Don't agree. He's a decent defender, but he's not an excellent defender in my mind. As an example, I wouldn't have him at our club...
Why? He's only going to get better and he's a legitimately solid defender.
I really hope that's sarcasm. He's got all the time in the world to build on his obvious talent but his shot stopping's no better than at least 5 PL keepers I can think of including Krul.
Which is why you love a team in which Tiote is higher up then pitch than he should be and Jonas is starting - and off the striker for crying out loud. I thought Skirge posted daft teams but that's the ultimate.
Or perhaps he'd get the best out of him and utilise him correctly like his proven track record of doing so with Newcastle players. He certainly wouldn't have deployed him so defensively like Pardew has this season that's for sure.
So telling Hatem to concentrate on attacking would turn him into the best player in the league? Come on, man.
He'd tell him to just go out and express himself, bud. Hatem would then magically develop fantastic pace and start scoring 25 a season. He'd double his career tally in the first season alone. Gotta love KK and his long magic wand.
In this league he 100% isn't. Out wide he'll be invisible far too long and cause problems for the full-back behind him. Through the middle it's a much better use of his strengths in addition to somewhat negating his weaknesses.
To be fair to TT, I think he's been personally affected by something alcohol-related and it must be bloody tough seeing all this sympathy towards someone who pisses away chance after chance and help upon help.