Player Focus: Koulibaly Defying Critics to Draw Comparisons With Serie A Greats

Kalidou Koulibaly made headlines throughout the world last week. Unfortunately it was not for his performances, which is how he would have preferred it. Instead it was because he was the victim of racist abuse when his Napoli side went to play Lazio at the Stadio Olimpico.

"Either you do something or we're out of here," coach Maurizio Sarri informed the match officials. Courageously, referee Max Irrati didn't do what a number of his older, more experienced colleagues have done this season and turn a deaf ear to the monkey chants. Instead he halted the game.

While a final warning was read over the tannoy, Lazio winger Keita Balde Diao made a point of going across to Koulibaly to put his arm around him, an act of defiance to those idiots in the Curva Nord and, after a three minute break, the game resumed. However, Irrati would later note in the match report that he would have definitively called the game off if the Questura hadn't insisted, for reasons of public order, that the show must go on.

Upon Napoli's return to their Castelvolturno training ground in the early hours of the following morning, Koulibaly found a message of solidarity strewn along the gates. Then on Sunday Napoli fans turned up at the San Paolo for the visit of Carpi all wearing Koulibaly masks. It was "an unforgettable moment for me," he posted on Instagram. "Thanks to all the supporters who made the San Paolo even more beautiful with this memorable initiative for me and all the world."

It got a lot of coverage and understandably so but Koulibaly would rather that the column inches were taken up with reports of his talent. Much of the focus on Napoli, their club record eight-game winning streak and title challenge, has been on the team's lethal attack and, to be fair, with no small justification.

Gonzalo Higuain has scored 24 goals in 24 games and is on course to have the most prolific season in the history of Serie A as a 20-team league. Lorenzo Insigne has Diego Maradona worried that the club is seriously considering un-retiring his No.10 shirt. And despite going 26 league games without a goal, Jose Callejon is back to being the player we all know he can be. He has now been involved in nine goals in his last eight appearances. As tridents go, only Barcelona's MSN is out-firing Napoli's at the moment.

The midfield has got it's share of plaudits too. Captain Marek Hamsik is finally the player he promised to become and more. Jorginho directs Napoli's play as if he were conducting one of the world's leading symphony orchestras and though Allan has a common name, his skillset as a former 10-cum-tackler-cum-box-to-box midfielder, is distinctly uncommon. Everything about Napoli has improved. However, the area most in need of improvement and which has without doubt come on the most is the defence, and the reasons for this are several rather than singular.

Pepe Reina is back and in addition to being a very fine shot stopper is also a vocal organiser of the players in front of him and a leader too. Faouzi Ghoulam has distinguished himself as a flying left-back. Elseid Hysaj knows Sarri and is an upgrade at right-back. Christian Maggio never looked comfortable there. But Koulibaly is the one who has really come in for praise. Maybe it's because people can't quite believe what they are seeing. At times last season, the Senegal international looked like Bambi on ice. His positioning and decision-making could be all over the place.

Brought up in France, he had no formal instruction. Koulibaly didn't attend a centre du formation. He played on instinct and his physical attributes, hence the nickname K2 - the Man Mountain. But the materials were there for Koulibaly to become one of the best centre-backs in his age range.

Still, when Rafa Benitez called him a couple of winters ago, he honestly thought it was a friend playing a prank on him. "Stop fucking with me," Koulibaly said before his agent Bruno Satin intervened to confirm it really was Benitez.

A meeting was scheduled in the managers office shortly after he signed 18 months ago. "Benitez explained to me exactly where I had to be on the pitch using water glasses. On my first day at training he gave me a personalised video which had everything on it. What I was doing wrong etc. And he said: ‘If you do what I tell you, you can become a great player'."

But when Napoli finished 5th, let down principally by a defence that shipped 54 goals, 28 of which were at home - the 15th worst record in Serie A - doubts around Koulibaly weren't lacking. There were occasional glimpses of his ability but few saw what Benitez claimed to see and when he left in the summer, it looked like Koulibaly would go too.

"I was no longer in their plans," K2 admits, "Some people wanted to see the back of me, but the president decided to keep me. He turned down a €15m bid from Norwich." Sarri probably influenced that decision. He has a counter-cultural take on the transfer market: for him, it's the refuge of the weak. The real measure of a coach is how he develops what he's got and the betterment of Koulibaly is yet another example of how Sarri has added value to this team through tactical enrichment.

"Koulibaly's improvement isn't notable," Zvone Boban told Sky Italia. "It's extreme. He's come on leaps and bounds with respect to when he was making those horrendous mistakes last season. For me, he's among the best in the world and he can still improve. He's matured in everything: character, technique. He comes out with the ball in such an impeccable way now and is always dominant physically. I think Napoli have uncovered a champion."

Having Reina back between the posts rather than the jittery Mariano Andujar and Rafael has helped. So too did the use of a drone to film the backline and teach Napoli's defenders shape and movement. Everything about them is synchronised now and since the change to a 4-3-3 the team is more balanced in general than it was under Benitez.

A stable environment has been created that in turn allows Koulibaly to put Sarri's theory into practice, gain confidence and break through to another level. His reading of the game in particular has caught the eye. Koulibaly leads Napoli in interceptions averaging 2.4 per game. He also set a record for an outfielder in Serie A this season for the number of ball recoveries he made in a single game: 19 against Bologna at the beginning of December.

Like Leo Bonucci at Juventus, Koulibaly is also building a reputation for pin-point passing from distance. Follow Napoli closely and you'll be familiar with his searching balls to Insigne out on the left, pulling opposition full-backs out of position, leaving their centre-backs exposed to a one v one. His assist for Callejon against FC Midtjylland was also really quite something.

Comparisons are being made with the best centre-back Napoli have produced in recent memory: the legendary Fabio Cannavaro. A defence that kept 9 clean sheets in the league all last season has already kept 11 and has conceded only 19 goals, a marked improvement on the 30 they'd let in this time a year ago. However, Koulibaly's idol isn't Cannavaro, it's his former teammate at Parma and Juventus, Lillian Thuram. "He gave me his book," Koulibaly revealed. "I learned to love him at the 1998 World Cup. He was incredible."

It's become something of a joke: "Who do you think you are?" Sarri laughs. "Thuram." But watching Koulibaly this season perhaps the greatest compliment you can pay him is that, based on current form, that comparison doesn't seem ludicrous at all.

How impressed have you been with Koulibaly's progress this season? Let us know in the comments below