I wouldn't have put Cahill in the "silky" catergory, his best performances come in backs against the wall games where he's sitting deeper and the pace is taken out of the game. Personally, I don't really rate him that highly anyway so maybe it's something I miss.
Agreed. I think we swerved one there. For me, he's prone to some awful lapses of concentration, gets dragged out of position too easily, and isn't the swiftest thing on 2 legs, either.
Even at a young age I was a big fan of Des Walker, until he lost his way, unflappable calm composed defenders that can read the game, such as Ledley King and I know this will be something not many won't wish to admit, but Judas during his time with us, was a superb defender and him and king would have been the ideal partnership at the back. The main qualities at being able to read to game, not get dragged out of position, as defenders should keep their shape, if they do this and read the game then they don't require any real pace, although pace is always a bonus!
I think his form hasn't been great this season but I still rate him fairly high. He was head and shoulders the best at Bolton and his first 6 months at Chelsea made a lot of Spurs fans on here talk about how they regret the club not buying him. With the ball I think he's very comfortable, his goal against us shows the type of technique he has in his locker and generally whenever I've seen him play, has a good head on shoulders. Perhaps not the best of CB's out there I could have chose as an example but I think when on form, he's a very capable player and one that fits a more "silky" style.
I can only add that given the choice of Vertonghen or Cahill, I know which I would choose - it wouldn't be Cahill. As I remember, Cahill's transfer to The Chavs almost collapsed over his financial demands. So god knows what he's being paid if it made them baulk at what he was asking for.
Good point nsis, he wanted 110/120 p/wk iirc, somewhere in that region, he'd had a couple of caps around that time too which his agent thought good reason to go berserk with.
Cahill was a better defender at Bolton because he had to do more defending. A good tackler, athletic and strong in the air, but with decent technical ability too, he was always in the action. At Chelsea, he's had to adjust to being in the game less often and defending higher up the pitch and he's proved less consistent, although being in and out of the team due to injuries or squad selection hasn't helped him.
Imo this puts him in the no nonsense category, week in week out battler, but not flexible enough to work in other systems with multi partners, is it becoming a pre-requisite for a modern top defender? Didn't Cahills good spell coincide with a good run with JT, Luiz wasn't getting too many games I thought, might be wrong.
