Mateo Kovacic was supposedly sent to Chelsea on loan as a bargaining tool for Real Madrid to capture the signing of (at the time) Chelsea star Thibaut Courtois. However since joining Kovacic was in no rush to show his desire to stay with the blues, posting a controversial goodbye post to Real Madrid on all his Social Media pages, which left many Madrid fans wondering what exactly he is thinking, due to the fact it’s a one year loan with no buy back clause; they weren’t filled with confidence over the Croatians future also down to the fact he skipped training before making the switch, which was confirmed by the player in his first interview as a Chelsea player.
How will he fit in?
He is expected to play alongside Kante and Jorginho in Chelsea’s three-man midfield, completing what looks like a very strong triad. He is yet to start a game for the blues, due to not being match fit at the time of signing. However he was introduced alongside Eden Hazard with 30 minutes remaining against Arsenal last Saturday, making 43 passes with an 100% success rate in an advanced midfield role, you could automatically tell the level this player has been playing at in recent years with such incredible ability.
This left fan’s raving and ecstatic to see more from the player. His composure, passing ability and footballing mind will all contribute to the team’s performances when he is playing, and I for one can’t wait to see how he performs.
The midfield three of Kante-Jorginho-Kovacic, will plan out like this, Jorginho will play the deeper role, picking the ball up from the defence and setting the tempo, Kante will be winning the ball back and making bursting runs into the opposition half, Kovacic will most likely play the most advanced role of the three, playing like a CAM, probably not tracking back as much as the other two, but applying pressure on the other teams defence, which is a huge jigsaw in Maurizio Sarri’s puzzle.
Trophies…
If there’s a certain about Kovacic, it’s that he’s a serial winner, winning 3 Champions League’s in his previous 3 seasons at Real Madrid. However the midfielder found it difficult to sustain a starting 11 position with debatably the world’s two best central midfielders in Modric and Kroos being Zidane’s first options.
With all this experience with winning trophies, it will hopefully encourage and give confidence to the squad that they can win titles with him. The Croatian stated he needed to be at a club that truly wanted him and he found that at Chelsea he said after his debut against Arsenal.
I can truly see Mateo being amongst Chelsea’s best performers this season, and have very high expectations for the on loan midfielder. I for one cannot wait for the season to unfold to see how he adapts to life in the Premier League.
