Kalidou Koulibaly

[OneMoSalah 8,614]

On 18/02/2023 at 23:41, Magic Lamps said:

sure their offence has improved and Lobotka is a great stability anchor but  I was talking more about their defence. Look at how high Napoli can press up the field without Koulibaly and how disciplined Min-jae Kim marshalls their D as opposed to KK' impro style defending. They have conceded just 15 goals so far. Never had conceded this few after 23 games in any season Koulibaly started for them.

Have to he honest, completely disagree re the pressing. In terms of G/A yeah their better, better than most teams in Europe and many top teams who have won titles before but that could be down to a multitude of things. 

Maybe KK has lost a yard of pace as he has aged but do you not remember how high and aggressively Napoli pressed and had their defensive line under Sarri for 3 seasons? Where he was an ever present? They were one of the most effective high pressing possession based sides in Europe in that 3 year period..

On Napoli - I think Kim is a pretty good player and they are an outstanding team to watch but whether or not they follow it up next year is another question. I mean look at AC Milan and Inter after winning Serie A. Spalletti always been an intriguing coach, who has always tried to play decent offensive football and it just seems to be working at Napoli for him. 

[Johnnyeye 7,414]

fuck off

[Vytis33 1,043]

 

[DDA 9,570]

Don't think he has been that bad recently to be honest... alot better than when he first cane here.. but his lack of pace is worrying 

[Clockwork 1,764]

4 hours ago, DDA said:

Don't think he has been that bad recently to be honest... alot better than when he first cane here.. but his lack of pace is worrying 

I think he is solid, not world class or anything like that.

 

[dimmas 123]

He is soo much better on 3 atb. Look class and dependable.

But he is lacking so much when we use 4 atb. Lack of pace, lack of concentration, lack of positional awareness, while being mediocre almost at anything else

sometimes make me really wish to keep koulibally stay away from our backline. Much prefer anyone else to play there when our coach use 4 defender. 

Edited April 9, 2023 by dimmas

[ZAPHOD2319 3,873]

 

[Gundalf 726]

Stayed at Napoli for 8 years to fulfill the dream of winning the championship. Then gave up the dream to play for Chelsea and compete for titles. Napoli becomes champion, and Chelsea completely messes it up. After one year, transferred to Saudi Arabia. If you play his career backwards, the whole thing becomes a story for football romantics.

 

[calculatingInfinity 1,443]

Thank God. Terrible signing.

[King Kante 1,297]

On 18/07/2022 at 11:03, King Kante said:

How good is K2? I'll be honest and say whenever I have seen him (this has been limited) he has reminded me a bit of what I term a 'hipsters' idea of a great player. By this I mean he does everything in the good to very good range, but because he physically looks like a top CB, his good/very good play gets made out to be world class. 

Is this fair or is he genuinely world class? 

Looks like my initial observations were right. I wasn't overly sold on him from what I actually saw but admitted it was limited. 

Just glad we got to move him on without too much of a hit to the bank account. 

[OhForAGreavsie 5,775]

8 hours ago, ZAPHOD2319 said:

 

Very nice bloke. I wish him well.

[Superblue 6,331]

Disappointing that it hasn't worked out as he genuinely seems like one of the real nice guys in football (I also noticed he received an award recently too for his community work whilst at Chelsea).

Ultimately this was a deal 5 years too late. If we managed to bring him in under Conte or Sarri when we were first being linked with him, his Chelsea career may have seen a different trajectory.

 

[Tomo 21,681]

3 hours ago, Superblue said:

Disappointing that it hasn't worked out as he genuinely seems like one of the real nice guys in football (I also noticed he received an award recently too for his community work whilst at Chelsea).

Ultimately this was a deal 5 years too late. If we managed to bring him in under Conte or Sarri when we were first being linked with him, his Chelsea career may have seen a different trajectory.

 

We'd have likely been spared all these constant top four scrambles if we had the peak version.

[robsblubot 3,223]

Aside from the aforementioned bad timing, how on earth was he selected as Rudiger's replacement? I mean the players have very different characteristics. Did someone altho club thought, "oh both can attack?" That was the least important thing Rudiger used to do for us. 🤷‍♂️

[King Kante 1,297]

27 minutes ago, robsblubot said:

Aside from the aforementioned bad timing, how on earth was he selected as Rudiger's replacement? I mean the players have very different characteristics. Did someone altho club thought, "oh both can attack?" That was the least important thing Rudiger used to do for us. 🤷‍♂️

The club was desperate for CB's last Summer owing to AC and Rudi leaving and we had people who didn't have extensive knowledge of football doing the transfers. £33m for a CB that was deemed as a top CB in Italy that was readily available did make some sense in fairness. 

I doubt he was seen as a like for like. 

[robsblubot 3,223]

1 minute ago, King Kante said:

The club was desperate for CB's last Summer owing to AC and Rudi leaving and we had people who didn't have extensive knowledge of football doing the transfers. £33m for a CB that was deemed as a top CB in Italy that was readily available did make some sense in fairness. 

I doubt he was seen as a like for like. 

Fair enough. On the other hand, it's hard not to criticize the club on that tho. It had ben known Rudiger was going to leave for a long time... same with snake, so the inability to find somewhat quality replacements was surprising.

[OneMoSalah 8,614]

Yep few years too late.

Still expected more from someone of his calibre though, but sometimes these moves don’t work out. 

Under either Mourinho, Sarri or Conte 6 or 7 years ago he would of been a different animal. 

[King Kante 1,297]

7 minutes ago, robsblubot said:

Fair enough. On the other hand, it's hard not to criticize the club on that tho. It had ben known Rudiger was going to leave for a long time... same with snake, so the inability to find somewhat quality replacements was surprising.

Tbf, their initial target was De Ligt but he chose Bayern. We also has an incredibly weak negotiating hand. AC and Rudi went on Granny's/Roman's watch and the new owners couldn't negotiate any transfers until the deal went through which left us short of time. 

Personally, I was never sold on KK at any point - even in his peak - as I thought he was a 'hipsters' type player where flashes made him look amazing but everything I saw when actually watching him in games, made me believe he was 'good to very good' and by that I mean not world class/elite.

For me, he always reminded me of a slightly better at positioning Zouma - a player I was also happy to get rid of and said so when he was here; unless he was happy at a CB4. 

All this said,for me the board deserve a lot of criterism but I am not so sure the KK deal was that illogical given the circumstances. 

Edited June 26, 2023 by King Kante