Nicolas Nkoulou

We really need this guy to do the business for us . I think it may have been mentioned before but we are very light at CB.

 

Well, his hamstrings may have snapped in two had he played, but he surely couldn't have been any worse than who played lol

 

How unfit must have been to need three weeks of intense training to even get considered to be involved.

Usual Trotters Independent Traders recruitment style.

 

I don't care if he's got two broken legs, he'll still do a better job than Cathcart, the useless old clown.

 

Please god let him be fit for next week. He could be awful but that's still an upgrade on the current CBs.

 

Watching Brentford and they have their late free agent signing Zanka involved straight away (signed a few weeks ago, but still, it's annoying we have to wait nearly a month to see Nkoulou when we need him now!)

 

Blew my mind to discover Cathcart is only 32. He moves like he’s in his mid-50s. The Glenn Murray of defenders.

 

Yes, he’s still got a couple of years left in him at this level.

 

New contract incoming?

 

No, he featured for them before the international break too, he didn't seem to have to acclimatise. Perhaps he was training with them for a while, but it begs the question, why couldn't we do that with Nkoulou?

 

Not that he did an awful lot, but what a ******* introduction!

 

Came on in the 76th minute with us losing 2-1. Played 14 minutes and we won 4-0 during that period. Wasn't impressed with his impact.

 

Seriously how did he do as apart from above I haven’t seen him mentioned

 

Had 4 touches, made 1 pass and won his only aerial duel. He didn't have much to do as Everton completely crumbled.

 

Had a good game I thought, perhaps we'll see him pair up with Sierralta after the international break

 

Surprise, surprise, he's immeasurably more competent than the couple of clowns we've had at centre back the past few weeks.

Signing a centre back fit for the level... imagine that.

 

He looks incredibly measured and calm. Not even sure he's made a tackle or done anything of note yet. I think this is a really good thing?

 

The ten seconds before the United goal are interesting viewing though. His eyes are on the ball the entire time, as it's played up through the centre, out wide and the cross then comes in. Not once does he look around him, has absolutely no idea where Van Der Beek is, hence why there's a free header in the six yard box...

 

He's not going to be perfect though because, like every player, he wouldn't be playing for us if he were.

I think what was noticeable on Saturday was how calm the whole back four were, in the first half particularly, compared to other games.

I have a lot of time for WTE. He wears his heart on his sleeve. But you can feel him and the crowd tense up when he receives the ball in our half.

When Nkoulou got it there was just a calm assuredness that he had "got this".

I don't think Man U's pressing was particularly impressive and other teams may fluster him but, based on what I've seen so far, I'm confident they won't.

 

Exactly right. It was a really noticeable difference, a calm head and much less frantic all round at the back. Cathcart and Masina seemed to be much improved with Nkoulou nearby.

 

Why didn't munoz insist we sign him in the summer? What a terrible decision it was to retain that hapless terd.

 

Yes thought the same but then again, VDB is a midfielder, surely one of our CMs should have been with him with NN focusing on the strikers ?

 

Yep, Louza loses. The pile of **** bought just to sweeten Gino's mate

 

Of course, and you could say that multiple players were culpable but just thought it was an extreme example of ball watching given he didn't even glance over his shoulder once in the whole passage of play lasting over ten seconds. Hopefully a one off lapse...

 

Scanning is one of the main things that seperates a normal pro and an "elite" footballer. There's some interesting research being done on it at the moment and a study has found a link between success and the number of times players look around them ("From a sample of 118 players and 1279 game situations, Jordet et al (2013) argued that there was a positive relationship between visual exploration and performance. The results were a 53.7% pass success rate for low frequency visual exploration, 61% for medium frequency visual exploration and 72.6% for high frequency visual exploration. As part of the study, Frank Lampard and Steven Gerrard, (both players who played at the highest level for club and country), were identified as making 0.62 searches/second")

Take a look at this clip for instance to see how often Lampard turns his head to build a picture of what's around him - absolutely crazy.



Whilst it's obviously a hugely important aspect for midfielders, it's also hugely important for defenders as you'll have players making runs in behind you etc that you'll need to be wary of. Hopefully it's just a bit of rust after a few months of not playing.

 

They do say the best way to approach a joke is to just pile it on; really smash it into the ground. If it's not added to every sentence written for the next three or four days, how can you have any hope of it landing? Comedy craft 101.

 

Anecdotally it seemed like Nkoulou's positioning and awareness in the United game (outside this scanning issue) were far superior to what we've seen up to now - I feel like I saw him step up and cut out/intercept balls some distance in front of our box that might have been dawdled or prevaricated on by any of our other centre backs and led to an opposition break/opportunity several times - I don't know if anyone with access to/a better understanding of defensive stats from the game can confirm or deny that...

 

Not sure I agree. I'm not convinced this forum is ready for in-jokes of a repetitive nature. Certainly not without reference to cheeses.