Not good enough on the ball. Our centre halves (and full backs) all have 90% and over pass success, I'd say he is probably down at 60-70% with the majority of centre halves.My bad i meant Salisu from Southampton
I don't become a fan of any of them until they don the shirt. Until then, all I try to do is understand the logic behind why we might go for one over the other. I look at Laporte's playing time and see that, through injury, he is basically capable of giving us every second season, which for us is not enough as his absence places greater strain on the others. He's also less comfortable in the left-back role, so I could see us looking to move him on this summer (still contracted through to summer 2025). Akanji can deputise if Ake is out, but his inability to move the ball down the line with his left makes him much easier to press against; Fulham had sussed that out by the end of the first half yesterday. And, as we also saw yesterday, we sometimes need his muscle in the centre when the opponent plays with a target man.I am not a fan of this lad so you will have to bear that in mind, i do think he is a good player, but Saliba for me is just as good can also play LCB and LB, also has PL experience will cost 1/3rd the price with 1/2 the wages, as for need we have 4 CB`s Dias has played well there, and Akanji was there over the weekend no problems.
I don't become a fan of any of them until they don the shirt. Until then, all I try to do is understand the logic behind why we might go for one over the other. I look at Laporte's playing time and see that, through injury, he is basically capable of giving us every second season, which for us is not enough as his absence places greater strain on the others. He's also less comfortable in the left-back role, so I could see us looking to move him on this summer (still contracted through to summer 2025). Akanji can deputise if Ake is out, but his inability to move the ball down the line with his left makes him much easier to press against; Fulham had sussed that out by the end of the first half yesterday. And, as we also saw yesterday, we sometimes need his muscle in the centre when the opponent plays with a target man.
I'm not completely sold on Gvardiol, given the assumed price, but I can see the logic in going for him. As I mentioned above, he could end up covering two positions, and he already has huge experience. Even though he has only just turned 21 (a week older than Harwood-Bellis), he has already played almost the same number of minutes in the Champions League as Ake (20 minutes less) and played in a World Cup semi-final. He would also bring the average age of the centre defenders down.
However, all that said, if we end up laying out big fees elsewhere, I wouldn't be at all surprised if we went sniffing under the trees again. We've shown with Alvarez, Akanji, and Perrone that we've got a good nose for the truffles. :-)
I don't necessarily disagree with most of your points and I think it's time for laporte to move on, but using laporte's injury record as a justification is bizarre considering stones and Ake arguably have worse injury records.
Laporte while not worse than Cancelo is also one of sad faces not happy being constantly played unlike Stones and Ake even if they are not regularly played in past season they still pull their weight in training and still commit for the good of team unlike Laporte.
We bought two CB who are good on the ball, good composure with a good passing range, Ake and Stones while Gvardiol is not as good it is his strength, it is wrong to say an average player would not improve under Pep`s style and training, even Vinny improved that part of his game, although obviously to what level can they improve is another matter.Not good enough on the ball. Our centre halves (and full backs) all have 90% and over pass success, I'd say he is probably down at 60-70% with the majority of centre halves.
I'm not talking about Gvardiol, I'm on about the Southampton lad. It isn't Dias' strength but he's good enough technically to slot in, we'd never have coached Richard Dunne to do it though. There's a limit.We bought two CB who are good on the ball, good composure with a good passing range, Ake and Stones while Gvardiol is not as good it is his strength, it is wrong to say an average player would not improve under Pep`s style and training, even Vinny improved that part of his game, although obviously to what level can they improve is another matter.
Sorry, I wasn't using it as a justification, my apologies, just thinking that the club might wonder whether now is the time for both parties to call it quits. Just checked and Laporte appears to have missed 62 games for us through injury in 5 seasons. Stones 61 games in 6 seasons, and Ake 28 games in his time with us. Perhaps of more importance might be the fact that the latter two appear to be showing greater flexibility in terms of where they can play, while Laporte and Dias are more orthodox.I don't necessarily disagree with most of your points and I think it's time for laporte to move on, but using laporte's injury record as a justification is bizarre considering stones and Ake arguably have worse injury records.
I think we are at cross understanding, we have 2 CB`s that are good footballers, we have 2 that are powerful even without Laporte, i do not know about Dunne he actually was a good footballer, who was fast which surprised an awful lot of players, perhaps if he got his head out of that keg? as for Vinny i watched him hoof the ball out of defense 7 times, Pep hooked him at half time.I'm not talking about Gvardiol, I'm on about the Southampton lad. It isn't Dias' strength but he's good enough technically to slot in, we'd never have coached Richard Dunne to do it though. There's a limit.
Kompany is a silly example, he was a midfielder as well as a centre half.
Ahh now I see lolMy bad i meant Salisu from Southampton