Jason Cundy admitted that Chelsea centre-back Kalidou Koulibaly has proved him wrong with his recent performance including in Tuesday’s win over Borussia Dortmund.
The start to Koulibaly’s career at Chelsea was far from ideal.
He initially started regularly following his arrival from Napoli last summer, but started to lose his spot in the team to Marc Cucurella on the left of the back three.
Benoit Badiashile’s January arrival put an even bigger question mark over Koulibaly’s future at Stamford Bridge.
But when Chelsea needed someone to step up amid Thiago Silva’s injury absence, the Senegal international proved important.
The veteran centre-back has likely won many fans over with his recent performance, including Cundy, who was clearly not his biggest fan.
“Koulibaly, I have to say that I’d been a big critic of him,” the former Blues defender told talkSPORT.
“He’s put in his best performance, and maybe it’s Badiashile who’s now starts to look like the player everyone thought he [Koulibaly] was going to be.”
Whether Badiashile should really be worried about losing the spot to Koulibaly remains to be seen, however.
Koulibaly’s best performance came when he played in the middle of the three-man defence, rather than on the left, where Badiashile plays.
It is clear that when fit, Silva will return to the starting line-up, but having Koulibaly as a reliable option is obviously a positive.
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