Kalidou Koulibaly

it’s like CTID assumes all those Pro-KK think he should be out only signing

Buying one CB doesn’t fix everything but buying at least one top CB, a better LB, and likely needed a FW and a new CM will fix a lot of big gaps and holes. KK takes us a long way on that but the others get us over the mountain
I am very much pro Koulibaly, just not at the ridiculous figures suggested by De Laurentiis. If we pay £70-90m for him, it restricts the activity we do in other areas of the pitch which are equally, if not more important in my opinion. You suggest 5 players, that's beyond unrealistic if we spend so much on one player. It is also an almighty huge gamble, if it doesn't work out with Koulibaly, you aren't going to be able to sell him on. On balance its a signing that doesn't make sense for me unless we can dramatically reduce the fee because we have very good young player who are more than capable of playing now.
It’s amazing the amount of time and effort a few posters are putting in to talking down one of the best CB’s in the world.

But I wonder what the end game is? Do they hope Txiki is reading the thread and pulls out of the talks (if any are actually taking place)?
No one is talking him down as a player, there is absolutely no doubt in his ability. The reasons are financial primarily (it's a huge gamble, there's no middle ground, there's no back out plan if it doesn't work out and I think we have a limited pot this summer which is better spent in other areas: LCB, LB, LW), he's a player I don't think we necessarily need. The other reasons are tactical, we have 4/5 right footed CB's and only 1 left footed CB, that for me is a bigger issue if Laporte gets injured again.

As for the end game. Why are you on here? Do you hope Txiki is reading this and will buy him? You try and make out that everyone who has a differing opinion to you has an ulteria motive, it's sad and pathetic. We're (well I am) here just like you to have a debate, to say my opinion, listen to others and maybe change my view, maybe I won't. If you don't talk and don't argue about things occasionally nobody's view ever changes. The amount of people who have gone ballastic at things I've said, then two minutes later say yeah fair point and vice versa. It's how open debate works.
 
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I am very much pro Koulibaly, just not at the ridiculous figures suggested by De Laurentiis. If we pay £70-90m for him, it restricts the activity we do in other areas of the pitch which are equally, if not more important in my opinion. You suggest 5 players, that's beyond unrealistic if we spend so much on one player. It is also an almighty huge gamble, if it doesn't work out with Koulibaly, you aren't going to be able to sell him on. On balance its a signing that doesn't make sense for me unless we can dramatically reduce the fee because we have very good young player who are more than capable of playing now.

No one is talking him down as a player, there is absolutely no doubt in his ability. The reasons are financial primarily (it's a huge gamble, there's no middle ground, there's no back out plan if it doesn't work out and I think we have a limited pot this summer which is better spent in other areas: LCB, LB, LW), he's a player I don't think we necessarily need. The other reasons are tactical, we have 4/5 right footed CB's and only 1 left footed CB, that for me is a bigger issue if Laporte gets injured again.

As for the end game. Why are you on here? Do you hope Txiki is reading this and will buy him? You try and act all superior and make out that everyone who has a differing opinion to you the master of all things football has an ulteria motive, it's sad and pathetic as fuck. We're here just like you to have a debate, to say our opinion, listen to others and maybe we'll change our view, maybe we won't. If you don't talk and don't argue about things occasionally nobody's view ever changes.
Do you genuinely think nico, stones, garcia and thb can see us winninf 4 comps?
Nico - rash, slow, another year older.
Stones - injuries, confidence, physicality
Garcia - promising but will commit plenty of mistakes (due to age) which could kill his confidence & career at his age. Small and lacks speed.
Thb - same as Eric but better in the air.

If we sold nico and stones garcia will get plenty of gametime as Koulibaly can also play as lcb.

There is plenty of deadwood we can sell to buy 4/5 players in and reduce age of squad.

Stones, nico, gundo, zinchenko, Angelino.
Loanees to sell Roberts, tosin, aleix garcia, Harrison, yangel herrera, etc

We will sell youth players as well as a budget before sales.

So 4 players plus Koulibaly isn't exactly "unrealistic". But we each have our opinions.
 
Do you genuinely think nico, stones, garcia and thb can see us winninf 4 comps?
Nico - rash, slow, another year older.
Stones - injuries, confidence, physicality
Garcia - promising but will commit plenty of mistakes (due to age) which could kill his confidence & career at his age. Small and lacks speed.
Thb - same as Eric but better in the air.

If we sold nico and stones garcia will get plenty of gametime as Koulibaly can also play as lcb.

There is plenty of deadwood we can sell to buy 4/5 players in and reduce age of squad.

Stones, nico, gundo, zinchenko, Angelino.
Loanees to sell Roberts, tosin, aleix garcia, Harrison, yangel herrera, etc

We will sell youth players as well as a budget before sales.

So 4 players plus Koulibaly isn't exactly "unrealistic". But we each have our opinions.
Do you think Koulibaly will solve all our problems and win us 4 competitions? No chance. There's not a player in the history of English football who has won 4 competitions (league, CL, FA, league cup) in one season.

I think you're stereotyping Garcia, you're labelling him with problems 1) that all players suffer 2) age being a limiting factor and 3) that a CB needs a certain level of physicality. Completely ignoring he fact we have other players to come in if his form dips (e.g. Dinho, Tosin, THB).

If you think you can sell all those players and get good enough fees for them to enable us to buy 5 players (4 + Koulibaly), then good luck to you. I hope you're right but I really don't think you will be.
 
Koulibaly and Ben White to supplement Laporte/replace Stones and/or Garcia would go a long way to revamping the defence, and establishing a solid platform for the pending rebuild.

Koulibaly is going to surprise people with exactly how good he is, but he’s also gonna be away for AFCON, so another central defender is going to be necessary, and White ticks all the boxes as a young ball-playing defender who’s also homegrown, and will inevitably break into the England team over the next 12 months.
 
Given our well documented travails in defence this season, I don't think any of Tosin, Harwood-Bellis or Garcia can come in and make enough difference. Otamendi is too error prone and Fernandinho isn't a natural centre back, plus he's 35 and has already cost us a few points trying to play in that position. Hopefully Stones can get back to form but we still need a proper, experienced top class central defender whether he does or not.

Koulibaly ticks all the boxes. Not only will he improve our defence but he'll be a good example for our young defenders to learn from in training. With the number of gameswe play we can't go into next season with just one reliable centre back plus three kids and a 35 year old midfielder.

It will cost us more in the long run through poor performances than the £70-£80m Koulibaly could be. Just like van Dijk he'd be worth every penny, he's world class. All top teams must spend to get the best payers, and our 20 point deficit on Liverpool despite us still being top scorers shows where our main issue lies. We absolutely have to strengthen our defence. We cannot risk trying to be frugal, we don't need to be.

Koulibaly and Alaba would make a huge difference to our defence, they're exactly what we need.
 
He’s just another Mangala can’t wait for the meltdown in here when he’s getting some for pace every single week


I see what you mean about Mangala, this shows all his touches against Liverpool good and bad, see how you make the comparison ? I mean everybody was trying to sign Mangala ahead of us.








my arse
 
I see what you mean about Mangala, this shows all his touches against Liverpool good and bad, see how you make the comparison ? I mean everybody was trying to sign Mangala ahead of us.
my arse

There's three pretty poor unforced errors in his passing (1:42, 1:52 and 2:52 in the video), what's your thoughts on those? Do you think those could cause us additional problems considering the majority of goals we concede generally stem from us losing possession in those same dangerous areas? (e.g. Mendy at Chelsea, Otamendi at Norwich, Zinchenko at Southampton and there's a good few other examples).
 
I see what you mean about Mangala, this shows all his touches against Liverpool good and bad, see how you make the comparison ? I mean everybody was trying to sign Mangala ahead of us.








my arse


more deep passes that start attacks in one game than Stones and Otamendi all season. More quality defending than I’ve seen from either John or Nico in a long time, again all in one game.

Koulibaly is monster of a CB, some posters preferring a bunch of kids and a veteran is just laughable.
 
How many errors have lead directly to a goal? If you're putting a points total on it, you have to back that up.

I don't have the stats but it's clear a 35 year old midfielder isn't the answer to our defensive woes. I think it's fairly obvious too that Koulibaly is a better option at centre back than anyone we have at the club except Laporte. Therefore in my opinion I strongly believe we need to buy him.
 
I don't have the stats but it's clear a 35 year old midfielder isn't the answer to our defensive woes. I think it's fairly obvious too that Koulibaly is a better option at centre back than anyone we have at the club except Laporte. Therefore in my opinion I strongly believe we need to buy him.
No no no, you can't say Fernandinho has cost us points and then fail to tell us when and how. That's disingenuous in the extreme.

That's like me telling the mrs that my car has broken down 15 times this year so I need to buy a new car, when in fact it hasn't broken down at all and I just fancy a new car.
 
No no no, you can't say Fernandinho has cost us points and then fail to tell us when and how. That's disingenuous in the extreme.

That's like me telling the mrs that my car has broken down 15 times this year so I need to buy a new car, when in fact it hasn't broken down at all and I just fancy a new car.

I disagree, I'm sure those who analyse stats can point to specifics. The fact is with Fernandinho in defence over the season we've ended up well short in the league. Just from watching games I recall errors including a couple of penalties he's given away, plus numerous missed headers. He's just not a centre back. It's obvious our defence needs strengthening regardless of specific errors. Laporte needs a top class defensive partner. Neither Fernandinho or Otamendi are good enough to be that player.

Koulibaly will improve our defence because he's a far better central defender than anyone else we have bar Lapoete. For me it's as simple as that. When top class players become available in positions we obviously need to strengthen then we need to buy them. It's been clear all season we need a top class central defender.
 
No no no, you can't say Fernandinho has cost us points and then fail to tell us when and how. That's disingenuous in the extreme.

That's like me telling the mrs that my car has broken down 15 times this year so I need to buy a new car, when in fact it hasn't broken down at all and I just fancy a new car.
Of course you can, I can come away from a game thinking we could have done with somebody younger or more experienced at centre back than Fernandinho, it can happen a few times. Ask me 6 months later about specific incidents and I won't remember. Doesn't mean my general opinion we need Koulibaly instead of Fernandinho, or Otamendi is either disingenuous or wrong.If Pep and Txiki as it seems they do, agree , it means I'm most likely right.
 
I disagree, I'm sure those who analyse stats can point to specifics. The fact is with Fernandinho in defence over the season we've ended up well short in the league. Just from watching games I recall errors including a couple of penalties he's given away, plus numerous missed headers. He's just not a centre back. It's obvious our defence needs strengthening regardless of specific errors. Laporte needs a top class defensive partner. Neither Fernandinho or Otamendi are good enough to be that player.

Koulibaly will improve our defence because he's a far better central defender than anyone else we have bar Lapoete. For me it's as simple as that. When top class players become available in positions we obviously need to strengthen then we need to buy them. It's been clear all season we need a top class central defender.
You made the statement without evidence to substantiate it.

https://www.premierleague.com/players/4804/Fernandinho/stats

So I'll do it for you. Errors leading to goals = 0.
 
Of course you can, I can come away from a game thinking we could have done with somebody younger or more experienced at centre back than Fernandinho, it can happen a few times. Ask me 6 months later about specific incidents and I won't remember. Doesn't mean my general opinion we need Koulibaly instead of Fernandinho, or Otamendi is either disingenuous or wrong.If Pep and Txiki as it seems they do, agree , it means I'm most likely right.
The poster made a statement just Fernandinho has cost us points this season, so it's quantifiable and can be proven with statistics. Yet the statistics say 0.

There maybe moments like giving possession away which aren't covered by the statistics or being in a poor position potentially, letting someone run etc. but if the poster is going to say it, at least back it up.
 
I've given him the opportunity twice to give us examples to justify the claims away from statistics, he's not taken it.
Doesn't mean it didn't happen just because he hasn't got specific examples. I know there were goals and probably points lost because we relied on Fernandinho and Otamendi. Goals that having Koulibaly would have prevented, even without Laporte.
 

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