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But my point is that Southgate seems to prefer players who are more comfortable with the ball at their feet. I never said Smalling couldn't read the game well or intercept the ball, and I never said he was anything other than "good" in the air, not "great" or "amazing".
Jones is terrible with the ball at his feet too, his passing is terrible.
I disagree that Jones is terrible with the ball, but even if he was, he's still significantly better than Smalling with it.
It used to be good. Gone off in recent years though.
But weirdly he was deemed as the quality required under SAF. How very odd.
And the manager
Yep as was Evans and the rest of the defence described by saf as the future of the club, that drew 5-5 to West Brom!!!
Thanks to injuries to our quality defenders.
Saf left us with a shite load of dross and mainly in defensive and midfield areas. Like it or not that’s fact.ok
Why bring that game up though. It was meaningless. Evans played brilliantly on numerous occasions for us in his earlier years.
Oh my god! 5-5 in a game that didn't matter! Criminal that.
My point was and is that saf left the club in a mess and made numerous poor decisions regarding players and value in the market toward the end. Evans was probably one of the worst cbs to play for the club on a regular basis (and yes even Smalling has been better!)
No it points to the defence not being addressed properly for some time.
If it wasn't addressed properly for some time, how have we had one of the best defensive records for 4 seasons running? It's like you haven't seen him or us play at all.
2016 - fewest goals conceded
Because every player on the pitch is asked to drop deep and defend and we have the best keeper in the world. It’s like you’ve never seen us play!
Yes. We drop deep and park the bus in all matches and DDG is the sole reason we have a fantastic defence.
Ok!!
Manager(s) - three of the most decorated of recent history too.....but Caftards say he’s terrible while worshiping a crocked, kamikaze Bailly.
It’s strange; when he played rightback his distribution was very good, but when at centreback he always plays safe, generally back to the keeper.
This one might sum up where our biggest problems are:
Basically, yeah.
No, he's not. If you were actually watching the games, you would notice that Jones is equally bad, probably even worse with the ball. He is the master of backpasses to de Gea, I proved that last year here that he is using safest option far more times than Smalling.
Three of the greatest managers rated him but yeah only select few fans rate him.
"If I was actually the games"? Are you intentionally being a condescending prick?
It isn’t Jones that’s the problem, the head scratching decision is the fact that Cahill and Stones are going ahead of Smalling. Mind boggling.I thought Soutgate is a reasonable manager at least with some of his selections. Having not a pure defender who can actually defend is a bad mistake, crock Jones over him ffs
Whilst I agree, Moyes bought poorly and LVG spent a fortune bringing in players that have turned out to be the same standard or less as the ones he let leave.
Two of those have tried to upgrade and he never fully established himself under the other.Three of the greatest managers rated him but yeah only select few fans rate him.
Dont think anyone said we shouldn't upgrade on him, it's just that he is better than our other CBs and he is rated by so many great managers. Funny how none of them tried to offload him when Arsenal wanted to sign him.
I think LVG did more damage, Moyes only bought 2 players thankfully...
Yeah lvg was a joke, got rid of our wingers then a year later he complained about the lack of fast wide players
Without doubt but Moyes should have bought more and that set us back also. Although His two signings have been poor imo so kind of glad In a way.
The amount of money he wasted makes me teary eyed. He pretty much left our attack down to the bare bones and bought no quality replacements apart from martial.
Very true, we missed out on some good players on his watch. If he knew what he was doing the midfield would be complete by now if he bought either Kroos or Thiago.
that’s so true and depressing buddy
