3 hours ago, Davey Baby said:

Ladies and gentlemen, the video you've all been waiting for. His best bits from this season. This is what a proper midfielder looks like. Take a bow Mateo. You are definitely my kind of player. As the title says, world class.

 

 

I love that bit of skill he does at 2:40, he absolutely murdered TAA 

I've got a feeling he is going to be the key player against City and will break City's high press consistently allowing the front 3 to absolutely demolish there fragile backline

Id still prefer him to play over Jorginho if one of them had to be on the bench.

I thought he was good today, I can't knock him for trying a killer ball like that, it's not the same mistake as Jorginho made which pretty much resulted in a City goal from sloppy play on our halfway line. However, the defending on the Mahrez goal was pretty poor even though Emerson was mostly at fault for it, Kovacic could've covered better. 

Edited November 23, 20196 yr by Slojo

Played well today.

27 minutes ago, jack_super_class said:

Id still prefer him to play over Jorginho if one of them had to be on the bench.

Jorginho controls many of our games, most of what we do starts with Jorginho. I think he is too vital to our setup to drop. I think Kovacic and Kante should share a position for now. 

32 minutes ago, Scott Harris said:

Jorginho controls many of our games, most of what we do starts with Jorginho. I think he is too vital to our setup to drop. I think Kovacic and Kante should share a position for now. 

By sharing you mean Kovacic should be on the bench and Kante should play.

14 minutes ago, Gol15 said:

By sharing you mean Kovacic should be on the bench and Kante should play.

In the long run, probably. But I don't think it would be fair to just drop Kovacic right now when he has been playing so well.

Edited November 23, 20196 yr by Scott Harris

1 hour ago, Slojo said:

I thought he was good today, I can't knock him for trying a killer ball like that, it's not the same mistake as Jorginho made which pretty much resulted in a City goal from sloppy play on our halfway line. However, the defending on the Mahrez goal was pretty poor even though Emerson was mostly at fault for it, Kovacic could've covered better. 

Yeah I watched the goals again. As I said on the match thread, it’s really rare for a pass like that to result in a goal. It’s the kind of pass that routinely goes wrong in any football match. I have more problems with the risky passing in our own box, one of which could have really cost us. Let’s not forget the good things he did though - that assist and there were other good things. On our midfield selection, it really depends who we’re up against. Kova held his own for the most part, while Jorginho seemed to struggle today.  Could City be a bit of a bogey team for him? It happens. I remember how Vidic used to really struggle with Torres, when he was still at Liverpool and on top of his game, while he’d have the measure of other equally good strikers.

1 hour ago, Scott Harris said:

In the long run, probably. But I don't think it would be fair to just drop Kovacic right now when he has been playing so well.

Just for the big games like this last one he should start from the bench. It's all about the tactics and he just doesn't win games for us it looks reduntant with all 3 of them doing similar things...Kante makes the runs, Jorgihno plays as deep as possible and Kovacic is in the middle of them, we all knew Kante can score and he scored an amazing goal through the legs this time but to ask for him to be our main goal scoring midfielder is a bit too much and sadly Kovacic can't score at all. 

Both goals from City came from exactly where Kovacic should be marking the area, he didn't even bother to track back and mark De Bruyne and then later on he was just jogging close to Mahrez, no help at for the defense, no effort. Might as well have Mount from the start and put pressure on the opponent.

The one thing we are missing, is a Michael Essien. An absolute beast of a physical player in the middle of the pitch. A terrifying presence. Someone who could run for ever, tackle the Kevin De Bruynes of this world in half and shat him out in little pieces. And, as an additional bonus, score the occasional worldy.

Unfortunately, Kovacic isn't that player.

I’m surprised people are saying they have no issue with that pass. It was just as bad as Jorginhos, neither had any chance of getting to Tammy and if that was someone like Azpilicueta they’d be absolutely slaughtered. It was a poor decision to play the pass and it was telegraphed - you knew exactly where he was playing the pass before he made it which made it simple to cut the ball out. Unusual for it to lead to a goal but it was slack, as was his attempt to defend with Emerson, Kovacic should have been inside Emerson there to stop Mahrez doing exactly what he done, although Emerson really should have made it more difficult to  force him on his right foot.

3 hours ago, just said:

The one thing we are missing, is a Michael Essien. An absolute beast of a physical player in the middle of the pitch. A terrifying presence. Someone who could run for ever, tackle the Kevin De Bruynes of this world in half and shat him out in little pieces. And, as an additional bonus, score the occasional worldy.

Unfortunately, Kovacic isn't that player.

He got an assist though, something you've been heavily criticising him for in the past...

7 hours ago, just said:

The one thing we are missing, is a Michael Essien. An absolute beast of a physical player in the middle of the pitch. A terrifying presence. Someone who could run for ever, tackle the Kevin De Bruynes of this world in half and shat him out in little pieces. And, as an additional bonus, score the occasional worldy.

Unfortunately, Kovacic isn't that player.

Just, ‘Kova isn’t Essien’ is the most creative attempt to pick on Kova I’ve seen. You really think that’s the ‘one thing we are missing’ based on yesterday’s evidence?Not: a left back that can attack and defend, a keeper that doesn’t give the ball straight to the other team’s most dangerous player...? For every position on the pitch there’s a better alternative from Chelsea’s past. Ashley Cole for Emerson? How about Cech in goal - maybe he would have saved at least one of those shots and he certainly wouldn’t have given the ball to Aguero? Drogba for Tammy? What did Pulisic do of note yesterday? Probably could have used Hazard up there. Imagine Terry in place of Zouma, and while we're at it,  Carvalho for Tomori? But we have what we have, and they didn’t do badly yesterday against a better side. 

Edited November 24, 20196 yr by Dean

1 hour ago, Dean said:

Just, ‘Kova isn’t Essien’ is the most creative attempt to pick on Kova I’ve seen. You really think that’s the ‘one thing we are missing’ based on yesterday’s evidence?Not: a left back that can attack and defend, a keeper that doesn’t give the ball straight to the other team’s most dangerous player...? For every position on the pitch there’s a better alternative from Chelsea’s past. Ashley Cole for Emerson? How about Cech in goal - maybe he would have saved at least one of those shots and he certainly wouldn’t have given the ball to Aguero? Drogba for Tammy? What did Pulisic do of note yesterday? Probably could have used Hazard up there. Imagine Terry in place of Zouma, and while we're at it,  Carvalho for Tomori? But we have what we have, and they didn’t do badly yesterday against a better side. 

Sorry Dean, I think the Michael Essien type player is what we the need the most to dominate the central midfield against the top sides. The player I would leave out to accommodate him in those matches would be Kovacic.

4 hours ago, Slojo said:

He got an assist though, something you've been heavily criticising him for in the past...

Definitely, an assist is good. Here's what I'm hoping for next......

 

48 minutes ago, just said:

Sorry Dean, I think the Michael Essien type player is what we the need the most to dominate the central midfield against the top sides. The player I would leave out to accommodate him in those matches would be Kovacic.

Interesting. I respect your opinion. But if we are going to identify the midfield as the main weak point (which I don’t agree with), I’d say among the three Jorginho was the most wanting on the day. Apparently SFL agreed, hence taking him off. If Kova is not Essien, Jorghy is not Essien-squared. Seems to struggle physically against City in particular. Kova didn’t play a blinder by any means, made some mistakes, one costly, but held his own for the most part, and did a good assist. 

He really is world class at the moment. I’m keeping my fingers crossed it isn’t a purple patch.

50 minutes ago, Dean said:

Interesting. I respect your opinion. But if we are going to identify the midfield as the main weak point (which I don’t agree with), I’d say among the three Jorginho was the most wanting on the day. Apparently SFL agreed, hence taking him off. If Kova is not Essien, Jorghy is not Essien-squared. Seems to struggle physically against City in particular. Kova didn’t play a blinder by any means, made some mistakes, one costly, but held his own for the most part, and did a good assist. 

Agreed. Kovacic had a very good game yesterday (MOTM according to whoscored.com), I don't very much care for the nitpickers here. Nothing would justify benching Kova or Kanté at the moment.

About N'Golo; he scored against both City and Liverpool. We should stop looking for more goals from our midfield, because it's our attacking 3 that didn't score a single goal against the big sides in the league so far. They need to start contributing.

On 22/11/2019 at 10:43, Imran_CFC said:

I've got a feeling he is going to be the key player against City and will break City's high press consistently allowing the front 3 to absolutely demolish there fragile backline

Think yesterday summed up Kova and showed the good and bad.

Absolute great ball for the assist to put us 1-0 up and he played well. BUT, he is the sort of player who gives opposition chances as he takes risks in dangerous areas (as does Jorginho but I think he is better at it) and that second City goal and ultimately the winning goal, was down to him. You take chances against clinical sides like City with the quality they have and they will punish you.

Edited November 24, 20196 yr by Nibs

5 hours ago, just said:

Definitely, an assist is good. Here's what I'm hoping for next......

 

So he has to score screamers? Midfielders don't need to be relied on to score goals, especially ones who play as deep as Kovacic. Goals aren't actually the problem, we have scored plenty, we're only 1 goal behind Liverpool who are 11 points above us. 

Don't get me wrong it would be nice if he hit the occasional screamer now and then, as it would be anyone, but it's really not something you criticise a deep playing midfielder for. 

Let's be fair here Just, you've been missing in this thread since he's been playing really well, and one game where we lose and he made a mistake you're straight on his case. 

On 24/11/2019 at 14:09, Slojo said:

So he has to score screamers? Midfielders don't need to be relied on to score goals, especially ones who play as deep as Kovacic. Goals aren't actually the problem, we have scored plenty, we're only 1 goal behind Liverpool who are 11 points above us. 

Don't get me wrong it would be nice if he hit the occasional screamer now and then, as it would be anyone, but it's really not something you criticise a deep playing midfielder for. 

Let's be fair here Just, you've been missing in this thread since he's been playing really well, and one game where we lose and he made a mistake you're straight on his case. 

Let’s not forget he wanted us to keep Barkley over Kovacic.

He clearly has something against Kovacic (God knows why) so I get the impression he’s finding Kovacic’s top form very difficult to take. I quoted him earlier this season asking what he thought of Kovacic, after huge improvement. I knew he wasn’t a big fan, so was interested to see if his opinion has changed. He hasn’t replied, says it all really.

1 hour ago, dansubrosa said:

Let’s not forget he wanted us to keep Barkley over Kovacic.

He clearly has something against Kovacic (God knows why) so I get the impression he’s finding Kovacic’s top form very difficult to take. I quoted him earlier this season asking what he thought of Kovacic, after huge improvement. I knew he wasn’t a big fan, so was interested to see if his opinion has changed. He hasn’t replied, says it all really.

I used to highly rate Morata before and when we signed him, I used to argue with numerous posters on here about him, but I soon came around and realised he was sh*t. You admit you're wrong and move on, it's even better for you when a player turns out to be good, because at least then you can be happy to be wrong. I think Kovacic's talent has always been pretty clear, even though he was a passenger for many games last season, it's obvious he's always had quality. He hasn't just became a good player overnight, but he has certainly improved. 

I went back about 20 pages in this thread a few days ago and it was frightening how many people were upset that we bought him, knowing far well our situation with a transfer ban and we were crawling with injuries, people still didn't want Kovacic here... Mental. 

9 hours ago, Slojo said:

I used to highly rate Morata before and when we signed him, I used to argue with numerous posters on here about him, but I soon came around and realised he was sh*t. You admit you're wrong and move on, it's even better for you when a player turns out to be good, because at least then you can be happy to be wrong. I think Kovacic's talent has always been pretty clear, even though he was a passenger for many games last season, it's obvious he's always had quality. He hasn't just became a good player overnight, but he has certainly improved. 

I went back about 20 pages in this thread a few days ago and it was frightening how many people were upset that we bought him, knowing far well our situation with a transfer ban and we were crawling with injuries, people still didn't want Kovacic here... Mental. 

As I’ve said before, I thought getting rid of Sarri and bringing in Lampard was a big mistake. Couldn’t have been more wrong, but to your point, Slojo, I’m over the moon about it.

You can either admit you were wrong, move on, and anyone normal, who therefore realises we all make mistakes, will think no less of you. Or you can dig in, constantly raising the bar of what a player/manager needs to do to make the  grade (the bar-raising process in Kova’s case: ‘he’s pants. just passes the ball backwards’... starts passing it forwards .. ‘yeah but he doesn’t run with the ball’... starts clocking up best dribbling stats in the league.. ‘but where are the assists?’... gets a few assists and several would-be assists... ‘not good enough, needs to score goals’) and people will see through it. Re Kova lack of goals, it’s a bit like if I said ‘I’m not going to rate Tammy until he starts making match-saving tackles in our box’.

And indeed, Kova is no Essien, but it’s apples and oranges. He’ll never be the marauding midfielder Essien was and he won’t score those screamers. At the same time, he has skills - e.g. close control, first touch, trickery to spare- that Essien could only have dreamed of. 

 

On 24/11/2019 at 08:46, just said:

Definitely, an assist is good. Here's what I'm hoping for next......

 

lovely, lovely stuff.