Klaus wrote:
He looks like a decent right winger, and a complete nightmare as a potential Premier League fullback (and not in a good way).
Gunner89 wrote:
The switch from a very good defensive right back to one who is quite suspect has the potential to make a significant difference (in a negative manner) to our defensive record
evoh wrote:
Serious threat going forward, but his lunges at international level are madness.
Could anyone of you point out to me the instances where he's looked poor/suspect defensively?
I think most people are just repeating what they already thought about him as a player before the tournament, at no point has he looked poor/brainless/suspect defensively in the tournament IMO.
I have seen comments about how ultra attacking he was against Japan, but that was exactly what his team needed at that point; Japan scored a goal and parked the bus, and as we have seen so far, the Ivorians channel most of their attacks through him (which is a very positive sign that they rate/trust him) when they are going for it, so he had to do a lot of attacking. Contrast that to how reserved he was for most of the match against Colombia, he only started bombing forward frequently after they went behind and he caused them all sort of problems.
As I said in another thread, I can't say how good he is positionally (not yet tested enough for me to say), but he's looked good in the air despite his height and unbeatable 1 v 1.
He's one of the players that has got the eye in the tournament so far IMO.