How Important will Coloccini be to our season?

Personally, my confidence was increased almost tenfold when I heard Colo was staying. Our defence looks miles better with him.

He truly is a fantastic player. How many players can you name who you have absolute confidence in when they're on the ball at the back? His ball control and decision making skills are exceptional.

Whenever any other player is dribbling around at the back I feel nervous. But Colo 99.9% of the time makes the right decisions. His ability to pass the ball from the back is extremely crucial also.

He finds a player 40-50 yards up the pitch and turns the situation around. He's also easily the best player we have at reading the game and cutting out a pass..

I think him staying for another year will be the most important aspect of our 2013/14 campaign.

Edit - The second option is "Significantly important, but there are things which are just as important if not more so".

 

He's a very good defender, our best defender for sure. But he doesn't have pace and rarely chips in with a goal from a cross in the box. We need another defender of his quality to really secure our defence, which last season was about the worst in the league.

 

Not many CB's have Pace and I'd hardly say Coloccini is slow. His pace over a long distance is average for a CB, but over a short distance he accelerates and reactions very well IMO.

 

I'd say his pace is slightly below average and probably his main weakness. He reads the game well which usually compensates.

 

Im all in with colo

 

Sorry but this is just wrong. If you compare him to the likes of Mbiwa, Kompany etc then he'll look slow, but if we're talking about the pace of the average CB, then he's definitely not slow at all.

When thinking about the average CB you're talking about Huth, Shawcross, Terry, Vidic etc. Not David Luiz and Vermalen.

 

Colo is not just our best defender but the best player we have, period.

 

I agree. I'd say Ben Arfa is the most technically gifted, but Colo's impact on the team is the greatest.

 

Critical. The defence look lost without him. This is a big problem as I dont think we have a replacement at the club. Also important for the general feeling about the place. Last thing we need with all the other noise around the place at the moment is our best player and captain leaving.

 

Agree.

 

Comfortably our best and most important player. Most important deal done this summer. Still need at least one striker.

 

Massively important that we kept him, as he's easily our best player.

 

It was vital that we kept him, but for me it will be equally vital that we significantly strengthen our attacking options.

 

It's going to be ridiculous if we start the season off without a new striker. It's obvious to all and sundry that we desperately need one.

 

Correct, that is all.

 

Agree with all of this.

The only thing that sticks in my throat about the whole Colo saga, is that we'll be made to feel it's "like a new signing"

 

It kinda of is though as he looked certain to depart and we'd simply bought his replacement in Mbiwa. Leaving us back to square one centre half wise when Saylor breaks down. We now have genuine competition. Perhaps Pards and Colo hatched this plan