Former Manchester City defender Micah Richards was delighted to see Mateo Kovacic put in a good performance against Luton Town at the weekend. 

The BBC pundit claims the Croatian international has found things difficult since joining the Premier League champions from Chelsea, but he says he was one of the Citizens’ top performers at Kenilworth Road:

“I thought Kovacic played well against Luton but it has been hard for him to come in and adjust to City’s system.”

Kovacic has had his fitness problems since moving to the Etihad in the summer but, as Richards mentions, most of the issues he has faced can be attributed to his lack of understanding of Pep Guardiola’s style of play.

The player has admitted that it has been a steep learning curve

As we have seen with Jack Grealish, it can take a long time for a new signing to wrap their head around what Guardiola is asking them to do. Kovacic spoke out about his difficulties last month:

“It was tough the first few days to [understand] what he wants. ‘Don’t move there. Go there’. So I like to run a lot on the pitch sometimes. Go there. Go there. But he told me ‘be more calm, don’t run too much’. So it was like a little bit of surprise for me as well and it’s nice.”

Kovacic is having to change his natural game at City

The 29-year-old has spent most of his career as a ball carrier, getting himself out of trouble with his quick feet and making progressive runs forward into the opposition half.

It looks as though Guardiola is asking him to do a lot less of that, and that has led to the adaptation process being long and arduous. Based on his display against Luton, though, it seems he may have turned a corner.