That's a good point..
Kalidou Koulibaly
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His age is not problem either. Centre backs can play until 33/34. We'll get 5 years easily out of him provided he stays injury free.
Completely agree, would be a huge upgrade for us.
I've been keeping my eye on him for the past few seasons (I know it's not long), but mainly due to the fact, that I at some point realised he would be a perfect CB signing for United and god damn, if I'm not giddy thinking of him in a United shirt. Probably a pipe-dream for now, but I think he could transform our defence into a impenetratable fortress.
Just read @abdo99 comment regarding injuries and I started thinking about Koulibaly's injury history - it's practically non-existent. Although PL is a league of it's own due the physicality, so you never know.
Oh, well....one can dream.
Just read @abdo99 comment regarding injuries and I started thinking about Koulibaly's injury history - it's practically non-existent. Although PL is a league of it's own due the physicality, so you never know.
Oh, well....one can dream.
In that case lets go all African, I think a Koulibaly/Bailly partnership would be a formidable one.
He'd be a great signing.
He's also good with the ball at his feet.
He's also good with the ball at his feet.
I should hope so.He is a footballer after all.
He's gonna be 30 years old in about 3 years, right? Pfft. 100 millions just for 3 years of service... 
Is he that much better than Manolas given he'd likely cost way more?
Does he have leadership quality in back 4? we need a leader, experienced, calm CB. That would be game changer.
No, you said the above is what got us the CBs we have now. Thats a practice most football clubs take and where most of the top CBs came from. They werent all £75 million signings. And Southampton certainly didnt pay that.
And no thats not what got us the CBs we have now. We have have the CBs we have now because we thought they were better than they were when we signed them. If we selected CBs who were worth what we paid instead our defense would be fine. It was bad judgement on the players selected not a bad procedure.
Koulibaly is much much better than Manolas IMO.. Others may have a differing view, but to me he's considerably better and I like Manolas too.
He's gonna be 30 years old in about 3 years, right? Pfft. 100 millions just for 3 years of service...
He can stay in prime until 33. He can stay with us until 35 to be the old guard, experience source for the youngsters. 100 millions is logical.
Manolas is closer to Smalling level than he is to the Senegalese. VVD is the only defender better than him in world football imo.
Yes. There's no comparison. Manolas may not even be Roma's best CB this season and they've slipped from 3rd last season to 6th this season, from 2nd best defensive record last season to 11th best defensive record this season.
So they're in a fairly similar position to United this season. Their defensive record is still better but hardly what we'd like to model ours on.
I think he was joking
He is very good defender - intelligent, fast, good tackler, but he is surprisingly average in the air.
Someone’s just turned 30
Some people speak as if our defence is lead by immature 18 year olds which is really not the case. Jones, Smalling, Valencia, Young, Darmian and Rojo are either at the wrong end of their 20s or even in their 30s. So if they need a CB to lead them, then we might as well do a clean sweep, bring in an experienced CB and build the defence around him. If so, I don't think that Koulibaly is the answer. First of all he'll cost us a bomb. Secondly switching to a faster league at his age is tricky. Finally there's a huge difference between a smallish Italian side and Manchester United. That's something Darmian, Veron and Taibi can easily testify about that.
Don't take me wrong, we do need an experienced CB. However I'd rather see us get someone on the cheap like for example Toby who'll be available for 25m next summer. Once we have him in place, then we can start building for the future. Rojo, Bailly, Jones, Valencia, Darmian and Young should be shown the door paving the way to De Ligt, Tierney and Milenkovic
RB: Milenkovic, Dalot
CB: Toby, Smalling, De Ligt, Lindelof, Tuanzebe
LB: Tiernet, Shaw
Don't take me wrong, we do need an experienced CB. However I'd rather see us get someone on the cheap like for example Toby who'll be available for 25m next summer. Once we have him in place, then we can start building for the future. Rojo, Bailly, Jones, Valencia, Darmian and Young should be shown the door paving the way to De Ligt, Tierney and Milenkovic
RB: Milenkovic, Dalot
CB: Toby, Smalling, De Ligt, Lindelof, Tuanzebe
LB: Tiernet, Shaw
That's a fair description. He's won 2.02 aerial duels per 90 minutes in the last 18 months, with a 59.55% success rate. That's better than Bailly or Lindelof, about on par with Rojo, but a fair bit worse than Smalling (3.97, 66.94%) or the likes of Milenkovic, Militao, Maguire etc, let alone someone like Van Dijk (4.93, 73.58%).
The problem is that Mourinho is wanted by Real Madrid and he already told them that to go back he wants a CB & RB and we all know that Mourinho wanted Koulibaly so if we're not quick about this then off he goes to Madrid.
No way they want Mourinho. After what happened with us, I don't think any of the big clubs are looking at him.
He never been in this situation except his second stint at Chelsea, and we're dumb enough to hire him.
1) The last time he was there, it didnt work out
2) A CB isnt their galactico
So I dont think that particular scenario is a risk
3) he's friends with Pogba so I'll be very surprised if he wants to play under the Portuguese tosspot.
It'll be an insane outlay for a CB who is turning 30. The fact that he'll need around a season to adapt to the league as well as the team, this might just end up as an expensive gamble.
Not every signing needs a year adapting. I’d be very annoyed if a player in his prime needed a full season to adjust. Every signing is a gamble. There’s no telling if they’ll be successful or not. If we spend north of 90m on KK, be assured that we’d demand performances from ASAP.
WTF? He is 27 right now, turning 28 in June.
Yes, he is one of the best in the world, while Manolas is Smalling-level type of player.
Unless you placed him in your private time machine, the dude is still only 27.
Is he a leader in the way Van Dijk is for pool?
That's my only problem with him. He isn't really a loud leader. Very good player but not exactly a leader.
Thats a shame. Feels like something we really need at the back.
It amuses me how much our fans flip flop their opinions. There's talk that Roma, Spurs n Arsenal would take Bailly. Why? Because they can see there's talent there.
He's had a poor season but I think a lot of that can be put on Jose as he's been solid for us before this season.
Lindelof has gone from being absolutely woeful to being just okay and people think he's the answer now.
He's had a poor season but I think a lot of that can be put on Jose as he's been solid for us before this season.
Lindelof has gone from being absolutely woeful to being just okay and people think he's the answer now.
Bailly's had his chance. Lindelof deserves his spot now.
Happy for Arsenal or spurs to take Bailly off of our hands. They won’t though, as they would have seen how he plays over the past three years.
Had his chance? This is the level of stupidity in here. He's not turned into a bad player overnight.
Things I've seen under Bailly at CB = us being solid. Admittedly last season but we did have second best defence out of 20.
Things I've never seen.....us being solid with Lindelof.
Who is the biggest change to our defence this year?
He's been fine in the majority of his matches. Just needs to reign it in a bit.
He's still young and relatively green, once he settles down he's going to be a fantastic defender. We wont sell him.
Agree.
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