Kalidou Koulibaly

decmancity said:
I can't help but get feelings of Mangala with Koulibaily. I have said it a few times.

I hope I am completely wrong and we finally have the long term partner for Laporte.
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don’t understand the Mangala comparisons. How many games of Koulibaly did you watch? Or only highlights?!
 
decmancity said:
I can't help but get feelings of Mangala with Koulibaily. I have said it a few times.

I hope I am completely wrong and we finally have the long term partner for Laporte.
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How so? You do realise that Koulibaly has already reached a level that Mangala could never dream of.

Unless Koulibaly has had a decline similar to Fernando Torres at Chelsea. Koulibably will not be anything like Mangala.
 
Easy said:
don’t understand the Mangala comparisons. How many games of Koulibaly did you watch? Or only highlights?!
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Watched quite a few, as I did Mangala before we signed him.

Mangala and Koulibaly share a lot of the same physical and defensive traits, Koulibaly is better on the ball which of course is a huge plus for us.

Serie A is shite so seeing Koulibaly dominate them games is understandable and he has had a few stand out CL games also but so did Mangala at Porto.
 
I have come to the conclusion I don't want us to sign Kalidou. Cant justify spending 75M on him.

The fee just does not represent any value for a 29 year old that would need 6-12 months to settle in a new country. He will be 30 when he fully settles down and understands the PL and you then have 2/3 years from him if you are lucky.

Trouble is I am not sure who is out there that is younger that can be a world class partner for Eric.
 
decmancity said:
I can't help but get feelings of Mangala with Koulibaily. I have said it a few times.

I hope I am completely wrong and we finally have the long term partner for Laporte.
Click to expand...

Koulibaly is comfortable on the ball and a very good passer. Mangala has a good cross field ping on him if he had time on the ball as he shat himself anytime he was pressed. His passing between the lines was lacking whilst that is something Koulibaly is very good at.
Mangala has a lot higher top speed than Koulibaly which somewhat made up for his defensive inadequacies. Koulibaly has a good reading of the game which means he doesn't have to be rapid(he isn't slow but he's not fast either).

Basically apart from being strong and good in the air, they are nothing alike. A better comparison would be to the legend that left us at the end of last season.
 
We desperately need a world class central defender who could come in and be a captain. He needs to by strong, good on the ball and to demonstrate he can play in a team that plays similar to ours. He also needs to be reasonably quick and good in the air.

Given this list of requirements were not going to find many players out there with these skills and they are going to be very expensive - every team in Europe would love a Koulibaly in their team.

We absolutely have to get this signing right. We can't afford any Stones/Mangala type signings so if Napoli want 90m just pay it. You only have to look at the impact that van Dijk had to see how important these signings have to be.

If we end up buying a cut price prospect then we will not win the PL or CL next year.
 
MillsyTheMosher said:
I have come to the conclusion I don't want us to sign Kalidou. Cant justify spending 75M on him.

The fee just does not represent any value for a 29 year old that would need 6-12 months to settle in a new country. He will be 30 when he fully settles down and understands the PL and you then have 2/3 years from him if you are lucky.

Trouble is I am not sure who is out there that is younger that can be a world class partner for Eric.
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Same age as van Dijk.

Best available, no point buying a young player if he is nowhere near as good. We need the best we can, just let the club decide if he's worth the cost. I think we have a few quid.
 
MillsyTheMosher said:
I have come to the conclusion I don't want us to sign Kalidou. Cant justify spending 75M on him.

The fee just does not represent any value for a 29 year old that would need 6-12 months to settle in a new country. He will be 30 when he fully settles down and understands the PL and you then have 2/3 years from him if you are lucky.

Trouble is I am not sure who is out there that is younger that can be a world class partner for Eric.
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You don't need to justify spending £75 mill that's Soriano's job.
 
nmc said:
Maybe because defenders every move is scrutinised by pundits and VAR etc. whilst the sins of 'attacking flair' are overlooked - diving like a tart is ignored and largely goes unpunished. The great defenders of yesteryear got away with things that they wouldn't today... i think you are correct its a dying art but the goalposts have also been uprooted and moved across town.
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Very true.

But back in the days when tactics were less anal, these guys often had to stop attackers, or lose. And there were a lot of players, with a lot of tricks. But somebody often 'tackled' them 1v1 & reasonably often, fairly.

Then in the air, there were actual specialists at jumping & heading the ball. The same guys had to stop them.

Koulibali is the kind of player who would have learned the neccessary & excelled but some of the characters madquerading as defenders these days would have been eaten alive.
 
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