Following the permanent arrival of Sebastian Coates earlier in the transfer window, Younes Kaboul became the second centre-back signing for Sunderland this summer. The France international expressed his eagerness to work under Dick Advocaat while praising the Black Cats’ team spirit during their relegation scrap:
“He is a great manager and from what I saw last season I was really impressed by everyone at the club, at Arsenal it was really emotional but that is football – you cannot control it and what the lads did was amazing. Team spirit is the most important thing because it is what makes everything happen.”
The History
Born in Saint-Julien-en-Genevois, France, Kaboul cut his teeth at a trio of amateur clubs, before making the switch to Auxerre in 2000. After four years learning his trade in the youth set-up, the six-foot-four-inch centre-back earned his first league start for the Burgundy club in November 2004. He went on to make a further 11 starts that campaign but could only muster nine in the 2005/06 Ligue 1 term. Kaboul eventually cemented a starting berth the following season, tallying two goals and one assist across 31 appearances.
Tottenham Hotspur then came calling, landing the robust centre-back in an £8 million deal. Although injuries limited his involvement at the turn of the year, Kaboul displayed an attacking edge in the 2007/08 Premier League season, chalking up three goals and one assist across 21 outings. After just one year at White Hart Lane, Kaboul signed for Portsmouth in the summer of 2008.
In his two seasons with the south coast outfit, Kaboul notched four goals and one assist in 50 appearances while being deployed in a variety of positions (centre-back, right-back, defensive midfield) under three separate managers. Spurs boss Harry Redknapp then sought to re-sign the Frenchman, resulting in his return to north London in January 2010.
Kaboul spent the remainder of the 2009/10 season at right-back for Tottenham, before earning starts at both centre-back and right-back the following term. He enjoyed a relatively injury-free 2011/12 campaign and established himself as a mainstay in central defence, bagging one goal and one assist in 33 appearances, before a spate of injuries restricted him to just 12 outings over the next two years. Kaboul started the first 11 fixtures of 2014/15 but fell out of favour with manager Mauricio Pochettino thereafter, making the squad on just four occasions from Gameweek 12.
Having captained France at every stage of the youth system, Kaboul was afforded his first senior cap for Les Bleus in 2011, scoring on his debut friendly against Ukraine. He has since gone on to card three more starts for France, with his last appearances arriving in October 2011.
The Prospects
Kaboul’s addition, allied with Coates’ arrival, swells the number of options in the heart of Sunderland’s defence for the season ahead. The Black Cats managed 13 clean sheets last year – the same number as Arsenal – but with John O’Shea and Wes Brown also in contention, there’s a great deal of uncertainty over Advocaat’s likely starters.
Speaking to the local press, club skipper O’Shea conceded that Advocaat has a real dilemma on his hands:
“There’s a lot of competition in defence now and that’s what we’re looking for throughout the whole team. That’s how you get success. I’ve had that practically all my career and that’s how teams get better. You need people constantly fighting for places and fighting to stay in that XI. Hopefully that’s how we get better results. It’s a manager’s dream.”
For Fantasy managers, though, it’s a real source of frustration, given that all four centre-halves come in at 4.5 in the Fantasy Premier League (FPL) game. In addition, the arrival of Adam Matthews (4.5) places uncertainty over the right-back berth, with the summer signing from Celtic set to vie with Billy Jones (also 4.5) for a starting role. Ultimately, this leaves us approaching the start of the season with only Costel Pantilimon and Patrick van Aanholt – at 5.0 apiece – looking nailed-on for the Wearside outfit.
Certainly, the changes in the BPS will favour Pantilimon – and given that the Romanian averaged 4.4 points per appearance last season, he could well justify the extra outlay. Van Aanholt, meanwhile, tallied five assists in 2,307 minutes last term, with only Leighton Baines (nine) and Daryl Janmaat (six) besting that haul amongst defenders, whilst he also fashioned 17 more shots (30) than any other Black Cats backline option in 2014/15.
Given that they managed more shut-outs away than at home (seven to six), Sunderland are clearly capable of tightening up on their travels – indeed, only Liverpool and West Brom (eight apiece) managed more clean sheets on the road. Looking at the schedule, Sunderland’s kind opening batch of fixtures (lei, NOR, SWA, avl, TOT, bou) is certainly conducive to defensive returns; indeed, Advocaat’s men face just three of last year’s top seven in the first 14 Gameweeks.
Sunderland, however, only have two more friendlies before the campaign kicks-off and bearing in mind that Kaboul and Coates have yet to feature (though both are expected to play some part against Doncaster tomorrow night), it remains to be seen whether either will be fully match fit come their season opener at Leicester a week on Saturday. It may well be, then, that we won’t know Advocaat’s preferred options until a few matches into the new campaign, when all his defenders will be up to scratch.
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