Jules Koundé

Dr Jacoby said:
I can’t profess to know a great deal about either player but wouldn’t Upamecano be a better option? Or does he have some glaring weakness I’m missing?

He was very impressive in the CL.
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He was Very impressive against Diego Costa
But I remember a certain other centre half pocketing Costa on his debut.....downhill all the way from there
 
applecentral said:
City should not sign a player who won’t necessarily be better than what we already have. If we are not sure or cannot sign KK, then we should stick with what we have and concentrate on a quality forward perhaps. Maybe Pep will play 2 Dm,s all season to protect our defence. Stones, Garcia, Laporte and Ake should perform well enough with a quality defensive shield in front of them.
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Kounde would quite easily be the second best from that lot and might well become a better player than Laporte in the long run. He's 21 and already plays like a veteran. A bit like Ake in that regards, but he's more pacey and got an explosive jump and better dribbler of the ball. KK would be amazing short term no doubt but Kounde would and could sort our right sided cb position for a decade at least. There's a reason Real want him as Ramos' successor.
 
Opta Stat Comparison.png

Via Sqwaka (Opta):

- I ran this with Stones in one instance and also with Upamecano, but posted the latter given that Stones played sporadically last season and figure some may be curious about Upamenco. However, Stones' long pass completion % was BY FAR the best, was also #1 in pass completion % as well as interestingly BY FAR the best at ground duels, almost a 10% better rate than VVD.

We don't get the numbers for "mistakes" or "mistakes that led to goal" as an option.

- Compared to the others he's by far the best at "Take-Ons" so his dribbling/on-the-ball skills are high for a CB (Stones is most comparable at successful take-ons).

Besides being comparable to the rest in terms of Arial Duel success, and better than Koulibaly, you can add a strength of Kounde is the rate in which he challenges in the air to be quite high, 2nd to VVD.

Those stats as well as others indicate a player with high levels of bravery who believes he can win despite his size. This is also supported by being 2nd in clearances behind VVD and quite a bit higher than Koulibaly and Laporte.

He was significantly better at crossing than the rest and with some frequency. Koulibaly's rate is higher, but you can see it happens fairly rarely.

His Long Pass rate was something you may worry about, but based on what I've seen he is capable and his ground passing and vision is still good. He was far more successful at Long Passes in Europa League than in La Liga, if that means anything.

You can also see that whilst aggressive and brave, for some reason he does not appear to give away fouls when tackling.

He was the worst at Lost Possession (tied with Upamecano), but I can see how given his aggressive style of play with the ball this might happen more frequently and inexperience (possibly).

YES stats do not tell the entire story as there are other variables not accounted for as well as potential and improvement which they cannot measure, but worth taking a peek.
 
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bluesingh said:
Kounde would quite easily be the second best from that lot and might well become a better player than Laporte in the long run. He's 21 and already plays like a veteran. A bit like Ake in that regards, but he's more pacey and got an explosive jump and better dribbler of the ball. KK would be amazing short term no doubt but Kounde would and could sort our right sided cb position for a decade at least. There's a reason Real want him as Ramos' successor.
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A very valid post. It’s all about opinions.
 
applecentral said:
City should not sign a player who won’t necessarily be better than what we already have. If we are not sure or cannot sign KK, then we should stick with what we have and concentrate on a quality forward perhaps. Maybe Pep will play 2 Dm,s all season to protect our defence. Stones, Garcia, Laporte and Ake should perform well enough with a quality defensive shield in front of them.
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Only having one target for CB and then not signing anyone worked so well last year. Why not do it again
 
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