KingKahn is not alone. Actually, Marquinhos was not that highly thought of when he was brought on; Roma signed Castan before the Libertadores final last year and he said, "This other kid is better than me." There is a 99% likelihood that his recommendation is the best thing he will ever do for the club.

Marquinhos is really interesting to watch in that he is not at all physically imposing yet often perfectly positioned and wins a lot of balls without taking risks. The problem with the number of goals conceded by Roma this year lies in the mess that was the overall communication and understanding of how to cover for so many guys pushing forward, not necessarily because this kid can't play defense (I am not going to look up statistics because I do have a bit of work to do, but I can say fairly confidently that the goal rate dropped significantly once Zeman departed). He also lost some time due to injury, but all in all he's the kind of player whose value shot up enormously this year and who looks like an all round solid center back for years and years to come. It's a damn shame that Roma isn't the kind of club that can keep him around.