24 | Joško Gvardiol - 2023/24

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Judging by the comments, I must have blinkers on where he's concerned. other than a stupid yellow, I had no issue with him at all today. Good solid 7/10 no thrills performance in my eyes. We were asking him to play as a narrow 3 then go wide to make a 4 when Akanji gets back in as we do with walker, walker can do it because he's so rapid, gvardiol isn't slow but is nowhere near walker pace so it shows just how much we ask them to do.

He will play most of this season at fullback. That's where peps going to develop him. Left back is like the primary school of peps education, it's a less risky and easier position to learn and excel in and only when he masters that will we see him progress to playing as a centre back or doing the midfield hybrid role.

Peps not going to chuck him in at cb anytime soon. Besides, who we playing left back if gvardiol is centre half? Peps already said Ake cannot play every game right now.
 
Not going to critcise a player who has never started a game in his proven postition , Ake has an injury and cannot play 90 minutes regularly that can be he only reason he is not starting at left back , Gvardiol is a superb centre back and Pep playing him out of position cannot be good for his confidence , he is a good signing and will prove to be a big player over the next few years , but lets judge him when he has played a number of games at centre back.
 
I think he sooner will be a hybrid player spending most of his time in midfield for us than a full time centreback.
 
Haaland94 said:
Neither did Walker, who got turned by Bryan Gil, of all people, a couple of times. I just feel like he is not the one to blame for today's result. He is getting used to the LB position in our system and still doing great in most of the games. He was underwhelming but still better than most of the team in the 2nd half, IMO.
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No, agreed, I don’t think it was just him who made errors today either.

I do think though, along with his lack of pace, the other concern would be how often he seems to lose out or get outmuscled off the ball in 50/50 scenarios, which I’m not sure is entirely down to positional issues. I think the physicality and intensity of the PL has come as a shock to him.
 
He isn’t a good defender. He’s in the same category as Upamecano and Konate - defenders from Leipzig who somehow command ridiculous money but are just a bit meh. Konate and Upamecano at least have the physical attributes to recover from mistakes.

He’s technically decent but he’s not particularly quick, not particularly tall or good in the air, not overly switched on and isn’t great 1v1. I don’t personally think he is a left back. Watched him play left back for Croatia against Spain at Euro 2020 (in 2021) and he was a car crash.

Maybe unfair to judge him just yet, but it’s an odd signing when Ake is absolutely fine (and would benefit from playing consistently). Seems a lot of money to spend on a player who is just OK.
 
ono said:
He isn’t a good defender. He’s in the same category as Upamecano and Konate - defenders from Leipzig who somehow command ridiculous money but are just a bit meh. Konate and Upamecano at least have the physical attributes to recover from mistakes.

He’s technically decent but he’s not particularly quick, not particularly tall or good in the air, not overly switched on and isn’t great 1v1. I don’t personally think he is a left back. Watched him play left back for Croatia against Spain at Euro 2020 (in 2021) and he was a car crash.

Maybe unfair to judge him just yet, but it’s an odd signing when Ake is absolutely fine (and would benefit from playing consistently). Seems a lot of money to spend on a player who is just OK.
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What’s more odd is that he replaced Laporte who is just currently much better in every area of play
 
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