On 06/08/2020 at 13:32, evissy said:

He frustrates the hell out of me in those situations. He runs beautifully and then stops and passes sideways. What he needs to do is to go the length and someone else in the team covers for him. Now he seems to always realize 'f**k I just left my spot, no one is there to cover'.

The run becomes useless essentially. It would be better for him to pass it right away so the front pack can attack in its natural way. Now they just watch Mateo glide through and wait for his decision. That is something Willian does. Just as the defense is disorganised he stops and lets everyone take their place and the attack is over.

This is why I don't know what or who that man is as a player. Frank could coach him better individually. He should. Mateo's skills are excellent in many ways.

I'd agree with most of that. I get so frustrated when he turns away from a player in midfield and then has 10-15 yards of space ahead of him to drive forwards and commit other opponents, but then he often stops and passes. It loses any tempo and advantage he created. The run through the middle of our midfield from Bellerin in the cup final created Arsenals 2nd goal. That is what Kova needs to do a lot more of to be really effective in the final third.

Got outmuscled yesterday on the defensive side.. .. every time he is pressed he tends to try to run and dribble with the ball.. while 95% of the time he is successful.. yesterday the bayern midfield had his number.. 

more teams will copy this model.. He needs to mix it up a bit .. hit some diagonals / over the top hopefuls and then support with strong running..

In the last two games his over reliance on the dribble has cost us.

5 hours ago, Jangz said:

Got outmuscled yesterday on the defensive side.. .. every time he is pressed he tends to try to run and dribble with the ball.. while 95% of the time he is successful.. yesterday the bayern midfield had his number.. 

more teams will copy this model.. He needs to mix it up a bit .. hit some diagonals / over the top hopefuls and then support with strong running..

In the last two games his over reliance on the dribble has cost us.

That has always been my main criticism of Kovacic and when it costs us it tends to cost us big-time.

Well you can say everyone played like sh*t yesterday.. Kante? Why he almost everytime left kova alone at a back but kova was "8"? If we played 433 and kante dm then stay there... 433 is to attacking football and only few teams can pull it out vs top teams (teams with great deffense) and chelsea is not one of that team.. You can clearly see that kante likes to roam same as kova... We should play 4231 until our deffense get sorted to the highest lvl.. I think that Bayern play the best football out of all clubs.. They just killing it with 4231 vs 433 they sometimes play 433 but thats when they play vs teams who tend to sit back.. 

 

I think Kova played okay (not great not bad). But also dont forget first leg where only kova played on highest lvl.. 

Yes, 4-2-3-1 the ultimate formation for the current football. The thing is you need two really good midfielders and two really good wing backs. I can ship Kovacic and Jorginho if they are their best but who will be playing on the wing? Alonso? Azpilicueta? You can be damn sure they are not getting any help from Hakim or Pulisic. Jorginho is super slow so even tho Kovacic is a world class player in terms of running, he is not covering for 3 people in two opposite side of the defense. 

I didn't watch it after we went 2-0 down I'll be honest, I was expecting it to be about 6-0 Bayern with how bad we were defending. But from what I heard everyone had a piss poor game. 

6 hours ago, Droopy said:

Yes, 4-2-3-1 the ultimate formation for the current football. The thing is you need two really good midfielders and two really good wing backs. I can ship Kovacic and Jorginho if they are their best but who will be playing on the wing? Alonso? Azpilicueta? You can be damn sure they are not getting any help from Hakim or Pulisic. Jorginho is super slow so even tho Kovacic is a world class player in terms of running, he is not covering for 3 people in two opposite side of the defense. 

Wouldn't be a Kovacic - Kante pair the best for this formation? Like it was under Conte with Matic - Kante. Altough not the most creative pair it would be a bit more dynamic and our new players in Werner Hakim and maybe Havertz would compensate for that.

They both like to roam around but with some instructions they should be diciplined enough to defend and make transitions after all those two are good players. 

 

 

https://www.chelseafc.com/en/news/2020/08/25/player-of-the-season--mateo-kovacic

Player of the season. Fully deserved.

 

Congrats Mateo! Good season from him.

Congratulations to Kova, my vote didn't go to waste 

I wonder who will be Players' Player of the Year, haven't read anything about that (yet).

His best season ever in his career, Lampard used his qualities better than any other manager that he has ever had. Congratulations!

2 hours ago, Gol15 said:

His best season ever in his career, Lampard used his qualities better than any other manager that he has ever had. Congratulations!

Well considering he's only now just entering his prime, it's likely he was going to get better. 

This is why I was having a go at people on here last season who kept saying he's sh*t, people were acting like we signed a player who's approaching 30. Kovacic still has room to improve, even though I doubt we'll ever get a player who's going to be scoring goals running into the box unfortunately, but I do think with more creative freedom we could see a better player. 

Not a vintage season for candidates...no-one was great the whole year...majority obviously rule, but bemused by Kovacic's popularity. Definitely was better than his first season but that's not saying much. Still struggle to remember one match winning, inspirational performance. Some nice touches, nice moments, but not enough for me 

This was a good season for him. Sucks how it ended.

Well deserved, I still remember the day we signed him, I was so against it because last season he was average. But this season he took few steps forward and I liked to see him in our team.

Great season, his dribbling is fantastic, one thing I want him to improve for the incoming season is his decision in the final third. Start shooting Mateo!

f**king love him.

Quality player, fully deserved the award!

Even if he's a bit back in this coming-off-the-bench period, for the little time he had he managed to make a sick pass through the middle towards Havertz/Werner that later got a bit sloppy but it was such a great move by Kovacic.

If we get to sit back and wait for a counter I can see Kova being on point with the pace of Werner and with the support of Havertz, there is where we can use the pace of Werner to the fullest.

17 minutes ago, Gol15 said:

Even if he's a bit back in this coming-off-the-bench period, for the little time he had he managed to make a sick pass through the middle towards Havertz/Werner that later got a bit sloppy but it was such a great move by Kovacic.

If we get to sit back and wait for a counter I can see Kova being on point with the pace of Werner and with the support of Havertz, there is where we can use the pace of Werner to the fullest.

I think there may have even been 2 sick passes. I wonder if for opposition / situations such as this (other team chasing the game) Kovacic, Jorginho and Havertz could be the best midfield combo 

Apparently Matteo has become a father in the last few days which is why he’s been missing from the squad. 

1 minute ago, Munkworth said:

Apparently Matteo has become a father in the last few days which is why he’s been missing from the squad. 

Yeah last weekend. But he did then play for Croatia mid last week, coming on for the second half v france (I think I’ve got the timeline right), and well too. 

Can every player get into the game like Kova did against Sevilla?

For some reason he was the only player who tried to run forward with the ball and switch the game to Sevilla's half. 

He deserves to start against Man United.

Just now, IliyaKrostin said:

Can every player get into the game like Kova did against Sevilla?

For some reason he was the only player who tried to run forward with the ball and switch the game to Sevilla's half. 

He deserves to start against Man United.

Yes, he was really good when he came on.

1 hour ago, IliyaKrostin said:

Can every player get into the game like Kova did against Sevilla?

For some reason he was the only player who tried to run forward with the ball and switch the game to Sevilla's half. 

He deserves to start against Man United.

He as our best player should be starting games by default.

But honestly he couldn't really do much, even if he was fresh Sevilla kept a high tempo throughout the game so part from winning a few balls in our half we were stopped in our tracks.

24 minutes ago, Gol15 said:

He as our best player should be starting games by default.

But honestly he couldn't really do much, even if he was fresh Sevilla kept a high tempo throughout the game so part from winning a few balls in our half we were stopped in our tracks.

He's decent and yes he won our player of the season last season but he isn't our best player.

He has to compete for his place just like everyone else (although Mendy, Silva and Chilwell are pretty much nailed on starters!)

 

2 minutes ago, Nibs said:

He's decent and yes he won our player of the season last season but he isn't our best player.

He has to compete for his place just like everyone else (although Mendy, Silva and Chilwell are pretty much nailed on starters!)

 

But he is a better player than both Jorginho and Kante. Every time Sevilla pressed us in our half we just booted it. Don't need Jorginho if we play like that anyway.