I’ve always rated Wesley Fofana as a defender, I have said that a lot on here. I was buzzing when he joined, and many of us placed him as our best defender for a while.
He actually reminds me of Gary Cahill a little bit in how he plays. He is defensively colossal. However, what he lacks that Cahill had, was his reading of the game and concentration. Fofana needs more awareness and needs to stop ball watching.
But I see Fofana bring the ball out of defence with determination and confidence, and it mirrors how Cahill used to do it, that stepping out with the ball, I love it.
Cahill also got criticised for how he was on the ball. He was never going to be the best ball-playing defender in the world, and neither is Fofana. I actually think Cahill deserves a bit more credit for how he was on the ball to be honest though.
But those are the two areas that Fofana needs to step up in to be a complete centre back. Other than that though, I think yesterday against Arsenal was his best game since before he got injured.
He was more confident, he was much sharper, and defensively he was superb and super strong.
Fofana admits that he is a more of a ‘dog’ centre back, and Levi Colwill provides the quality on the ball. This can work.
Fofana said: “I’m the dog and Levi [Colwill] is more the calm guy! We compliment each other a lot and it’s very good for the team and for us. We need to improve some little details, but we are young and we progress.
“I think this was my best [performance since returning from injury]. Against Arsenal as well, a London derby, I’m very happy. I gave everything on the pitch, I give everything for the club. I need to continue like this.”
He’s absolutely right here. Fofana is more of an old school fighting centre back, hence the Cahill comparisons. But he can compliment Colwill. They both just collectively need more awareness and concentration when defending and running back towards our goal. They both lack that.
Fofana is a super strong defender though and if you ask this guy to just throw himself into challenges, win tackles, intercept, all game long, he will be happy.
But we not only need to see that dog in him every game now going forward, he also needs to work on being more calm in possession and the other aforementioned things.
However, this is a positive article and a positive step for Fofana yesterday. He didn’t play all last season, so it was always going to take a bit of time. But if he can keep improving and playing like he did yesterday whilst cutting out the concentration lapses and mistakes in possession, then there is no reason he cannot become the player we all expected him to become when he signed.
Every team needs dogs as well as the attractive techy stuff.