Smalling had a fair few of his trademark aimless hoofs if I recall... but still 79% is dogshit.
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Season Average Rating
- Appearances
- 45
- Clean sheets
- 20
- Goals
- 4
- Assists
- 0
- Yellow cards
- 4
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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?
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Yeah, that’s what was so surprising/shocking about the stat. He’s so risk averse with his passing but still failed to complete one in every five. Almost heart-breaking when you look at the range of passing often on display from central defenders at our rivals.
We are carrying 5 CBs and I think that's already more than enough. 4CBs and some backup from academy should be enough. If those CBs are crocked, then, well, we need to get rid all of them
. Jones, Bailly and Lindelof will be here next season so we just need to keep one of Smalling and Rojo. I am OK with either being moved. Smalling will probably fetch more money being homegrown. Jose seems to have confidence in Tuanzebe so no point we carrying on with many players like Smalling who block the path of youngsters and don't do anything special or are not good enough to take us to next level.I would go for a replacement if only he can ready-made go into first team. Like Alderweireld. If Bailly-Jones are first choice CB for Jose and he is satisfied with them, then only keep one of Rojo and Smalling, without getting replacement and give Tuanzebe more minutes.
What a disgusting thread. An absolute barrage of abuse again for a guy who is part of one of the best defences in the league. He looks to be lacking confidence again but his defensive work is still very strong.
He made one big mistake in that game, which was the penalty that should have been awarded. Giving away a free kick near the half way line is not "costing his team a goal".
Newcastle didn't look even the slightest bit threatening all game. Smalling and Jones were completely in control defensively.
Then there is Smalling's offensive contribution. He was a big threat on set pieces and if Lukaku had competed for the header instead of pushing the defender and if Martial had buried the one blocked on the line, he would have had 2 assists.
He made one big mistake in that game, which was the penalty that should have been awarded. Giving away a free kick near the half way line is not "costing his team a goal".
Newcastle didn't look even the slightest bit threatening all game. Smalling and Jones were completely in control defensively.
Then there is Smalling's offensive contribution. He was a big threat on set pieces and if Lukaku had competed for the header instead of pushing the defender and if Martial had buried the one blocked on the line, he would have had 2 assists.
Modern day defenders playing for top teams must be good with the ball.. That is when/where the attacks start.. From the back.. If you notice, our attacks are quite slow to start.. This is due to Smalling's incompetence.. Whenever he is on the ball, opposition attackers do not need to pressure him.. Because his passing from the back is attrocious.. Without any urgency.. Its always the safe side to side pass.. The extra man the opposition gets are usually well placed to surpress the attack.. Hence the slow buildup.. Its effecting the overall gameplay.. Surely Mourinho needs to see this.. Surely he needs to take Smalling out.. We have always been built with a good ball playing defender at the back.. Who swiftly starts off attacks..i have seen Lindelof who can be very good with his feet.. I am not sure why Mourinho hasn't placed more trust on him.. Maybe he is still not displaying what is required during training..but in any case, he should be given a chance..
He needs to leave to be honest, this is not knee jerk he has been shite for aslong as I can remember. In all his time here I think he has had 1 6 month spell where he was decent. He has no backbone whatsoever and its unbelievable he has lasted so long at this club. Everytime he has the ball at his feet he looks like an accident waiting to happen, his passing is so unambitious yet still so poor, he passes 90% of the time to his left or right or to De Gea and they are so often underhit, overhit or not even accurate its a joke. Everyone saying our defence is the best in the league is deluded, I would love to see what our chances conceded stats look like, because I am pretty sure without De Gea we would have conceded a hell of a lot more goals!
Can’t wait till the next game when he doesn’t feck up and everyone starts believing he’s good enough for Manchester United.
It’s been happening for about 5 years now. I’ll never change my mind on him.
It’s been happening for about 5 years now. I’ll never change my mind on him.
Arsenal will have him for £20M.
As annoying as it was, the dive was so ridiculous I couldn't stop laughing 
My dislike for him isn't even about his ability, I just don't think he has the character or the will to win. There is an apathy about him that I find really grating - he doesn't strike me as someone who'll go home and stew on a defeat, learn from it and come back stronger. Rather, he just seems to be thankful that's he's managed to carve out a career in football and bag himself a trophy wife.
I'd sell him. For his mentality more than anything else.
I'd sell him. For his mentality more than anything else.
His worst game for a while if only for the ridiculous dive but he still did the bulk of our defending.
No surprise this thread blows up when we don't win again. We can't score against the mighty Newcastle centre backs but it's all Smalling's fault because he should be our playmaker from the back like Vidic and Rio apparently used to be.
No surprise this thread blows up when we don't win again. We can't score against the mighty Newcastle centre backs but it's all Smalling's fault because he should be our playmaker from the back like Vidic and Rio apparently used to be.
I agree that it's a lot of centre backs. We have more CBs than a team should have, but that's primarily because none of them can be relied on to play week after week - except for Smalling, whose reputation is the lowest of the lot.We are carrying 5 CBs and I think that's already more than enough. 4CBs and some backup from academy should be enough. If those CBs are crocked, then, well, we need to get rid all of them
I would go for a replacement if only he can ready-made go into first team. Like Alderweireld. If Bailly-Jones are first choice CB for Jose and he is satisfied with them, then only keep one of Rojo and Smalling, without getting replacement and give Tuanzebe more minutes.
If Smalling goes, our most reliably fit defender, then one or two others probably need to make way for someone who can step in and play all those games Smalling has. Ideally we want a solid CB pairing, which Jose has always been known for putting in place, but hasn't been able to do here due to the fitness records of all of them, Smalling included.
Injury prone centre backs and ageing wingers-turned-full backs, the back four probably needs an overhaul, again.
I'm really angry at him. Why did he feel the need to dive. What a bellend he is.
http://www.teamtalk.com/news/neville-slams-man-united-defensive-duo-after-newcastle-loss
There's something incredibly wrong in our defensive duo when even Philip Neville criticises them.
There's something incredibly wrong in our defensive duo when even Philip Neville criticises them.
I'm a fan of Smalling as I think he has some stand out attributes, such as his one on one marking, speed, strength and aerial ability. That often leads him to dealing with aerial battles, which he is clearly the best at, for instance. However, on the other hand, he's very limited with the ball. I don't think he's downright poor, but he is limited. When he partnered Blind, Blind always made himself available and was able to pick a pass forward. Blind struggled defensively, but Smalling often covered for him, just as Blind covered for Smalling's limited passing. Jones is also limited with his passing, especially on the left. Combined, they just don't have that ability to exploit the gap a high pressing team leaves. It doesn't help that Young thinks he is Evra, but he is devoid of his abilities of bringing the ball out from the back. Valencia is not as good this season as he was last season. In addition to all of that, we have DDG in goal who, although arguably the best goalie in the world, is not very good with his feet, and he seldom makes pin point accurate passes. That makes for a lot of limited passers from the back. Rojo can be decent, Blind is good, the jury is still out on Bailly, but overall, we are not great.
David De Gea has made more saves than any other goalkeeper in the Premiership for the past three years running.
Smalling is a complete liability - end of.
Our poor record against the big teams points to a larger problem that the manager himself should take responsibility for. LVG did better against the big teams and we did a league double on Liverpool in Smalling's best season. Smalling wasn't directly at fault for the Liecester goal, you're clutching at straws here. The man was barely able to stand on his foot! Why does the blame fall squarely on him when it was obvious he was in a world of pain? Jones wanted Smalling out of the CB position, Herrera refused to play RB and Mourinho directed Smalling back to his normal position. You'll paint the picture the way you want to though. He wasn't directly responsible for the loss to Newcastle either as he's not the player who failed to pick up the goalscorer, what where Valencia and Pogba doing? Indirect responsibility you can have that as he caused the freekick in the first place. He's still the CB who kept the youthful and exciting Ajax at bay in our biggest game since the 2011 CL final alongside Blind. Our other CB options were not available when it counted, as usual.
It's ironic that you talk about me clutching at straws when you come up with something like that
Agree that Smalling looks worse due to the lack of a ball-player next to him; Van Gaal knew he’s only effective as a stopper so paired him with Blind who’d gladly receive it from him and distribute it accordingly. Jones is almost as limited with the ball so it accentuates how woeful they are in that respect.
It’s clear José wants to rotate Young and Shaw, so in the games he prefers young as a left back then he might as well play Shaw as the left centerback - he’s a far more accomplished footballer than either of the aforementioned two, so while he might not have Blind’s range of passing, he’d at least be able to constantly find a 20 pass forward into the midfield and speed up the tempo of the play or carry it out himself.
The same applies to Carrick; games like yesterday require a footballer at the back to construct play properly - if he isn’t going to start in midfield then he might as well have been spare at the back.
Smalling and Jones can be useful when it’s either of them plus one, but together they’re a shambles.
How so? You mentioned the importance of big games didn't you? What game has been bigger than the EL final since Fergie's departure?It's ironic that you talk about me clutching at straws when you come up with something like that
It is ridiculous that our defence yesterday was a Fergie defence (bar Young, sort of). Is it 6 defenders we have signed since he left and we still put out that defence yesterday. It is a bad state of affairs when a Newcastle CB is slagging off your players.
Youthful and exciting Ajax is where you were clutching at straws. I mentioned this to you in another thread as well but you chose to ignore it:
Also for what it's worth, I should mention the Celta Vigo Semi match as well where Smalling missed two opportunities to stop the ball from going to a completely open Guidetti who thankfully missed an open goal.
All the big games he played in, Arsenal, Spurs, Chelsea we lost. This season already lost to Chelsea, Man City and were saved by De Gea vs Arsenal. This is the problem with you Smalling fanboys, when faced with statistcs you come up with random crap about how he wasn’t to blame because xyz but the fact remains we keep losing big games with him in the team and whether or not you can judge if he’s directly to blame or not we are weaker as a defensive unit especially against tough opposition. The sooner we stop relying on mediocre players like Smalling the sooner we’ll move to the next level of domination as a club.
Should’ve given a penalty away as well. He’s a nightmare.
Well its the truth. The bookies had us as favorites but most opposition fans thought United were not going to be able to contain the speed and movement of the Ajax attack. Dolberg was supposed to cause us serious problems no? Some people here went into panic mode when they found out Blind was in the starting 11. You only look at the negatives when it comes to Smalling. Why do you think Mourinho plays him so much? Rojo and Lindelof can't keep him off the starting lineup and are now merely cup tie players and they were purchased to improve our defense.
I agree with this. Against teams that we know we are going to dominate, we do not need both Jones and Smalling. We need someone at the back that can pass the ball out and keep up the momentum.
If he was ball side thats a free header for his man there. Its another situation where defending is teamwide and needs to be dynamic, Smalling does his part restricting what his opponent can do as an immediate threat and theres 9 other outfield players to see that and react to the Newcastle players only option which is to go backwards which he does. He does it with a neat and clever flick but really if our players were paying attention they'd know thats the only thing he can do because Smalling is stopping him going towards goal.
Thats complete nonsense. A top CB would do his job like Smalling did. A top team would help him by doing their jobs too.
Theres no denying that Smalling's dive was stupid and that he should have given a penalty away with his trip earlier in the game. Those are the things the world's best CB wouldnt do most likely. But its really weird to criticize him on the part where he did his job well marking his man in the correct way and not diving in to give away a penalty. There are 2 things he did do poorly, no need to pretend something he did well was a mistake.
Smalling has always been lacking picking up in the box for me but on this occasion I think you are correct so I agree.
I had really high hopes for Smalling. At age 20 his physique seemed ideal for a Premier League centre back, and Ferguson obviously saw something in him. Yet despite his occasional good spell, he repeatedly comes unstuck and has periods where he looks confused with the ball at his feet. Been waiting for him to turn into a top, top defender for a long time but now, at age 28, maybe I've come to the realisation that it won't ever happen. Perhaps Maidstone United was his level after all.
He could do a job as a backup option, but this season has shown that our back four often struggles to play the ball forward with any semblance of conviction. This is one area in which the sport has dramatically evolved in the last decade, and so many clubs now have keepers and defenders who are as comfortable with the ball at their feet as the rest of the squad. We need to improve in that department and I'm not convinced Smalling is technically competent enough to pass as a modern-day centre back.
He could do a job as a backup option, but this season has shown that our back four often struggles to play the ball forward with any semblance of conviction. This is one area in which the sport has dramatically evolved in the last decade, and so many clubs now have keepers and defenders who are as comfortable with the ball at their feet as the rest of the squad. We need to improve in that department and I'm not convinced Smalling is technically competent enough to pass as a modern-day centre back.
I'm going to skip over 5 pages and just say that I agree with everything in this post. Yesterday wasn't a good game for Smalling, he lost composure in the first half which pushed through into the second with that absurd dive. Didn't really do anything else wrong after that but the damage had been done. He's not first team material but he's imo a very good defender and is more than capable of filling in as a squad player.
The dive was frustrating, but our inability to defend the set piece was even more frustrating. We simply shouldn't be conceding goals like that.
I didn't say he had a good game. I said other than these mistakes he had a good game defensively. Now of course those mistakes were firstly a bad mistake which went unpunished, then a small mistake that did get punished. And they stopped it actually being a good game defensively, and his lack of ability on the ball did seem even worse than usual which dropped his overall performance even futher. But this 'Smalling was terrible for the entire match in every way possible' attitude that some people seem to have is a significant exaggeration. Point out the faults for sure, but don't make out he was worse than he actually was.
Not against Smalling they didn't, and I honestly don't know how anybody who watched the match could have thought that. I was actually laughing at one point about how easily he was dominating everything in the air that went near him, to the extent that twice he ran into midfield to effortlessly win a header that probably would have been 50/50 if he hadn't come in. Maybe they won the aerial battle in the other areas of the pitch (although the only place that really stood out for me is their defenders winning against Lukaku and our other attackers).
Stop teasing!
Even Arsenal aren't that stupid! No way would he be a starter for any of the other Top 6 teams. This guy has been at United for EIGHT years! Just let that register for a moment.....EIGHT fecking years! Never has a United player cranked my gears more than Smalling!
Guy's getting hammered on Twitter, especially for his now ironic diving tweet! I just hope he takes note and ups his game, which I doubt he can do now anyway!
Yeah theres definitely times hes come up short in the past with marking
Wenger has been after Smalling for years. He'd snap our hands off if we offered him to them for £20M.
I think Wenger lost all credibility a while ago so that sounds about right. He would be the only manager stupid enough to take Smalling.
The reason we have one of the best defences in the league is because Mourinho's strengths as a manager largely lie in his ability to organise a defence/keep goals out, and because we have one of the best GK's in the world.
People aren't criticising Smalling solely on the back of yesterday's performance, or on the back of one error. He's consistently shaky - an alright squad player at best but he has no business being one of the leading central defenders for a team with title ambitions.
Do any of our CB's? Smalling seems to keep getting games as he is, defensivly speaking, the best of a bad bunch. I wouldnt back any of the others against a combative CF, just last week Jones was bullied by Kane.
Personally think we AGAIN need to spend on CB over the summer, look for a CB who wont go to pieces with the ball at his feet but is also capable of winning challenges in the air. If we could trust Bailly to stay fit, would be tempted to move Smalling, Jones and Rojo on, or at least 2 of them, they could choose straws tbh, bring in someone to start games, leave Lindleof and Tuanzebe as cover. TFM could also help out if needed.
Probably not, no, especially when compared to the quality of our former defenders like Rio/Vidic. Smalling may be the best of a bad bunch but that shouldn't be used to excuse his weaknesses.
The problem is that the same could be said for every one of our central defenders. Hell, Smalling is arguably the most consistent, which is a sad indication on the others.
Bailly - is loved on this forum, and indeed so do I, but he has been very inconsistent so far in his time with us. He's been brilliant at times, but already there's been two or three periods with us where his form has been extremely shaky. He's also been injury prone so far. I'm certainly hoping he'll get over the injuries and also gain consistency, but he hasn't shown it so far.
Rojo - has only had one good period in his time with us so far, and yes he was very good during that period last season he hasn't shown enough to be relied on.
Jones - pretty much every complaint about Smalling can be said about Jones, except he's a bit better with the ball, worse in the air, and far more injury prone.
Lindelof - he's slowly been getting better as this season has gone on, but his best has still been shaky and the less said about his worst the better. Maybe he'll come good, maybe not.
People make out that Smalling is worse than what he is, and they also seem to overrate how many other defenders are out there that could improve on him. I've always been a self-confessed Smalling fan, but at this point even I have lost hope that he'll truly reach the top. As such if we can improve on him I hope we do, mostly because I do feel our lack of passing ability out of the back is one of the contributing factors to our issues. It's just not as easy as most make out to improve on him.
I do have very high hopes for Tunazebe in a couple of seasons. But in the meantime?
Nope. I honestly thought he would be a beast under Mourinho, seems like the perfect match but he's regressed if anything.
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