Milanista

We also had Kaka, who we added after we won the 02/03 CL, to replace Rui Costa. We also had Cafu, Jankulovski, Oddo, Inzaghi, Stam, Ronaldo (R9), Ambrosini, Kaladze, Dida, Costacurta, Rivaldo, Redondo, and others. Some got injuries, like Redondo, others didn't pan out, like Rivaldo, but After 2007, I think we leaned in to the glamor-side too much. Our two young guns didn't take off, Gourcuff (talent but terrible attitude) and Pato (injuries) and then there was Gilardino, who scored but not enough, and we had Beckham come in (who impressed people) and just transfer after transfer didn't work, even though Thiago Silva came in (huge unexpected hit), but once Berlusconi started building a new super team, really built on Ibrahimovic and Thiago Silva as the backbone, that's when his political career crashed and he stopped putting money into Milan, we sold off Ibra and Silva, and the unraveling began.

If I wanted to be fair to Tuchel, injuries really derailed his season. His offense is really predicated on his wing-backs, and without them, his system crumbles. Personally? I think that underlines that he lacks imagination, the ability to innovate, and the skill to make the best out of bad situations. I disagree, I think the CL is the ultimate barometer of teams, because in a league, if you're a big team, most of your games are going to be against teams that have less resources than you do, worse players, it's about whether you are consistent, and there's obviously a huge value in the league. But in the CL, even the small teams aren't pushovers. Sure, you'll play an AEK Athens or Club Brugge, but they can surprise you. The knock-out rounds are two-legged ties, and if it was single game elimination, I'd be more inclined to agree with you. Istanbul was only possible because of Gerrard diving for a penalty. Without that penalty, Milan would have won. If an Italian had dived like that, it would have been described as "dark arts" (the new term of art in England it seems) and cheating--we were the better team, in fact, we were the best team in the world from 2002-2007, and should have won the CL every year. In 2006 we faced Barca in the semis, and as per usual, Barca had ref help, Shevchenko had a perfectly good goal scored taken out which would have allowed us to progress, as we would have smashed that Arsenal team. In 2007, we played cautious, and outplayed Liverpool. Their consolation goal was offside, anyway. Maybe it's because there have been so many scandals in Italy with league titles that I don't value them as much? Or that Milan seems to be the equivalent of Liverpool, where our CL glory clouds our judgment?

I look at Tuchel's CL win against City as Pep bottling it, again, rather than Tuchel winning it. I love how Pep gets to "overthink" when he loses, but every other manager just loses. Pep has no excuses, I find the idea of him being the greatest manager of all time to be absurd. I've never seen someone do so poorly with so much and not get more stick for it, outside of like, banter, ha ha. Tuchel plays like a coward. He's just German Conte, but he's better in Europe. Conte is terrible in Europe. Allegri, another terrible manager, is better than Conte. Conte just rides people, he's above-average tactically, but he's able to get the most out of players--that I can't take away from him. Tuchel just blames others. He hasn't improved a single attacking player. Even Havertz, whne you think about what they spent on him? Ziyech and Pulisic? He should have players who can score, he shouldn't have Jorginho be his top scorer in a season. Tuchel should have beat Bayern with his PSG team. Bayern were torn apart by Lyon, and if they only finished, they would have beaten Bayern. The blueprint to beating Bayern was there, and did he use it? No. Lol, I'm sorry, HTT, I really admire your positions, and thank you for your kind welcoming of me, but I am very anti-Tuchel.

Thank you. Kounde is a low-block defender, and he's good, but even with him, they have problems. Thiago Silva is an incredible player, but he's still 37-going-on-38. When your owner is in the room making choices, unless he's some secret tactics and value nerd, he's going to make poor decisions. American owners are seeking value. And frankly speaking, they bought Chelsea at a premium considering it was a distressed asset. Abramovich had to sell. Chelsea don't control their own stadium, and they want to build a new one, the problem is the pitch owners association license the rights to the name Chelsea, itself, and require that Chelsea play at Stamford Bridge to do that. So they overpaid (in my opinion) and don't seem to be putting in a management team that goes beyond the "I play FIFA and this guy is hyped" that plagues most clubs' (around the world) mentalities. Their offense is abysmal. Lukaku was their top scorer, and no only did they misuse him, he was being weird, living in this parallel universe. He's got insane talent, strength, speed, everything. People act like the EPL broke him. He scored more for West Brom in the league than he ever did for Inter. Do people forget his time at Everton? So weird how people act like that didn't happen. Inter with Conte played to his strengths. Inter now? We'll see. Your competition for European spots is pretty weak. The way Newcastle played the second half of the season, I wouldn't be surprised to see you guys top 6.

He'd be in a really tough position at Milan. Kalulu has emerged as a darling among Milan fans--the only way they could stomach Botman was Kalulu playing as a RB--and many were skeptical of Botman, but then Stam (who we like) talked him up, and if Maldini wants a defender, well, you put your doubts aside, right? We just re-signed Florenzi, our second-choice RB, and with our new captain, local boy from our youth Calabria (new captain), Kalulu isn't going to be playing RB, but CB, so Botman would be fighting with our new wonderboy (first professional appearance in football, in his life, for Milan) plus the most popular Englishman in Italy, Tomori, and the return of an actual hero in Kjaer from his ACL surgery in November. He would have had to hit the ground running, from day one, and I think that was a bad situation for him. Newcastle has ambition and your team isn't being built in a moronic way. You seem to have the best English manager, genuinely, because he seems to have way more tactical know-how than Southgate, and that guy runs England. Insane what a cup run with overwhelming talent can do for a caretaker, eh? I think Chelsea are going to fall behind, they might even run into a little bit of an Arsenal/Man Utd phase, while Conte's tenure at Spurs is going to end poorly, even if he wins something, Conte burns players, executives, and fans out. I think Arteta is overrated, so I think there's a pathway to get to top four, if you up your squad quality, particularly in attack. I guess a big part of that is how will Saint Maximin handle increased expectations? Can he be more consistent? Will Calum be able to score like you need him to? I'm sure there are other areas, but I don't think the EPL is as strong as people believe, because, once you go past Liverpool and City, I think the quality drops dramatically. Chelsea should be better, but Tuchel is getting a lot of leeway with his CL win. But he's done poorly with the tools at his disposal. I love how Lukaku's failure is being spun as Tuchel being handed a misfit. Yes, Lukaku is just... he's a weird guy. He really is. He's back at Inter, but he's still a massive loss for Chelsea, and Chelsea weren't bought to add to the vanity of a billionaire. They were bought to make money. Like Arsenal, like Man Utd. They don't seem to be making moves that show a massive shift in philosophy, they're looking to grab Sterling, after Tuchel has done nothing with Werner, Pulisic, Ziyech, Lukaku, and Havertz. He didn't buy most of them, but he's the one who decided against keeping Giroud. He's the one who let Tammy go. Chelsea let Tomori go, and correct me if I'm wrong: don't Chelsea need a CB? I'm not predicting you'll get top 4, but I think you can challenge for it. It's probably more natural to get EL first, to let your squad handle the rigors of Europe, also help Howe, as well. But I think it's Liverpool, City, and everyone else, the gap is huge. Especially as Ten Hag has such a huge uphill battle with Man Utd. He's a good coach, but it's still the idiots who run Man Utd, their proteges, they're there still. They still don't get why they've messed up. They still are going to bank on Bruno Fernandes? It's just a mess, and if Ten Hag actually gets support, he can turn things around, but he'll need a year, because there is a lot of expensive defenders who aren't going to help him there. You just need to be patient with Botman, because, unlike Bruno, Paqueta, or Trippier, he hasn't had to deal with expectations yet. He's a smart kid, but, VVD comparisons are not going to help a kid who still needs to learn his trade.

He's a hard worker, fast, strong, gets stuck in--he's a great player. He should have done well at Milan, but we have this superkid named Yacine Adli and apparently we're going after De Ketelaere, though I'm a bigger fan of Adli. Maldini has re-signed with Milan, so that Italian arrogance from our press will be... overwhelming.

I wrote a long diatribe on him here. After that post, I saw some more of Howe's tactics, and I wrote an addendum of sorts somewhere here, where I think Paqueta would actually work as Howe likes to have one of your CMs turn into a CAM as your 433 morphs into a 4231, which is what suits Paqueta the best.

We are more concerned with Maldini extending with our new ownership or not. Botman was not seen as a priority among most Milan fans--the Tomori-Kalulu CB partnership was a frankly frightening combination. Botman needs time, I hope you give it to him. I also hope you buy Paqueta. Mostly for the sell-on clause, but also because he'd actually suit what Howe wants and I think he's a good kid, he deserves to be in a place that gets the most out of him.

Initially it was a cricket and football club, but the football part took off. Like Genoa, Italy's oldest club, cricket was part of the early clubs foundation, but did not continue for very long.

If you are buying Botman, you won't sign Romagnoli. They're the same player. Left-footed CBs who can pass very well. I mean it, very well. Romagnoli was supposed to be the next great Italian CB. We bought him when he was very young. He stayed with us during our banter period, was better than Bonucci when he was here, became our captain, turned down huge offers from Chelsea and other big clubs to stick with us. His development stagnated a bit, don't think he got called up by Italy when he should have, but he was expected to be the leader of Milan, being made captain at 24 would be hard on anyone, let alone a club that was (at that point) spending a lot of money, and still struggling. He was compared to Nesta. Like Nesta, he is a boyhood Lazio fan who loved Milan, he wore Nesta's 13 shirt, so the pressure was there, and to be honest, I think he did very well his first few years here, in a team that was poorly constructed. He also wasn't being developed, new managers all the time. When Pioli came in, he looked like he was finally being settled, because in Jan. of 2020, we got Simon Kjaer, who I did not think would help, but he played at a world-class level, truly, world-class (which I define as being top 10 in your position, in the world) and Romagnoli did well next to him. Many thought Romagnoli finally had his mentor. We started playing a high-line. Suicidal high line, actually. Romagnoli struggled with that. But in 20/21 he had a very poor second half of the season and then we got Tomori (Jan of 21) and he was displaced by Tomori. Didn't complain. Professional. He had a bad Jan-May '21 run. In 21/22, he was determined to fight for his place. He was third choice CB, behind Kjaer and Tomori. Romagnoli was slaughtered for his 20/21 performances, and he actually came out with his best form when called upon in 21/22. Then he had a nightmare game against Sassuolo, where he literally fell flat on his face after being bamboozled by Berardi. Milan fans have written him off, they think he's terrible, even though he was very good outside of that performance. Like, excellent. Against Inter, where we won 2-1, Milan fans seem to forget that he was back there because Tomori had a minor surgery. Romagnoli then had a groin strain, which pushed Kalulu full time in the second half of 21/22, and we were one of the strongest defensive sides in Europe with Kalulu and Tomori. Romagnoli is a class defender, his positioning is very good, not perfect, but very good. He's not afraid, gets stuck in, but he's got a major weakness: he is slow. Actually slow. This is why the Nesta comparisons never made sense, because Nesta was fast. If you want to compare Romagnoli to Nesta, perhaps when Nesta was in his last year, his knees were a problem, and he had to rely on his guile. But even then, Nesta's positioning is what allowed him to compensate for his lack of pace at that age. Romagnoli does not have that. Romagnoli might be like many other Italian CBs who has a renaissance once he turns 30, like Barzagli, who until he turned 30, was widely seen as a laughing stock of a defender for his career, and his inclusion in the 2006 World Cup team as a funny trivia fact. Most Milan fans appreciate him as a captain, as a professional, and that he stuck with Milan when he had every reason to leave. His lack of pace is what killed him, because Lukaku destroyed him. Lukaku shoved him around like he was playing against his little brother. Milan fans have fixated on his errors, which aren't anywhere near Maguire-type errors, but are treated as such. I will be honest, the biggest reason that most Milan fans were indifferent to Botman was because they play very similarly. Botman is faster than Romagnoli, there's no doubt about that. If Romagnoli had pace, he would be an incredible defender, but, "if my grandmother had wheels..." but there's a very good defender in there, the problem is, he can't function in a high-line. He is a low-block defender. Elite, actually. But if you put him in an open field, with a high line, like we do, he can be torn apart. In my opinion, he would be perfect for Allegri's Juve. They play with a low-block, and the fact they haven't been linked is bizarre. The rumors are that he will be agreeing with Lazio, his boyhood dream. There are rumors now that he might re-sign with Milan, but, I would be surprised at that. I went past the first sentence because without development, Botman can become like Romagnoli. Development of young players is more important than transfers. Romagnoli, unfortunately, has not developed, but he has all the tools, even with his severe lack of pace. His lack of pace is why I don't think he would be a good fit for the EPL. I don't usually buy into the whole thing about the EPL being special or whatever, but in Romagnoli's case, he could only play in Spain (for Atletico) or for Juve, he can't be in aggressive, proactive sides. That's the worry with Botman--but, to be fair to him, in 20/21, Lille were usually on the front-foot, attacking teams, and he was fine. He's faster than Romagnoli, but I don't think he's as good of a passer. He's stronger than Romagnoli, though, but it's the speed that is the big difference here. As you can tell, I'm avoiding very important work by writing these posts lol.

My apologies. I guess for us Newcastle is the part of your club's name that sticks in our minds. For example, no one in Italy calls Milan, "AC Milan" or "AC." Milan is known as "Meelan" like an Italian saying the English word for the city (Italian: "Milano" - English: "Milan")--because our club was founded by an Englishman, and the name "Milan" stuck. Inter Milan is known simply as "Inter" and their full name is "Internazionale Milano." Interestingly our American owners are really pushing the "AC Milan" bit more, which I suspect is to ensure trademark protection, as they would have trouble getting it for the name of the city, but as "AC Milan" they can. I really need to shut my mouth. Sorry for the insult, it was unintentional.

I remember that both City and United were after Alexis Sanchez, and United won the race to sign him, so it's not like Man Utd are going after bad players. I think the issue is that they don't have a plan. I realize that Pogba is not very popular in England, but I think he's been misused at Utd his entire career there. He should be playing where Bruno plays, you let him roam, he will give you enough defensive cover so you don't have a passenger, but his passing, orchestrating, and goals will flow from that position. But instead of building your team around your world-record signing, they ask him to do something different to what made them pay all that money. At Juve, he had Pirlo, Vidal, and Marchisio behind him. For France in the World Cup, he had Kante and Matuidi with him. United do this consistently. They play Sancho in a completely different way than he did at Dortmund, and then people are confused with what the problem is. Yes, they overpaid for Wan-Bissaka, and got a low-block CB in Maguire when they wanted to play attacking and with a high-line. Southgate is a coward, so Maguire gets to enjoy the cover of CBs with him and two defensive minded mids in Phillips and Rice in front of him. They bought van de Beek but did not want to use him in a way that made sense, and he wasn't cheap either. If you're going to spend big on a player, make sure to do it so that they are doing the same thing for you that made you spend big. It's the same with Tuchel. Tuchel has not improved a single attacking player at Chelsea. I hate Lukaku, hate him, but people talking about his failure with Chelsea but they absolve Tuchel. It baffles me. Conte got the best outta Lukaku, hell, Lukaku scored more in the league for West Brom than he ever did for Inter, so it's not about "EPL tax," it's about getting players like Werner, Havertz, Pulisic, Ziyech, and not having a system or style that suits any of them. Lukaku, on the counter, is deadly. He's faster than I thought, his touch suddenly is sharp on the counter, but if you have slow, methodical, build-up play, he just doesn't do it. Belgium use him on the counter! Everyone seemed to figure it out, except Tuchel. And I'd give Tuchel the benefit of the doubt if he didn't have such a terrible track record with every attacker. Havertz is doing okay, great, but you didn't pay 80m or whatever for okay. Which gets me onto Howe. I think he might actually be one of the most refined English tacticians around. Graham Potter isn't bad either, but I think Howe has a pretty unique style. When I was asked about Paqueta, I talked about how I saw him--and at first, I thought: "why would they even want him?" and then when I did a little digging into Howe's style, Paqueta actually made sense, a lot of sense. I wonder if you guys are going to bet on Joelinton, instead, as it seems he has transitioned into a midfielder. The key for transfers isn't about names, it's about how you use them--and more importantly: develop them. Botman needs development. I've watched a lot of him, and Milan played Lille in the EL two years ago. He's not that fast, but he's aggressive, and most importantly: he wins his duels, consistently, and he isn't a fluke about it. Where Botman needs the most work is his marking. This season, Lille were a shambles, and sometimes I wonder if Botman was covering for other's mistakes, whether it was a breakdown in his partners, and at the same time, he also was shielded heavily with Djalo (a former Milan product) who is a CB masquerading as a LB. Against Chelsea, in the first leg, in the first 20 minutes, Botman was shredded apart. So, you're going to need to be patient with him. The talent is there, he's strong, he's fast (enough)--I have recently become a huge proponent of ultra speedy CBs with our pairing so maybe I'm too obsessed with speed in my CB (I used to not care as much)--what you're buying is essentially VVD. He is the same style of defender. But he's going to need time. He's really young, and when it comes to defending, physically, as in, tackles, headers (he's amazing in the air), getting stuck-in, I don't think you're going to need to teach him much. It's in his marking where he needs work, and more importantly, he needs to be more disciplined when switching from the zone to man-marking. These things can all be taught. Maldini was asked like a year-or-two ago what he looks for in a defender, he said something like (I'm paraphrasing): "I look for courage and their ability to win their duels, everything else, we can teach." Botman has courage, because he left Ajax when he was young, and he's got the natural defensive skill, he sees what the attacker is going to do--what he needs to learn is all off-the-ball, and you're going to need to be patient with him. CB and CDM (regista) are the two positions where youth rarely thrive because of the complexity and cerebral aspects of the positions, and why older players are able to stay in those positions far longer than others. Lol, I'm so sorry about all this, I don't really talk to friendly EPL fans online, so excuse my exuberant diatribes that I hope you see as just my thoughts as an addition to your point, rather than some snotty counter-point.

I really appreciate that, you are too kind. I am actually thinking of leaving my work in the finance/legal world and getting into football. I played seriously when I was younger, and still play now, and while I thought about going into coaching, I want to get into management.

The Italian press does not like Milan, they favor Juve and Inter, heavily, so I think you were looking for slights where they did not exist, to be quite frank. We don't need money from a Paqueta sale to buy players. Milan has money but they plead poverty. For those who dislike Milan (in Italy) they are citing this as a failure and loss, many Milan fans--who did not even rate Botman--are taking this as some sort of win for banter with EPL fans. Milan fans enjoy talking about their club as if they are the cusp of relegation, they think it shows their "objectivity." I find it tiresome, personally. Milan has shown that they do not raise their offer. We will not know about how Maldini saw Botman until he finalizes his renewal, which is what Milan fans are more concerned about.

Please buy him.

Good point, I forgot that the English press is renown for their restraint, understated headlines, and that English pundits are notorious for their appreciation of foreign players and foreign leagues.

I never rated Pirlo that highly, I always thought that Albertini was better than him. I think English and Italians have very different views of what their ideal midfielder is. I think English midfielders are really tasked with these box-to-box duties, that Italian midfielders seldom are asked to do. While we are obviously dealing in generalities, I'd say that Italy puts a huge emphasis on the regista, CDM, a Pirlo, Albertini, Ancelotti, Jorginho, those types of players. We love them, but I get the sense they are usually very annoying to English fans. They don't play in an exciting way, they don't do flashy things, but they keep the machine moving. It's like the old guy in the pickup game who wears Copa Mundial Turf boots to play, he just passes the ball around, maintains possession, and sure, his knee is shot, but he'll still do the right thing, lol. Jorginho had a bad season (as did Chelsea) but I think he showed previously why he is so highly regarded by so many coaches, and I'm not even his biggest fan. The thing is, Italian midfielders have seldom been our calling card, I think our intense emphasis on defense contrasted with our love of world class forwards, of all types, from Totti to Inzaghi, from Rivera to Vieri, there are so many different kinds. But our midfielders have not been flashy, but they are crucial to our tactics, they just do unseen things. It's like foundations in a house or electrical, they're expensive, not flashy, but important in houses. What we enjoy in our midfielders I think is very different to what the English enjoy, and I think the Spanish do the sort of fancy stuff that is greatly appreciated by English. Right now, Italy is producing a lot of midfield talent. Our European Cup winning midfield of Verratti-Jorginho-Barella is world-class, and I think the only midfield that bests our is Spain's, but Tonali is probably one of the best young midfielders in the world. We also have Pellegrini, Locatelli, and a bunch of others who are good (but you probably haven't heard of them [Pobega, Frattesi, Esposito, Ricci]) let alone the useful ones like Cristante and Pessina. I think we have more midfield talent than usual, but our crisis in attack is staggering. I think coverage of Italy's woes make it seem like there is a problem top-to-bottom, when really, our only attacking player who could get into England's squad, for example, is Chiesa, and he torn his ACL. Scammacca might be able to, and that's because CF are rare these days. Otherwise, I don't see any of our wingers getting into your team, nor Spain's, nor Germany's, let alone France, lol. Italians are still innovating tactically, and Serie A is very attacking now. I think the issue is that our talent is not in our attack, and to think that Insigne wears our 10 shirt? All of our big clubs don't use Italians in their attack, save Chiesa, and Immobile, who scores for fun for Lazio (in Europe too) but when he wears an Italy shirt, he's... a different person. So I don't think it's about our tactics or the style of football today, I think the only reason we were able to beat England was because of the quality of our midfield and defense. If we had an attack, I think we would have won easily. I also think Southgate hinders England, he has a good generation. I think midfield is probably England's weakest position. Declan Rice is... good? 150m good? Dear God, no. Phillips isn't good enough for England, and the fact Southgate plays with a back 5? I think that's beneath England. It's cowardly. Your attack is class though, and Kane is good, even if he annoys me. I hope you enjoy your time in Italy! I'm sorry for the length!

I'm sorry boys, I told you, I'm not very gracious in defeat. At least be fair to me: I did say from the outset that I'm not too keen on Botman. I just ask that you give me that kindness, lol.

Scammacca is the only one in that list who has elite potential. Pellegrini is an attacking CM, we play him as our LW because of how bad our attacking talent is, he's ideally a CAM in a 4231, where he's excellent. If you're talking about Pellegri, the young striker, then yes, he has potential, but he hurts himself getting out of bed. If Zaniolo and Chiesa didn't get hurt, Italy would be in the World Cup and I'd be very bullish about our chances. Zaniolo since getting injured has been poor. Chiesa is my favorite Italian attacker, but he's on a long road of recovery after his ACL injury. Berardi is slow, ponderous on the ball, the type of player who has amassed stats that people cite without watching him play. He's stuck at Sassuolo for a reason: no big club wants him. Milan need a RW, and we're not interested. Raspadori is like Di Natale--he's a Jermaine Defoe level player, but not someone who should be leading your line. I mean, when you look at our keepers, defenders, or midfielders, who in our attack is at Donnaruma, Bastoni, Spinazola, Verratti, Barella, Tonali level? No one, unfortunately. Italy's lack of attacking talent is the biggest issue.

I guess I'll just wipe my tears with my league title from the summer. I also think many of you overestimate the level of "bitterness" among Milan fans. Most of them were quite skeptical of Botman and preferred giving the starting shirt to Kalulu.

I still think we are producing top defensive talent. The worry is that Italy is not producing any attacking talent. No one. Our midfielders are still world-class, as are our defenders, but my Lord, our attack has been beyond poor. Balotelli was the last world-class talent we had. Maybe El Shaarawy for 8 months, if you're being kind, but honestly, the fact our two best attacking talents are Zaniolo and Chiesa, both having ACL injuries, it is just terrifying how little we produce in one position, when we our talent is still clear in every other area of the pitch.

When you grew up with Baresi, Costacurta, Maldini, and Nesta... we've never really had defenders like him, who were "hardmen." I mean, Tassotti might be the closest to that or actually Stam, but he was only at Milan briefly. Panucci, Cafu, Thiago Silva, Galli, Oddo, Jankulovski, Tomori, Kalulu now... we don't really employ hardmen. Plus, so many of Materazzi's redcards hurt his team. There's no need. Gattuso I felt was more honest about his tackles, but he seldom got reds. I don't think he was cheap. Walter Samuel, hard defender, tough, but not elegant, I can respect him, even if he played for the ugly half of Milan. Materazzi though? I'll pass.

I prefer elegant defending, and Italy did far better in that tournament when Materazzi was on the bench and Nesta playing together with Cannavaro. Materazzi gave up the penalty for Zidane, to begin with. The last time there was an Inter defender that had a style that would suit Milan, would be Zanetti. But we had Cafu, so why downgrade at RB? It's a travesty that Italy won't be in the next world cup. I actually celebrated Del Piero's goal in London!

I'll give you a top 10, but I'll have them in tiers: Tier 1: Maldini, Baresi, Gentile, Scirea, Tier 2: Nesta, Cannavaro, Cabrini Tier 3: Costacurta, Bergomi, Burgnich

Pure CBs? Or does Maldini's ability to play CB (even when he was younger) before his transition into a CB in the last years of his career count?