This extra-training thing hit me when I watched Salah interview before Champions League final. He said he talked to the coach (at Roma) and they decided his finishing needs to be better. So he built a small field in his yard and started training in the evening just hitting shots one after another. It really paid of I think. 

I know these players train hard as it is and getting away from football is probably good for them but if you want to reach the peak you need to do more. Frank is famous for training harder than ever so maybe he can spark something in Kovacic. 

‘I’m looking forward to working with him a lot,’ he said. ‘He was an amazing player and he showed last season that he is a good coach as well. I’m looking forward to learning how to score from him because he scored quite a lot and me not so much last season!'

https://www.chelseafc.com/en/news/2019/07/11/mateo-kovacic-on-his-permanent-switch-from-spain-and-working-har

52 minutes ago, mwblue10 said:

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.

Once again i'll referr back  to Croat's post a few pages back in this thread. He's a fm who's been watching him for years and basically what we saw last seeason is Kovacic's level. His non performances last season had nothing to do with his posistion. He just disappoints year after year.                                                                                                    There's lots of sportsmen and women with a decent bit of technical ability but there's no substance to them and Kovacic is just another one of them. I heard it in almost every single game, from commentators, ex managers, players, journo's all completely non plussed about what he brings  to a football team. We hear all the time player x isn't good enough for certain teams, but i can't recall so many say exactly the same thing about being clueless as to why a player is even on the pitch. 

Edited July 11, 20197 yr by Dixons

Yeah, if one person said something about him then that's that, no other opinion is allowed. 

Everyone is entitled to their opinion! I just think the opinion of a Croation fm who's watched him for many years, is better informed than other Chelsea fans. Croat gave a very fair opinion, which is one that is shared by others who've also watched him for years. There's a percentage of Chelsea fans who are seeing things in this player that many, many other football watchers are completely missing.                                                                                                                                                                                                                Are Kovacic supporters also ones who rated Mikel?  

Edited July 11, 20197 yr by Dixons

You can say many things about Kovacic;

I said a long time ago that if he had more speed he would be a great winger, or if he had a slightly better vision and finish he would be a good classical number 10. But he's somewhat in between, which makes it difficult for coaches to put on him a special job on the pitch.

This is why I think that Lampard can play him in a 4-2-3-1 as the offensive midfielder - not because he will make many assists and goals, he clearly isn't good at scoring and so on...but because he is capable of running with the ball, causing havoc and running into free space taking a few people with him.
He can be lurking and using his football iq much more, something like Muller where he would use the minimal open space in order to make chaos in the opposition defense, Kovacic knows how to play with the ball since he has a good technique and is known to work on the pitch.

Having Kante and Jorginho behind Kovacic wouldn't guarantee that he would create chances but it would make the team push higher and pressure the opposition, Kovacic can work hard to pressure the opponent team and even if he never scores he can make space for our wingers and take off the pressure from Jorginho that would get the extra space to organise the rest of the team.

When RLC gets healthy, he obviously takes that position of Kovacic as the offensive midfielder, and Kovacic would go to the bench.

Can't see him starting ahead of either RLC or Barkley. Both are better than Kovacic in an offensive midfield role.

Strange purchase for me. If it wasn't for the transfer ban I am pretty certain he would back in Madrid's reserves by now.

8 hours ago, Gol15 said:

You can say many things about Kovacic;

I said a long time ago that if he had more speed he would be a great winger, or if he had a slightly better vision and finish he would be a good classical number 10. But he's somewhat in between, which makes it difficult for coaches to put on him a special job on the pitch.

This is why I think that Lampard can play him in a 4-2-3-1 as the offensive midfielder - not because he will make many assists and goals, he clearly isn't good at scoring and so on...but because he is capable of running with the ball, causing havoc and running into free space taking a few people with him.
He can be lurking and using his football iq much more, something like Muller where he would use the minimal open space in order to make chaos in the opposition defense, Kovacic knows how to play with the ball since he has a good technique and is known to work on the pitch.

Having Kante and Jorginho behind Kovacic wouldn't guarantee that he would create chances but it would make the team push higher and pressure the opposition, Kovacic can work hard to pressure the opponent team and even if he never scores he can make space for our wingers and take off the pressure from Jorginho that would get the extra space to organise the rest of the team.

When RLC gets healthy, he obviously takes that position of Kovacic as the offensive midfielder, and Kovacic would go to the bench.

Wouldn’t work unless we have a Liverpool front 3. We will be out of the top 4 by Dec if we play a midfield 3 that can’t create/score, we have no Hazard to bail us out this season.

 

37 minutes ago, just said:

Can't see him starting ahead of either RLC or Barkley. Both are better than Kovacic in an offensive midfield role.

Strange purchase for me. If it wasn't for the transfer ban I am pretty certain he would back in Madrid's reserves by now.

Bang on.. just seems like an extra body who is a jack of Trades but no exactly brilliant anywhere. I keep hearing if Lampard can get him to replicate his Europa final form, wouldn’t bet on that. Seems we are expecting Lampard to get Kovacic and Giroud who were decent in a one off game to replicate that form over a 50+ game season. What can go wrong? 

Barkley can score and assist but he's prone to mistakes in front of our goal. he is usually clueless and tends to panic with the ball under preassure.

Has there been any indication of Lampard formation? Probably a mix of 4231 or 433? 

I like the idea of a Kante and Joringho midfield. 

Coudnt Jorginho playing as the attacking midfielder in the 10 position given his passing/vision?

I'm surprised so many people think we can survive the CL groupstage and the PL with only Barkley and Mount until RLC is fit again. Even then, has Ruben ever played more than 6 games in a row without getting some kind of injury?

What Kovacic needs is a lot of confidence in himself. His spell at Real Madrid was really bad for him personally because after Benitez was gone Zidane had his lineup set in stone. It was exactly the same as Ancelotti's when Zidane was still Co-Trainer at Madrid. Kovacic only featured when one of the midfield 3 was injured or suspended and would go back to the bench afterwards even though he performed well when called upon. Of course, the results proved Zidane right and it's really no shame to be left out of a midfield with Modric, Kroos and Casemiro, but the lack of playing time led to a severe drop in confidence and him losing his national team starting spot.

Last season was his first time playing regularly in 4 years. In a new club, a new league with much less space and a new system that boxed opponents inside their defensive third and left even less space for his signature attacking runs and combinations. He has weaknesses too of course, the most obvious being his shot. But if anybody can teach him something about pure willpower as well as shooting it's Frank.

6 hours ago, Vagabond said:

I'm surprised so many people think we can survive the CL groupstage and the PL with only Barkley and Mount until RLC is fit again. Even then, has Ruben ever played more than 6 games in a row without getting some kind of injury?

What Kovacic needs is a lot of confidence in himself. His spell at Real Madrid was really bad for him personally because after Benitez was gone Zidane had his lineup set in stone. It was exactly the same as Ancelotti's when Zidane was still Co-Trainer at Madrid. Kovacic only featured when one of the midfield 3 was injured or suspended and would go back to the bench afterwards even though he performed well when called upon. Of course, the results proved Zidane right and it's really no shame to be left out of a midfield with Modric, Kroos and Casemiro, but the lack of playing time led to a severe drop in confidence and him losing his national team starting spot.

Last season was his first time playing regularly in 4 years. In a new club, a new league with much less space and a new system that boxed opponents inside their defensive third and left even less space for his signature attacking runs and combinations. He has weaknesses too of course, the most obvious being his shot. But if anybody can teach him something about pure willpower as well as shooting it's Frank.

This is what I don't understand, you have faith that Lampard can get the best out of Kovacic and improve his end product, but at the same time you have no faith in Barkley, a player that has actually proven in the past that he has end product. The thing lacking from Barkley's game is consistency, Lampard himself had a similar issue at the same age. I would be more confident in Lampard getting the best out of Barkley in the attacking areas than I would with Kovacic, a player that has never looked like an attacking midfielder throughout his whole career.

If I had to pick a midfield to start the season, it would be Kante and Kovacic in the deeper role and Barkley in the attacking role. 

 

That's the 3 I prefer too, but with all 3 allowed to switch around being able to attack. I don't think it need to be a set 2 back with one in front, all 3 can go forwards and backwards we'll. 

14 hours ago, Scott Harris said:

This is what I don't understand, you have faith that Lampard can get the best out of Kovacic and improve his end product, but at the same time you have no faith in Barkley, a player that has actually proven in the past that he has end product. The thing lacking from Barkley's game is consistency, Lampard himself had a similar issue at the same age. I would be more confident in Lampard getting the best out of Barkley in the attacking areas than I would with Kovacic, a player that has never looked like an attacking midfielder throughout his whole career.

If I had to pick a midfield to start the season, it would be Kante and Kovacic in the deeper role and Barkley in the attacking role. 

 

That's not was I was trying to say. Obviously I want Lampard to get the best out of any player, but imo Kovacics weaknesses coincide with Franks strengths as a player. That's the reason why I think his learning curve might be steeper, which is of course speculation. With Ross I have trust issues simply because I haven't seen him perform in the CL yet while I've seen Kovacic play well against Munich, Paris, Barcelona already and I thought he held his own against City and Liverpool last season too.

I see it like this; I prefer Barkley for mid tier PL competition -especially against thugs like Burnley- but I got the feeling that against the bigger clubs he sometimes gets lost in midfield and plays it safe when it gets too quick because he's technically limited while Kovacics plays it safe because he is too timid.

Maybe I'm completely wrong though and both of them just played it safe because Sarri forced them to and they were scared of losing their spot. Kovacic as a loan player and Barkley as someone Sarri obviously just wanted to use for rotation. We will see what happens this season and wether we they can actually provide some attacking threat with a different system.

Looked good in the diamond yesterday. Probably suits his skills well. Nice pass for Mount too.

He`s trolled himself by asking his coach to coach him? Erm, ok.

2 hours ago, dkw said:

He`s trolled himself by asking his coach to coach him? Erm, ok.

It would have been better to say mocked himself, however trolled would be the modern parlance,  

2 hours ago, Bonzodog29 said:

It would have been better to say mocked himself, however trolled would be the modern parlance,  

He’s taking the piss mate!

If anything it shows 1) That Kova knows this is an area that he need help with 2) that he knows Lampard can help him. All good in my book

since it is the offseason, here is a nice video of Matteo playing against Barca

 

Think he'll really shine playing deeper in a pivot. Won't have the weight of scoring on his shoulders and can just do what he does best.

He's been very positive in the Pre-season. Hope Frank finds use of him.

Had another fantastic game yesterday against Salzburg. Think he'll prove to be one of the best midfielders in the league this season in his new role.

Kovacic and Jorginho seem to compliment eachother perfectly in this role. Obviously Kante has to play when he's back fit but i honestly don't know who he's going to replace. 

1 hour ago, Sindre said:

Had another fantastic game yesterday against Salzburg. Think he'll prove to be one of the best midfielders in the league this season in his new role.

Will be both fantastic and hilarious if, at the end of this season, Kovacic gets mentioned as one of the signings of the summer, having been signed during our transfer ban.