Hello all, been a while since I’ve posted, I’m sure there’s still a few knocking about reaching back as far as the bbc606 days.
I’m interested to gauge your views on how you rank our current crop of defenders who can operate in the central defence positions, either as a two of three. For arguments sake I’ll leave James out as he primarily plays WB / FB, however will include Cucurella and Chalobah.
Silva, Koulibaly, Fofana, Badiashile, Cucurella and Chalobah.
What’s your order now they’ve all settled from 1 to 6?
Silva continues to show his class, Cucurella and Koulibaly have now started to show form, Fofana has finally had the chance to justify his fee, Badiashile has taken no time to adapt and Trev rarely puts a foot wrong. Somebody is always going to be unfortunate to miss out on a place.
Squad packed with quality defenders
posted on 18/3/23
Right now? Silva, Fofana, Badiashile, Koulibaly, Chalobah, Cucurella. Everyone at their best? Put Koulibaly ahead of Fofana.
Cucurella last purely because he isn’t really a CB, still rate him as a defender though despite his rough start.
Looking at our overall set of defensive options for next season, I wouldn’t swap with any other team in Europe. Silva, Koulibaly, Fofana, Badiashile, Colwill, Chalobah, James, Chilwell, Gusto, Cucurella is absolutely outrageous tbh.
No one in Europe has that level of depth and quality in defence.
posted on 18/3/23
It's a tough one to rate from 1 to 6, for a variety of reasons. I too do not see Cucurella as a central defender but he is part of a great defence. I also would have given a different response a month or so ago.
I watched Cucurella in his first game and was delighted with what I saw, so much positivity especially going forward and I thought he'd give Chilwell a run for his money, then he didn't look so good for a while. Koulibaly seemed like Bambi on ice at times, Fofana we never saw enough of before his injury. Chalobah has had some great performances but also has not been as consistent as most of the others seem to have become but then he hasn't had the opportunities that some of the others have had. Silva and Badiashile both seem to have hit the ground running and just haven't stopped, Silva particularly is just unreal.
I'd rate them 1 Silva, 2 Badiashile, 3 Fofana, 4 Koulibaly, 5 Chalobah, 6 Cucerella, but that's only to answer your question.
I think we will start to see if we play a back 3 more of Fofana, Badiashile and Koulibaly with Silva dipping in and out only because of his age and the need to move forward. I'm happy to have Silva at the club for as long as he likes, he clearly loves it here and can only help bring the others along. He's like our Hoddle or Gullit from old. Koulibaly is getting on a bit now though good for a few more seasons I expect so I hope Chalobah stays and makes the most of opportunities along with Colwill. I fear this may take some juggling though, a good problem to have.
Koulibaly and Cucurella have taken a lot of stick, as have a few others including the manager. People seem to have little patience these days, which is a little sad, but things are looking good defensively at the moment. Whilst we have to decent keepers I'm not sure we have the keeper we need just yet to turn this into a formidable defensive unit.
On the subject of old 606ers I enjoyed a good pregame beer with Number 1 was Robert Fleck pre Fulham. I see him fairly regularly anyhow but it was good to have a nice catch up.
posted on 18/3/23
I’ll never forget that username 🤣 he was a good guy.
posted on 18/3/23
comment by The Droog (U17596)
posted 36 minutes ago
I’ll never forget that username 🤣 he was a good guy.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Still is 🙂