The number of clean sheets we have when he plays suggests he has a long way to go to adjust and become a dependable CB in the premiership.
When its all said and done the job of the back four of which he is one is to snuff out the opposition and ensure Joe etc have as little to do as possible over 95 minutes.
I am all for giving players at least a full season if not more to establish themselves in that regard no matter the price tag they come with.
The good thing is under a manager like Pep or one with a similar ethos and work ethic he will have to adjust a lot quicker than he otherwise would.
We shall see if he is up to the challenge but in the meantime as our only fully fit CB of note at present we will see what he is capable of in the next few matches which are critical for our season starting on Saturday.
Cleansheets are such a terrible Criteria for judging players. It is so silly. I hear the knob heads on tv use it all the time. Look, a better value is chances conceded. I
It's like saying the guy with the most assist is the best at opening up defenses. It's silly. While the guy with the best assist might also be the best creator ( as Ozil right now is), the best creator generally is a function of who was able to create the most chances for his team. If your strikers fluff chance after chance, it matters little that you are a fantastic creator. Similarly, if you are the designated free kick and corner kick taker, your assists get a normal bump, even if you have the vision of a Mangala. It doesn't take much common sense to see this
if Joe makes 17 saves like he did against Barca last year, and we only conceded 1 instead of 8, this doesn't mean our defenders played well. Had Joe made the last save. It would have ended goalless, yet that would have been a terrible game for the defenders, yet a clean sheet.
All these scenarios are self evident, yet folk (not necessarily you Mancity1) continue to use these dubious stat as proof of one thing or the other.
Let's use an example, say City had a marvelous defensive game, gave up 1 shot all game but Otamendi decides to dive at the slightest touch, or Mangala decides to pass directly to an opposition, or Debryune sloppily passes the ball into a dangerous area, or Kompany muffs a simple clearance, or Mangala heads a ball in his net, or Kolarov and Debryune confuse each other on a deadly cross and it slides of Kolarov's head, or Hart takes a simple cross and drops it on a platter for striker, or the ref misses a blatant offside, or Sagna tries to dribble and loses possession.
Every single scenario above led to a goal. Error belonged to 1 guy, yet if you judge how good a defender is based on clean sheets, every single one of those errors that he could absolutely do nothing about, counts against him. That is just silly.
Sure, working well together matters. Being a solid unit, btw this implies the whole team as opposed to just the back 4and as folks here like to say '(the DM protecting the defense) - let's not even get started on the static nature of that statement... But Before I go on another tangent.
Players should be judged on how they've performed as an individual and in conjunction with teammates. Not on some spurious stat like clean sheet that gives no consideration to the varied nature of failing to keep one.
