Patrik Kovács is a 20-year-old left back who plays for MTK Budapest in the Hungarian NB1. After being a substitute in the 23/24 season, he has now become the starting left back for the team from the Hungarian capital. Last season, he scored and assisted once. Kovács has also played multiple times for the Hungarian U21 squad.
Kovács is around 180 centimetres tall, is left-footed, and has an ectomorphic body build. Most of his muscle is in his legs; he does not have much in his arms. His shoulders and body size are alright, but nothing special. He is also lean. The lack of strength is quite visible in duels. In ground duels, he mostly uses his shoulders and arms to get in front of his opponent or to get him off the ball. His balance is quite good, but when Kovács has the ball and a stronger opponent pushes him in the back or shoulder, he might lose possession quite easily. He does not have a lot of power in his chest, as he might struggle when an opponent shields off the ball. Kovacs takes the throw-ins on the left side, and the power in them is also okay, but nothing special. For aerial duels, there is not much to talk about. He rarely goes into aerial duels. His jumping reach is not very good either, and he struggles when an opponent is behind him in an aerial duel. His acceleration and top speed are decent. He makes a lot of short sprints during games, and he looks alright in them. His fitness in games is quite alright, as he is able to keep his top speed late in games, although he does not move very often during games and does not make any particularly long runs.
The Hungarian is a decent defender, but could be a bit better in some aspects. Kovács is a proactive defender when positioning near his own box, but when he is higher up the field, he is reactive and tries to intercept passes or go for a tackle quicker. His defensive positioning near the box and higher up the pitch is good. He regularly guesses correctly when to step out of his position to go and intercept a pass from an opponent. Near the box, he stays in front of the opponent to try and block the shot, pass, or cross. If he is really sure, he can try to tap the ball away with his foot, but he will not go for a real tackle. Although his positioning is good, he can regularly come back too slowly from an attack to the defence. He can also keep pressing his opponent, going out of the defensive formation quite often because of that. He fouls almost every game once, mostly by trying too much with his arms in duels. Kovács’ tackles are mostly quite well-timed. If he could improve his defending near the box, getting comfortable with putting in more tackles there, it would really help him. It is good that he goes for almost every loose ball near him when he is not near the box; that is definitely a good trait for him.
Kovács has put in multiple shifts as a left wingback last season, and that is a role that suits him way better. Even if he is the same left back in a four-at-the-back formation, he can come quite high during attacks. He also likes to cut inside with and without the ball, sometimes positioning himself in a midfield role or crashing the box for a possible cross. That mostly happens during counterattacks or when the attack is on the other side of the field. He communicates well with the left midfielder/left winger, as they overlap each other quite often and Kovács can visibly be seen asking for the ball with his arms. His ball control is good; he can control the ball really well with his whole body, even if the pass is difficult. His dribbling could be improved, as he often puts the ball into space on one side of the defender and tries to run past him on the other side, which does not always succeed. His vision for passes is quite good; he scans the field often as well. Most of his short- to medium-distance passes arrive successfully. However, his long (high) passes and crosses are very inconsistent. Long low passes or medium-distance high passes are alright, but the high long passes are mostly inaccurate. He only uses his weak right foot when dribbling and for quick, short passes. Kovács rarely shoots in general, as well.
If Kovács could improve his long passes/crosses and physicality, he could be a really interesting prospect as a wingback. The base is there, maybe not perfect, but it is not bad. If he could improve those aspects and some tendencies like shooting, it would benefit him. Kovács could definitely be an interesting prospect to follow in the upcoming NB1 season. He should not think about moving right now, as he still needs the starter minutes to keep improving. But, his ceiling could definitely be with a team from the 6th to 11th ranked leagues.
Target Scouting 