++ [ originally posted by Monkfish ] ++
If you think Thuram is our worst defender then maybe you are closing your eyes everytime Montero or Legro goes near the ball - actually I do that too.
I close my eyes and hope they'll go away.
Alright, there's been a lot of bad mouthing of every defender on this squad except Zambrotta. Let's be real for a minute:
Montero is old, and he's lost a step because he's old, and since his injury he's not been the same. Nevertheless, at times he's been our best defender, lending strength and stability to our backline. I think his main problem is that he can't go a full 90 and thus he shouldn't be a starter for us anymore. That doesn't mean that he should be sold, because he still has service to give to the club.
Legro has been absolutely terrible this season. He was supposed to be our saviour, but he's failed to reproduce the form that attracted our attention. We've given him almost a whole season and he's consistently dissappointed. He's probably the most expendable member of the defence
Tudor is injured, plain and simple. He's our best defender when healthy, but it doesn't happen that often, so we can't rely on him. He needn't be sold, but we can't consider him a starting option.
Ferrara and Pessotto shoud be out next season. Both of them should retire and even if they don't I can't see them playing, barring an injury crisis.
Birindelli is a fine back-up and generally reliable. He must be kept because there aren't a lot of players like him out there.
Iuliano sucks, and he should be shipped out. He doesn't contribute anything to our defence and he might fetch a price somewhere. It's time to say goodbye.
Thuram has been off-form for the large majority of this season. Currently, I rate him similar to Montero, good, but not a starter. The difference is that Thuram can fetch a serious price on the transfer market, so we should sell him in order to afford more and better young defenders.
Last but certainly not least, Buffon has lost a step. Some of y'all want to blame his poor performance this season on the defence, but I think that it's the opposite. If anythig, last season's defence was worse than the current one, but Buffon held them up. This season, the defensive weaknesses are highlighted because Buffon has let in more goals. It's time we gave him some competition, either Carini or another keeper who can push Buffon. Besides that, Chimenti isn't an adequate back-up.
That leaves us with one defender: Zambrotta, the rest need to be replaced, and we need some back-ups too.