When Manuel Pellegrini took over as City boss, one of the first signings he agreed on with the directors was Fiorentina forward Stevan Jovetic. For me personally, this was the most exciting of those four signings. He was a flair player that City had lacked for a while, and in addition to that he was young and possibly the player that would represent the future generation of the club.
Yet just two seasons on he is a player that will likely leave the club. Even though he has had injuries he hasn’t looked good enough when he has played and it seems Manuel Pellegrini has lost faith in the Montenegrin. Jovetic hasn’t shown the determination required to fight for a starting spot with Wilfred Bony and Sergio Aguero. Di Marzio reported in April that Jovetic is after a move away from the club, meaning he has essentially given up on breaking into the first team.
Jovetic started the season promisingly with a man of the match performance against Liverpool, he scored two goals and looked like he could be the breakout player for the club. But it all went downhill from there. Jovetic ended up adding only three more goals to that total.
The first issue with him is that I do not believe he fits the City system. City are a team that like to try and create the best possible opportunity, to use the cliché ‘walking the ball into the net’ may be too far, but that is City’s overall philosophy. 65% of City’s shots were from inside the area according to whoscored.com, this suggests City are a patient team. Jovetic takes many shots from distance and he often tries flicks that do not come off, he is almost trying to play at a high tempo when this isn’t really our game unless we are away from home. It almost comes across as if he is trying too hard at times.
Jovetic has also been critical towards the club, he was somewhat indirect on twitter when he was cut from the Champions League squad and he has said that his agent is telling him he should be playing more. That seems to be part of the problem, he is being told how great he is, he believes he is great, but he has not shown that on the pitch. The metaphorical nail in the coffin came away at Everton when he was given the nod as a lone striker. It was one of the worst individual performances I’ve seen this season, he was completely wasteful, offered no link up play and made no runs in behind to stretch Everton’s ageing defence. Pellegrini put trust in him and he offered very little. He took 5 shots that game and none were on target.
Jovetic is somewhat creative, he created a chance every 52 minutes in the Premier League, but we don’t need more chances being created. Navas, Nasri, Silva and Toure can create the chances in this team, our strikers need to make good runs and need to be able to finish and Jovetic hasn’t proven he is capable of that. Wilfried Bony offers better link-up play than Jovetic and he can finish at a higher level as well as head the ball well. Jovetic just isn’t worth keeping due to his injury record and the fact he just doesn’t suit us.
I think a squad player is worth keeping if they can step up into the big games. For example Bacary Sagna is a superb one-on-one defender so he can be useful in big European games. Fernando is excellent at being disciplined so he can slot in at the base of a midfield three. It’s hard to see where Jovetic would fit if City were playing in a big game. He doesn’t really have a place in the squad bar possibly being an impact sub, and you shouldn’t be spending millions of pounds on an impact sub. In a big game where we have to pack the midfield playing Jovetic makes no sense as he wouldn’t offer the work rate of another midfielder and he isn’t good at the lone striker role. The games against smaller teams should be used to give Aguero and Bony goals and confidence.
He is talented, but he won’t make it here, it’s that simple. I would offload him or possibly use him as leverage to attract a player such as Raheem Sterling or Miralem Pjanic. I wish him luck because despite the odd outburst, he has been professional, but football is becoming a ruthless game and dead-wood must be offloaded.
Do you think City should get rid of Jovetic? Let us know your thoughts in the comment section or tweet us @TheMaineBlues
