It's difficult for any Chelsea fan to find a positive these days!
Mateo Kovacic
- Thread starter VancouverUtdFan
- Start date
That's funny cause Chelsea fans voted him a player of the year last season.
Exactly
The duality of man
He relies heavily on explosiveness and getting past people with acceleration. Plus he is not that good. At 29, no thanks
In 6 months his legs will probably be gone.
Not really, he more rellies on his dribbling, he was never explosive.
bring him in. He feels like the missing piece in MF. Best solution as FDJ will stay in Spain.
I like him, but skip. Injury prone and I'd prefer we invest in someone younger like Caicedo or Bellingham.
A myth.
I have that impression with him. Quality player nonetheless and we should have bought him from Madrid couple of years ago.
Yeah I get it, an impression but not really true.
If we would go for a Croatian and a younger one Leon Sučić would be a good shout.
Always wished we had signed him, but doesn't seem particularly wise with our budget predicament, for long term squad building.
We should take Gravenberch if Bayern sign Kovacic.
One leg already left by train, the other leg missed the taxi
If he’s that good that partnership would have benefited Chelsea.
Strange take that one, he hasnt formed a good partnership with Enzo so he's not that good. They're too similar of players anyway.
Im saying it as we aren’t in a position to be taking risk. Would rather not get a player who isn’t currently excelling in a team whether they are doing well or not.
For instance Rice is performing even though his team is in a poor position.
That wouldn't be a risk, taking a well established international who has all the qualities we desperately need in a CM.
That means nothing. Most of our failed signings are well established Internationals.
We need a player that has the attributes but is also in a positions to get better than what their current performance levels are. Kovacic is at the age where that is hard to judge and he’s currently not the best CM at Chelsea.
So no thank you.
Good player. Too old for our midfield.
He turned 29 last week. He isn't too old for our midfield or any midfield. The question is whether he has the appropriate tactical and technical profile and how much he would cost.
Ah yes, the mythical 29.
In and of himself, no.
But part of squad building is ensuring you don't allow too many players to age out at the same time. And given the age profile of so many of our current midfield (Casemiro 31, Eriksen 31, Fred 30, Bruno 28) is would seem ill-advised not to target younger players for that position in particular.
Especially given we also have age to consider in some other positions (three of our four CBs are 28-30) and potential signings (Kane will be 30 this summer). Keep bringing in more players at that age bracket and we're walking into problems, because as we have seen there's a limit to how many players you can replace even over a few transfer windows.
That's not actually an issue unless you are talking about players that are very young or very old. In a 2 to 3 years cycle, you are supposed to bring 6 to 10 new players through transfers and a couple through your academy which is how you refresh your team.
We are walking into problems when we overthink things and put age before quality, fit and cost. Just take it this way Kovacic is two years younger than Eriksen and Casemiro who have both been good and made a big change for us, neither need to be replaced this year.
The CB situation that you described isn't an issue, it's actually ideal since none of them need to be replaced due to age and in general CBs are at their physical well into their 30s. We basically have two team cycles with them but in reality we have quality depth issues and should bring a third or fourth CB that will likely be younger. So no issue that is linked to a 29 years old CM.
If we were talking about a 35 years old CM like Busquets I would agree but we are talking about a CM that is younger than our current starters and that in theory would move our midfield cycle by 2 years which is plenty of time. In particular when we have 19-20 years old midfielders that would be better supported with experienced midfielders than midfielders closer to them. Which isn't to say that I'm against the idea of bringing a top level and young CM but that we should be in the market for the best deal regarding CMs between the ages of 20 to 29 years old because they all fit a 2 to 3 years cycle.
The age isn’t an issue. It’s the fact he’s 29 and still not established as one of the worlds best CMs
So?
So we are trying to improve bro not be in another top 4 battle is the inconsistent
Which doesn't require us to have one of the world's best CMs. We need to have someone better than McTominay and Fred or as good as Eriksen. Marginal improvements or improving the depth is as important if not more important than trying to find the "new Modric".
I don't know if Kovacic is the answer, he may not be but I think that some are making the same mistakes that we have made for 10 years. One of the biggest issue that we have had this season was the inability to sustain our best level after in-game substitutions, injuries or fatigue. Because our depth is unreliable and fairly poor.
Not better than a 32 year old Gündoğan Pass.
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... I would have taken Gundugan this season
Who's that Gundugan guy?
A gundam wannabe.
You’re missing my point. The profile of a player should either be young with the ability to become one of the best. I.e. Enzo.
Or in his prime but tier 1 amongst his peers. I.e. Casemiro.
Kovacic doesn’t fit neither.
I got your point and think that it's a bad one because it only makes sense if you currently have no need when it comes to depth or if you currently have a high floor. Neither of these things apply to United.
Your talking about depth we need first team improvement.
Fred was a centre midfield signing for depth and at the time we had Pogba, Matic and Fellaini. So is this what you’re looking to do. Have a rotational 4 for squad depth.
Casemiro, Fred, Kovacic and Eriksen.
Your talking about depth we need first team improvement.
Fred was a centre midfield signing for depth and at the time we had Pogba, Matic and Fellaini. So is this what you’re looking to do. Have a rotational 4 for squad depth.
Casemiro, Fred, Kovacic and Eriksen.
We need both quality depth and first team improvement.
Now these two things can happen with a single transfer if you find a better starter that pushes your current starters deeper in the depth chart. But if there isn't an affordable or sensible target that will improve your first team and depth in a signle move, the next best move is to improve the depth of your midfield by adding players that are at a similar level to your current starters who are good when fit. The third option is to gamble on a younger player that may or may not reach the required level which is not a good option for us in 2023.
The point being that your statement that we need to either go for "one of the best" or a young player and not go for a player that is an improvement on Fred and McTominay is flawed especially when money is scarce. Fred and McTominay played 3600 minutes, if you improve the quality of these 3600 minutes you improve your team, you improve your first team by having a rotation that allows you to deal with suspensions, injuries, fatigue or poor form.
If you don't rate Kovacic and think that he isn't a big improvement on Fred and McTominay than say that, it would be a good argument but make the point that we should only go for one of the best or a young player because that's not sensible, our needs also include adding quality depth.
Would be a great signing if he goes for cheap.