Transfer Story:
For months now, I have been distressed and baffled by doing stories on Arsenal being linked with attacking players. It’s unsurprising to be honest, as Arsene Wenger hardly ever pays heed to reinforce the back end of the pitch. Even in January, Arsenal signed two excellent attacking players in Henrikh Mkhitaryan and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang. With their acquisition and the presence of Mesut Ozil and Alexandra Lacazette, Arsenal have a fine group of attacking players at their disposal.
However, as the season progressed this time around, major glitches in the defence and deep midfield started appearing. Hence, it seems to be a welcoming move from the club’s perspective as a report from TalkSport says Senegalese international Kalidou Koulibaly is on the radar of Arsenal’s board. The defender is being courted by some of the best clubs including Chelsea and Liverpool owing to his impressive performances for Napoli and Arsenal are amongst the ones interested in completing this deal.
Koulibaly: The Modern Defender
Kalidou Koulibaly plays at the heart of the defence and is a technically adept defender, who is capable of pulling off every trick from his armour. He has a strong physique, and that helps him to shrug off forwards with his strong physical demeanour. Koulibaly is quick too and boasts of strong and intelligent reading of the game that helps him to detect and deal with attacks relatively quicker than other defenders. However, the most important and peculiar aspect of his game, something that has propelled him to his current heights is his composure on the ball. Koulibaly is a safe proponent with the ball at his feet and hence that separates him from the other central defenders.
Napoli thrives on building the play from the back and Koulibaly remains extremely crucial to their setup. He can regularly pick up an incisive pass from between the lines and that helps him to start off attacking moves from deep down the field itself. In 30 appearances this season, Koulibaly has scored four goals and created eight goal-scoring chances too. He has won around 55% of his aerial duels, and that highlights his supreme aerial prowess. Accordingly, it can very well be seen that Koulibaly is a tough man to get past on the field, as his reading of the game, coupled with his strong aerial and physical presence makes it difficult to bully him in and around the box too.
Should Arsenal make a move?
This is the first sensible player that Arsenal have been linked to in recent times, as Koulibaly directly impacts and solves the team’s current problems on the field. His passing, composure, strength and skills on the ball will make it easier for him to adapt to the Premier League’s style of play. Arsenal need to make sure that they sign him, even if it demands a club-record fee as the player is worth every single penny that would be spent on him in the future.
Stats Courtesy: Squawka