Kalidou Koulibaly

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King.of.Red said:
Hopefully the board & Ed wont care about money, just bring Koulibaly to Old Trafford. He will be best partner for Lindelof. Smalling can be back up. Just sell Jones & Rojo. Bailly, wait and see for now.
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This comment is spot on. People saying we should sell Bailly ahead of Jones or Rojo are morons in my opinion, who cares about the homegrown factor, we have plenty of english lads at the club. Wait and see for him, he was class in the last 2 seasons but this season he has fallen off a cliff formwise, idk why. I still think he can get back to it, he really needs to chill out just a little bit though on some of his madman defending. I still think he has the highest potential out of any centre back at the club (barring maybe Tuanzebe, though I haven't seen much of him but I've heard a ton of people praise his potential).

tldr: Koulibaly IN, Jones and Rojo OUT.
 
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SpyLuke10 said:
This comment is spot on. People saying we should sell Bailly ahead of Jones or Rojo are morons in my opinion, who cares about the homegrown factor, we have plenty of english lads at the club. Wait and see for him, he was class in the last 2 seasons but this season he has fallen off a cliff formwise, idk why. I still think he can get back to it though, he really needs to chill out just a little bit though on some of his madman defending. I still think he has the highest potential out of any centre back at the club (barring maybe Tuanzebe, though I haven't seen much of him but I've heard a ton of people praise his potential). Wait and see for Bailly.

tldr: Koulibaly IN, Jones and Rojo OUT.
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Agree with all of this. I hope the club can get it done
 
He is very good, but bang average at aerial duels. I hope it won't be a problem next to Lindelof.
 
CognitiveNeuro said:
:lol: Koulibaly got owned by Salah....looked like Boateng against Messi.
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Really didn't. And anyway it was literally 1 time out of about 10 attempts?.

Considering defending is much harder than dribbling at a defender, I'd say Koulibaly won both legs comfortably :smirk:
 
To settle the issue, here's Koulibaly vs Salah.

1st leg. Pretty one sided for the Senegalese defender. Safe to say he owned him in that leg.




Clips from second leg. (mute the audio) Salah got past Koulibaly once the entire game (tbf he scored from that). Rest of the game was all Koulibaly.


This was Salah at his unplayable best last season, and Koulibaly kept him quiet for most of it. I am not convinced of his heading, but his positioning, 1v1, passing, tackling, strength and pace are all top class.
 
0:40 onwards alone showed Salah owning Koulibaly. All Liverpool and Salah needed was 1 chance and they were through.
 
Gandalf Greyhame said:
To settle the issue, here's Koulibaly vs Salah.

1st leg. Pretty one sided for the Senegalese defender. Safe to say he owned him in that leg.




Clips from second leg. (mute the audio) Salah got past Koulibaly once the entire game (tbf he scored from that). Rest of the game was all Koulibaly.


This was Salah at his unplayable best last season, and Koulibaly kept him quiet for most of it. I am not convinced of his heading, but his positioning, 1v1, passing, tackling, strength and pace are all top class.
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thanks Gandalf, so as I remembered across 2 legs a world class forwad in Salah got the better of him once. This is in a team that plays pretty expansive too.

He should 100% be our main focus, he's worth whatever it requires. @CognitiveNeuro is either a WUM, a Scouser or a pure Salah fan. Not sure which is worse.
 
I watched Koulibaly with my Napoli supporting friends a couple of times. Once he grows into a game, he is just great and his frame helps him a lot. But it is also clear that he will cost above 100m Euros
 
Adam-Utd said:
thanks Gandalf, so as I remembered across 2 legs a world class forwad in Salah got the better of him once. This is in a team that plays pretty expansive too.

He should 100% be our main focus, he's worth whatever it requires. @CognitiveNeuro is either a WUM, a Scouser or a pure Salah fan. Not sure which is worse.
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CognitiveNeuro said:
I'm a Liverpool fan but a loss against City at their stadium (which is very likely) and a loss at Old Trafford (where Liverpool have a horrible record) is also likely.
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All 3 combined.
 
He's pretty good in the air, not sure where the worries are coming from. He's no smalling, but he has other qualities that Chris doesn't.

How good is Koulibaly's English?
 
Smalling's a better ball playing CB than Koulibaly. According to FIFA 19 that is
 
RedDevilRoshi said:
Pay the money to bring him in now.

Could prove to be the difference in us finishing in the top 4 and going deep into the CL this season. Leaving it till the summer is going to be a risk as a number of other clubs will also be in for him.

Ideal partner for Victor Lindelof at CB.
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The ideal partner for Lindelof would surely be some big, aerially dominant Kompany/Van Dijk clone, with bags of experience and leadership ability. Koulibaly has the experience and is an excellent defender, but falls a bit short in the other areas. He (Koulibaly) would work pretty well alongside Smalling.
 
Cassidy said:
:lol::lol::lol::lol: damn white text!
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:smirk:

In all honesty why would EA do that.. he is rated very low in passing. Haven't really seen him play so can anybody who watched him regularly shed more light on his ball playing skills?
 
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ayushreddevil9 said:
:smirk:

Im all honesty why would EA do that.. he is rated very low in passing. Haven't really seen him play so can anybody who watched him regularly shed more light on his ball playing skills?
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I’ve watched him play live in person and honestly I wasn’t that impressed with his ability to play out from the back. He’s better than what we have but he is not as comfortable on ball like VVD or a Laporte so he won’t improve us drastically in that area. He will make us defensively tougher though no doubt.
 
Raees said:
I’ve watched him play live in person and honestly I wasn’t that impressed with his ability to play out from the back. He’s better than what we have but he is not as comfortable on ball like VVD or a Laporte so he won’t improve us drastically in that area. He will make us defensively tougher though no doubt.
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Yeah i watched him in the CL and got the same impression. Better to trade in Bailly if we are getting a calmer, composed and better version of him
 
SpyLuke10 said:
This comment is spot on. People saying we should sell Bailly ahead of Jones or Rojo are morons in my opinion, who cares about the homegrown factor, we have plenty of english lads at the club. Wait and see for him, he was class in the last 2 seasons but this season he has fallen off a cliff formwise, idk why. I still think he can get back to it, he really needs to chill out just a little bit though on some of his madman defending. I still think he has the highest potential out of any centre back at the club (barring maybe Tuanzebe, though I haven't seen much of him but I've heard a ton of people praise his potential).

tldr: Koulibaly IN, Jones and Rojo OUT.
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ravi2 said:
Agree with all of this. I hope the club can get it done
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I actually like Rojo. He gets slated on here but I do think he is a decent defender and I like his attitude. He has a decent left foot and he’s all action. Argentina international also. I think we should be looking for 25m for him.

Jones is decent a lot of the time but has clumsy moments. 20m in today’s market I think.

If we could get 45m in and then get koulibaly for 80m I think that would be good business.

As for him in the air, I haven’t seen a huge amount of him, but in the first clip above he wins a header against Van Dijk so he can’t be that bad.
 
Just get it done. It’s clear to see that we need to upgrade a few positions to get to the next level. Regardless of whonthe manager will be this guy should be brought in.
 
The Irish Connection said:
If we could get 45m in and then get koulibaly for 80m I think that would be good business.
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Would seriously like to see this happen although I personally don't think that we will get him for 80m.
I base this on us supposedly having a £95m bid rejected, also in the new contract he signed there is no release clause so theoretically Napoli can ask for whatever figure they want.
 
Raees said:
I’ve watched him play live in person and honestly I wasn’t that impressed with his ability to play out from the back. He’s better than what we have but he is not as comfortable on ball like VVD or a Laporte so he won’t improve us drastically in that area. He will make us defensively tougher though no doubt.
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Watch that video of the first leg at home v Liverpool above, his forward passing is much better than anything we have at the moment. Lindelof has been very good recently though.
Zoo said:
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I don't think January is realistic, but we should have a bid prepared and sent already before the summer window happens.
 
Adam-Utd said:
Watch that video of the first leg at home v Liverpool above, his forward passing is much better than anything we have at the moment. Lindelof has been very good recently though.

I don't think January is realistic, but we should have a bid prepared and sent already before the summer window happens.
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Although I would personally like this transfer to happen as soon as possible, I couldn't see it happening this window.

With rumours of Real interested the summer, we need to be ready should he became available then and pay the club what it wants, offer him a worthy contract and pay the agency looking out for his interests a couple of extra million to keep him away from Real's clutches.

This is one transfer I don't want us to mess up.
 
I'd rather get an agreement in place and have him signed as soon as the season is over, no fuss. It's just going to be so much better for him to come in and have a full pre-season with the team.

It's also probably better for us to have that DOF in place before we go spending 100 million on a CB.
 
Eric's Seagull said:
Would seriously like to see this happen although I personally don't think that we will get him for 80m.
I base this on us supposedly having a £95m bid rejected, also in the new contract he signed there is no release clause so theoretically Napoli can ask for whatever figure they want.
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Yeah, probably wishful thinking, it would be mental paying 100 mil for a defender though.
Like the username :lol:
 
The Irish Connection said:
I actually like Rojo. He gets slated on here but I do think he is a decent defender and I like his attitude. He has a decent left foot and he’s all action. Argentina international also. I think we should be looking for 25m for him.

Jones is decent a lot of the time but has clumsy moments. 20m in today’s market I think.

If we could get 45m in and then get koulibaly for 80m I think that would be good business.

As for him in the air, I haven’t seen a huge amount of him, but in the first clip above he wins a header against Van Dijk so he can’t be that bad.
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You are in for a surprise if you think anyone outside of China is going to pay 20m for Jones and 25m for Rojo. Also Kolulibaly will cost 100m.

100m seems crazy for a defender but I thought 80m for VVD was crazy but Livers took the risk and its paying off for them now.

To get back to the very top, I think we are going to have to take a risk or two of this nature
 
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ravi2 said:
You are in for a surprise if you think anyone outside of China is going to pay 20m for Jones and 25m for Rojo. Also Kolulibaly will cost 100m.

100m seems crazy for a defender but I thought 80m for VVD was crazy but Livers took the risk and its paying off for them now.

To get back to the very top, I think we are going to have to take a risk or two of this nature
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Did you consider VVD a risk?

Do you consider Koulibaly a risk?
 
Sassy Colin said:
Did you consider VVD a risk?

Do you consider Koulibaly a risk?
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When Liverpool paid 80m for him, yes I thought it was a risky move but look at Liverpool's defense now. Clearly it worked out
Looking at it in that manner, Koulibaly seems more like a necessary risk for us to take.
 
Even at 100m, it would be a good buy IMO (especially considering that we can get some money back by selling 2 out of Jones/Rojo/Bailly). He will instantly improve our defense. Also, let's not forget that we didn't spend too much last season, so we should have some money to spend. Additionally, it is hardly that we need improvements in many positions. Get Koulibaly, a right-wing attacker and possibly a right back and we are set to go.
 
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