Kalidou Koulibaly

[LIBlue]

Currently yes. Laporte has been hopeless, but not all his fault imo.

Fern isn't great, just not as bad.

I hope this was a joke? Take laporte out of our team and we’d be lucky to be 4th.

 

[Damanino]

Wonder in the end what we really accomplish by not doing a direct negotiating on this but using the players agent?
Will the final fee be lower because of this? Hardly...
Surelly agent will pocket some extra money form us to do the work on this for us.

Is just pride because of Jorginho? If pride so much important we should agree a fee then pull out last moment and let Koulibaly rot at Napoli and let Napoli having to sell him next summer for half the price for a 30yo defender. But we need their CB now so that wont happen.

 

[ctid1894]

No, experience absolutely doesn't mean better, but that's not the point I'm making at all.

If our central defenders, were performing with the kind of consistency we would want to see, then we would be looking at younger centre backs, to take a punt on becoming top players, whilst playing amongst our established cbs who ease them into the squad. And we signed such a player, with Ake, in a way.

But we haven't got any 'established' cbs, none of them are currently any good, even Laporte is all over the place. We tried sticking a kid in there & it's a disaster. Due to the form of others, our best cb, is an ageing midfield player.

So we are actually looking at a player who we hope will help our defenders, get their game back.

If we get him & it works, then we will be back to normal, looking at 23 year old cbs.

If we can't get him, we'd better score a shitload more goals.

If experience doesn't mean better to quote you, then what difference does it make if we sign a 29, 26 or 23 year old?

Surely the only reasons to prioritise an older player (which is what the club appear to be doing with Koulibaly) is if there are absolutely no other options available or if he is of such a substantial difference in quality to the other available options, which I find very difficult to believe he is.

I have watched more than enough to see the obvious quality he would bring to the club, that's not in question, but nothing stands out as him being head and shoulders above anyone else. I don't watch him and think wow, in the same way as you would with the real top class players (e.g. Kompany, Van Dijk, Kimmich). Hopefully if he signs I'll watch him live at the ground and see something I've missed so far that justifies the apparent desire to sign him above other options.

Just for clarity, I don't have a preference for any other options. I am not sure I see anyone who really stands out as head and shoulders above anyone else at CB at the moment, they're all much of a muchness.

 

[Neville Kneville]

Oh jesus so you kept me up arguing all night and you prefer younger Jesus my eyes are Still stinging from lack of sleep
Let’s agree we need a centre half And a bloody good one
Job done

That was you up arguing all night ? I didn't even start argiung & was in bed quite early ?

Who are you Cliff Richard ? ;)

 

[Neville Kneville]

If experience doesn't mean better to quote you, then what difference does it make if we sign a 29, 26 or 23 year old?

Surely the only reasons to prioritise an older player (which is what the club appear to be doing with Koulibaly) is if there are absolutely no other options available or if he is of such a substantial difference in quality to the other available options, which I find very difficult to believe he is.

I have watched more than enough to see the obvious quality he would bring to the club, that's not in question, but nothing stands out as him being head and shoulders above anyone else. I don't watch him and think wow, in the same way as you would with the real top class players (e.g. Kompany, Van Dijk, Kimmich). Hopefully if he signs I'll watch him live at the ground and see something I've missed so far that justifies the apparent desire to sign him above other options.

Just for clarity, I don't have a preference for any other options. I am not sure I see anyone who really stands out as head and shoulders above anyone else at CB at the moment, they're all much of a muchness.

Imo Koulibaly at his best, has been better than Van Dijk.

And the lack of any other obvious solution, is most likely why we are in for him.
If Van Dijk was available, we would almost certainly go for him this time & be willing to pay a lot more.

 

[Neville Kneville]

I hope this was a joke? Take laporte out of our team and we’d be lucky to be 4th.

Play without a keeper & we'd go down. Put Bravo in & we'd stay up.

 

[skyblues]

I can’t take any more Mangala or Stones purchases that go to shit.

And neither can the club which explains why they’re going for Kouli.
If we still concede a ton of goals with Laporte, Aké and Koulibaly, then something in our tactics needs to change.

We play a high line with the risk of through-balls so we need defenders with speed to be able to catch-up with the opposition. But we also need defenders capable of sniffing out the danger in the first place. Great defenders like KK and Aké check both of these boxes. We’ll see a massive improvement in our defensive play, hopefully.

 

[Neville Kneville]

And neither can the club which explains why they’re going for Kouli.
If we still concede a ton of goals with Laporte, Aké and Koulibaly, then something in our tactics needs to change.

We play a high line with the risk of through-balls so we need defenders with speed to be able to catch-up with the opposition. But we also need defenders capable of sniffing out the danger in the first place. Great defenders will KK and Aké check both of these boxes. We’ll see a massive improvement in our defensive play, hopefully.

Koulibaly, on his usual game, would have prevented one of the goals scored by Arsenal & both the first 2 by Lyon. The chances for the Lyon goals, would most likely not even have been created, as he would have cancelled the offside trap.

 

[Damanino]

Pressing, workrate off th ball these need to improve before our defending will improve. Not putting our defenders into awkward spots so many times, that is the big job for Pep imo.

 

[ctid1894]

Wonder in the end what we really accomplish by not doing a direct negotiating on this but using the players agent?
Will the final fee be lower because of this? Hardly...
Surelly agent will pocket some extra money form us to do the work on this for us.

Is just pride because of Jorginho? If pride so much important we should agree a fee then pull out last moment and let Koulibaly rot at Napoli and let Napoli having to sell him next summer for half the price for a 30yo defender. But we need their CB now so that wont happen.

Napoli/ADL don't deserve the respect of dealing with us directly. We have made our position clear to the agent, the ball is in Napoli/ADL's court. There is no negotiation, they either accept our terms or they don't and we walk away. They're trying to draw us into a negotiation, we're clearly not interested because we have the stronger hand, in the sense they need to sell more than we need to buy. If Koulibaly was the ONLY option you may have a point, he isn't.