AEK made a very important transfer, bringing Djibril Sidibe to Greece, to a place that had a very big hole and cost in many parts of the game in recent years.

In modern football, the role of full-backs is complex and valuable. The coaches either play a tactical basis with just one player on the side, or they create conditions for the full-back to get a lot of space on the field to shield the axis by bringing the wingers more inside.

If you don’t have great full-backs, you can’t get wide offensively and creatively over the flanks and defensively you have a problem in all areas. They can be pierced from anywhere. In recent years, AEK has had a serious problem in central defense, in addition to the problem of dealing with the opposing wingers, the dysfunction in the offensive part, the lack of balance.

The quality of the stoppers was to some extent to blame, but there were also many occasions when the pressure put on the team by the many undisturbed crosses was difficult to deal with.

certificate of maturity

Sidibe’s CV and potential are a guarantee that this problem will be solved by the side that will compete.

AEK’s management understood the need to invest in a position that is not as popular. For a remarkable right-back who is very good in midfield, the airport won’t fall, but he will help the team bond and find their balance.

I also wrote in yesterday’s Van Wert transfer text that management’s decision to solve the striker’s problem with an affordable, financially secure solution and to provide the financial surplus for the right-back position shows maturity. The team eventually understood that they needed a foundation to start building a set.

He consistently competed at the highest level

Sidibe is a powerful footballer who made it to Ligue 1 and won the league in 2016 with Monaco as a starter. He reached the semi-finals of the Champions League and was a member of the 2018 French World Cup squad.

He was Pawar’s deputy. The Bayern full-back put in a tremendous performance and Sidibe only played against the Danes in the third group game when Deschamps rested the starting XI. However, the fact that he has featured in all of his 18 appearances with the France national team shows his worth.

Michelin was acquired from the same market last year

If you consider that last year’s choice from the same market for the same position was Michelin, you can understand the upgrading of the position and the change in management’s attitude.

In his first year in Monaco he won the championship

Sidibe was born in Troyes and played in the second team in his academies. A full year in the first team was enough for him to move to Lille for 2.5 million euros. He played four seasons at Lille and was bought by Monaco for €15m in 2016.

Jardim has no regrets in the first year when he won the championship with Sidibe as the main player. In a lineup that proved, along the way, that they were all one and the same. Mbappe, Lemar, Bernardo Silva, Fabinho, Bakayoko, Falcao and Sidibe were irreplaceable. He had 2 goals and 5 assists in 29 games on his way to the title.

Overall he counts 365 games in his career with 18 goals and 37 assists, 225 in Ligue 1 with 11 goals and 25 assists, 25 in Premier League which he loaned to Everton in 2019-20 season with 4 assists.

It only has full years

There is no off-year in his career. Ten years at the highest level and the least he has played is the 1594 minutes he played last year, his last year as proved in Monaco. He didn’t go because he was bad. Vanderson was acquired by Gremio for €12m last January.

He’d also begun sharing the position with Aguilar, so by the summer Clement and management felt he was redundant and didn’t need to renew his contract. However, as long as he was a member of Monaco, he was an important part of it. He also played at Everton, where he was loaned out in 2019/20. In total he played 2080 minutes, starting 18 games for the Premier League and coming off the bench in 7.

Strong, explosive with walk and reliable cross

This is a really very strong body that is really remarkable defensively and offensively with its walk, its physical condition and its reliable crosses. He’s not a footballer with increased technical training, but he’s strong, explosive and has a good stride.

You can’t get past him that easily

It’s hard to overtake him one-on-one. He has a career average of 4.2 tackles per 90 minutes, stopping opponents 3.1 times. He averages 2.1 steals, 2.0 interceptions, 1.6 fouls on opponents and 1.3 concedes.

He is 1.82 tall, in the air he does 2.4 tackles and wins 1.4 of them. He doesn’t often try to pass his opponent as dribbling is not his forte. He attempts 1.8 dribbles and only misses his opponent 0.8 times. But he’s making progress and taking advantage of the open field. His crosses are “honest”, he plays well and in his career he has scored two goals from free kicks while making 1.1 key passes per 90 minutes.

He also plays slightly on the left side

He is very good defensively and has also played a lot of games down the left flank. In total, he has played 168 times at right-back and 87 times at left-back. He has also played 28 games as a right midfielder, 10 games as a stopper and once as a left midfielder.

Logically, Almeida will not experiment with Sidibe, but with the Argentine coach’s tendency to use footballers in different areas, I take it as evidence that Sidibe can easily take over both sides on his own and can of course provide solutions and in central defence, especially as a wing stopper in a chain of three.

A transfer that significantly upgrades the core of the team. A world champion who has won a league in France, played in the semi-finals of the Champions League and not had a year off has been playing at the highest level for 10 years.