Otamendi top ha ha ha ha ha..... Oh man that's comedy genius ha ha ha.... 

Hmm, now you have my attention. If he's better than Rudiger than that would make him a pretty good CB because Rudiger was one of our better players last season.

He has one quality that is also the reason why many of his performances are way undervalued even by many juve fans. Despite the age he is excellent tactically he often reads the attacking movements in advance so he does a lot of preventive marking. You don't see him tackling all the time or using his body like a chiellini would do not be is very clean. He needs to improve of course but he is a CB that has played and learnt 3 years with one of the best defenses in Europe, I can't understand why we would sell him now that barzagli is close to retirement and chiellini needs to be used carefully. It would be only for financial reasons but I think it would be a mistake

5 hours ago, dkw said:

Otamendi top ha ha ha ha ha..... Oh man that's comedy genius ha ha ha.... 

Why? He was the best defender for the best defence in the league last season.

19 minutes ago, Total-Football said:

Why? He was the best defender for the best defence in the league last season.

I think the CIES model tends to overrate ball retention and passing. All of those CBs have high pass ratings.

Personally I'm unsure about Rugani. Reminds me a bit of Andreas when I've watched. I think he has played in the best defence in a slower league. How he will fare in a quick, physical league where he will often be asked to defend one-on-one I don't know. That is my one concern with these Sarri signings, perfect for Italy, but PL is a different beast.

 

8 hours ago, Total-Football said:

Why? He was the best defender for the best defence in the league last season.

No, no he wasnt. 

1 hour ago, dkw said:

No, no he wasnt. 

Who was better?

17 hours ago, the special one said:

These infographics get worse and worse. I understand statistically they may have scored a few goals or have a high pass completion but Otamendi being top shows how bullsh*t it really is. Without his goals he was so poor last season. 

12 hours ago, Total-Football said:

Why? He was the best defender for the best defence in the league last season.

No. His goals made him look better. Defensively he was still sh*t.

2 hours ago, Total-Football said:

Who was better?

How long you got?

This is why statistics can be very deceiving. 

2 hours ago, RIP Mourinho said:

These infographics get worse and worse. I understand statistically they may have scored a few goals or have a high pass completion but Otamendi being top shows how bullsh*t it really is. Without his goals he was so poor last season. 

No. His goals made him look better. Defensively he was still sh*t.

 

1 hour ago, dkw said:

How long you got?

He was Man City's best defender. Man City did have the best defensive record in the league. Which one of these statements is untrue?

2 minutes ago, Total-Football said:

 

He was Man City's best defender. Man City did have the best defensive record in the league. Which one of these statements is untrue?

A defenders job is to defend. City played a possessive game and therefore rarely had to defend, thus covered for his flaws. When he had to defend (Utd and Liverpool games) he was embarrassing to watch. Put him in any other team in any other system in the world and he's back to being bang average. I mean Fabian Delph played left back in that almighty defense ffs, are you going to tell me he's the best LB in the prem now? 

I can start listing better CB's if you'd like.

27 minutes ago, Total-Football said:

 

He was Man City's best defender. Man City did have the best defensive record in the league. Which one of these statements is untrue?

So Delph is the best left back now then also? 

40 minutes ago, RIP Mourinho said:

A defenders job is to defend. City played a possessive game and therefore rarely had to defend, thus covered for his flaws. When he had to defend (Utd and Liverpool games) he was embarrassing to watch. Put him in any other team in any other system in the world and he's back to being bang average. I mean Fabian Delph played left back in that almighty defense ffs, are you going to tell me he's the best LB in the prem now? 

I can start listing better CB's if you'd like.

It's a good thing Sarri has an identical approach to defending as Guardiola then.

Otamendi is a good tackler, combative and aggressive in interceptions and is good at winning arial duels. Guardiola and Sarri put a lot of emphasis on their defenders having to contest these types of 50/50 scenarios due to the nature of their styles. As such, if Rugani is similar in style to Otamendi he will be great for Sarri.  

25 minutes ago, Total-Football said:

It's a good thing Sarri has an identical approach to defending as Guardiola then.

Otamendi is a good tackler, combative and aggressive in interceptions and is good at winning arial duels. Guardiola and Sarri put a lot of emphasis on their defenders having to contest these types of 50/50 scenarios due to the nature of their styles. As such, if Rugani is similar in style to Otamendi he will be great for Sarri.  

Watch how Sarri defends and you'll realise they don't defend similarly. 

However, if they did it would be okay because we have fantastic defenders such as Azpi, Rudiger etc. 

Unlike Otamendi who is a shocking defender as he's proved once more in the World Cup. 

You'll be telling me you think Pique is a good defender next. 

If anybody wants proof of how terrible Otamendi is at defending, just watch him for Argentina. He embarrassed himself.

4 minutes ago, Scott Harris said:

If anybody wants proof of how terrible Otamendi is at defending, just watch him for Argentina. He embarrassed himself.

agreed the amount of fouls the City team gets away with is astounding 

I'm starting to think there must be 2 otamendi's, because the one this Total-Football fella is describing definitely isn't the one I've been watching the last few years. 

The lack of Harry Maguire on that list just shows how silly it is. 

23 hours ago, the special one said:

Our central defenders in the second and third place, it gives you an idea of Sarri's defensive level.

17 hours ago, RIP Mourinho said:

Watch how Sarri defends and you'll realise they don't defend similarly. 

However, if they did it would be okay because we have fantastic defenders such as Azpi, Rudiger etc. 

Unlike Otamendi who is a shocking defender as he's proved once more in the World Cup. 

You'll be telling me you think Pique is a good defender next. 

I have watched both extensively and they absolutely do defend in a similar fashion. High lines, man to man with lots of lots of one on one duels. What about their approaches are different?

Wait, Pique is a good defender... Anybody who thinks differently doesn't know what they are talking about. The way he has excelled defending in a high line consistently over his career shows he is a good defender. There are different ways to defend outside of the archaic English style of low/medium  block defending.  

2 hours ago, Total-Football said:

Wait, Pique is a good defender... Anybody who thinks differently doesn't know what they are talking about. The way he has excelled defending in a high line consistently over his career shows he is a good defender. There are different ways to defend outside of the archaic English style of low/medium  block defending.  

Pique is a great football player, but he's an average defender. He works for barcelona because they have 65-70% possession in every game. Put him in a team that doesnt control possession and he's another David Luiz. There are at least 20-30 better centre backs than pique currently playing. Here's a few just off the top of my head: Ramos, Hummels, Boateng, Chiellini, Bonucci, Barzagli, Varane, Manolas, Sokratis, Azpilicueta, Kompany

Rugani is just not happening, I don't see any freaking reason why would Juventus get rid of him rofl

11 hours ago, Total-Football said:

I have watched both extensively and they absolutely do defend in a similar fashion. High lines, man to man with lots of lots of one on one duels. What about their approaches are different?

I would slightly disagree on this one too. Sarri plays a much higher line and the aim is to draw the press in by playing short almost risky passes from Abidol, Koulibaly and Jorginho to work the ball out wide and create overloads. Where as I find city play at the back in a much more safer way..... just my opinion I don’t want to get in an arguement about something so irrelevant. Whilst we are talking centre back Rugani is a good signing. Juve have good centre back but need to raise money and he is the only defender that they could get this amount for as they have signed a guy from sampdoria on a free. I can see him and Christiansen being a great long term partnership