Kalidou Koulibaly

Powerhouse of a CB. Good in the air, leader in the back 4. Has experience playing with a high line and with his feet. He's right footed but has played as a LCB a ton for Napoli. Age might be an only deterrent at 29, but he is world class. I think he can give us 3-4 high quality years and in this day that's more than anyone can really ask for.

Won't hinder potential progression or development of Garcia and THB. If anything, they can benefit from his mentorship. From all account, his intangibles are excellent. As for hindering the aforementioned CB's development, Khaldoon mentioned that City will never compromise the integrity and skill level of the first team for any reason. If the young players have the right mindset and are good enough, they will make it and flourish. THB, for me is the much better future prospect and he's only 17-18, I believe, so getting Koulibaly for the next 4ish years is a no brainier. So even if Garcia's head is turned by Barca, he won't be missed all that much, in my opinion. Of course I'd rather he stay but it's Football and anything can happen.
 
I worry about Koulibaly. He seems quite rash and spends a lot of time on his arse, i have no interest in the Italian league so have only watched youtube videos, but watching them transported me back to watching videos of Mangala, where every tackle he seemed to make was a slide tackle, granted, in the videos they come off, but they're highlights, how often does he concede fouls or miss completely? The worry is for me is, they look good in a poorer league with much slower football and then arrive here and are miles off!

Also if we weren't willing to part with £75 million for a 26 year old Van Dyke, we shouldn't be parting with that sum for anyone.

My opinion of course.
 
Gio's mate said:
I worry about Koulibaly. He seems quite rash and spends a lot of time on his arse, i have no interest in the Italian league so have only watched youtube videos, but watching them transported me back to watching videos of Mangala, where every tackle he seemed to make was a slide tackle, granted, in the videos they come off, but they're highlights, how often does he concede fouls or miss completely? The worry is for me is, they look good in a poorer league with much slower football and then arrive here and are miles off!

Also if we weren't willing to part with £75 million for a 26 year old Van Dyke, we shouldn't be parting with that sum for anyone.

My opinion of course.
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Those are highlights though....the shit people love to see when it comes off. My mate who’s a Napoli fan down here in Italy assured me he isn’t rash a la Otamendi. His timing and position he said were outstanding so flying into sliding tackles is something he doesn’t do unless necessary.

We all have our opinions but this guy watches Napoli day in and day out.

There’s only one similarity I see between him and Mangala (;
 
Jumanji said:
Those are highlights though....the shit people love to see when it comes off. My mate who’s a Napoli fan down here in Italy assured me he isn’t rash a la Otamendi. His timing and position he said were outstanding so flying into sliding tackles is something he doesn’t do unless necessary.

We all have our opinions but this guy watches Napoli day in and day out.

There’s only one similarity I see between him and Mangala (;
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This is it, i'd take the word of your pal over any video!!
 
Gio's mate said:
This is it, i'd take the word of your pal over any video!!
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This is pretty much a summary of what my Napoli mate told me and I posted it a while back:


Jumanji said:
I live in Sicily, Italy since nearly a year ago and my friend who supports Napoli says he's an unusually cerebral defender. Always looks like he's calculating. They say he's intelligent. That's high praise in my opinion given how brutal I've found Italians to be in regards to their players. They also say he's fantastic on the ball in terms of passing. He rarely makes mistakes, but if they happen, they're normally fair gambles when you gotta put the team on your back...what I took from it is that he's not rash a la Otamendi.

I think most of us agree Laporte is also intelligent. They both speak French. I know Pep wants the players to speak in English, but as we've seen with the hispanophone contingent, that's not always the case on the pitch. When they gotta communicate something super critical or instinctive while defending in the Prem or Europe, it'll probably be in French and most attackers won't know what they're organizing between each other. Everyone understands English in football. That could be a tiny advantage.

Two smart defenders who have good timing, good technically, put their bodies on the line, have a burning desire to win. Fuck. This could be something special.

Are there other defenders who could give us more years than Koulibaly for a comparable or cheaper price and be just as successful. Of course. So why not go for them? One small reason tells me, Koulibaly is the better gamble. I probably know more stupid, or bang average people compared to the amount of genuinely smart people. Same applies to football. Koulibaly has shown he can adapt to a manager whose basics of positional play are highly situational like Sarri's tactics, consisting of hundreds of situations and what-if scenarios (ie: when the teams look like this, you need to be here, or do this...) This shows a guy like Koulibaly could have a propensity to learn Pep's tactics faster than the 21 year kid, who's still perfecting the art of timing a last ditch tackle and still learning the composure of not shitting your pants when he's one-on-one with you in the 93rd minute.
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Jumanji said:
I want to add: my friend just messaged me and said the fact that he's a black foreigner who's responsible for protecting the team and who has reached a status widespread acclaim in racist southern Italy says everything. I hate race conversations...fuck they make me tired, but I do understand his point.

Italy, the birthplace of advanced tactics, especially in defence, really respects this guy.
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Also here’s a nice video I saw the other day:
 
He never looked that clever when we scored 6 against Napoli over the two legs, but he’s improved and now looks to have the pace and passing range we need.

Opponents would certainly need some pace to get between him and Walker.
 
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