Even on the caf alone, I read things like this. I remember when the Bailly move first came about. He’d played no more than 20 odd games for Villarreal, most of which almost all on the caf had never seen. I read posts of people suggesting he wouldn’t work with Smalling because you would want a ball-playing defender next to him. Turned out that he’s extremely composed on the ball himself.
Same for Ighalo. Took one game for the ‘he’s actually surprisingly good on the ball’ comments to start.
Just read the Partey thread in the TF. First few pages starts off with the predictable no good on the ball, ‘I’d take him, he may not be that good technically but we need a beast’, ‘can’t pass’ and then there’s the clear moment where everyone actually watches him, and then he too joins the ‘he’s actually good on the ball’ group.
Koulibaily too, people have been against signing him for a while because of his age, and that he ‘relies on pace and power’. Reality is, he relies on it no more than the next centre half, and is a ball-playing centre half himself.
Chris Smalling could even be used to a degree (not regarding the caf, but generally). His England career was ended sue to his not being good enough on the ball, which in and of itself isn’t even that much of a problem, except Southgate then goes and plays Michael fecking Keane instead, who is probably worse on the ball than even Smalling.