Country: England
Damn son. Must have hurt when he left for Chelsea.He wasn’t as good at passing, crossing or even as good at football in general than all of the best ranked over the last years or even now; they’ll be better than him at something, but something unrelated to keeping the ball out of your own net(fav of mine was the French international Lizarazu)
As soon as he had fully developed his defensive game under Mourinho, there isn’t a LB I’d swap him for that I’ve ever seen. At Arsenal he was more about supporting the attack and having unreal pace and stamina to recover, but at Chelsea he was unreal 1v1 and had everything you want from a primarily defensive LB which is of course what made Mourinho moist as ****.
The best LBs over the years had a special move if you like—a dead ball hit, they could dribble or they just had great left foot— but Cole’s defensive awareness (his goal line clearances are famous), his 1v1 doggedness, pace to support the attack and, most importantly his recovery pace and tackle, means if there’s a team you’re picking to play for your life, you’d have to pick Cole. I couldn’t trust any other player more, week in week out. He could have played for any team ever and been a legend in that side imo.