Belgian Flash
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- 12 Aug 2023
- Messages
- 285
- Team supported
- Real Madrid
This is on the money. Kovacic has always been a very good central midfielder, just not a great one. He is a complementary player in midfield because he is pretty much only a specialist of progressing the ball and playing it out of trouble. This is quite useful at times but not always and on the long term is only a small part of the entire necessary contribution of a midfielder. Kovacic doesn't dictate play, he doesn't think one move ahead like great midfielders like Rodri do. Kovacic is good at reacting but his positional instincts are also average so it leads to dead ends in passing lanes often, which nullifies the benefit from his progressing.
And on defense its the same story tbh. He doesn't shy from getting stuck in, and is a hard worker in general, but some of it is huffing and puffing and wouldn't need to happen if he doesn't make positional errors because hes not a DM. And then once the gap happens (often his fault), as others stated he doesn't have the pace beyond 20 meters or so to get back in time and recover the ball.
Indeed hes an interesting player who was always almost there but never quite make it because he just lacks some extra abilities. That is why he was actually released from Madrid. He was never good enough to compete with Modric or Kroos. But hes never a bad option to have in midfield and depending on the partners he has there he can really add something. Not a building block by any means though.