Rusty after 7 weeks out and only a couple of training sessions. One mistake cost us a goal. Would definitely keep him over Jones.
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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One thing he was very good at last season is staying tight when the ball is about to be played in to the strikers, and he nearly always won his battles. This season, he seems to be more zonal, and I have no idea what zone he is trying to mark. Either way, he's rarely tight to the attackers anymore, and they win headers like Welbeck did today.
Is it tactical, or has he just lost the plot?
Is it tactical, or has he just lost the plot?
So how many goals have we conceeded after his mistake this season then?Someone claimed that he actually isnt that bad and a lot of his few mistakes lead to goals, he is unlucky
He is just shit. 27 years old and still makes basic mistakes every game. He doesnt make a lot of mistakes, but still every game one or two critical that lead to good chances and goals mostly
Average defender., Many CB's in EPL better than him. The two from Spurs, Luiz at Chelsea. The guy at Southampton who has been injured a long while. Hell I would even prefer Ashley Williams at Everton.
Adam Joseph @AdamJosephSport
Chris Smalling has been at fault for 7 of the last 9 goals Manchester United have conceded in the Premier League when he has played.
No one would give us anywhere near that.
If he's going to be injured all the time he's got to come back ready to play.
Hell, what ?
Adam Joseph @AdamJosephSport
Chris Smalling has been at fault for 7 of the last 9 goals Manchester United have conceded in the Premier League when he has played.
This is even more crap than what I was expecting !
Well if Adam Joseph on twitter says it, it must be true.
Adam Joseph @AdamJosephSport
Chris Smalling has been at fault for 7 of the last 9 goals Manchester United have conceded in the Premier League when he has played.
I said before the game started that having him and Jones starting was just a car crash waiting to happen. The guy is absolute crap and just not good enough for United. I hate seeing him in a United shirt...just mugs me right off. I know Jose praised him after the game but seriously. I just hope he gets moved on in the summer. Hopefully if Fulham come back up, he can feck off back there as that's more his level.
Adam Joseph @AdamJosephSport
Chris Smalling has been at fault for 7 of the last 9 goals Manchester United have conceded in the Premier League when he has played.
That's obviously not true.
Sell the pair of Jones and Smalling. TFM and Tuanzebe can make the step up. Bring in another centre half by all means. One to play alongside Bailly. But Jones and Smalling are just a crock of shit. Guaranteed to be injuried throughout the season, form is up and down, the manager stopped short of calling them a fair of pussies this last month. I'm sick of them. They've had their chance and they've blew it time and time again. There's some hungry lions waiting for an opportunity if we need home based players. I'd rather they step, than throw a bone to the new Duncan Edwards and Squeeky McDaftcunt.
Would not blame him entirely for the goal, it was a very good cross.
What makes him so bad is his lack of ball playing ability. The ball just never comes out of defense with him there. So poor ball playing skills. A midfielder constantly has to drop back to take the ball off him. Makes us so so defensive. Like Bailey and Blind can atleast move the ball ahead, this guy is clueless without proper support from our midfielders.
Needs either Bailey, Blind or Rojo next to him. Jones also has very limited ball paying skills, although they are not as bad as Smalling's.
Personally, I would get rid in the summer
What makes him so bad is his lack of ball playing ability. The ball just never comes out of defense with him there. So poor ball playing skills. A midfielder constantly has to drop back to take the ball off him. Makes us so so defensive. Like Bailey and Blind can atleast move the ball ahead, this guy is clueless without proper support from our midfielders.
Needs either Bailey, Blind or Rojo next to him. Jones also has very limited ball paying skills, although they are not as bad as Smalling's.
Personally, I would get rid in the summer
He came back 2 weeks ahead of schedule. He does not have a bad injury record either. I don't know where you come up with that stuff.
Smalling definitely has a bad injury record. He was better last season and put together a good string of games this season too but overall he isn't exactly reliable.
I don't recall all the games, but certainly there's today, Jagielka against Everton, the goal against Middlesborough.
No he doesn't. Repeating it does not make it true.
Jagielka wasn't him. That Was Rojo and DDG
So he's to blame for a goal in a game in which he didn't play(Jagielka goal)? This is at least second time that I read here people blaming him for goals in games where he didn't play. Special kind of agenda.
As soon as I saw both him and Jones in the starting 11, I knew we hadn't got a hope of winning.
The first goal was a lucky deflection, fair enough but Smalling was totally at fault for the second goal. Positional awareness all over the place and the timing of his jump was way off.
Sell them both ffs. Buy Van Dijk or splash big money on someone like Pique or Bonucci.
Tuanzebe looked way better than both Smalling and Jones today.
The first goal was a lucky deflection, fair enough but Smalling was totally at fault for the second goal. Positional awareness all over the place and the timing of his jump was way off.
Sell them both ffs. Buy Van Dijk or splash big money on someone like Pique or Bonucci.
Tuanzebe looked way better than both Smalling and Jones today.
Yes your right, my mistake.
I'd love to know what he bases the 7 in 9 stat on, but considering Smalling's injury record and how few goals we've conceded that could be a really long task.
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Neither does repeating that he doesn't have a bad injury record...
He's not as bad as Jones but it's quite clear he isn't exactly reliable in terms of injuries. He turned things around a little bit the couple years before this but he's missed 21 games this season, he's missed ~50 games since he's been here. I fail to see how that's considered anything other than poor.
If you say a season is roughly 50 games then he misses 1 in 6. That isn't exactly good.
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last 9 PL goals conceded by united when he started
1 vs Arsenal - 7/5/17 - his mistake
1 vs Boro - 19/3/17 - his mistake
1 vs stoke - 21/1/17 - not sure his mistake. was OG
1 vs Boro - 31/12/16 - arguably his mistake
4 vs chelsea - 23/10/16 - no comments
1 vs Stoke - 2/10/16 - was DDGs mistake
1 vs Arsenal - 7/5/17 - his mistake
1 vs Boro - 19/3/17 - his mistake
1 vs stoke - 21/1/17 - not sure his mistake. was OG
1 vs Boro - 31/12/16 - arguably his mistake
4 vs chelsea - 23/10/16 - no comments
1 vs Stoke - 2/10/16 - was DDGs mistake
He's been averaging ~6 missed games a season for the 7 years that he's been here. For a CB that seems pretty decent to me.
He hasnt played in a lot of them in some periods. So sitting on the bench he couldnt get an injury. Once he starts playing regularly, he gets his injuries. Often even when 1 or 2 other CBs are injured and people get fed up. He still is nowhere near a reliable player in terms of injuries, someone that could play most league games and form a partnership for most of the season and get a momentum going.
That's ironic given both he and Jones got their latest injuries in training for England. Like I said he doesn't have a record of getting injured. 6 matches missed a season is not that much. But I see you disagree and you're convinced he's injury prone somehow, so there's really not much more to say on that.
I dont care to look up fot the details, but i am sure most people on here wouldnt say he is a relaibale CB with not having fitness/injury issues. He stayed healthy in patches, but he still seems to be regarded as an injury prone player and that reputation seems to come from somewhere. Maybe it gets exaggerated, but i dont trust him to stay fit for 20 consecutive games. He had a season under van Gaal and at the beginning under Fergie, but thats more the exception than the norm.
Hopeless as always. We wont win the title with gash like him in our team. In fact we should sell him to arsenal or spurs to weaken them. We even struggled heading the ball out from corners such was his hopelessness.
The second goal, Jones wandered to the front post and left Smalling with two men. Bit of a tricky situation for any centre back.
Any type of defensive shape always includes 1 man to block the low cross at the front post. That goal wasnt jones fault. Smalling lost his man and worst totally mistimed his header, thats like a school boy type mistake, unacceptable at the highest level. Either win the header or challenge the forward in the air. Just jumping and missing and allowing the ball to drop behind you is just poor.
Not that jones did any better, both should face the boot in the summer but smalling is just the worst player we've had since cleverley and that says alot.
first game back after injury!
but I will agree that he's been a level lower this season than last
Smalling knew he had to go with Welbeck and he did. He looked over his shoulder when we had the ball and just before the cross he looks back at Welbeck, but was too far apart. It was classic CB cock up, you dont have to make excuses for him, Ramsey was close to Jones and had nothing to do with the situation.
And it wasnt smalling vs 2 at the far post, it was smaling and tuanzebe vs 2, which should be acceptable risk. We just had to put pressure on welbeck in the air and he probably wouldnt have got a clean header on target, or generated good power. Instead smalling jumped, tuanzebe thought smalling would clear it and didnt challenge, smalling missed and welbeck had a free header.
Well first off he didn't play in that match against Everton so harsh to blame him for that one, that goal was actually Fellaini's fault. The 2nd goal today was as much or more Darmian's fault for being so casual and allowing the cross to come in.
The one against Misslesbrough fair enough he could have done better there. But 7 out of 9 is blatantly bullshit pulled from someones arse. I'd be surprised if he's been directly and solely at fault for 7 goals all season.
I'm not bashing on Smalling. Think a lot of our players get targeted after poor team performances. However; I have long said that smallings best season was actually because of Blind playing next to him.
So if Smalling gets tight to Welbeck but the ball goes straight to the player in front of him to head in, it's still Smallings fault?
EDIT: Welbeck was his man. Jones was responsible for Ramsey but he was nowhere near him.
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Just watched the goal again and you are right. If it had gone to Ramsey instead it would have been the same again because Jones was nowhere near him. All round shambolic defending.
What guy in front? Have you watched the goal or not? There was a guy slightly behind jones but far infront and clearly jones's man and the moment the cross came in it was clear to all the players the ball wasnt going to the near post anyway. If its a high ball to the front, jones is responsible, if a low driven cross to the front jones is responsible. If smalling thinks jones is too far from his man which i dont think he is he should shout, but dont think smalling thinks that, its more like he misjudges the ball and jumps too early, and tuanzebe inexperienced so doesnt anticipate the mistake.
Just seen your last sorry. Typed this before seeing it.
Biggest problem with him is he hasnt pushed on. When he broke into our team, he looked really good next to a leader like Rio or Vidic. I was really expecting him to learn from them on how to be a leader at the back. But it seems like he hasnt improved. Hes not great on the ball either. He does that thing where he charges out about 15 yards, and negates that by turning around and passing back. Its really bizarre.
Hes 27 and for how long hes played, he really should be hitting his prime as a defender. But i dont think it will be with us.
Hes 27 and for how long hes played, he really should be hitting his prime as a defender. But i dont think it will be with us.
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