Real Madrid have set off for pre-season in North America, training at the Montreal Impact‘s base in preparation for participation in the International Champions Cup.
Zinedine Zidane‘s men face a reduced summer programme, playing just three friendly games—against Paris Saint-Germain, Chelsea and Bayern Munich—before competitive action gets underway with the UEFA Super Cup against Sevilla on August 9.
While the main priority of the squad will be enhancing fitness and readiness for the new season, several players need to also show they have the quality to be a regular part of Zidane‘s first team during the upcoming 2016-17 season after disappointing last year—with Mateo Kovacic one of the names in that group.
The Croatian must see the pre-season tour as his opportunity to shine, with circumstances handing him a platform to prove he should be ahead of the likes of Isco and James Rodriguez as Zidane‘s go-to midfielder when any of first-choice trio Toni Kroos, Luka Modric or Casemiro are unavailable.
Downturn
Last season was without doubt the most disappointing of Kovacic‘s recent career history. It started with a surprising move from Inter Milan to the Santiago Bernabeu for around €30 million, but little went right thereafter.
He started only two of Real’s opening 12 La Liga matches, didn’t register a goal or assist until December and was suspended for the start of Zidane‘s tenure, having been sent off for a typically reckless challenge in midfield in Rafa Benitez’s final match, the draw at Valencia.
Toward the end of the season, he was far from one of Zidane‘s trusted players, only starting one of the last 10 league games even though there was some reasonably heavy rotation going on with the XI as the regular starters were rested for European action.
Kovacic managed the full 90 minutes on just three occasions over the entire season, barely totalling 1,400 minutes across all competitions, and played only 34 minutes in the UEFA Champions League knock-out stages—just two minutes from the 480 available from the quarter-finals onward.
The final nail in the coffin of his 2015-16 campaign was Euro 2016.
Although he travelled with the Croatia squad, Kovacic had lost his place in the team and only featured twice as substitute in the group stage.
Opportunity
Croatia’s reasonably early exit from Euro 2016 has one upside for Kovacic other than drawing a line under his underwhelming season: Being part of Real Madrid’s pre-season camp from the very start, while others will join up over the coming days and weeks.
Just three games in non-competitive action means he, and others, need to hit the ground running— but he should almost certainly get the minutes he needs to play simply because of a lack of numbers.
Kovacic, Isco and Casemiro are the senior midfielders in Zidane‘s tour squad from day one, along with the impressive Marco Asensio, with Castilla hopefuls making up the numbers: Enzo Zidane, Martin Odegaard, Marcos Llorente and Aleix Febas.
The youngsters will get a chance, no doubt, but it will be the seniors who see the most time on the pitch against difficult opponents.
Simply put, Kovacic has to be directly better than Isco in all respects: training ethic, on-the-ball production during games, fitness and consistency. He’s a far more aggressive player than Isco, but this next month has to be when he takes the initiative to show he is as—if not more—influential in the final third, too.
All-Rounder
Real Madrid might well sign another midfielder this summer, but they have missed out on their first target.
Marca‘s Jose Felix Diaz and Euan McTear reported that N’Golo Kante was Zidane‘s No. 1 priority, but he has since joined Chelsea, and there is no current obvious alternative without Real moving into huge figures for a transfer fee.
With Diego Llorente already loaned out, there is no back-up for holding midfielder Casemiro available to Zidane—other than to revert to Kroos as the deepest of three, something which never worked quite as well as Real needed it to from a defensive standpoint.
Kovacic is the alternative.
At Inter he would often play deepest, with his aggression and tenacious (at times overzealous) tackling providing a real shield for the defence. He’s perhaps not as naturally inclined to sit deep as Casemiro is, but the extra time in possession that the role afforded Kovacic would often see him excel in his playmaking capacity.
He will, however, look to suddenly drive forward and cover 20 or 30 metres as a surprise element from deep from time to time—an exciting tactical alteration, but one which requires discipline from those higher up in midfield to drop in and provide cover.
Kovacic can fill all three roles in central midfield and is surely the most useful of the non-starters to Zidane over the longer term…but without consistency and showing his quality, that means little.
Success?
What constitutes a good season for Kovacic?
Certainly, featuring more often than he did last season must come as standard. There’s no reason to think his ability should warrant anything less than 2500 minutes across all competitions (barring injury), even if he’s not a starter for 30 league games a season.
The big question is, can he become the player turned to on the bench before James or Isco? Is Zidane even willing to afford him the chance? Marca has published articles surrounding the head coach and the president being set to talk to James and to Isco, but not Kovacic.
Bild (h/t Marca) reported that a move was possible, with Borussia Dortmund interested, but considering the time given to some other players to make good on their ability, jettisoning Kovacic at 22 years of age would be folly.
Much may depend on how much he wants to play for Real, as opposed to simply wanting to play.
Kovacic would have no shortage of takers if he opted to move, but he has the mix of physicality and technicality in his game to be a success at the highest level, making this pre-season an enormous one for him if he is to make the grade at Real Madrid.
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