Chris Smalling - does he start at any other top 6 team?

devilish

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Barely. Seen him make mistakes Smalling doesnt make with technique.

Fiorentina are the team I watch most in Serie A. Not every week but every couple
He needs to work on his positioning however technical wise he is not weak
 

Isotope

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Marked out Suarez who had only one shot (none on target) the whole game, with the lowest pass numbers (other than their Gk). Sadly the others couldn't do their job.

But yeh. I'm sure every CB in Top 6 can do that and even better.
 

Kapardin

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He is a good CB, the least of our problems. As a GK, De Gea has made more mistakes than Smalling has as a CB, yet one gets an almost free pass here while the other is constantly scapegoated.
 

roseguy64

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The difference is Van Dijk is CAPABLE of doing that. Smalling doesn’t even get picked for England
Just because a player doesn't get picked for the national team doesn't mean that they shouldn't be being selected
 

Negan

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Just because a player doesn't get picked for the national team doesn't mean that they shouldn't be being selected
Yeah well... he shouldn’t.

Stones and Maguire are comfortably better. Infact I’d be taking Keane, Tarkowski, Lascelles and Mee over him aswell. And possibly Coady.
 

Sauldogba

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I could be wrong but i could have sworn it was under oles first few games he was droppes and we was fairly good defensively.
Then he comes back into the team now we are leaking goals.
 

settembrini

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I could be wrong but i could have sworn it was under oles first few games he was droppes and we was fairly good defensively.
Then he comes back into the team now we are leaking goals.
Smalling was injured, not dropped, when Solskjaer took over. Our defensive record was good when he was injured but we were mostly playing bad teams. The best side we played was Tottenham and they wrecked our defence but De Gea saved us. When Smalling was fit he came back into the team quite quickly and we kept a clean sheet on each of his first three starts (Fulham, Chelsea, Liverpool).

We are leaking goals now but I wouldn't blame Smalling for it. He's been one of our better players over this poor run. Young has been the main culprit with an awful run of performances for a while now, De Gea has gifted the opposition several goals and Lindelof's form has also dropped. The last one is partly due to Smalling as Lindelof is more comfortable as the right CB and he was allowed to play there when partnered with Jones but with Smalling he gets moved to the left side where he is worse. This is something we need to address in the summer with a left sided CB (Koulibaly, Maguire, Ake etc) and not sign another CB with a strong preference for the right side like Alderweireld.
 

Smallings biggest fan

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Yeah well... he shouldn’t.

Stones and Maguire are comfortably better. Infact I’d be taking Keane, Tarkowski, Lascelles and Mee over him aswell. And possibly Coady.
Really? Well. At least I now know not to take your opinion seriously. Smalling is better than all of those. The only one of those that comes close to Smalling is Maguire. Stones is very much overrated. It is not because of him that City have conceded so few. It is rather despite of him.
 

Ekeke

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I could be wrong but i could have sworn it was under oles first few games he was droppes and we was fairly good defensively.
Then he comes back into the team now we are leaking goals.
We played easier games and the team in general was more motivated and fit, having just got Ole in and before a bunch of players got injured.
 

Ekeke

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Yeah well... he shouldn’t.

Stones and Maguire are comfortably better. Infact I’d be taking Keane, Tarkowski, Lascelles and Mee over him aswell. And possibly Coady.
Sounds like you're a big fan of midtable CBs. You should find a team thats going to stay midtable so you can watch them each week.
 

Negan

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Really? Well. At least I now know not to take your opinion seriously. Smalling is better than all of those. The only one of those that comes close to Smalling is Maguire. Stones is very much overrated. It is not because of him that City have conceded so few. It is rather despite of him.
Well you can take Southgates opinion seriously because England have gone further than any other team in years. Unless you think they would have won the entire thing if Chris Smalling was on the pitch... that in itself is laughable.
 

Negan

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Sounds like you're a big fan of midtable CBs. You should find a team thats going to stay midtable so you can watch them each week.
Ironically enough that’s what Smalling and about 8 more of our regular starters are... And where are we? Oh yeah... mid table. Coincidence?
 

Ekeke

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Well you can take Southgates opinion seriously because England have gone further than any other team in years. Unless you think they would have won the entire thing if Chris Smalling was on the pitch... that in itself is laughable.
England had the easiest run in years and as soon as we played against a half decent team we made them look great and the defense was a mess.
 

Ekeke

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Ironically enough that’s what Smalling and about 8 more of our regular starters are... And where are we? Oh yeah... mid table. Coincidence?
Do you seriously believe the league is made up of 12 teams?

In fact, don't answer that. You sound smarter when you arent talking
 

Negan

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England had the easiest run in years and as soon as we played against a half decent team we made them look great and the defense was a mess.
And you would have struggled against the below-half-decent teams if Chris Smalling was playing. :)
 

Ekeke

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And you would have struggled against the below-half-decent teams if Chris Smalling was playing. :)
Doubt it, but at least we could defend.

In fact Smalling has a better scoring record than most of those England defenders, and England's threat at the WC was almost entirely corners and set pieces and headers. So if anything we'd have scored more with Smalling around.

All of the comfortable on the ball CB playing led to nothing and our defenders were our main goal threat. Yikes
 

Negan

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Do you seriously believe the league is made up of 12 teams?

In fact, don't answer that. You sound smarter when you arent talking
Where was Mane and van Dijk before Liverpool? Mid table. Your logic is basically “if they play for a shit team, they’re shit” which couldn’t be further from the truth. The fact is, there’s a lot of players in the Prem who would vastly improve our team. Nearly every great player has played for a “midtable” club


Doubt it, but at least we could defend.
:lol::lol: If that’s what you call it......
 

Ekeke

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Where was Mane and van Dijk before Liverpool? Mid table. Your logic is basically “if they play for a shit team, they’re shit” which couldn’t be further from the truth. The fact is, there’s a lot of players in the Prem who would vastly improve our team. Nearly every great player has played for a “midtable” club



:lol::lol: If that’s what you call it......
No, my logic is that the CBs you listed are playing for midtable teams and thats the level of most of them.

VVD was statistically the best CB in the league before he signed for Liverpool. Not the case with any of the players you mentioned.

Mane isnt a CB.

This should be very simple to understand.

I agree there are plenty of premier league players who would be good for us. Just none of those you mentioned are better than Chris Smalling as a CB.
 

Nou_Camp99

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Smalling has been better than Lindelof over last 6/7 games.

Lindelof's good run of form is well and truly over.
 

11101

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I could be wrong but i could have sworn it was under oles first few games he was droppes and we was fairly good defensively.
Then he comes back into the team now we are leaking goals.
He was injured but when he returned he wasn't selected for a few games. Then Lindelof was rested for PSG and he came back in and has been in since.

It is true though that every season we concede more with him than without him.
 

Ekeke

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He was injured but when he returned he wasn't selected for a few games. Then Lindelof was rested for PSG and he came back in and has been in since.

It is true though that every season we concede more with him than without him.
Because he plays in all our big games when fit :lol:

Same reason why Jones is statistically better than Lindelof this season. Lindelof has played our 2nd highest amount of matches against the other top 6 teams. So you need to take that into consideration when you compare them. Players who are only picked for easier matches are probably less likely to concede goals
 

Negan

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No, my logic is that the CBs you listed are playing for midtable teams and thats the level of most of them.

VVD was statistically the best CB in the league before he signed for Liverpool. Not the case with any of the players you mentioned.

Mane isnt a CB.

This should be very simple to understand.

I agree there are plenty of premier league players who would be good for us. Just none of those you mentioned are better than Chris Smalling as a CB.
Rubbish. Van Dijk was questioned as a signing. If he was “obviously the best CB”, there would be no questions. Liverpool took a gamble and it paid off massively.

We should be looking at doing the same with the likes of Ake, Zouma, Neves, Doucoure, Gueye, Zaha and Ricardo Pereira. But if you believe Smalling, Jones and Young are the standard bearers, then I ain’t gonna change your mind. Just don’t be crying when we can’t be trusted to beat even the shittest of teams. The problem is staring you right in the face.
 

11101

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Because he plays in all our big games when fit :lol:

Same reason why Jones is statistically better than Lindelof this season. Lindelof has played our 2nd highest amount of matches against the other top 6 teams. So you need to take that into consideration when you compare them. Players who are only picked for easier matches are probably less likely to concede goals
He's played over 300 games for us now. The days when you could suggest reasons like that are long gone. No other top defender has a record like that.
 

Ekeke

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Rubbish. Van Dijk was questioned as a signing. If he was “obviously the best CB”, there would be no questions. Liverpool took a gamble and it paid off massively.

We should be looking at doing the same with the likes of Ake, Zouma, Neves, Doucoure, Gueye, Zaha and Ricardo Pereira. But if you believe Smalling, Jones and Young are the standard bearers, then I ain’t gonna change your mind. Just don’t be crying when we can’t be trusted to beat even the shittest of teams. The problem is staring you right in the face.

I didnt say he was unquestionably the best. I said statistically he was the best in the league.

15/16 CBs : VVD is the highest rated of any CB who played more than 1 game (having 1 good game doesnt make you the best CB in the league)





So in 2 seasons he was the top rated CB who played lots of games and the 2nd top rated CB who played lots of games, statistically.

So 1st+2nd = best CB statistically over that period.

People question stats all the time, whether they should or not. But clearly the stats said VVD was the best CB in the league at that point.

There is a reason why Liverpool paid so much for him
 

Ekeke

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He's played over 300 games for us now. The days when you could suggest reasons like that are long gone. No other top defender has a record like that.
And over the course of that time, Smalling has played in most of the big matches. Almost all of the ones since Rio and Vidic moved on. Our other CBs havent. They've been in and out

The likes of Bailly and Lindelof have played less of those. But if you take this season alone Lindelof has played more big matches than Jones. Jones statistically has been better. But that doesnt take into account the quality of opposition.
 

Smallings biggest fan

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Well you can take Southgates opinion seriously because England have gone further than any other team in years. Unless you think they would have won the entire thing if Chris Smalling was on the pitch... that in itself is laughable.
Yes, but how did England do against top opposition?

England won three games at the World Cup. Panama, number 74 on the FIFA Ranking list, Tunisia, number 28 on the FIFA Ranking list, and Sweden, somehow they are number 14 on the FIFA Ranking list. They drew against Colombia, who are number 12 on the FIFA Ranking list. And lost twice to Belgium, who are on top and once against Croatia, who are in sixth.

Yes Southgate did at good job. But this is probably the best team England has had in years. Maybe not the best players but now they seem more united and that is something very important. And besides that are players like Kane, Sterling, Alli and so on top players. Pickford might not be seen as a world class player goalie, but his performances in the WC were world class.

So that is a bad example from you.
 

11101

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And over the course of that time, Smalling has played in most of the big matches. Almost all of the ones since Rio and Vidic moved on. Our other CBs havent. They've been in and out

The likes of Bailly and Lindelof have played less of those. But if you take this season alone Lindelof has played more big matches than Jones. Jones statistically has been better. But that doesnt take into account the quality of opposition.
It's got nothing to do with our other CBs. It's not comparing to them. Its him vs. not him.
 

thesheriffjw

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Smalling is dire.

Positional, passing and ball control. He is shite at it all.

Not an elite CB in anyway shape or form
 

Rafeeq RSA

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We will never progress with this guy in defense. The inability to hold off an attacker and get out of defense , instead he kicks it out for a throw. Is that what other CB’s do?
 

Robbie Boy

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No idea why so many on here pretend he’s brilliant. He’s not, quite far from it in fact.
 

astracrazy

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Top 6? He wouldnt be an improvement on a bottom 6 team. I honestly dont know what team in the premier league he could walk into and improve there defence.