Drogba falls over himself to praise Tioté
Posted on December 2nd, 2010 | 169 Comments |
I remember reading rumours about him having a ‘reputation’ at Steve McClaren’s FC Twente when we bought him and I kind of expected him to be sending the opposition home on crutches after most games. Or at least clutching their shins in abject agony.
That has not however turned out to be the case.
Sure, he’s tough and he tackles hard and he certainly will pick up cards, but I don’t think it’s anything beyond the realms of ‘good hard football’. Not so far, anyway – and I have no reason to think he’ll suddenly turn into a screaming psychopath.
It turns out that fellow Ivory Coast team-mate Didier Drogba rates Tioté highly too:
“I think Cheik is going to go on and be one of the strongest players in this league,” Drogba said.
“I have to say that physically he is a bit stronger than me. Newcastle well and truly have a star player on their hands in Cheik.
“I think their supporters have only seen half of his potential so far. You have only seen half the player but the more Cheik plays at Premier League level the better he will become.”
Praise indeed from the clumsy centre forward.
Defensive midfielders are, I think, sometimes undervalued, but they have to add muscle to the defence and are still expected to go forward and help with the attack, so they need to be versatile players. They are an important lynchpin to a good team and Chelsea use one to good effect themselves in Essien.
Tioté’s only 24 and fairly new to the team and, knock me down with a feather, but I find myself agreeing with Drogba here – I do think the best is yet to come from him. We’re still a team in the process of reconstruction and, to me at least, Tioté looks like he could be an important part of that reconstruction.
I’ve been impressed with him since he joined Newcastle, anyway!
player of the season so far ,he turns defenfending in too attack