How did Frank Lampard bring the best out of Mateo Kovacic?

Earlier today, we posted this from our FB page and taking @DrSutirthaM's suggestion into account, we have decided to make a thread on it.

Under Maurizio Sarri, he was playing as a mezzala, covering the wide areas of the pitch and allowing Eden Hazard to play as an inside forward. This actually left Mateo with limited space and with time, he turned into an ‘assistant of Eden’.

A gifted dribbler and playmaker left with the task of ensuring that the squad’s best player gets the ball - it undoubtedly hampered his confidence when Ruben Loftus-Cheek started carrying out the same job in a more effective way, Mateo was directed towards the bench.

Frank deployed Mateo as a carrilero instead of a mezzala. A carrilero’s job is pretty much the same as a mezzala’s; it’s just that a carrilero is also assigned with the defensive duties, so he has to recover the ball in his own half and run with it to the opposition’s.

Like a mezzala, a carrilero also has to slide into the wide areas of the pitch. This is where a carrilero differs from a box-to-box midfielder, while a box-to-box midfielder makes his runs more centrally, a carrilero keeps on exploiting the wide areas to increase attacking width.

As this season, while defending, he had to stay deeper into his own half, it presented him with more opportunities of progressing forward with the ball, once it’s been recovered.

Now, a trickster of his calibre who has a tendency of showcasing his dribbling skills whenever possible has used this opportunity to its fullest and a spike in his this season’s stats compared to last season’s is proof of that.

Since becoming a carrilero, his overall performance has significantly improved.

'Slide into the wide areas, hold the ball and pick the off the ball runs of your teammates' - this is something he has mastered in doing this season.

During a quick break against Valencia, the forwards of Chelsea tried to remain close to each other. Kova slid into the left side of the pitch, got the ball and picked Willian's (highlighted using white circle) off the ball run.

When the left-back or left wing-back makes an overlapping run or stay high up the pitch or the inside forward of one side distances himself from the poacher, Mateo also gets the license of moving to the half-space.

During UEFA Super Cup game, Emerson (red circle) came high up the pitch and Pulisic (yellow circle) distanced himself from Giroud.

This allowed Kovacic to move into the left half-space and he got the time and space to pick the off the run of Pedro (black circle).

A collage of two snapshots from Chelsea's last season's game against Man United at Stamford Bridge. After receiving the ball, he runs through the gap and carries the ball to United's penalty box.

He made a lot of runs like this last season but as he was starting them from already high up the pitch, those did not often stand-out.

He has become more composed with the ball, only showing his trickeries when required. Take this one against Burnley as an example, he used his tricks to beat two Burnley players and without wasting further time, he kept on running forward with the ball.

Due to Mateo’s heavy involvements during build-ups, this season, his xGbuildup (per 90 mins) has also increased by 0.09. He has already registered more assists than last season and also opened his goal-scoring account.

Mateo understood and accepted his limitations. He realised that in a fast-paced league like EPL, unnecessary tricks are too risky and so this season he has only used those to dribble past the opposition players while doing what he does the best, progressing forward with the ball.

What Mateo’s transformation has taught us is, ‘some adapt to cope up’ and ‘some adapt to win’ and in the end, only the latter ones are remembered.