He kept Messi in his pocket in Camp Nou a few weeks ago. Never set a foot wrong against Manchester United either. He interprets the role even better than Mascherano (who would probably be a lot more exposed if he played CB for Athletic) from what I've seen. Or in short: he's just a boss.
yes, but so is mascherano. but no matter what, he is going to be prone to fuck-ups because half of his mind is still a DM, it's in the instincts, you need that natural instinct that comes from playing a CB for years. look at the first leg against chelsea when we conceded the goal, mascherano is running his lungs out trying to intercept the cross, yet he doesn't consider that puyol is covering it and he should keep his eye on drogba (that is ALL he had to do, nothing else). in the second leg he is caught way up in midfield with our 3 man defense (which at that point was puyol and alves only, adriano was pushing up as well) he thinks he can afford to push up high at any time and that there will be cover for him, when in reality, he
is the cover. i'm willing to accept that these errors can be worked on with more time spent playing at the back but i don't think we can afford that right now, we can't afford mascherano as one of our main centre-backs, not in big games at least. we're in dire need of a CB signing, if it doesn't happen this season you can guarantee your sweet titties we'll be, yet again, under-par next season
