Lampard is out as Chelsea manager. But did Mateo Kovačić give the club more reason to sack their legendary midfielder?
GiveMeSport is reporting via Danny Murphy on TalkSport that “a source told me that Rudiger and Kovačić went directly to the board to talk about Lampard.”
At the beginning of the season, I said that this needed to be Kovačić’s year. He finally has a home in West London. He was Chelsea’s ‘Player of the Year’ last season. Chelsea bought over $300 million in quality players in the summer. Everything looked good early on but quickly began to spiral out of control in December. Halfway through the season, Chelsea sit in 9th place; 11 points behind leaders Manchester United.
We have all read through media reports that Kovačić’s relationship with Lampard was anything but ideal. Reports out of London are stringing together anonymous quotes from players. The following could have been said by Kova but it’s not 100% confirmed:
“The problem was, the manager didn’t talk to the players — well only the ones he liked,” one source said. “I know of players who weren’t in the team that didn’t hear from him for many months. That’s very frustrating for a player because you don’t know what you have to do to do better, what the manager is thinking. It’s crazy.”
It’s seems as if Lampard was extremely distant from the entire team and only engaged with his favorite players; which Kovačić was not. Chelsea play Wolverhampton on Wednesday and it looks as if former PSG manager – Thomas Tuchel – who took the club to the Champions League Final only a few months ago, could be the next manager at Stamford Bridge.
Hopefully things start turn3ing around for Kovačić. Or Modrić will have to stick around until he’s 40.
@ Poglavnik well the Pride of London is Chelsea.
You must be a West Ham knob.
I think Kovačić needs a psychologist. He has a TON of athletic talent, but he rarely maximizes his effectiveness. On the other hand, you have players like Rog or Badelj who basically have one primary and one secondary skill, and they do both of those things very effectively, which means that they won’t ever be stars, but they always will be useful.
I watched a few Genoa games to see how Pjaca was doing, but I was actually impressed with Badelj. I think he would be reliable off the bench for the repka.
11 mandzos or 11 Luka
I say 11 mandzos cause he can play more positions
11 Mandzo’s on the pitch would take you far
U would think they would allow squads to be bigger for euro with covid bullshit
Perisic will be fine
Zlatan and lukaku got into it? I didn’t see it
Wish mandzo had a chance today
Mandzo would be more effective at cdm then Kovacic
Tell me I’m wrong
Absolute destroyer in that defensive type role
Perisic Lost a few balls but he was decent today…lively with lots of dangerous inswingers not sure what game some of you were watching
Badelj getting starts for Genoa, looks like he will make the Repka as a squad player.
Are they allowing 5 subs for this Euro?
What’s going on with Bradaric at Lille? He’s on the bench lately.
Has Perisic fallen off, or is he just not enjoying the environment he’s playing in? Me thinks it’s the latter.
The Kings of London
@ Poglavnik
Who do you like the Scouse?
Inter Milan made good use of the 16 foreigners rule there!
@Cigan
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Bang on. It’s like we watched the same game😂
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https://int.soccerway.com/matches/2010/05/22/europe/uefa-champions-league/fc-bayern-munchen/fc-internazionale-milano/932705/
@anonymous,
right you are with the three foreigner rule. Back then, each country would have it’s own style. The foreign players would be truly world class. Now many of the foreigners bought are done so for economic reasons. Cheaper to buy prospects from third world countries than to pay and develop a home grown player. If memory serves me right, Inter didn’t have a single Italian in the starting lineup when they last won the Champions League (Cup).
@Maminjo
Correct as per usual.
I liked football more when there was the three foreigners rule, that’s when the game was the game.
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The game sucks now.
@ARMADA
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He’s not like Rakitic. Rakitic has always been good for us, despite him and Modric not really gelling for a period of time in the midfield.
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Raketa really took off at club level at around age 24 too, when he was killing it at Sevilla. Kovacic hasn’t done this yet, with any club he’s played on.
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Kovacic also has over 60 caps for us, and you could probably count on one hand how many impactful games he’s had for us.
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The only hope for Kovacic is that he is a very late bloomer, and that he steps up after the age of 27 (which is what he will be this May).
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I don’t mind him off the bench…but he’s similar to Pasalic in that he’s very limited in his role, and isn’t adaptable. So, even off the bench, his use would be to simply give one of our midfielders a breather (rather than being some sort of tactical change).
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Guys like Modric and Rakitic could play anywhere in the midfield. They;re very adaptable, so it’s easy to shift things around when you need a sub or a change in tactics. Even guys like Nikola Moro or Toma Basic are box-to-box midfielders, who can provide a lot of different things in the central midfield.
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Kovacic is just Kovacic. He’s not gonna be able to fully take on the defensive responsibilities of a CDM (if, for example, Brozovic had to be subbed off)…nor can he take on the CAM responsibilities (if, for example, Nikola Vlasic needs to come off).
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He’s just a ‘filler’ sub. Good enough to not completely fuck things up, but not really good enough to do maintain the level of play in place of our starters.
watching perisic lose ball after ball made my eyes bleed, mans fallen off. brozo had an avg game but is still class. rebic is the worst player ever when playing in the center of the pitch, but bald fuck pioli continues to play him there where he is useless. rebic can only play way out wide. period
English and Spanish football sucks because of favouritism towards English born and Spanish born players.
what a strike by Eriksen…. jebote
I wouldn’t say I’m over Mateo… but I’m not waiting for him anymore, if that makes sense?
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We’ve seen him suit up for the NT since 2013 (if you can believe it…) and he’s kind of like Rakitic, pre-2018. Might get a few great games or halfs out of him, but then he might dissapear for the next 2 games. I think consistency has been the biggest issue for him (at the NT level) and there’s a ton more than goes into that in terms of his club form, who’s his club manager, where they’re playing him, etc. But at this point, if he were some generational talent ala Modric, I feel his play would of overcome a lot of these changes and he’d be in the ‘world class’ conversations for MF’s. Especially at 26 (his prime).
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I think going into the Euros and looking post Euro, he’s not an automatic starter, even with Modric retired. I’m 100% ok with having him as our first MF off the bench though. I mean, how many other Euro NT’s can say we have someone of his quality coming off the pine? He can still offer a lot and hold his own and can play in a few different spots – I just don’t see him as a game changer for the NT. He might have a Rakitic type tournament this summer and play out of his mind and I’ll eat my words here, I just don’t see that in the cards.
Good for Kovacic if this will mean it benefits him…
But I think it’s too late to consider him a key piece to the Euros (which is the most important thing right now).
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We need to start regularly calling up our current (and former) U21 players like Moro, Majer, and Basic during these next friendlies and qualifiers.
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No more of this automatic Kovacic, Pasalic, Badelj trio off the bench.
They’ve had their chance to show what they can (and cannot) do.
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I have a feeling that one of these younger callups will have a nice first impression, similar to how Nikola Vlasic surprised us.
I’d even start looking into giving Sucic a callup if he’s actually playing well at club level.
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Can’t put all our eggs in one basket. If Rakitic hadn’t bitched out during the qualifiers with his no-show attitude, Vlasic would have never been given his chance. We need to give more chances to some of these potential breakout stars.
Fat Frank is garbage!
Him and his shit club
I have commented before that Frank was the main problem at Chelsea…lots of talent, lots of money spent, yet he couldn’t figure out how to make things work tactically. That being said, now is the time for Kovacic to “grow a pair” and take a leadership role.
It didn’t end well for Kovac at Bayern, but in his first season he righted a faltering ship and brought them a Bundesliga league and cup double. He appears to excel in a low to mid table situation where discipline and hard work need to be implemented. This only works for so long, especially with a team of stars.
Lampard DEFINITELY did not like Kovacic. I’ve watched many Chelsea games where they weren’t playing well and Mateo is the first player subbed out, even though Kante or Jorginho were playing worse than Kovacic.
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That being said, his trust in Mount was warranted. He’s going to be an excellent player.
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It seems like we’ve said that this is Mateo’s last chance to shit or get off the pot a dozen times, but this might really be his last chance to be relevant.
There does seem to be an old boys club in Europe that’s for Sure
My bad marsch is in Austria.
The English are devoid of fresh thinking when it comes to their coaching ranks.
All you have to do is look at how many times “park the bus!” Fat Sam allardyce has re-surfaced in the prem.
The bundesliga is far more creative and willing to take risks on young aggressive coach’s like nagelsmann and the American Jesse marsch…even kovac at Bayern was out of the box thinking though it didn’t work out for niko…but he’s doing wonders with Monaco this year.
I wonder how bjelica would do with the big boys.. I have a feeling rather well..a pity he won’t ever get a shot!
The English are too arrogant and egotistical to learn anything from anyone tbf.
It was clear that Lampard liked his English boys and loved Mount especially.
He also surrounded himself with his little English homeboys as well.
I have seen too much quality in Kovačić over the years to not believe that he is a good player and can thrive in a system that suits him.
Tuchel will want to bring the best out of Kovačić because his qualities suit his system of dynamic precision attacking football.
Lampard was tactically limited and predictable.
Funny how all of the Croatian lessons we have taught England over the years don’t seem to stick?
Will Tuchel be any better
Didn’t he flop at PSG