Three big questions: Chelsea’s Mateo Kovacic and tying it all together

Mateo Kovacic is arguably Chelsea’s most talented midfielder but also the hardest to make room for. What questions need to be asked ahead of next season?

Mateo Kovacic spent his first season with the Blues on loan and many struggled to see exactly what he offered the team. In his second season, that changed as he quickly began to show his worth not as a midfielder to drive in behind the striker like Maurizio Sarri wanted, but as a player to sit more in the middle third and glue things together. What questions should be asked of him going forward into his third season in blue?

1. A jack of all trades, but a master of none?

Sarri’s midfields usually consist of three types of players: a deep lying playmaker, a midfielder to drive in between the lines and assist the attack, and a box to box style midfielder to link the two together. Sarri more often than not opted to use Kovacic in that attacking role and the midfielder struggled to make an impact.

Under Frank Lampard, Kovacic took up that more box to box role and it worked wonders. Kovacic is good at dribbling, positioning, passing, tackling, and a host of other skills. Overall, he is arguably Chelsea’s most well rounded midfielder.

But there is one issue. He is good at a great many things but he is not really great at any one thing other than dribbling. Other midfielders offer more defensively. Even more offer more offensively. Kovacic’s average is the highest of all the midfielders, but his overall skill set does tend to become an average.

That is not bad in of itself, but it makes him an awkward fit at times. He is best suited as a sort of “glue” between a much more offensive player and a much more defensive player which is where Lampard attempted to use him as much as possible this season.

Next season, however, there may be a sense that being good at everything is not good enough. The Blues are reinforcing and Kovacic will have to find a way to stand out.