I think this is a disservice to Tomiyasu, dude is an absolute baller and seems so comfortable in attack as well as defence. Yes he’s 6,2 and comes from a defensive side in Italy but he’s also very two footed, fast and clever in possession. I can see shades of the best of Meunier in him.
Lets be honest we call defenders like Bellerin offensive or Sagna defensive because they’re at their core one dimensional. This dude looks like he could be the full package with fantastic fundamentals.
Oh I don’t want to seem like I’m doing Tomiyasu a disservice I just meant that his career as a RCB leaves him in good stead to deal with a bit more pressure defensively than maybe we’d want him go
Oh not at all it’s just something I’ve noticed a lot about him is that people, - especially before he came here seemed to conclude he was nothing more than a CB at fullback.
My assumption in these early games is that was more the nurture of his Italian club’s standing in the league table and in regard to their possession statistics rather than the nature of the player. At 22 years old I think he’s got a lot of scope and natural ability to refine his attacking game too, especially when you consider we should have possession in a lot more of our games than Bologna.
I do agree there is merit to him being a RCB too though as I’d probably take him in a heartbeat in that position over Holding right now lol. Though I’d probably say the same about Tierney over Mari haha, christ our depth in defence is shite.
The compilations I saw of him was mostly of him attacking.
I think loads of ‘experts’ made an uninformed opinion about him cause he has shown his attacking attributes with Bologna as well
Yeh I saw a lot of that too but you have to remember highlights rarely show the defensive graft unless he was tackling Ronaldo, in which case I saw that a few times too lol.
From what I saw in terms of statistic - I know I know, - Bologna seemed to concede possession quite a lot which will make a defender’s defensive numbers sky rocket. I hate the same discussion with some about Bissouma before the summer window, just because his statistics are largely combative doesn’t mean he can’t ball, it’s simply the design of his team in their league standing. Put Bissouma in Liverpool’s side and suddenly he gets to work on his progressive numbers more. I believe the same should be true for Tomiyasu should we continue to play as we are with this new look side.
Watching him waddle back when we are out of position whether it’s down the left or the right is driving me insane. I don’t want to keep focusing on it because he’s the boy but it’s getting very worrying. Really obvious in games like today but it’s been quietly going on all season.
He has a chance with that shortlist. Wow, didn’t know Foden and Haaland are both already 21 when I just checked, just goes to show how exciting a talent Saka is, only just turned 20.
