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Smalling and Jones
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In the latest episode of the United Hour Podcast, Nik (@Rood) was joined by comedian Ali Woods to look back at the best and worst moments of a rollercoaster season with the annual United Hour Awards.
Has Ten Hag been sacked yet? We're not sure and we hope not, but it's looking more likely as the days pass.
Who should replace him and why is it taking so long to make a decision?
That's the kicker. It's odd how bad they look together, but that's just what happens. It's clearly not sustainable. Smalling looks like he wants the game to end as soon as possible from the very first minute, which is not a great sign. Praying for Bailly's swift return.
Forget about giving it to Giggsy.
based on the tweet, give it to Phil Neville.
based on the tweet, give it to Phil Neville.
What an idiot. I used to defend this guy when he played for United. He can fvck right off
We had 64% possession. Do you think we need more possession to win the game? Do you think the City win the game while playing beautifully because of their center-back?
"They have got the best defensive record because they have the best goalkeeper in the world in David De Gea and [Nemanja] Matic out in front who protects them really well," Neville said.
"But the last two away games [against Tottenham and Newcastle], Smalling and Jones have been a disaster.
"Against Dele Alli and Harry Kane, they got bullied."
What a load of crap. If we played with Rojo and Lindelof we'd have probably conceded more goals. Jones has 13 clean sheets this season and Smalling has 14 in the league and another three in the CL. 17 clean sheets for Smalling, more than any other CB in England. Its not all down to De Gea, and Matic has looked poor lately, he's being over played. Neville is a fecking tool
Slating Lindelof in such manner is uncalled for. The lad hasn't had much opportunity to play yet and bar the debut disaster, he has done alright.
The problem stems from us using a pivot. On paper is a midfield two, actually, is just an immobile, overworked Matic holding. This creates a few problems:
1. The need to play it long by our CBs. The passing options to our midfield is rather limited since is only Matic. When that gets shut down, the CBs either play it wide to Valencia/Young or back to DDG. Both results in the ball being played long under a press.
2. If Lingard or Pogba drops deep to receive the ball, this creates a vaccum between Lukaku and the midfield. This problems become worse since our attack is generally disjointed and relies heavily on individual brilliance. Probably why we got Sanchez in the first place. he however, can't do it all and gets crowded out and loses the ball.
We did create a few opportunity when we had the ball at our feet. We need to stop getting bullied in the middle. Mourinho's 4-2-3-1 relies heavily on individual brilliance and a drogba type striker to hold the ball.
17 cleansheets for Smalling. Hurray!
He is the best defender in the world. He is so calm and composed. Him and Jones are the greatest pairing in the world. Let’s not watch matches anymore and look at the context.
Matic has looked poor because he’s doing the work of two men.
So they didn’t get bullied by Kane? You must have been watching another match. Kane pretty much bullied them and they couldn’t win the ball off him.
Yes, 17 clean sheets! Best defense in the league no matter which way you look at it. If the attackers did their job and scored their chances hardly anyone would be bitching about Smalling or Jones. Kane failed to score and he was desperate to get to 100 that day. Smalling made 4 blocks, 7 clearances and won 83% of his aerial duels, 5 of those duels were against Harry freaking Kane.
Phil Neville is increasingly becoming an embarrassment. Terrible pundit, and now an entitled dickhead having been gifted a managerial job for which he is not qualified to do.
We didn't lose to Newcastle because of our defenders. We lost because we could not finish chances and because Pogba played poorly.
This. Neville faced a lot of criticism in his career as a player, you'd think he knows better. His analysis is shockingly flawed and simplistic.
Never thought they were good enough for us, we should be looking at an experienced or a truly world class CB this summer to partner Bailly. Lindelof, Rojo and Tuanzebe should be our other CBs. Both, Smalling and Jones need to go.
Their time is up! They've had enough chances to prove that they can do the job done and they simply don't fulfill Manchester United expectations, not good enough.
Blind is almost gone, Rojo, Smalling, Jones and Lindelof are not good enough for us, our center backs should be Bailly pairing with Godin.
Blind is almost gone, Rojo, Smalling, Jones and Lindelof are not good enough for us, our center backs should be Bailly pairing with Godin.
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Totally agree
Smalling is the common denominator for me. Whoever plays alongside him seems to suffer as a result.
Smalling seems to play with a nervousness which gets under the skin of his teammates and the fact that he is so bad on the ball doesn’t help either.
Jones has looked outstanding alongside Rojo and Bailly
Smalling seems to play with a nervousness which gets under the skin of his teammates and the fact that he is so bad on the ball doesn’t help either.
Jones has looked outstanding alongside Rojo and Bailly
This is the deadwood I am talking about. They need to be sold this summer and bring some world class defenders. Time to spend some money, with them on our team we are not going anywhere.
The worst pair of CB's I've ever seen at United - even Brown-O'Shea were way better!
Time's up. First we should get rid of Smalling, than the other two morons in Jones and Rojo. Feck it, I've had it with all of them.
I often see the clean sheet record cited as proof that they're not bad. That's fair enough, but the issue for me (specially with Smalling) is that the "solidity" in defence also has the massive counterbalance of their doing the sum total of bugger-all in helping build. DdG can't play short passes to them and they're a liability with the ball. Most top teams can build from the back, but we're forever trying to bypass the defence when playing out. This results in long balls and loss of the ball. It also makes the task of a team pressing us far easier as they know that we can't use the two of them to play ball so they double up on our midfield.
This is not a recent thing and it's not going away any time soon. We could "probably" afford to carry one of them in a team to provide the "blood and thunder" but we can't have both. It's too much of a liability and let's face it, all their clean sheets don't make them a Rio-Vidic. There's always the air of "calamity around the corner" when they're playing. We don't have the calmness on the ball that is needed and even in games we dominate, there's the risk of conceding off any of the attacks that will inevitably come.
Yes, you can point to Pogba and Lukaku being liabilities when asked to defend, but the fact is that the CBs being cack is not helping us. At all. I had high hopes from Bailly but right now, all I can do is hope he gets fit again. His being out is forcing us to play at least one of this duo and with Rojo reverting to type, we're playing both. Makes me wonder what is wrong with Lindelof now. He had some good outings (specially when we played 3 at the back) and I was hoping he'd kick on. Frankly, he's so much better on the ball than these two, it's not even funny. We desperately need a CB overhaul.
This is not a recent thing and it's not going away any time soon. We could "probably" afford to carry one of them in a team to provide the "blood and thunder" but we can't have both. It's too much of a liability and let's face it, all their clean sheets don't make them a Rio-Vidic. There's always the air of "calamity around the corner" when they're playing. We don't have the calmness on the ball that is needed and even in games we dominate, there's the risk of conceding off any of the attacks that will inevitably come.
Yes, you can point to Pogba and Lukaku being liabilities when asked to defend, but the fact is that the CBs being cack is not helping us. At all. I had high hopes from Bailly but right now, all I can do is hope he gets fit again. His being out is forcing us to play at least one of this duo and with Rojo reverting to type, we're playing both. Makes me wonder what is wrong with Lindelof now. He had some good outings (specially when we played 3 at the back) and I was hoping he'd kick on. Frankly, he's so much better on the ball than these two, it's not even funny. We desperately need a CB overhaul.
Getting shot of Rojo and Blind first then a replacement (to play with Bailey whilst Lindelof and AT learn) and so Smalling and Jones are second choice for me is not a bad thing. Rojo and Blind are the real deadwood who don’t contribute much where as Smalling and Jones (limited as they are) serve us well when called on and are English homegrown.
It is a problem but I would like to see their last chance saloon at least be beside a couple of actual fullbacks. If they are behind two of Bailly/Lindelof and/or Rojo next season tthen I hope at least we have two actual fullbacks for the first team players sake. Jones and Smalling are capable squad options and Smalling definitely has a lot more credits in the bank backed up with capable performances for long periods of time and his consistency from the last couple of years, but the both seem to not make a combination with any of the other players in our defensive unit and that just compounds the problem.
If they fall back into the rotation next season due to Bailly's fitness and Lindelof still needing to settle then we should at least have the fullback problem sorted at the very least and I would prefer to see that as their last chance and then have them fall out of the club organically.
If they fall back into the rotation next season due to Bailly's fitness and Lindelof still needing to settle then we should at least have the fullback problem sorted at the very least and I would prefer to see that as their last chance and then have them fall out of the club organically.
I was a fan of Smalling and especially Jones, but literally I've had it with them. I wasn't even counting on Blind as CB, but no matter what order we need to ship them off, one by one. None of the three is good enough.
Same fecking shit from the same players served time after time. It's madness to expect they will improve, since they haven't done till now.
Jones may improve as he’s been mostly hampered with injuries but you’re correct not good enough but let’s not be too hasty. We need cover we are not going to get better cover than Jones or Smalling without spending a small fortune so I say get rid of Rojo and Blind (I rate Jones and Smalling higher) and improve by buying a partner for Bailey and hopefully Tunzabe or Lindelof come through push for a starting berth and either Jones or Smalling would be demoted to 5-6th choice. No point in doing a LVG and spend a fortune on guys who are no better like Rojo for Evans or Depay for Nani etc etc. Quality over quantity for me any day.
Jose needs to be radical. I have no idea why he keeps playing these 2. Both are not up to the standard, especially Smalling. Let's give someone else a chance ffs
We'll be moaning about Dumb and Dumber for another two seasons since we have other positions to focus on and won't be buying new CBs. Can't wait to see the club hold the "I am Chris Smalling and I am Phil Jones" testimonial for these two.
This thread is so useless. WE all know it's gonna be Jones-Baily when Baily comes back from injury.
Vidic and Ferdinand should be the benchmark at a club like United. Smalling, Jones and Rojo fall way, way short. This is hardly news.
These two epitomise the mediocrity and decline of the club since SAF left. The biggest lesson from yesterday is that they should never EVER play together again. They've been here for 7 years now and neither has fulfilled their potential. What are we waiting for? Bin them in the summer. It's got so bad that even rival players are now commenting on how poor they are. Neville labelled them a 'disaster' on MOTD and rightly so. All they do is spread panic and confusion and that filters out across the whole team. The whole last ditch blocks and clearances don't matter to me. We should be demanding more at a club of our stature.
This guy is a proper tool anyway. His head is stuck so, so, so far up his own a**. Opinionated, and rather belligerent at times. A real opportunist, he needs to focus on his job with the Women's England XI.
A proper c***
Why? He was right in calling them a disaster.
I even think the pair of them has a seriously detrimental effect on our attacking football. The constant passing back to the keeper and inability to play it out of defence just slows everything down. It's grim to watch. I've always known that Smalling was poor on the ball but he also seems to be kryptonite for jones. The sooner Bailly gets back the better. Either that or Lindelof steps up his game. Yesterday was a game where we shouldn't have needed much height at the back - with Gayle up top on his own - so would have been a perfect opportunity to give Lindelof a run out.
Yeah, I cringe every time I see Matic or Pogba drop into the back line to pick the ball up off Smalling because they (rightly) don't trust him to pass it forward 10 yards. It makes playing with a midfield two even harder.
Its very damning that 5 years on and a shed load of money thrown at the team, we are STILL starting with 5 players signed by SAF in defence.
How have we failed to make a step of progress in that time..!
How have we failed to make a step of progress in that time..!
One or both of these clowns should have been sold in the summer.
Yeah it’s absurd really. I was watching an under 9s game on Saturday morning and there was a spell where the most useless kid was put in goal and all his team-mates had to retreat to the edges of their own box every time we had a goal kick because they knew that was the only way to stop the opposition from intercepting. Little did I know I’d be watching the same shite from professional footballers the next day.
Away from home, behind a midfield 2, they shouldn’t be paired. Nowhere near technically good enough to deal with continued pressing.
David McDonnell from the Mirror saying we're gonna sell Smalling and Jones also under serious threat. Varane and Maguire are the two that we're looking at to replace them.
https://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/news/manchester-united-set-ditch-phil-12014522
https://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/news/manchester-united-set-ditch-phil-12014522
Would love that but it's the mirror. They're only linking us to Varane because Jose had him at Real.