But why should we sell a player when he has played decent for us? If we wanted to replace him with one proven left back that would add up for me but we replaced him with Molinaro.
Selling him was not a mistake. The mistake was done in Ranieri's evaluation of Molinaro.
Balzaretti is a bad defender. He was decent when we played against a really inferior serie B team but this guy isn't a player who can play the tough defense we're playing currently. Balzaretti is more of a winger than he is a defender and in Ranieri's system this guy will never work.
Ranieri is seeing firstly a defender in the full back and only then a midfielder. Balzaretti isn't such a player and Chiellini was the first choice LB.
Molinaro is a type of player that coaches like. He was young when we got him and Ranieri expected him to learn some things. Molinaro lacks the talent but he has huge potential. He's always in defense and in attack, works like a horse. What he was expected to learn was to cross the ball better and to be tactically more aware. I guess Ranieri expected him to learn this. Unfortunately, it was a wrong evaluation as i said. He's not learning this things or he's learning them very very slow.