Bruh both of them shouldn’t even be mentioned in the same bracket when it comes to defensive duties.
Calafiori’s defensive positioning, and defensive reading of the game is really good especially given the fact he is still raw and adapting to the intensity of PL. The exciting thing is, he is young, already showing his talent and the areas he needs to work on are coachable.
Zinny on the other hand, is a liability and defensively poor.
Calafiori has very, very aggressive front-footed instincts. It’s what makes him such a mysterious and unpredictable weapon when we build attacks. Will he ball carry past his marker with deceptive ease, or will be sprint down the channel, or will he do a highly technical 1-2 with somebody?
He has such a big, strong frame that his ability on the ball takes you by surprise particularly for a defender.
That does leave us vulnerable if he pushes forward, but isn’t that what Declan Rice is for? We have the best one-man defensive shield in world football protecting and covering any gaps.
He’s given the team a spontaneous dynamic down that side. We’ve been so right-sided as a team, it’s really exciting to see the left hand side get a much needed revamp.
I can’t wait to see the Calafiori / Merino / Martinelli left side tbh. I think it has the potential to be so dangerous.
Yeah, that’s a characteristic of him that probably stands out the most for me personally.
He’s very brave, very positive, he takes initiative etc both in his defending and attacking.
It stood out for me even in that game in the last EUROs, Italy vs Croatia, before even the slightest rumours about him and Arsenal started.
He played as a CB in that game but was super brave on the ball, played with real purpose and was actually quite dangerous and was causing proper trouble with his unexpected forwad runs. Italy had a poor game for most of the game especially before the Croatia goal and I though he was actually one of their most dangerous players going forwad even as a CB.
He got the crucial assist for that dramatic equaliser on the last second with another great run and showed a really good eye for a pass too.
I’d say he has good skill on the ball, but it’s not even the sheere skill that stands out that much as it’s his confidence and real purpose to make a difference and hurt the opponent when he has the ball.
He is aggressive, very attacking mind, loves to carry the ball up…
We all know these characteristics before he joined.
Like some said here before, the positives he brings to the team outweighs the negatives.
As a defender, 22 years old is a very young age.
He definitely can learn and will improve.
But he got run past one time on Saturday! He’s a bum!
In all seriousness though, if there was one guy I’d trust to either get to grips with the pace of a league or learn how proper body position to negate most pacey wingers, it’s an Italian defender. Stereotype for sure, but for a good reason.
He looked dead on his feet at about 70 minutes but I think Arteta was stuck. We made the triple change to chase the game so we only had two subs left but couldn’t make both early as that would mean one knock or ankle twist and we would be trying to see out the match with 10 men. It seems like he prioritized getting Partey off, which is probably smart given his injury history. But that left Calafiori to struggle through until it was close enough to the end (and we were 3-1 up) to put on Kiwior.
The role Calafiori plays is a tiring one. Zinchenko usually came off on 60-65 minutes. That’s partly because he doesn’t have much engine but I think its also just tiring to roam around the middle of the pitch in possession while also bombing down the wing on occasion and making a lot of intense defensive recovery runs. Hopefully we come back from this break with a nearly completely healthy set of fullbacks for the first time all season and find a way to rest and rotate Calafiori more often going forward.
He has been getting away with some of this defensive lapses or getting beat by the opposing player, yes he’s new etc but he does need to iron that stuff out because it could eventually turn out to be very costly especially against the better opposition out there.
Making those kind of errors now OK but in a few seasons down the line won’t be good enough.
We already witnessed this when Savinho roasted him and assisted Haaland.
Definitely needs to work on this.
Yeah, made amends with the superb goal to put us up 1-2 up but he’ll rarely be able to do that
If Saliba and Gabriel had better communication and not falling asleep, we could have avoided that goal.
Other than that one, did City take advantage on Calafiori?
Nope.
If he didn’t get done we could have avoided the goal too at the source.
is it a bit too much to ask a defensive player to stop every single attack from the opposing side?
sure Saliba and Gabriel would make some dump moves or decisions, but it was the team effort to cover the occasional shortcomings.
players are human, not robots.
Saka could be the sinner in the Southampton game (or PSG? I don’t really remember) for making two vital turnovers in our own half.
Other players covered the mistakes he made.
So, move on.
I don’t think it is too much especially when the margins are so fine in this league, the way he defends can produce errors of that kind.
No one is saying pllayers will not make mistakes, however, if they do they can be criticised for it, he shouldn’t be above that. No one should be.
No doubt.
He should learn from his mistake(s).
Personally, I like how front footed he is.
Beyond his playmaking ability, one of the things that I loved when Zinchenko first came in was how aggressive he was.
A big reason why I struggled warming up to Kiwior was because he wasn’t.
And I think that aspect of Calafiori’s game is a massive reason why he’s here now.
Could it be refined? Absolutely, but remember, he’s only 22!!
Was excellent the other night.
Shame it’s geoblocked 
I’ll try at home behind a VPN.
“English food I expected worse tbh, once per month you can eat this”
To be fair I think he was referring to fish and chips specifically for the once per month thing - but still 