I'd agree with this.
Last night Kolarov's play WAS BETTER than it has been for most of the season, however his main influence, having watched it at the ground, seemed to come after our 3rd goal. Still valid play but we could've done with it in the 1st half.
I knew people would be creaming over his nutmeg as soon as it happened, but a nutmeg does not make a player a good attacking threat nor does it fall under the responsibilities or expectations of a defender. Being first to go and celebrate another player scoring doesn't make him a good player either.
I'll give him his due, he played better and his assist for Bony was well picked out, mainly because it wasn't his normal whack it an hope. I think even Caballero could've picked that ball out though (given the time he had and the empty penalty area). But fair play to him he got the ball to the right place at the right time; that's what I expect from our full backs.
He just needs to some how become a defender. Their first chance from Korb at about 4mins was a perfect microcosm of 70% of Kolarov's defending; poor awareness, soft challenge, out of position and not quick enough or enough desire to track back.
I seriously hope he can improve defensively and save us the need to go out and get a new left back, but I fear he's too far gone to change dramatically. When opposition managers are picking him out as a weak link and exploiting him to beat us 2-0 with a shit team, you can't really use one game to defend him. All I want is for him to show some signs of improvement defensively; he can fail to beat the first man with crosses all he wants as long as he can start helping to keep things tight at the back.
