Kounde is probably on par with Rudiger when it comes to physicality and has very good aerial success. Height isn't everything, remember Puyol and Canavaro were both midgets but 2 of the best centre halves to exist.
All about who you are partnered with in the PL. Riccy worked because he had JT next to him on one side, often Gallas or later Ivan playing LB or RB to cover on set pieces and Pete in behind who was also quite tall and much better in the air than many gave him credit for.
The obsession with height/physicality over technique is what led to us falling so far off the top in the first place.
Couple of months and he can officially negotiate with other clubs outside of England rather than just receiving verbal offers through his agent.
In hindsight maybe but I think we all know what would have happened if there was a crowd for the Wolves game.
Can you explain what you exactly mean?
Modern defenders are a combination of height, physicality, pace + skill and technique. We need all of those traits to challenge for titles now, it's not an either or situation
To summarise we were signing the likes of Bakayoko while our rivals were signing players like Bernardo Silva. We were also letting the likes of KDB go. We kept Ivanovic as an untouchable despite the game passing him by while almost all our rivals had excellent modern fullbacks. It wasn't one player per se it was a combination of actions.
i dont want to look at other leagues.. the kind of football played in PL is different and direct... And i struggle to think of a single defender who has dominated in the modern era and been around the 5'10' mark.
I will say though that it was nice from the club to let Ivanovic stay as much as it was possible. Azpilicueta is going to be 33 when this season is over as well and he also served the club really well. The interesting part of our tactic right now is that we rely heavily on our full-backs, Tuchel knows this and counts on them so I agree with your opinion that not getting Hakimi was a big blow for us.
Kounde is maybe an even more physically fit player because of his lack of some inches in length.
I think that in a back 4, all these things could still be an issue with Rudiger. In a back 3, it's hard to find anybody better.
Don't try and talk too much sense. Some on here have a vision of us becoming late Wenger Arsenal with lovely technique and no cut through or defensive ability. They argued the same about physicality and height when people noted Kepa was too short to be a PL goalkeeper. Proof was of course in the pudding there.
No one thinks that, there's middle ground between that and what we ended up as in 17/18, I'm still scarred by how incompetent we looked against City.
And we have Chalobah who can play the so-called Rudiger physical role. Kounde taking over from Azpi.
