It's no coincidence his good games have come against teams that utilise the long-ball (Stoke, Bolton, Spurs) where he has to deal with a huge target man. Incidentally, I thought Rafa's decision to let our centre-backs interchange so that Kyrgiakos could manmark Crouch was an excellent one. He's good for these games, is dominant in the air, and gives great presence. Against a partnership of say Rooney & Berbatov, he'd get murdered.
S'pose that's what you get for 1.5M though.