Like I said, needs a team built around him but doesn't really merit it as he's nothing special.
Mateo Kovacic
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How the hell did they end up playing him as 10, with 2 better 10's in CM
I'm sure there was a very obvious reason for it that none of us will be ever qualified to realize why
Modric is a center midfielder 100%, he can play well in an advanced position but he's primarily a central midfielder. Same with rakitic really. Kovacic is good but still too young to play at the heart of the midfield, and definitely is not better then modric and rakitic further back, which is more important then #10 against brazil.
Still think he'll have an impressive tournament. It's no surprise that a young player might struggle against a side of Brazil's calibre and a nation with so much expectancy.
Croatia will be more on the front foot against Mexico and Cameroon, so we'll see how he performs then. Far better I expect.
Croatia will be more on the front foot against Mexico and Cameroon, so we'll see how he performs then. Far better I expect.
Very dissapointed in his performance. I've never seen him get swallowed by a game like that.
Did not expect any different.. A player I do rate him but he also has a tendency of going missing when his team is not dominating.. It was not the game to judge how good he is especially if you have never watched him before..
I'd still sign him in a heartbeat.
The talent is there, and maybe the stage was too big for him, people expect too much of young players these days, its insane. He'll learn from this and become a better player for it.
Invisible and a gamble by Kovac that simply failed to pay off, surprised it took him so long to make a change
Not sure if it's been posted but according to Di Marzio, Ancelotti's interested in him & has spoke to his agent recently to see if a deal's possible although he ain't a 'top target'.
There's too much hype about young players these days. A lad looks decent on Football Manager and everyone is desperate to hype them up. Not very helpful for the player. At 20 he's obviously nowhere near the finished article.
Some comments on here were starnge - comparing himi to Yaya Toure or his odds for being player of the World Cup.
Some comments on here were starnge - comparing himi to Yaya Toure or his odds for being player of the World Cup.
Yeah. Wonder what would have happened if Olic had played at the 10 and just generally been a nuisance there, maybe drag Gustavo wide at times.
here's the thing though, if kovacic had just a chance to get the ball and make a run through the midfield, he could have likely created a goal with his insane penetrative ability.
instead he was stifled out of the game and hardly got involved.
that's never a sign of incompetence, simply the misfortune of being tactically redundant.
instead he was stifled out of the game and hardly got involved.
that's never a sign of incompetence, simply the misfortune of being tactically redundant.
Unfortunately that doesn't excuse his performance. He shouldve realised that his team were struggling deep in midfield and spent more time there during the game.
Yeah a 20 year old should've chucked his manager's tactical instructions out of the window and started freelancing on the field.
Football isn't all about managers instructions and the like. Footballers have to think for themselves too. Coming deeper and helping a team transition the ball is something all great playmakers have in common and no manager would ever complain at it if such action was warranted and it clearly was. He didn't do that, and his manager had him off the pitch as 1st sub.
i can't agree with that.
if midfielders just went and did what they wanted the teams structure would be completely chaotic.
He's played as the deep penetrating midfielder under stramaccioni (and how phenomenal was he), but under mazzarri he's being introduced as an AMF, not like he was at dinamo, more offensively limited, but potentially more decisive in the final third (by theory). Between the two roles he plays completely different.
especially with rakitic and modric in the same midfield, why would kovacic ignore his instructions? is modric not a great playmaker? rakitic?
in any case, i don't know if i would define kovacic as a playmaker in the traditional sense. He's not formed his own identity yet, but he seems to be more of a central midfielder with an excellence for initiating offensive movements, with technical skill and speed which is breathtaking for his age.
he's twice what iniesta was at the same age.
let's watch more and see how it goes for him this tournament. all of this 'defining consensus'... it's coming from one game... against brazil in brazil... at the opening game of the world cup. It's the type of stuff you laugh at 2 years later for how ridiculously shortsighted it all was at the time.
But football is about the manager's instructions really. Plenty of managers would be livid with players taking matters into their own hands because you have to play within the constraints of the system. If players could do whatever they wish on the field then why have a manager and pay him millions in the first place ? In saying that I can relate with where you're coming from in that Kovacic underperformed. No doubt about that. But we must also bear in mind that his primary objective was to stretch the field of play because Brazil are weak at the back and create mismatch situations leaving the centre of the park to Modric and Rakitic. Obviously he was overawed by the occasion and didn't perform as well as expected, no disputes there and he was rightly subbed off. But remember this is a kid barely out of his teens, not an experienced campaigner than can take over games. At his age none of the great midfielders/ playmakers of today had enough authority or confidence to do that in games of such international magnitude. I firmly believe he was played out of position, he really excels in a withdrawn role, why Kovac played him as a quasi no. 10 confounds logic IMO. Keeping that in mind we don't need to overstate his flaws and microscopically dissect the 50 odd minutes he played. This is just a kid, not the finished product.
The fact is it isn't all about the managers instructions, footballers also have to think about what's happening. Read the game and if what they're doing is working, try to affect the game a different way. This isn't all about being spoon fed instructions and just executing. The fact is, sometimes plans don't go according to plan and managers/coaches themselves know this.
They can't do whatever the wish, there's a big difference between a no10 dropping deeper to help out a midfield that's struggling greatly, and a left fullback acting as a right winger. Being played as a no10 means you have a degree of freedom in what to do while on the pitch. No manager/coach is ever gonna complain about his no10 coming deep and effectively initiating control of his struggling teams play while in possession.
His might be 20 but he's a very very talented footballer. He's the sort of player that would handle the first initial wave of pressure from brazil, the best in the croatia team(along with modric). Taking over games is one of his favorite habits when he plays for inter. I've seen lots of games of his where it seems as though he's the only one playing. The job to stretch the defence was Olic's and perisic's job, not his.
Why was he played as a 10? Well, he's a kid who's defensively poor, that's not the sort of stuff you want deep in midfield vs brazil with neymar and oscar running riot. They don't have a defensive midfielder that's good enough to give him that platform plus they have to factor in their best player.
That 'defining consensus' is certainly nothing I've taken part in, and I truly believe it'll look idiotic in due time. I've followed his time religiously since his move to inter and know all about how he plays in what position. He was hiding which is what disappointed me. He never hides, ever and he did that on the biggest stage of all. He needed to get on the ball which is why he could drop deeper. Rakitic and modric were finding it difficult to get the team moving and his talents would've been useful there. He instead didn't do anything and for that there can be no excuses. No10's have a degree of freedom in team tactics that other midfielders don't have.
He's not twice of what iniesta was at any stage. Iniesta just struggled to get game time cause of experienced pros in the barca team. Iniesta as a kid was playing key roles in spain u19 and u20 teams winning titles.
Anyways, very disappointing display by him. Hopefully this doesn't lead to kovac leaving him out for the rest of the tournament cause that'd be a shame.
Mate. First off let me just say you put forth very compelling and cogent arguments there. Good post. You want to reason out instead of just dismissing the other poster.
However I just think some of it (might be) factually incorrect unfortunately. Again it's not an exact science but from what I saw Kovac's plan was to use Perisic on wide right to stop Marcelo and keep him on the backfoot while Olic did the same to Alves on the other flank. Jelavic and Kovacic were to maintain a higher line because Brazil have 2 excellent CBs (in terms of ball playing skills and dribbling ability who're both adept at launching counter-attacks from the deep). With this in mind Kovac's game plan was to subdue the duo with Jelavic's physical presence and Kovacic's bursts of energy in a 4-4-2 formation while defending because Brazil had a majority of the possession.
This allowed Modric and Rakitic to sit a little deeper and try to dictate the game through the wider areas instead of inviting pressure through the centre where Gustavo and Paulinho have a higher work-rate. Infact the were quite successful in implementing this tactic leading to the surprise first goal.
eg. This is Rakitic's heat map concentrating on the right flank.
And this is Modric doing the same on the left.
The problem was that Kovacic isn't build to play so far up the pitch and I do believe those were specific instructions from Kovac. You correctly pointed out that he has the ability to take over games at Internazionale. But he normally does that from a much deeper position where he has the ability to dribble and break free through the centre.
eg. This is the heat map from one of his best performances.
That's eerily similar to the role that Modric was playing and there-in was the source of the problem. Kovac should've played him deeper and Rakitic further up - a role he excels with for Sevilla. And just to emphasise my point that Kovacic was reigning Thiago and Luiz in, they grew more influential once he was subbed off because Brozovic didn't press them well enough and granted them more freedom :
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Kovacic played the defensive role as a no. 10 to perfection. The only problem is that he wasn't able to express himself creatively. I think some of it was down to tactics too plus the defensive abilities of Gustavo + Paulinho. I think Kovac should play him in CM or change to a midfield 3 because he's not very suited to the AM role right now because he was not getting enough possession of the ball to use his passing and through ball ability and the tight spaces limited his ability to dribble with the ball.
Again to re-emphasize it's all IMO. Not saying you're wrong. But from what I could see and gather it seemed this way to me.
Modric might miss the next game against Cameroon as he picked up an injury. Kovac needs to play an offensive formation and attack Cameroon.
Rebic - Mandzukic - Perisic
Rakitic
Kovacic - Vukojevic
Rakitic is better playing AM and Kovacic is better playing CM. Vukojevic is a DM for defensive strength, but the focus should be to attack Cameroon who will probably be defensive again, even though they need to win as much as Croatia.
Rebic - Mandzukic - Perisic
Rakitic
Kovacic - Vukojevic
Rakitic is better playing AM and Kovacic is better playing CM. Vukojevic is a DM for defensive strength, but the focus should be to attack Cameroon who will probably be defensive again, even though they need to win as much as Croatia.
Yep, that looks sound to me. Always preferred him as a proper CM and Rakitic as an AM. And the question over whether or not to include Vukojevic, which they arguably should have against Brazil, is a no-brainer because of Modric's absence.
@Invictus great post. very interesting data. seems like kovac only tries to play kovacic higher up as a traditional 10 because of boban's comments.
I have the same opinion as what you express here.
Rakitic is pure attacking midfielder. Game against Brazil showed that. He wasn't bad, but he is much better than that. Both Kovacic and Modric are similar type of players and they don't complement each other very well. Croatian midfield look better when Vukojevic played with Modric, as he is good defender. Too bad Badelj is injured, although I doubt he'll get sniff at all.
Why did Kovacic play position he only played for Dinamo u16, I don't know, it has 'screw you logic' all over it. Even if Kovac was so arrogant, thinking he can pass around Brazilian midfield, surely playing Rakitic and Kovacic on their best positions is better.
I missed the game last night but I know he came on towards the end - did he have any time to show what he can do?
created a goal right away and had an excellent through ball.
the Italian ITK journalists are talking up a move to Real.
Hatrick tonight vs some team i've never heard of.
Granted it's shite opposition but he's been quality tonight.
thought we would be in for him
Wasn't he available for like £12m early on this summer? Nevertheless, glad he is adding goals to his game despite the opposition. Him alomgside Carvalho are my dream midfield signing.
thought we would be in for him
We don't need nomore flipping No10's!!!!
I think I'd rather have one of them paired with Pjanic from Roma.
Even though, he has played in the number 10 role at times for Inter and croatia, he has been developed to be a number 8
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Is this guy big fish in small pond material, because I hear raving reviews about him and he creates banging youtube compilations?
Exactly but for now he is not what we need neither can we afford to develop a centre mid at this current time.
He has been played in the number 8 role more than he has played in the number 10 role(This is what I ment by saying he has been developed as a number 8). It has only been recently(e.g. Fews months) that he he has been playing as a number 10. He looked a better number 8 because he is great at taking the ball from the defense and going forward with it. Moreover, he has energy to burn. Whereas as a number 10, his end product needs more polishing.
Either way he is half way between both and we don't need that. So he is not what we need right now simple.
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