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Wonder where all the smug pundits are now after writing him off in his first season? One of the best centre backs in the premier now and virtually indestructible as a bonus.

 

David Pleat loves him like.

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I reckon he's a bit like the biblical Samson; he derives his powers from the perm. If he cuts his hair he'll suddenly become completely shit at football.

Hasn't Puyol said that as long as he's playing, he's not getting rid of his hair? :lol:

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I reckon he's a bit like the biblical Samson; he derives his powers from the perm. If he cuts his hair he'll suddenly become completely s*** at football.

 

It's his song, he hasn't had a bad game since we started to sing it.

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Seems like dropping a division helped a few players BUT none moreso than Coloccini - he did struggle in his first season, which wasnt that unusual considering the mess the team was in

 

BUT since then he has been immense - the Championship was frankly too easy for him and he has been top class this season as well

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Wonder where all the smug pundits are now after writing him off in his first season? One of the best centre backs in the premier now and virtually indestructible as a bonus.

 

No need for the smug pundits when we've got our own fans...

 

The Wise signings have been rotten. £10m for Coloccini? Had Bassong not been suspended he’d not have played. Guiterraz? No end product, no goals – a replacement for James Milner and a tidy profit for Ashley?

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I don't think people can be criticised too much for having a go at Colo in the relegation season, he looked awful.

 

Yes, we should be saying "give him a couple of seasons to settle in", but football opinions don't work like that do they?

 

Not sure, maybe it was just me swimming against the tide but I thought he looked a very good player to begin with but by November/December the toll of playing every minute of every game in a new league, in a struggling side with no protection whatsoever from the midfield, did seem to give his confidence a thorough beating.

 

Seem to remember Ashley calling him his "marquee signing" or some bollocks like that, turns out he might be right.

 

Would love it, just love it if a fair chunk of our fans remembered times like this (3 wins in a row!) when they next start slagging off our players before they've had a fair crack of the whip.

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I don't think people can be criticised too much for having a go at Colo in the relegation season, he looked awful.

 

Yes, we should be saying "give him a couple of seasons to settle in", but football opinions don't work like that do they?

 

Not sure, maybe it was just me swimming against the tide but I thought he looked a very good player to begin with but by November/December the toll of playing every minute of every game in a new league, in a struggling side with no protection whatsoever from the midfield, did seem to give his confidence a thorough beating.

 

Seem to remember Ashley calling him his "marquee signing" or some bollocks like that, turns out he might be right.

 

Would love it, just love it if a fair chunk of our fans remembered times like this (3 wins in a row!) when they next start slagging off our players before they've had a fair crack of the whip.

 

I agree with all your points, I'm just saying that fans very rarely (if ever) give players a realistic time to settle in. Same goes for the media in general too.

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Would be gutted to lose him, but it would be a good move for him - more power to him.  He'll never get any of the time he deserves from the fans so he should leave now before his confidence is ruined forever.  He's a class CB and with some good coaching (which he's got none of while being here) could really turn out to be a great ball playing CB.  When we revert to the long-ball game I'd much rather have him lobbing the ball up to the strikers than Taylor, that's for sure.

 

:aww: :smug:

 

"Ohhhhh Coloccini..."

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I don't think people can be criticised too much for having a go at Colo in the relegation season, he looked awful.

 

Yes, we should be saying "give him a couple of seasons to settle in", but football opinions don't work like that do they?

 

Not sure, maybe it was just me swimming against the tide but I thought he looked a very good player to begin with but by November/December the toll of playing every minute of every game in a new league, in a struggling side with no protection whatsoever from the midfield, did seem to give his confidence a thorough beating.

 

I thought the same at the time and said so on here, but unfrotunately there weren't many on here backing him.  I'm just so glad its worked out, for him and for us.

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Must be one of the form defenders in the leeg at the moment. Can't think of any other cbs who've impressed to much off the top of my head (cue 100s of names from others)

 

Thing is though, unlike previous defenders who we've praised (i.e. Woody), the whole back line has been performing consistently well and the results (and stats!) reflect this. The old Shearer addage goes "if you don't buy a ticket you can't win the lottery" - we're protecting the goal (and Krul) by not letting the opposition get any decent chances on goal and forcing them to rely on set-pieces, individual pieces of skill or a mistake in our defence, no-one is really creating chance after chance (therefore increasing the probability of scoring).

 

Thinking back over our goals conceded recently:

Arsenal - clean sheet

mackems - set piece (slight mistake by Krul, team starting to switch off @ 5-0 and injury time)

West Ham - good pass by Noble and defensive line mis-times step-up

Wigan - mistake by Perch & Williamson/individual skill by Zoggy

Man Citeh - penalty/individual skill from Johnson

Stoke - set piece/set piece

Everton - clean sheet

 

Good job by the coaching staff (Hi Chris) in getting the team into this mentality.

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Must be one of the form defenders in the leeg at the moment. Can't think of any other cbs who've impressed to much off the top of my head (cue 100s of names from others)

 

Thing is though, unlike previous defenders who we've praised (i.e. Woody), the whole back line has been performing consistently well and the results (and stats!) reflect this. The old Shearer addage goes "if you don't buy a ticket you can't win the lottery" - we're protecting the goal (and Krul) by not letting the opposition get any decent chances on goal and forcing them to rely on set-pieces, individual pieces of skill or a mistake in our defence, no-one is really creating chance after chance (therefore increasing the probability of scoring).

 

Thinking back over our goals conceded recently:

Arsenal - clean sheet

mackems - set piece (slight mistake by Krul, team starting to switch off @ 5-0 and injury time)

West Ham - good pass by Noble and defensive line mis-times step-up

Wigan - mistake by Perch & Williamson/individual skill by Zoggy

Man Citeh - penalty/individual skill from Johnson

Stoke - set piece/set piece

Everton - clean sheet

 

Good job by the coaching staff (Hi Chris) in getting the team into this mentality.

 

Fair point. We're now defending as a team effectively rather than relying on the individual brilliance of one or two players (not that Coloccini hasn't been stand out brilliant because he has). Long may it continue. Great to see the whole team grafting their arses off from front to back from the first to the last whistle.

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Wonder where all the smug pundits are now after writing him off in his first season? One of the best centre backs in the premier now and virtually indestructible as a bonus.

 

No need for the smug pundits when we've got our own fans...

 

The Wise signings have been rotten. £10m for Coloccini? Had Bassong not been suspended hed not have played. Guiterraz? No end product, no goals a replacement for James Milner and a tidy profit for Ashley?

 

It seems to be your style to lift posts from eons ago in an attempt to establish a point. It's bullshit. Given the context of whenever that was written, presumably a few months into 08/09, whoever said it was absolutely right. Coloccini and Jonas were gash in the first season.

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Colo was poor (increasingly so after a promising start) in his first season and his combined weaknesses were one of the reasons we got relegated. that's as true now as it was then. i was as gutted as anyone as i'd been wanting us to sign him for a few years and felt i'd just called it wrong and that he wasn't suited to english football.

 

but credit to him he didn't hide and didn't put a foot wrong last season. as for his start to this season - he's arguably been the best centre half in the league and has finally shown we why spent all that money on him. just hope we're still as pleased with his form after 38 games...

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