by thebigbangtheo » Thu Dec 13, 2018 2:05 pm
Remembering what a lot of the Dortmund fans were saying about Sokratis, the impression I got was that he had had a poor season last year and looked as though he'd just gone over the hill and was now in decline.
In my opinion, their assessment seemed fairly reasonable given he'd gone from previously being considered a consistent 8 out of 10 with a few 9's thrown in for good measure, to last season having 5,6 & 7 out of 10 performances when he did play, hence no longer being automatically selected when available.
Does that mean he is now a shit player?, no of course not as we have seen for ourselves, but his shelf life of being able to play at the highest level is now in countdown and likely to expire within the next 18 months or so.
The reason why Gary Cahill is not in the same situation and therefore shouldn't be considered as a viable option regardless of any defensive concerns we may have, is that he went over that precipice nearly 3 years ago and is now at a level where he'd be a good acquisition for the likes of an Aston Villa and those championship teams seeking promotion. But the only premier league team I could envisage him playing for now is Fulham.
Of course I might be well wide of the mark and he actually has much more left in his tank than appears to me, but I only have to think back to when the likes of Adams, Bould, Campbell, Keown and O'Leary all hit that same buffer to recognise those little tell tale signs of Father Times cruel sense of humour.
Last edited by
thebigbangtheo on Thu Dec 13, 2018 2:25 pm, edited 1 time in total.