When Luka Modric was bought in the summer of 2008 there was real optimism around white hart lane that a real gem had been bought. The little Croatian had been the talk of the tabloids for the previous season with reported interest from Arsenal among others.Modric really caught the eye of English clubs in that fateful England v Croatia match at wembley – the match isn’t one that many England fans would like to remember , however on that night Modric was instrumental for Croatia, spraying passes all over the pitch at ease, carving holes in the English defense at every given opportunity.
Therefore it was assumed that the player who Dinamo Zagreb fans had previously worshiped would be an instant hit in the premiership. In pre-season it looked like Modric was going to live up to his high expectations with excellent performances against Celtic, Roma , and Borussia Dortmund to name a few. For Ramos and Modric the 08/09 season looked like it would be a very successful one.
However just before the season started, Arsene Wenger stated that Modric was too weak for the Premiership because of his lack of height and slender physique. Then the season started and Wenger had appeared to have called the situation correctly – Ramos played him in the centre-mid role where he was far too easily muscled off the ball and rarely was able to display his passing ability.
It suddenly became clear Ramos did not know very much about Modric and in Ramos’ last game for spurs in a uefa cup game against Udinese, Modric was brought on and not even told where to play!
Then Redknapp arrived and immediately he switched modric to playing just off the striker, and the results were instant- rumours of him leaving were gone. Modric now did not have to worry about the physical side of the english game and he could now finally express himself. Suddenly Tottenham and Modric were completely different. As the season progressed Redknapp played Modric in a roaming left mid role where he proved to be very effective, and ended up scoring memorable goals against Chelsea and Man Utd. By the end of the season Modric became a hugely popular player among spurs fans and rightly so. This season he has continued to play at a good standard. However controversially I think Modric could easily be sold because of:
1. Lack of Goals
Like I said earlier Modric has scored a few goals for us, but in 2 seasons he has only managed to score 7 goals. When you compare this to Fabregas, Gerrard , and Lampard this clearly isnt good enough. Also for the amount of chances he creates for himself he consistently either strikes the ball too weakly or hits it wide – like against Fulham in the Fa cup.
2. Emergence of Bale
In Gareth Bale we now have a hugely exciting left winger who can cause any defense problems and is arguably more effective than Modric on the left, moving on to my next point.
3. Too weak for Centre-mid role
The Fulham game proved time and time again Modric can not cope with the demand of playing centre-mid in England – he gives too much space to teams.
Yes It could be said I am being very harsh about Modric however I believe he has potential to be a world class player , just not in the physical, tough Premier league. Imagine Modric playing in La liga where he would have much more time on the ball to play his game. What do you think?
