be, even better deal if that's the case.

1 hour ago, mwblue10 said:

 

If he had ended this past season with something like 5 goals and 5 assists, I think everybody would be very glad we signed him. 

If Morata or Bats scored us 30 goals everybody would be glad to have them in the team.

1 minute ago, Dixons said:

If Morata or Bats scored us 30 goals everybody would be glad to have them in the team.

That's not my point.  My point is that we should not have expected Kovacic to score goals and provide assists.  He has never really been that type of player at the senior level, especially the past few years.  The fact that he was rolled out in our attacking midfield role just further emphasized this.  I'm confident he will fit better in Frank's system.

Thank you for your completely irrelevant comment though.