We dont play a tactic for 1 player
12
Season Average Rating
- Appearances
- 34
- Clean sheets
- 8
- Goals
- 1
- Assists
- 0
- Yellow cards
- 2
- Status
At this stage I'm just tired. Tired of seeing the likes of him, Jones, Young serve up the same level of mediocrity week in week out for all these years.
He is an eyesore on the pitch. Good defender but so is Shane Duffy.
You are proving my point by just blindly backing smalling. Him being better than other defenders here is not a great achievement. He is supposed to be the best of the lot and yet plays average. He has been at this club for almost 10 years and yet people like you think he is good enough for this club when he should be a squad player at best. Hey but he is better than rojo and jones so let us respect smalling and term him good.
No, but an attacking, possession based style starts with CBs who don't panic when put under pressure. Obviously he's not the only problem but this thread is about him isn't it?
Alderweireld brings other qualities to the table. Smalling not so much
He wouldnt be the best in those tactics but neither would half the rest of the team. But he did play in LVG's possession based system and was our players player of the season.
Ole doesn't want us to play like that anyway. He said United have never been about slow buildup. He just wants us to attack faster
Smalling brings being a better defender and the ability to head a ball
'better' in a defensive setup. And also cant handle the ball or pass it out. Heading the ball for a CB isnt that big of an issue in general, maybe at United, but other clubs can cope.
Did fine
Who's fault is it that he plays as much as he does? United's backline has pretty much been Smalling plus one under 4 different managers! Id say 5 but Giggs was only in charge for a handful of games. United have spent millions on Rojo, Lindelof and Bailly and Smalling is still the main man at the back.
So yes, im backing the best CB currently at this club, the only CB who has partnered every other CB at the club more than once, the CB with the most PL, CL and European experience at large in the entire league still playing week in week out and the CB who has started every cup final United has played in since Fergie's departure. Im not against an upgrade this summer, but football is played with more than one CB and i'd bet good money Smalling is the one who will partner that player more than anyone else.
What does that have to do with him performing a similar action in one game to Smalling's today that he's getting heat for? Im simply saying the forensic analysis is over the top, even for things that are not worth discussing.
Almost scored another own goal. When clowns like Smalling are regular starters it's no wonder we look light years away from matching City.
His best season wasnt in a defensive setup. Maybe you werent around during LVG's time here?
Spurs pick Sanchez at CB because neither Toby nor Verthongen are strong in the air. He makes 2nd most aerial challenges in the top 6 clubs after Smalling
If that had gone in it would have been yet another De Gea mistake
I’m not his biggest fan but I thought he did well today in the main.
That's where we agree to disagree. I don't think he is the best defender we have as I believe lindelof is better than him or atleast has a better chance to have a higher peak than smalling. I cannot see smalling getting any better than now so why not groom a cb who might have a better future than smalling. Let us not forget smalling got to learn from the very best in rio and vidic and yet exhibits zero leadership quality. I would rather see lindelof play next season with a new defender than another year of false promise from smalling
I didn't get to watch the game. Can someone adjusted fill me in on his performance? Sluggish and out of form along with the rest of the team, but played decently is what I can gather. Sound like maybe he made a couple of mistakes or cost us both of the goals too, or is the scapegoating continuing?
What will help out passing game isn't some ball playing defender to replace him, it's a midfielder in front of the defence that can handle the ball under pressure. In fact it's a whole midfield unit that knows how to use the ball. He misplaced two passes all game against a pressing team yet people harp on about his ability with the ball. Get a defender next to him who can play with the ball and midfielders who can use the ball.
Im not convinced by Lindelof and its funny to see all these posts about finding a CB to partner him just because he's been par for the course this season while others have been dogshite and undependable. He's not nailed on yet, and he's an average centerback who if played at one of our rivals we wouldn't be clamoring for. Bailly adjusted very quickly after he signed, I don't think Lindelof has even topped some of Bailly's best performances in his first season, but look at him now. Lindelof still has a lot to prove but he doesn't have the full array of attributes you find in a top CB.
For all we know Bailly could get his shit together next season and displace him if he doesn't get sold. Smalling doesn't offer false promises, what you see is what you get, a solid, reliable and physically imposing defender who has shut down some of the best forwards in this league numerous times. Ask Harry Kane and Salah
Again we would have to agree to disagree here. I have seen enough of smalling to say that he is a decent defender but that's it. I am not saying lindelof is a worldbeater but I would prefer to give him the chance as Lindelof's best performance have been really good and he has only been here for 2 seasons in comparison to smalling who has been here for 8 or 9 seasons and yet cannot lead our defense.
Wasn't particularly terrible or even that bad, Lindelof probably was more impressive. There probably is an element of scapegoating if anyone thinks he was to blame. Shaw and De Gea at fault for the first goal, Darmian and De Gea for the second. Game was lost due to the enormous and obvious gulf in quality but our attack was pretty non-existent and our midfield was dominated in the second half.
PL clubs wlll always have a place for players like Smalling, the same reason Gary Cahill is still signed to Chelsea. You can't put a price on that experience, and he's only 29 years old. Smalling fatigue is not a good enough reason to want him gone and thankfully the club sees that. I wouldn't be against letting Jones go, a player who hasn't developed much in his time here and who offers very little in terms of dependability. Even as a squad player Smalling could offer a lot for this club.
Appreciate that, thanks.
The ball is his enemy.
*Nemesis
More like his biggest fear, shits himself when ever he has the ball at his feet. 0 composure to his play in general.
Pretty neutral game from him. He wasn't at fault for either goal and didn't do much wrong defensively, but he was cowardly in possession and invited pressure whenever he had the ball. Only Lindelof stood out in the back 5.
He was better than Lindelof
I think that is another new combination for him. Darmian right of a three? Or did we try that with Van Gaal? One day Chris, we'll just have a stretch with you and another quality CB and two good fullbacks.
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Absolute pathetic defending in all honesty. Aguero was pressing him, he panicked, did a 180 and passed to De Gea 5 yards away from him. Aguero rolled him with ease multiple times, the guy looks complete shite when he has to defend against these smaller nimble forwards like Aguero and Sterling. On the other hand he looks like a wordlie when playing against big physical forwards like Kane.
This is funny, his "lowlights" are being beaten once and playing a long pass that the player didnt get on the end of.
Smallings haters are working harder than most of the players to come up with something
Look at whats going on around him
According to that, Young was our best player...
He had a pretty good game, better than normal. Smalling and Young were the only players to make more than 1 single tackle each. His crossing was crap like normal though, 5 attempts with 1 finding a teammate.
Yeah, if ever there was an example of why not to take that site seriously
Almost looks like they got the ratings the wrong way round.
Its based on workrate. The more stuff you do the better your rating, unless its a mistake directly leading to a goalYeah, if ever there was an example of why not to take that site seriously
Almost looks like they got the ratings the wrong way round.
Young did stuff. Defensively one of the most along with Smalling.
The players with lower ratings did less stuff
I thought Young did alright. How Kompany gets that high rating though is crazy. He should have been off and he was a massive problem for City in the first half.
This would be why
Good defensive contribution mainly with his interceptions
Made a lot of accurate passes
Like I said above, its mostly about things you do during the match and workrate. So if you make lots of passes successfully, or win a good amount of interceptions or tackles etc then you're going to get highly rated, unless you make a mistake that directly leads to a goal. I think the foul marked him down but not like a mistake that led to a goal
You can see that he did try 10 long passes and 7 found their target so they werent all safe short passes to the side.
Thats one way to put it.
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