The Curious Case of Mateo Kovačić: Player Profile, Season Report
“My successor in Croatia (national team) or the most talented player, I think, is Mateo Kovačić .”
High praise coming from arguably Croatia’s best player of all time, Luka Modric in an interview given by him to Marca earlier this year.
Mateo Kovačić , despite winning the club’s player of the year award for the season 2019/20 , is having his best season at Chelsea if not his whole career.
I take this opportunity to look into the different parts Kovačić’s game and how he has taken a leap in terms of performance this season.
Kovačić Before the 21/22 Season
I would like to start off by giving some context to Kovačić ‘s career before this season, to really understand the brilliance and the flaws of ‘Il Professore’.
Inter Milan
Kovačić has always been touted as an incredible talent. You don’t get a career path like his otherwise. He made his debut for Dinamo Zagreb at the young age of 16, and as a young starlet, got a move to Inter Milan at the age of 19, taking up none other than Wesley Sneijder’s No 10 jersey.
Here, the Croat made 97 appearances with 8 goals to his name, but this does not tell the whole story. He was one of the bright sparks in what was largely a lackluster Inter side, especially compared to previous years, and by the end of his stint became a regular starter for the Nerazzuri at various positions like attacking midfielder, deep lying playmaker or even a left winger. Although saying this, his end product was not to the level the expectations thrust on him warranted, and this is a pattern that is observed throughout the stages of his career.
Real Madrid
However, by the end of the 2014/15 season, Kovačić had attracted the attention of bigger European clubs and in August 2015, he completed a move to Real Madrid for a fee of around €30 million. If you look up any statistics website, it will tell you that Kovačić won 3 Champions Leagues, 3 FIFA Club World Cups, 2 UEFA Super Cups,1 La Liga and 1 Spanish Super Cup during his 3 year stint with the Merengues, but he did not complete 30 appearances in any one of these seasons. He struggled to break into the much lauded midfield trio of Kroos , Modric and Casemiro and had to settle for appearances off the bench.
This is partly because his profile mostly resembled that of Modric’s , and Modric was an indispensable (and rightly so ) for manager Zinedine Zidane during this period. Whenever Kovačić did get on the pitch, he played very frequently as a CDM replacing Casemiro, and although this is not his preferred position, he was a good fit due to his press resistant qualities, allowing him to dribble out of tight spaces.
The comparison in heatmaps of Kovačić in the 16/17 season vs 21/22 season shows a clear difference in his average position.
However, this was not his preferred position and did not lead to maximization of his attacking qualities. Kovačić finished his time at the Bernabéu with just a single goal accompanied by 6 assists in 74 appearances in La Liga, which again highlights his lack of end product.
Chelsea (18/19 – 20/21)
Looking for consistent minutes, Kovačić opted for a season long loan move to newly appointed Maurizio Sarri’s Chelsea in the season 2018/19. Overall, it was a topsy turvy initial season for the Croat as he settled into life at West London. He made more than double the league starts(21) he had made for Real Madrid the previous season (10), but as every person who watched Chelsea during this period of time can attest to, would inevitably be substituted around the 60th minute for Ross Barkley or Ruben Loftus Cheek. His performances though, showed a marked improvement throughout the course of the season, notably an excellent performance in the Europa League final in Baku to win the trophy for Chelsea, and effectively forcing the club (amidst a transfer ban) to sign him on a permanent deal. This season was followed by an even better one under club legend Frank Lampard, which culminated in Kovačić winning the club’s player of the year. He was a mainstay in the team, playing predominantly in a midfield 3 along with Kanté, and Jorginho as the holding midfielder, 3 players who complement each other brilliantly. Kanté and Kovačić are 2 great ball carriers with Jorginho being a controller or metronome in midfield. However, this midfield 3 would get caught out time and time again in the transitions, especially Jorginho, due to lack of athleticism or defensive acumen, and this was a constant feature in the Englishman’s tenure at Stamford Bridge. In the 20/21 season, Kovačić initially was sidelined since Lampard’s preferred midfield trio was Kanté — Havertz — Mount, and although many believe that this was Mount’s best period as a Chelsea player, it effected the rest of the team heavily as it did not suit the other 2 midfielders and Chelsea started to plummet, which eventually led to the sacking of Lampard. In came Thomas Tuchel with his 3–4–3 which inevitably led to Kovačić being deployed in double pivot consistently for really the first time in his career, and Chelsea turned into a machine. More about this team will be covered later on.
Chelsea, 21/22
Right then, now that the we are done with the pleasantries, we can finally get into the crux of this piece, the exemplary season Kovačić is having and how he has improved the facets of his game and developed some new ones at the same time.
So what is it exactly that has changed in Kovačić ’s game?
Firstly, the volume of shots that Kovačić takes has increased substantially. He had a shot/90 value of 0.91 in 2019/20, which has gone up to 1.21 in 2021/22. Furthermore his xG has almost tripled this season as compared to 2 years back.
He is also making regular, forward runs into the box , whereas in previous seasons , it would just be a rash shot from the edge of the box or a square pass to a teammate.
When used properly, Kovačić is an all round, box to box player , who can do all most everything that you want from a midfielder.
As shown in the clip above Kova(pink boots)first drops deep to assist the team to play out of West Brom’s press and then takes up a pocket of space in the middle of 4 WBA players whilst Chelsea progress up the field, and with an exquisite first touch creates space for himself to get a shot away. The thing with Kovačić is, he has never lacked in technical quality, its the conditions and the players around him that has effected his end product.
This increase in threat on goal has coincided with Tuchel’s preferred double pivot being Kovačić-Kante rather than Kovačić-Jorginho, and I think this is more than a coincidence. Playing alongside Jorginho, Kovačić has to play 8–10 yards deeper than he would playing alongside Kante, due to the Italian’s vulnerability to counter attacks.
As the heatmaps suggest, this is not only a difference, but a substantial difference in the average positions Kovačić takes up depending on who he plays alongside.
The above graph clearly depicts the increase in terms of expected goal contributions by Kovačić .
Coming to Kovačić ‘s passing, this is probably the most underrated facet of his game. Kovačić has always been a good passer , but his assist stats for Chelsea do not reflect this (just 11 assists in 4 Premier League seasons) but his xA stats per season(2.4–2.8) more than doubled when compared to that during his tenure at Real Madrid(1–1.2) (stats via FBref) , and a major reason for this is that Chelsea have been culprit to missing an extraordinary amount of chances. In the 2019/20 season, Chelsea underperformed their xG from open play by 7.3 (xG of 58.3, 51 goals scored) which is diabolical when compared to rivals like Manchester City who underperformed their xG from open play by 3.1 (xG of 82.1, 79 goals scored) and Liverpool, the eventual champions, who actually overperformed their xG by 0.9 (xG of 62.1, 63 goals scored) (all stats from Understat).
The favorite position of Kovačić’s to make through balls is the inside left half space, roughly around where a traditional number 8 would play, for the left winger making out-to-in runs or a CF running the channels.
Callum Hudson-Odoi makes a brilliant dummy run to drag his man forward, before quickly turning and attacking the space left behind by the defender and Kovačić finds him with one of his trademark through balls.
Here, the Croat plays a quick 1–2 with Jorginho, and spots the run rom Kante with a great ball played over the top.
This assist is probably Kovačić’s best in a Chelsea shirt and is certainly my most favorite, as it is a microcosm of all the brilliant parts of his game. He receives the ball under pressure from 3 Villa players, but using his exceptional dribbling and close control, gets past them to drive into space. He then proceeds to play a through ball around the *outside* of the RCM and RCB for Lukaku to run onto and finish.
One can clearly see what prompted Zidane to play Kovačić as a 6 , but I strongly feel that his passing and dribbling range makes him most efficient as a number 8.
If all of Kovačić’s attributes constituted a crown, his dribbling ,without a shadow of doubt, would be the jewel. He has the knack to get out of tight spaces like it nobody’s business. He is nimble, agile and deceptively fast, and a low center of gravity allows him to turn on the spot in a flash.
As mentioned above, he was played as a winger at times at Inter Milan, partly due to his exemplary dribbling skills.
A major factor that facilitates his exemplary dribbling skills is his first touch.
He is so light footed, like a gazelle ready to run from its prey, and this helps him to control the ball such that he can subsequently beat his man with the fewest number of touches.
Furthermore, Kovačić has an underappreciated aptitude for the defensive commitments of a midfielder. He ranks at an impressive 90 percentile among midfielders in terms of tackles over the last year (via FBref).
He ranks high up when compared to other midfielders in Europe in this metric. (Quick sidenote : Aurelien Tchuomeni is a serious, serious player)
His athletic prowess means that he has the ability to keep up with wingers and make lunging slide tackles.
However, a lack of awareness and rash, impulsive decision making is a major flaw of his.
Here, Kovačić (number 23, black boots) is faced with a marauding Ivan Rakitić on the transition. To provide context, Zidane had given Kovačić the job to essentially man mark Lionel Messi (understandably so), and up to this point in the game, he had done so pretty effectively. However, as one can clearly see, Kovačić actively moves *away* from Rakitic in an attempt to cover Messi, when actually Marcelo has already got Messi covered, showing a clear lack of awareness and communication.
Conclusion
To wrap up this piece, I’d like to give my personal subjective opinion on Kovačić from the perspective of a fan. In my opinion, in the last 5 years, among Chelsea players, he is second only to Eden Hazard in terms of being able to generate a moment of individual brilliance or to uplift a somber crowd in a dull match with a single move. Yes, he does have his flaws, but this season he has been impeccable and its a pure joy to watch him on a weekly basis.
Thank you for reading !
Credits:
Footballia & Youtube (for clips)
Statistics Websites (mentioned)