8 | Mateo Kovačić - 2024/25

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He's an 8. Gundo, an 8. Phil, an 8. KDB, an 8, Bernardo, an 8.
None of these players are natural defensive midfielders. Judging them as such is harsh.
Hopefully, we find someone who can play alongside Rodri, but who can also replace him by sitting, looking where the play is, and cutting out the danger before it reaches our back four. Who knows, it could be someone like Reis, who has the height, mobility, and aerial ability (according to Palmeiras) to be a consideration.
 
oldius said:
He's an 8. Gundo, an 8. Phil, an 8. KDB, an 8, Bernardo, an 8.
None of these players are natural defensive midfielders. Judging them as such is harsh.
Hopefully, we find someone who can play alongside Rodri, but who can also replace him by sitting, looking where the play is, and cutting out the danger before it reaches our back four. Who knows, it could be someone like Reis, who has the height, mobility, and aerial ability (according to Palmeiras) to be a consideration.
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Reis has got the feet to cover 3/4 of the pitch from wherever he is.
 
Can’t fault his effort last night however I can question his football intelligence…..apart from some suicide passes to his teammates why does he continually run with the ball until he loses it then is not in position to protect the defence.

Ok for matches against the likes of Ipswich so that we can rest other players, but not good enough against decent opposition…..which is probably why we bought him in the first place.
 
He needs to stop trying to dribble out in front of the box and play a bit more conservatively. Apart from that, he was good today - his passing has been impressive recently.
 
blinkblue said:
He needs to stop trying to dribble out in front of the box and play a bit more conservatively. Apart from that, he was good today - his passing has been impressive recently.
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Thought he would’ve learned his lesson midweek with a couple scary moments and we were lucky to not concede big chances from when he was dispossessed in those positions. Those diagonal balls to the overlapping full backs is a big thing we’ve been missing in our build up since Rodri’s injury
 
blinkblue said:
He needs to stop trying to dribble out in front of the box and play a bit more conservatively. Apart from that, he was good today - his passing has been impressive recently.
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Agreed, he gets caught most games but still does it. Thought he was ok, not helped with a pedestrian at the side of him
 
A mixture of good and downright bad. Made a couple of incisive, intelligent runs in their first half but his tendency to give the ball away carelessly in dangerous areas has to stop.
 
Is so good in some play but he hasn't a brain because as a 6 your job is not to dribble in front of the pen area when there is 3 players on you it's receive the pass it first time and move! He is more of an 8
 
waspish said:
Is so good in some play but he hasn't a brain because as a 6 your job is not to dribble in front of the pen area when there is 3 players on you it's receive the pass it first time and move! He is more of an 8
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Kova isn't a 6, nor is Gundo. We have no true 6 available now that Rodri is out. Which is a contributing factor to our decline (ageing players no longer able to close down attackers/aggressively press is the another major factor).
 
While ungrateful fans hate Kova’s performance every game, Kova stabilised the team week in week out doing the DM job while being a B2B player in majority of his career. You lot better hope he doesn’t get injured soon. The team would shit pants again once Kova is not there doing Rodri’s work, and guys will start to curse the whole club from owner to management to Pep to every single player and self-labelling as team supporter instead of fanboys. This was the case of just two months ago. A hilarious group.
 
BlueMoonAcrossThePond said:
Kova isn't a 6, nor is Gundo. We have no true 6 available now that Rodri is out. Which is a contributing factor to our decline (ageing players no longer able to close down attackers/aggressively press is the another major factor).
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Kova is definitely not THE answer, but he has been THE BEST answer we have had, and done his best given the tools, and support, at his disposal.

For all the problems we have had this season, Kova’s limitations are waaaaay down the list.
 
ChicagoBlue said:
Kova is definitely not THE answer, but he has been THE BEST answer we have had, and done his best given the tools, and support, at his disposal.

For all the problems we have had this season, Kova’s limitations are waaaaay down the list.
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I think youre right to an extent

Lets be honest, 2/3 years ago he wouldnt have been anywhere near the squad, never mind a starter, but right now for many reasons , hes playing.
Says a lot about recruitment over the last few years and peps refusal to trust kids.

But lets have it right, hes no where near standard
 
I think Kova has done ok, but the reason he can't be a 6 IMO is his decision making. Watching the Chelsea game back and thinking back on a few games, he has the ability to ping balls about and keep the ball easy, but he makes strange decisions sometimes when passing or when deciding to transition with the ball. It got us into a trouble a few times vs Chelsea and the 6 is really, really where we need that stability.
 
I just watched the full replay. My opinion is that Kova is the top 3 player in the Chelsea game along with Haaland and Gvadiol. And Kova is the most important player in every game since he came back from injury.
The mail problem during the two month free fall period when Kova is absent is that the team cannot maintain a proper tempo. Instead, the team was always pushed and play with the opponent’s rhythm.

Use the Chelsea’s game as n example, one can clearly (well, not so clear to some) see that the game was played in City’s sweet spot. The key player controlling the tempo is Kova, not Silva nor Gundo. Kova did not have a high number of touches at the CDM position, and that looked like deliberate as in previous games Kova always had the most touches at back. In the Chelsea game Kova made himself unavailable when we were not under pressure. This boosts Silva and Gundo’s function as outlets and added a lot unpredictability to the way of going forward. Another difference is that City were transitioning the ball mostly in front our own box instead of in front the opponent’s box. I’m quite sure it was also deliberate, to make the young Chelsea team feel they will get chances with high press and they were the top dog. Kova lost the ball maybe two times in front the box but there were no real chances for Chelsea. Would be better to not lose the ball but these cases are within a tight space with multiple defenders and lone presser and the risks were calculated before the take-ons. And in that case Kova lost the ball we didn’t panic and ball was recovered soon while Chelsea’s defence line moved even higher and resulted in City’s fast break and shooting. I understand any fans prefer dribbling only in the opponents half and keep it simple without any dribble in our own half but that is a typical fragile team mentality and will lead to nowhere. Kova was the only player in the city team that can punish over-pressing with his dribble and ball distribution ability in the middle.

Many criticised that Kova has no leg. That is not true. He has the leg to play two full games a week but that will increase the risk of injury. You can see that Kova deliberately avoided long burst runs especially for tracking back after injury and that was obviously instructed by Pep. And I can only reason it that him being healthy is too important for the rest of the season. Someone here said Kova’s repeatedly not tracking back, “half hearted” without ball irritated Pep and hooked him back around 70 minutes in a few previous games and they really made me laugh.

in recent games Kova showed his talent in helping the attack too. He has probably the most long passes in the Chelsea game (8/6) and each long passes has a clear goal threat or switch effect. He had several incisive passes too and all these formed the foundation of the advantage of the city side in the game.

Overall, a top notch holding midfielder performance and and a top notch contribution to the attack in the Chelsea game but being labeled as having a shit show by some fans here.
 
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