Kovac approaches Karetsas case with caution

Borussia Dortmund manager Niko Kovac isn’t going to play Konstantinos Karetsas twice a week once the new season rolls around, he admits.

The Greek international is enjoying a bright start to life at the club since his record move from KRC Genk but Kovac wants to exercise caution against throwing him at the deep end.

Karetsas entertained the BVB faithful at the Westfalonstadion on Saturday with more individual brilliance.

Kovac reserved special praise for the 18-year-old after the game. Speaking to the press, he said:

“You could see how confident he is on the ball; it means a lot to have someone who can draw one or two defenders toward him, thereby freeing up others. And he has a really good eye.”
Although he couldn’t back up his debut goal with another strike here, Karetsas was involved in the thick of the things against Roma: he laid the penultimate pass in the build-up to Ryerson’s goal and feigned a free-kick before the Norwegian fed Guirassy for their second.

Moreover, one of his attempts even came off the crossbar as Karetsas also created one good chance for Samuele Inacio, whose effort was then saved by goalkeeper Mile Svilar.

While there’s massive expectations from him this season that he could develop into a key player for Dortmund, Kovac iterates that Karetsas can’t play two games every week.

“We’ll all still be happy with him, but we also have to be very clear about this: He still needs time. He certainly won’t be able to play 90 minutes every third day – he doesn’t have the stamina for that. And we also have to be careful not to push him into an injury. But if he plays the way he did today, then we’ll all be very happy.”
Costing them 30 million euros, Karetsas is the club’s second most expensive purchase after Ousmane Dembele, so one can see why there’s a lot of pressure here.

But at 18 years of age, and with just two full seasons of top-flight football under his belt, it’s also risky to force him into action twice every week (league and cup games) with injuries being a real threat.

Dortmund wouldn’t want such a promising new arrival to spend a lot of time on the sidelines with fitness concerns, for it will be detrimental to his progress as a footballer too.