Former Liverpool star Danny Murphy hailed Chelsea midfielder Mateo Kovacic for his performance against Norwich City.
Kovacic started in yesterday’s fixture at Carrow Road in place of N’Golo Kante who missed out due to injury. The Croatian international played the entirety of the match and gave a good performance as Chelsea registered their first win of the season by beating Norwich City 3-2. The midfielder provided the assist for Tammy Abraham’s second goal which was also the Blues’ winner.
Murphy was all praise for the 25-year-old, stating that he produced one of his finest performances in a Chelsea shirt. As quoted by football.london, the former Liverpool and Spurs player told on BBC’s Match of the Day programme:
“There was big question marks from the last season, what is he? Is a holding midfielder or is he a number 10? But today he showed all aspects of his game. It’s probably as good a game as we’ve seen in a Chelsea shirt.
“He played in that central role but he got forward more, which we haven’t seen, he’s played a bit safe for me in the nine months of watching him. There was a responsibility he had to take and he did it really, really well.
“Without Kante, they needed someone to put his foot in because Norwich played well. They’ve got good footballers and someone had to stop the momentum they had at times. He was the one making things happen.”
Kovacic has so far made 55 appearances for the Blues since joining them last summer.
The Croatian international has featured in all of Chelsea’s matches this season so far, starting in three. He’ll hope to continue putting on such performances in order to have a chance of finding a place in Frank Lampard’s playing XI. Given the quality in Chelsea’s midfield, it will certainly not be easy for Kovacic to find regular starts once Kante and Ruben Loftus-Cheek are back to full fitness.