Him or Pogba for me.
12
Season Average Rating
- Appearances
- 36
- Clean sheets
- 18
- Goals
- 2
- Assists
- 2
- Yellow cards
- 0
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In the latest episode of the United Hour Podcast, Nik @Rood and Imran @Annihilate Now! start with the good news by celebrating Manchester United Women's emphatic FA Cup win over Spurs at Wembley and the future of manager Marc Skinner.
Then it's the bad news and the ever worsening form of our Men with losses to Arsenal and Palace.
Finally the main debate - ETH Out now or keep him until the end of the season - if not longer. Are you Team Nik or Team Imran?
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Even when he's in beast mode, he was still like this, so pretty much technical limitation than confidence.
We approached today game much more conservative than last week, so we actively negate St.Ettienne attack. They hardly created anything today. They're a side struggle to score goal too. A damn boring game to watch especially after Mkhitaryan went off injury & we went more direct with Rashford. Smalling didn't put a foot wrong defensively, but so little involved (ideal from the manager's pov) to really deserve to win the MOTM. His role is vital nevertheless.
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All his years at the club you said? Look at 27 seconds in
and look at 1:35 to 2:00
Also, he has 13 career goals for United. Jones has five as the closest one to him by comparison
He's raising his form which is great considering the fixtures we have coming.
On the ground - solid, dominant in the air and very good overall.
Only thing I'm holding against him is that he has awful positional sense for opening space and offering teammates an option for a pass. He just runs behind the opponent or stands his ground.
Maybe those are Mourinho's instructions tho, not to complicate it it considering Smalling isn't very good in possession.
On the ground - solid, dominant in the air and very good overall.
Only thing I'm holding against him is that he has awful positional sense for opening space and offering teammates an option for a pass. He just runs behind the opponent or stands his ground.
Maybe those are Mourinho's instructions tho, not to complicate it it considering Smalling isn't very good in possession.
Obviously I was exaggerating but would you honestly consider smalling a good passer? He's terrible in that regard
Am not blaming him. He's a defender first and foremost so goal scoring shouldn't be high on the list of things he needs to do. Just that for his strength and aerial abilities, he can easily score more. Our corner takers should also take part of the blame.Entire post is agenda driven, but the bolded part says it all. Our only defender, apart from Blind, who has scored any goals(2 in all comp), gets criticised for lacking goal threat. Rojo, Jones, Bailly, Darmian, Valencia, Shaw, Young, are all on 0 goals this season in all competitions. Yet for some reason Smalling is the only one criticised for lack of goals.
Last year also, Smalling had 3 goals, Rojo, Jones, Valencia, Shaw all had 0, and Darmian and Young had 1 each.
But yeah, let's blame Smalling.
We are in Smalling's performance thread, you want me to criticize other defender's lack of goals here?
There is no agenda, In order to step up to become a truly world class team, we need to find better upgrades to Smalling. There are many others ahead of him in that list but that's a different discussion.
His passing is very limited. You just wish he had more in his locker. LVG encouraged him to take more risks and its no surprise that second video was from the LVG era. Maybe its a confidence issue with that particular skillset. He keeps it tidy though and doesn't lose the ball much
He's really not. He definitely used to be for a couple of seasons and now he's average. However he has shown he can play some nice passes occasionally, its unlikely to become a regular thing. Rojo makes more bad passes than Smalling does, but also more good ones.
Does every good performance need be qualified with shite passer? We aren't starting attacks through him and he doesn't lose it in dangerous positions so I don't know why its factor in anyone's judgement on him. Its like saying Ibrahimovic isn't the best at blocking shots, who cares? Smalling, as much as any other defender, finds his man with the ball even if it is the guy is only ten feet away from him.
Good description, very apt.
Genuine question has he had any shockers after the Chelsea game? That was the worst performance any of our defenders have had in a very long time so I appreciate why most peoples confidence in him waned a little bit after that, but were there any games after that where he has been poor, or is the leftover negativity now still based on that performance? or alternatively it could be the resurgence of jones and rojo and the performances of bailly, meaning we expect more of our defenders, because as far as I can see Smalling is at the level now where people were heralding him as a top cb last season.
Nope, no shockers anyway. He wasn't great when he first came back into the team though, and that can't be swept under the carpet, either.
But in the past 5/6 games he's been great and been our best CB.
He has always had the problem with getting his confidence and form back, its why for seasons he wasn't rated at all, he would either be injured or finding form and never actually getting there as a new injury would come along. He came into this season as our top dog in defence and he's slowly been working his way back there with that one notable/huge setback. I think he is demonstrably back to his best and our best now.
Before Mourinho tweaked the system a bit recently with Jones out injured & Bailly in to partner Smalling, we relied more on our CB partner to step up and set the tempo for the game. Now Pogba dropped deeper to dictate play (for today even deeper than Carrick at times, with Carrick was used differently than his usual role). Mkhitaryan as no 10 helped the transition a lot, so we don't need our CB pairing (Bailly- Smalling) to hold on to the ball as much, and it helped someone like Smalling who should more focus on his defending than whole modern CB business.
However, there would be games where we need to build up from deep which RoJones would be more suited, where the opponent is capable to blocked out transition path in the midfield where the CBs need to step up and get involved in the build up, attacking from the back.
Smalling is not in beast form. He's in good form, but has a role change (sweeper now), so I don't expect him hunt attacker & dominate them like earlier last season.
I don't ever remember a stage of one of the CBs setting any tempo for the game at all. There have been stages where Rojo has tried to ping balls, bailly has tried to accelerate moves and jones the same but there has never been a stage where any of them were decisive in terms of tempo at all for me. Pogba has obviously dropped deeper though (for large spells of games, usually at some point he goes back to the 10 after a sub) When they have had to hold on to the ball which was more prominent before Pogba dropped it was usually side to side passes to get up to the pitch 20 yards which anyone can play, its not like mourinho has had our CB's playing high risk balls.
If we need to build from deep ( say against Chelsea) our priority would still be the defensive side so Smalling would play, his partner would be served well if he could play a ball but we would also have Pogba dropping in to pick up or carrick so it really isn't an issue for me.
I personally think he is in the same form there just isn't the same amount of positivity, although I think it was over the top at points last season. I agree less hunting though, Bailly is much better suited to that (if he can calm his aggression)
I remember Smallling was praised a lot for his ability on the ball when we signed him. CAF even coined the term "Smallingbauer" because of how comfortable he was on the ball.
Holy feck balls, I searched that ridiculous name and 4 pages came back as matches
Holy feck balls, I searched that ridiculous name and 4 pages came back as matches
I remember how only issue with Smalling at that time was his concentration and apart from that he was very much complete, at least that's how he was rated.
RoJones played a game at higher tempo, playing a higher defense line & step into midfield more. Earlier on in the season where Bailly partnered Blind with Fellaini playing to offer physicality, we tried to bypass our own midfield for the obvious reason so it's the CBs were tasked with build up (where people complained about how Pogba didn't dictate play, where his role at that time is to join the attacker and influence up the pitch).
I don't think it's a good idea to go build from deep that way as better team definitely have enough sources to match our quality & force the ball toward the weaker player on ball. In these types of games, it's best to counter them with that extra footballer.
I remember he's much more agile & very comfortable on ball when he first came to us during mid season, too. Something happened & his ability with the football regressed. Strange.
Edit: his running style back then looks lighter too. Now he looks more heavy & his footwork, running style looks like dragging/ sweeping.
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I honestly find us hard to watch whenever him and Fellaini start the same game.
He is absolutely terrible.
He is absolutely terrible.
Yeah maybe too much gym work?
Also he we signed him midseason but he was at Fulham till the season finished.
Yeah, no..
Fellaini hasn't really been a fixture in a mourinho team since we started getting out act together. Although fair enough obviously if he is playing you bypass the initial man in midfield as he can't take the ball on the turn and passing isn't his best attribute. Pogba dropping deep has taken some onus of our defenders I suppose, that's a fair point but carrick was doing the same before him about ten games into the season, before then our starting eleven and tactical shape was nowhere near established, the fellaini period was very brief. I don't think we ever have or will have a tactic though where we are deliberately putting emphasis on the defenders dictating play (I think its a case of we hadn't worked out how to get the best out of pogba or previously carrick yet rather than deliberately leaving it in the defenders hands)
Either way Smalling may look the worst on the ball but I feel he is no less likely to get caught out in a compact team with a high line as you suggest there given the more compact you become the shorter your passes need to be. If he is defending well, as he is, nobody will take his position based on ball playing ability as nobody outside of Blind is actually a particularly good ball player, they just look a bit nicer than smalling when they ping their usually ineffective passes.
How exactly? The passing bit has already been established
Not in our best 11 but was solid today.
I rate him more highly than most - he's by far our best CB aerially and seems to compliment Bailly who is quite weak in this area.
He absolutely is.
He looks more awkward than he actually is, and people get hung up on that. His style is quirky and not 'normal' therefore people assume it's wrong.
But his pass completion rate is high, defenders don't get the better of him, his actual defensive work is very good.
No he's not the best passer, but he doesn't need to be in a team with Carrick, Pogba, Mata, Mhiki even Blind.
I prefer he focuses on his defending, and anything else is a bonus.
Had a very good game last night.
But his pass completion rate is high, defenders don't get the better of him, his actual defensive work is very good.
No he's not the best passer, but he doesn't need to be in a team with Carrick, Pogba, Mata, Mhiki even Blind.
I prefer he focuses on his defending, and anything else is a bonus.
Had a very good game last night.
An advantage of him playing LCB is that he doesn't feel the need to try and bring the ball out, which he sucks at. He just gives it to Bailly, Blind or Pogba and gets back in position.
Of course his pass completion rate is going to be high if he only passes to the GK or another player within 2m of him. Any attempts further than that usually go wayward and his composure goes completely out the window when pressed by an opponent. Don't know what you mean by defenders but players DO regularly get the better of him.
So what if he only plays safe passes? He gets hounded for hoofing. He does the opposite and still gets hammered. Smalling just can't win.
We don't need him to be a playmaker from the back. We need him to defend, and he is good at that. I'd take a defender like that over Stones, who causes more errors through being a centre back playmaker.
That said, he still makes decent forward passes as well. The majority are the safe ball, which I am sure he has been instructed to do, but his forward passing has still been decent in the last few games.
We don't need him to be a playmaker from the back. We need him to defend, and he is good at that. I'd take a defender like that over Stones, who causes more errors through being a centre back playmaker.
That said, he still makes decent forward passes as well. The majority are the safe ball, which I am sure he has been instructed to do, but his forward passing has still been decent in the last few games.
Someone posted a statistic that showed he plays more accurate forward passes than our other CB options except Rojo IIRC, and it was Jones who plays passes back to the keeper most often.
Even then, would you prefer if he hoofs the ball aimlessly and loses us posession? If his passing is limited he isn't suddenly going to spray passes all over the pitch. And once again, we have Pogba, Carrick, Blind, Mhiki, Mata even Ibra who can do that, why would you expect a CB to do it? It's nice to have yes, but just because he isn't that type of defender shouldn't go against him.
7 clean sheets in the last 10 appearances while changing CB partnerships suggest defenders don't regularly get the better of him either. Key word being regularly.
His passing is his weak point, everyone can agree on that, but it's not that important either as others can take care of playmaking.
The bolded part is just completely untrue. Players don't regularly get the better of him. According to Vardy, Smalling is the toughest defender to face in the PL. According to Welbeck, Smalling is nigh on impossible to get past one on one. Watching matches will also tell you that he is pretty useful when it comes to actual defending. Against Saint Etienne, both ties, he did both his and Bailly's job as Bailly was a little all over the place.
I do believe I meant his style of play is ugly, not his appearance as such. I'm sure he's a handsome lad. Looks a little like a Ross in Friends, a shade darker.
His passing is poor but his positioning is absolutely terrible. The amount of problems this causes for his fellow centre half is the main issue.
The sooner Jones is back the better.
The sooner Jones is back the better.
Smalling's positioning is very good and he has had to a lot more covering for Bailly than vice versa in recent weeks.
Jeez, I knew that.
Jeez, how many times are people gonna keep churning out the same old quotes. They were from like 20 years ago! His grabbing and shirt pulling has not been too bad this season but for all his virtues he is what he is....just a bang average defender. I hope Jose upgrades him in the summer.
We do it because you spout random crap without any evidence bar a couple of mistakes which every defender makes. Varane had a shocking performance yesterday, but that does not in any way imply that he regularly makes mistakes.
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