There was one mistake I agree, but he made up for it in the end of that action by closing down Chievo's player just enough for Buffon to pick up the ball. Apart from that very good if not an excellent game imho. And his passing was very accurate tonight. I would roughly say around 90% completed passes.
There was one mistake I agree, but he made up for it in the end of that action by closing down Chievo's player just enough for Buffon to pick up the ball. Apart from that very good if not an excellent game imho. And his passing was very accurate tonight. I would roughly say around 90% completed passes.
He was never caught out of position, showed great awareness and anticipation (iirc he had something like 4-5 interceptions), won vast majority of the duels with Chievo's forwards and most importantly bar that misfortune in the 2nd half for which he managed to make up, he didn't make errors resulting with a chance for opponent. That makes it very good. The fact that he had more than 90%passes completed and always looked comfortable on the ball last night to the point than on a few occasions he pushed down on his left side and run passed his opponents, and in the process making it look like a most natural thing to do, makes it an excellent.
He should be one of the centre backs and not the sweeper. He's a great physical defender who let's nothing through. He isn't however anywhere close to being good enough on the ball to play as a sweeper.