How long exactly has he been here?
Several weeks now. Unless it's fairly typical for new players to not play for X amount of time after being signed I don't see the point you're making here.
He's 23. Older than Gomes, Paco, Umtiti and Denis Suarez when they were all signed in our happy little "Summer of 22's" and definitely older than almost every B team player we've ever given minutes to.
How much experience does he have in Europe (new continent, league, culture, club)?
None, but that doesn't stop Paulinho from starting and getting the opportunity to have a shocker every game. This is just an excuse and not a very good one.
Most importantly who does he have ahead of him?
He's only ever had two players ahead of him at once. Vermaelen was injured shortly after he arrived and saw no minutes. Now Umtiti is suspended and Vermaelen is fresh off of injury. Being a 3rd choice CB does not mean 0 minutes.
These are all the things that play a factor in the coach picking a player especially at a position like CB where there are rarely any rotations. Kid hasn't stepped on the pitch once, hell he hasn't been in the club for a month and people already trying to take pot shots at him. FFS
CB does have rotations. Maybe if you're stuck at 4th spot you're in trouble but Mina so far has always been our only choice for 3rd CB and Valverde has opted to just ignore him completely. I can guarantee you if it was Mascherano, Vermaelen, or even Mathieu sitting in that 3rd spot during our busiest 2 months of the season they'd have played several games by now. Him not stepping on the pitch is the reason why I'm taking "pot shots" at him. Every game he fails to appear is worrisome and if Vermaelen or Digne start as a CB over him next week I'll have no choice but to believe these reports that Valverde really doesn't rate this kid at all.
