Kalidou Koulibaly

Double R said:
Until Laporte or Koulibaly gets injured and we are left with 2 CBs with no experience. Nope we have to keep either Stones or Otamendi unless we get Alaba or Ake or someone.
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Koulibaly and Alaba would be fantastic. And keep Stones.

First choice back four: Walker, Koulibaly, Laporte, Alaba.
Second choices: Cancelo, Stones, Garcia, Mendy.

And any combination depending on injuries, suspensions, etc.
 
Semper aggressus said:
Koulibaly and Alaba would be fantastic. And keep Stones.

First choice back four: Walker, Koulibaly, Laporte, Alaba.
Second choices: Cancelo, Stones, Garcia, Mendy.

And any combination depending on injuries, suspensions, etc.
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Would be no need for Stones, and why would Stones want to stay when he is still trying to get into the England squad when he is still young enough to make a new start and establish a first team place somewhere.
 
Double R said:
It would still be a huge risk to go with just 2 senior CB's. Alaba would be a fantastic signing at left back, and covering CB if needs be, with Mendy as backup.
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Alaba doesn‘t wanna play LB anyway. And he‘s been average at that position since 2017. He wants to be a CB or a CM. That‘s another reason why he is probably gonna switch teams since Kimmich went from being a RB to a CM and they didn‘t do the same with Alaba. I‘m fine with Koulibaly and Laporte with Garcia and Otamendi/Stones as backup. Koulibaly is rarely injured I believe. There‘s also a potential LW and CM we need to get.
 
It's not as though the club hasn't tried to avoid being in this situation?

Mangala and Stones, in particular, were both bought for huge sums with the sole intention of replacing the eventual void which would always be left by Vinny.

Both had big reputations and were highly coveted, so poor scouting can't have been the issue.

If we also throw in the £28m for Otamendi, there is no way we should still be having to pay £70m for a 29-year-old central defender to help us move forward again.

We need Koulibaly, but we also need to couch the fact that most players we do try to sign already come with a highly-regarded reputation.

Pep's system will always expose the central defenders - Van Dijk would find himself running back towards his goal more often than not from a counter and then let's see how quick he is over 30 yards rather than 15.

Ederson has always been the insurance policy for us in that shortcoming, sweeping the space in behind.

What Koulibaly would defo give us is more aggression in the tackle and in the air.

Arguably, also take a lot of responsibility away from Walker trying to join up play in the midfield, when the central midfielders are playing hide and seek.
 
tolmie's hairdoo said:
It's not as though the club hasn't tried to avoid being in this situation?

Mangala and Stones, in particular, were both bought for huge sums with the sole intention of replacing the eventual void which would always be left by Vinny.

Both had big reputations and were highly coveted, so poor scouting can't have been the issue.

If we also throw in the £28m for Otamendi, there is no way we should still be having to pay £70m for a 29-year-old central defender to help us move forward again.

We need Koulibaly, but we also need to couch the fact that most players we do try to sign already come with a highly-regarded reputation.

Pep's system will always expose the central defenders - Van Dijk would find himself running back towards his goal more often than not from a counter and then let's see how quick he is over 30 yards rather than 15.

Ederson has always been the insurance policy for us in that shortcoming.
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There are very few defenders in the world who are both technically good enough to play for Pep and physically capable of playing the exceptionally high line. Even fewer of them are for sale.

Laporte is the only one we have had really. Mangala had the physicality but not the technique, Otamendi the technique but not the pace.

Stones had both, but not the mentality and he's been shafted with injuries.

I think we are going to start producing our own more and more. Tosin could be perfect, Eric Garcia is going to be top class, Taylor Harwood-Bellis has all the tools.
 
domalino said:
There are very few defenders in the world who are both technically good enough to play for Pep and physically capable of playing the exceptionally high line. Even fewer of them are for sale.

Laporte is the only one we have had really. Mangala had the physicality but not the technique, Otamendi the technique but not the pace.

Stones had both, but not the mentality and he's been shafted with injuries.

I think we are going to start producing our own more and more. Tosin could be perfect, Eric Garcia is going to be top class, Taylor Harwood-Bellis has all the tools.
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Interestingly though (and I agree Garcia is a great prospect) Garcia doesn't really actually have the physicality.
 
twosips said:
Interestingly though (and I agree Garcia is a great prospect) Garcia doesn't really actually have the physicality.
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I think he's borderline. He's not quick but he isnt that slow, I think it's been exaggerated a bit. He matched Mané over 5-10 yards at one point vs. Liverpool and he reads the game well enough to make up for it.
 
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