He is quite weak in air. Dream is KK and Maguire. Realistically Maguire and Lindelof would do.
Kalidou Koulibaly
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He is quite weak in air. Dream is KK and Maguire. Realistically Maguire and Lindelof would do.
He’s not weak in the air. He’s not dominant, but he’s certainly not weak.
He isn't. New contract is reportedly worth €14m a year. But as i said, he's not moving for a pay cut. You'd have to offer him a raiseHe is not earning 220k a week in Napoli. Are u serious?
Let me rephrase - he is not better than lindelof or Bailey.
I just saw something from one of these twitter ITK's saying he has been told we are in for him due to being priced out for Maguire.
Sounds like the biggest load of rubbish I have heard this window,no chance we walk away from a £80m deal for a £100m one.
Sounds like the biggest load of rubbish I have heard this window,no chance we walk away from a £80m deal for a £100m one.
Priced out of Maguire to go for someone who'll cost twice as much? Interesting.
Italians these days say a lot things, most untrue.
Italian football presidents to be more precise.
Whilst true I can guess they have put down a marker of 150m for him, with the plan to take a minimum 110m
Most likely BS, but for me he's a better player than Maguire. It could simply be that if we're going to have to pay £90m for Maguire, the extra we'd have to pay for someone better becomes smaller.
People seem fixated on the fact that Koulibaly isn't dominant in the air, but so many of us are happy to sacrifice the pace in the centre of our defence (Bailly & Smalling) to bring in Maguire. I've seen plenty of people say that ideally we'd bring them both in, but I think that of the Koulibaly makes a significantly bigger impact on his own. He might even transform Baily, because it sounds like he had similar attributes and approach prior to being coached in Italy (injuries aside).
Kk is fantastic in air
He's probably as good as Phil Jones. Solid but not as good as say Maguire or Van Dijk.
That makes sense.
No he is way better then Phil Jones. Aso he's got something maguire doesn't have aka pace
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I'm comparing purely from an aerial perspective. Defensively he's superior to both Jones and Maguire and is comparable to Van Dijk.
Jones is good aerially? Weird view.
Stats back it up, he is good in the air, for all his shortcomings
The only CB we have that is good in the air is Smalling. Just watch us on corners not sure what the stats say, but Jones isn't good in the air IMO
Jones is clearly better than Koulibaly in the air.
But to be fair heading is probably Koulibaly's biggest weakness while Jones's biggest weakness is either his inability to play 50% of the time due to injuries or his rubbish decision making.
But to be fair heading is probably Koulibaly's biggest weakness while Jones's biggest weakness is either his inability to play 50% of the time due to injuries or his rubbish decision making.
Hmm well opinions I guess
Ok... do you watch enough of koulibaly to overrule his aerial stats being far worse then?Stats?
Na, Jones is as good, just there is plenty more worse in his overall game. Jones wins the majority of his headers that get played up to the striker in the air. I really don’t like Jones, but that is one thing he’s good at.
He possibly does, but how is he at defending corners?
Can’t say I remember well enough, tbf. I don’t think I know enough about Koulibaly at corners either. I can only really go on overall stats and the games I have seen.
Honestly I can't understand this obsession with aerial dominance. We're not living in the early 90s anymore. In fact if you have a look at the EPL top scorers last season a staggering 4 out of 5 top scorers aren't exactly great in air (Salah, Abuameyang, Mane, Aguero) and tend to beat opponents with technique or/and pace. Don't take me wrong inches are important and Koulibaly offers that in his 6.5ft frame. However I can't help thinking that Maguire's signing is like buying full plate armour so you can survive fighting in WW2.
Smaller teams who park the bus, and go for long balls and crosses and set pieces to score and takes points off from top4 and title contenders are the reason teams can not compete for 90plus points, not the Mane, Salah and Agueros. So aerial ability is important in EPL.
No, but i doubt he is poorer than Feakin Jones.
Why do people bump up transfer threads for posting irrelevant stuff. I thought we were linked with him again
We are not even trying to sign him
. What a mistake by us
. What a mistake by usI never said he was good, I just said he was about as good as Koulibaly.
I wasn't suggesting that aerial dominance is key to scoring goals, I was simply responding to your initial comment on Koulibaly being fantastic in the air by stating that he is about as aerially dominant as Phil Jones.
However, I do think aerial dominance is a useful facet to have as a CB. As a centre forward, pace, trickery and clever movement can more than make up for goals missed out from headers. As a CB, particularly against teams that hoof the ball to a tall centre forward, I think it is very useful to have an aerially dominant CB to help concede fewer chances and goals that way.
On Koulibaly, he has a good leap but he isn't 6ft5 as you've stated. He's 6ft1 (186cm). Watch from 8:20 in the video below where he mentions it himself if you want proof:
To clarify, I still think Koulibaly overall is a considerably superior CB to Maguire.
If we can't nail them in their own half for 80 mins and clear the few chances they got them we are not a top club. Koulibaly can handle that. We don't need a slow CB whose only WC asset is being good in heading
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Because we know he will cost too much.We are not even trying to sign him
If it's just a stat based opinion, then i'd like to remind you that Long balls and crosses are much more relevant to Epl game than Italian league. Koulibaly aerial ability is way better than Jones.
People who think Koulibaly is 6 foot 5 can't have ever watched him play.
You guys realise, now we discussing him again, a Twitter rumour will start up before the end of the weekend?
Where do you think these useless hacks get their material from?
So, don't get too excited if it all starts kicking off again next week.
Where do you think these useless hacks get their material from?
So, don't get too excited if it all starts kicking off again next week.
that's strange cause even in the official website they used to write that he's 6ft5
Serie A don't have the tallest of players so its easy to mess that up especially since Koulibaly is built like a frigging tank. I don't measure players up so if they say they are 6ft5 I believe them.
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I was not debating on Koulibaly vs Maguire, but on why aerial ability is important in Epl. I am sure Koulibaly can handle that.
Also, you don't add players like Rashford, James, Lukaku to play in your forward line if you want to nail a team in their own half for 80 mins and create in oppositions half with players like Pogba looking to spray those passes in space, all the time without having the ability to create and Move in Small spaces. There is a reason Kompany was still the most important defender in city side who played that way.
You don't get judged as a top team and an top club for dominating possession stats but by efficiency in boxes and by overall play in midfield.
I haven't really seen any stats on this tbh, I was just basing it off what I had seen. But if you were to look at stats, it would depend on which stats you look at. I.e. if their aerial duels won % is comparable then the number of duels won't matter as much (unless of course the sample size is too small, which could be case with Jones given that he didn't play too many games). But then you'd also have to factor in the average opposition height and aerial ability when looking at those stats and given that both players play in different leagues, it's difficult to compare when looking at only stats.
My point is that having Maguire, Lindelof and Matic in the centre is asking for trouble considering that football is moving away from the physical/crossing football to a more technique/pacey football. Koulibaly can handle crosses and so does Smalling.
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