You are not talking to an idiot, even though you are trying to give that impression.
He makes plenty of tackles, yes & I like that side of his game very much. I like the way he attacks the ball. I despise players like Nastasic who stand around doing fuck all but never making any mistakes. I like people who put everything in.
He misses, fucking loads of challenges because of overdoing that very same thing. He frequently flies out & ends up in no mans land. In computer world where everything is statistics, that doesn't even count as a challenge missed, because he is often so far away that he can't even challenge for the ball, it has gone. This is like Demichelis at his worst, early in his first season, when he was costing us points regularly. It isn't 'fantastic' from Otamendi as you described it, it is in fact truly awful defending. A crime in a defensive line, an elementary, schoolboy mistake. It leaves his fellow defenders in peril. There is a rule in football to cover it like with goalkeeping: 'If you are going to come out & committ youself like that you HAVE to get the ball' Second choice is you take out the player & have a free kick. What you don't do, is come flying out, chuck yourself at the ball & miss both. That is criminally bad defending. The other possibility is start to to come out, judge you won't get there & quickly get back into position to defend, fine. You don't charge out & take yourself out of the game. Because our other defenders have also been doing this kind of stupid shit, he isn't being pulled up on it as he would if he was playing in a proper defence. He is also very vulnerable to players turning him or accelerating in the penatly area & again, his response is to go to ground & stick out a leg. Sometimes he gets the ball. On those occasions, you will be applauding & I probably will too, as his gamble paid off. Sometrimes, he is beaten & the shot comes in, sometimes a goal results. That again, is not 'fantastic' it is poor.
The fact that you can't see this & don't realise the importance of it suggests that you either don't watch closely enough or don't know what you are talking about. Either way, I KNOW this is wrong, anybody who knows football knows this is wrong. If yu think that the percentage of mistakes he makes ia acceptable, fine. I don't but I hold out hope he will come good.
But to describe his performances so far as 'fantastic' is quite ridiculous. The only people who think that way currently, are on here. His current rep elsewhere is as a below average defender in a poor defence.
He is capable of much better, I think.
Edit: when I say 'elsewhere' I don't mean computer geek world, I mean in actual football world.
Yes, he has missed tackles, but very seldomly because he ran out of a defense to go lone man. More often than not he is where he is supposed to be and loses out. Shit happens. If it didn't, no one will ever score against a great defender.
You take very minute instances and state them like its the norm. It isnt.
He is not fast yet he gets to plays by anticipating correctly in most instances. I've seen him miss all ball and player, and that's awful, I agree. But these instances are few and far in between.
What I and anyone mostly see, is him snuffing out last man play so consistently that it seems folks here have come to mistake this for being normal. It's not! He is doing things others aren't doing. The defense often is just 2 guys with others busting their gut trying to get back in the play. Not some coordinated back 4.
You don't make as many tackles and interceptions from being consistently out of position. Time and time again, in almost every game, he snuffs 2-3 attacks all by himself. He does it so consistently, its pretty much normal now. He is shorter than every other defender, yet gets his head on more balls.
Does he get beat? Yes, coz our defense often leaves defenders one v one with space all around. And also coz he is not superhuman. Everyone gets beat!
Yes, he takes risks, and yes sometimes they dont come off, I get that. But his contribution has resulted in a net positive overall. Like I keep pointing out, We'd be conceding 4-6 more point blank shots without him.
Your claim that he makes great risky tackles coz he is out of position anyway is flat out wrong.
Like I've said, make a video of these tons of tackles he misses. It's simply guys overblowing his mistakes, even though they would have overlooked them had it been Kompany.
Kompany does exactly what he does, the only difference is Kompany often just fouls the player rather than get a tackle in. But no one complains. But when Kompany gets his head on 4 balls, we read about his great positioning, but this guy gets his head on 6, yet all that everyone wants to discuss is his missed tackle, or misplaced pass, or how he is never in position. I've seen Komps give up the ball multiple time trying to dribble, we didn't come here the next day calling him average.
Defenders all make mistakes, including the very best. But on the balance, how much contribution did they add to the defense?
Otamendi is up there. Yes he was blamed for the first goal for diving, everyone ignored that a corner kick followed, and so did a poor attempt at clearing out of the box after the kick was nodded out.
It doesn't seem to matter how much he does, many here are hell bent on the few he does wrong. Too many generalities in order to obfuscate the facts.
Hence why I like stats. It's not that it tells you everything, it simply stops the flawed mental blurring.
I hate this diving. Love his football, and will be my first defender regardless of injury situation.
And too conclude, off course he can be better. Everyone outside of Messi can. But that's not the issue here.
