Kalidou Koulibaly

domalino said:
The worst thing about Maguire's fee was that he had absolutely no experience of anything, despite being 26. He literally had about 50 PL games under his belt and sod all European experience when they made him the most expensive defender ever.

Koulibaly might be 2 years older than him, but he's got 6 seasons of Serie A and more Champions League appearances than Maguire had Premier League ones. He's got years of experience under world class coaches, he's played everyone at international level. He's an experienced head who's world class, Maguire is a project player they overpaid for and made captain. At the moment he's done OK because he's not been properly examined, but just wait until United try and mount a title challenge or get back into europe and he faces better teams under more pressure.


Anyway back to KK, Napoli have to sell this summer really.

They've almost bought his replacement, he's 29 so his value will plummet after this window, and he had a big row with ADL early in the season and wants to leave.

I think this will get done for <70m
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I still couldn't understand how we reached a point last summer that it was Harry Maguire or bust.

I've never seen a player so uncomfortable when the ball is actually on the floor and he has to defend using his feet rather than his head.

Koulibaly has been one I've wanted for ages. Good on the ball, has played under Sarri whos principles aren't too dissimilar. He would fit this team like a glove and would provide us with much needed steel and pace at the back. He's much more used to defending a high line system than Maguire too.

Napoli won't have CL football, it's their last chance to get a decent fee for him. I'd be surprised if we spent more than £60m on him.
 
Stoned Rose said:
Laporte and Koulibaly as the CB pairing would be the best in Europe imo.
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Laporte, Koulibaly, Garcia, Dinho and if reports are right chucking Nathan Ake into that. Would surely be the best CB partnership and depth in the world. 2 world class players, Ake and Garcia who are Premier League quality and Fernandinho who even at 35 is a useful and effective player.
 
Stoned Rose said:
Laporte and Koulibaly as the CB pairing would be the best in Europe imo.
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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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