Joleon Lescott says Mateo Kovacic will bring a new dimension to Manchester City’s style of play.
The midfielder made his Premier League debut for the Manchester club last night as he had to replace Kevin De Bruyne in the first half of the 3-0 win after the Belgian picked up an injury.
Prior to the game at Turf Moor, one former City star shared his excitement over seeing the 29-year-old in action and shared some insight into what he can bring to Pep Guardiola’s side.
Lescott excited over Kovacic
Speaking in a pre-match live stream on the club’s official YouTube channel ahead of the Burnley match, Lescott had this to say about Kovacic when asked what he thought of the midfielder after seeing him in action during City’s recent pre-season tour of Asia.
He said: “Technically very sound, I think there was still probably a few patterns that were new to him, having a different system, so you could see [he] was kind of a little bit unsure of where to be and where to pass to, but it was expected.
“But in terms of what I hope and expect from him as a player, I’m so excited to see him because I think he’s very underrated as a technician.
“To play for the teams he’s played for and some of the goals he’s scored, I think he’s going to bring a different dimension, he’s going to be able to bypass midfielders and when you can do that as a central-midfielder it opens up the whole game.
“Once you go past a midfielder with the ball in possession rather than passing it, it transitions the game into a whole different dimension for Man City.”
City signed the Croatian from Chelsea back in June on a four-year deal worth an overall fee of £30m.
With 67 minutes under his belt last night, the midfielder ended up having 76 touches of the ball in total, accurately completing 61 of the 65 passes he attempted.
Having also made two tackles, won five of the seven duels he was involved in, successfully completed the one dribble he went on and made one key pass, this ultimately earned Kovacic an overall match rating of 7.6/10 from SofaScore, leaving only three other City players that featured in the match with higher ratings.
Despite the unfortunate circumstances that led to the midfielder entering the game probably earlier than expected, it’s clear that the summer recruit put in a solid display against Vincent Kompany’s side.
Moving forward, if the midfielder can find himself in the starting XI on a regular basis, this will give him the chance to show the quality that Lescott spoke about in terms of being a top technician and going past players in the middle of the park.
