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2020-21 Performances

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Defenders that kind defend > Defenders that wanna be midfielders.
 
He’s not only better than Lindelöf; he’s better than Maguire too. We shouldn’t sell him.
 
C'est Moi Cantona said:
The fact some are pining for Smalling shows how crap our defence is, last thing I remember is him falling over his own feet, and then passing to the linesman.
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Indeed talk about his passing instead of the actual defending part. Im pretty sure he makes better passes than Maguire did today
 
I really don't understand why we don't give this guy another chance. It's not like Laurel and Hardy are exactly performing. Both the two goons constantly causing us to concede. Smalling can't be any worse than these two and can save us having to buy another CB to cover these idiots.
 
Cassidy said:
Indeed talk about his passing instead of the actual defending part. Im pretty sure he makes better passes than Maguire did today
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It all goes hand in hand, and I'm sure this was the main reason Ole got rid in the first place, the same could be said that Lukaku is a more natural goal scorer than anyone we have now, but Ole didn't fancy that type of player at United. So I can't see any real mileage in letting Smalling back into the team if the manager has decided he doesn't fit into what he is trying to do already.
 
C'est Moi Cantona said:
It all goes hand in hand, and I'm sure this was the main reason Ole got rid in the first place, the same could be said that Lukaku is a more natural goal scorer than anyone we have now, but Ole didn't fancy that type of player at United. So I can't see any real mileage in letting Smalling back into the team if the manager has decided he doesn't fit into what he is trying to do already.
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By that point then Maguire and Lindelöf don't fit into his play style either. You can't play a highline with slow defenders as much as you can't play out from the back with cb's who aren't comfortable on the ball.
 
Some managers think that copying other world-class managers would make them appear to be cut from the same cloth. Good on Chris to realize that and find a team that will appreciate him.
 
flappyjay said:
By that point then Maguire and Lindelöf don't fit into his play style either. You can't play a highline with slow defenders as much as you can't play out from the back with cb's who aren't comfortable on the ball.
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He chose Maguire, and clearly rated Lindelof over Smalling, my point been Smalling wasn't loaned out to Roma becasue Ole thought he'd improve there, he was sent there becasue Ole knows full well the sort of player he is, and doesn't want him.
 
C'est Moi Cantona said:
He chose Maguire, and clearly rated Lindelof over Smalling, my point been Smalling wasn't loaned out to Roma becasue Ole thought he'd improve there, he was sent there becasue Ole knows full well the sort of player he is, and doesn't want him.
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He was loaned as we had too many CBs, and clearly we couldn’t get rid of Bailly, Jones or Rojo.
 
ClaytonBlackmoorLeftPeg said:
He was loaned as we had too many CBs, and clearly we couldn’t get rid of Bailly, Jones or Rojo.
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Fair point, but still Ole clearly felt Maguire and Lindelof was the way to go, Jones and Rojo can't be included in any plans, and so he probably felt Tuanzebe was third choice, as he could easily have been loaned.

I don't remember too many been upset when he went, and the fact is we need a new CB, not Smalling back.
 
I think integrity in a player is a thing our fans don't understand. I have seen scores of posts denigrating this guy as if he is a nothing centre back.

We should remember he could have sat on the bench last year and be just paid his wages. he didn't do that, went to Roma to play regularly. This season too he is taking a pay cut to play for Roma.

How many of you would want to do that under similar circumstances?
 
peanuthead said:
Well he gave Lindelof the job because apparently he can play out from the back, the thing is most of the time our cbs pass to our midfielders or Shaw anyway, something Smalling could very well do so Ole is fooling himself thinking Lindelof is a better passer than Smalling. I've seen Lindelof on numerous occasions hoof the ball upfield under pressure and not play out from the back, something that Smalling would get crucified for doing.
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Exactly right. There are definitely times when Lindelof runs the ball into space or plays a pass up through the middle into a player in the advanced stages of the middle third. But the run forward with the ball rarely leads to anything and the nice pass up the middle happens once every 3 or 4 matches. Its not something Lindelof does every match. So we benefit very little from the things hes actually better at on the ball.
 
MadDogg said:
Plenty of people said at the time that they were surprised and disappointed as they thought Smalling would likely win the starting spot back again.
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Plenty of people said the same when Lukaku left as well, not becasue he was really missed, but because he wasn't replaced properly, that is the same with Smalling, I guarantee if he comes back then they'll be the usual fawning over him for a couple of games, then the same things that didn't make him a United player before will soon start to become obvious and people will want him dropped.

I am not say that he isn't better than some players we have, just that we've been there done that, and it's better he's sold now, and we use the money to buy a player Ole actually want.
 
C'est Moi Cantona said:
Plenty of people said the same when Lukaku left as well, not becasue he was really missed, but because he wasn't replaced properly, that is the same with Smalling, I guarantee if he comes back then they'll be the usual fawning over him for a couple of games, then the same things that didn't make him a United player before will soon start to become obvious and people will want him dropped.

I am not say that he isn't better than some players we have, just that we've been there done that, and it's better he's sold now, and we use the money to buy a player Ole actually want.
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What if the problem is Ole wants players like Lindelof instead.

Smalling = better the devil you know than getting a new Lindelof to perform worse
 
Ekeke said:
What if the problem is Ole wants players like Lindelof instead.

Smalling = better the devil you know than getting a new Lindelof to perform worse
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It's irrelevant, whilst he is the manager it's up to him the direction he want to take us.

And tbf he didn't buy Lindelof, and has only been allowed to but one CB so far, he needs to be allowed to buy another one before you can judge him too harshly.
 
Machine Elements said:
He’s not only better than Lindelöf; he’s better than Maguire too. We shouldn’t sell him.
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Why stop here? Why not say that he's better than Rio and Vidic combined.

Jesus, the state of this place after a defeat. A season ago 80% of caf wanted him sold because he's deadwood. And now he's our best defender.
 
C'est Moi Cantona said:
It's irrelevant, whilst he is the manager it's up to him the direction he want to take us.

And tbf he didn't buy Lindelof, and has only been allowed to but one CB so far, he needs to be allowed to buy another one before you can judge him too harshly.
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If he signs Telles then we can play a fair bit of the season with 3/4 of an "Ole" defence. Will be interesting how it fares.
 
C'est Moi Cantona said:
It's irrelevant, whilst he is the manager it's up to him the direction he want to take us.

And tbf he didn't buy Lindelof, and has only been allowed to but one CB so far, he needs to be allowed to buy another one before you can judge him too harshly.
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But he got to choose which of them he wants to start and tell others if they arent in the plans.

Smalling wasnt in the plans, Lindelof was going to start and he wanted to give Tuanzebe a path to the first team

Those were his choices. He could have chosen Smalling to start with Tuanzebe getting chances. He didnt.
 
Ekeke said:
But he got to choose which of them he wants to start and tell others if they arent in the plans.

Smalling wasnt in the plans, Lindelof was going to start and he wanted to give Tuanzebe a path to the first team

Those were his choices. He could have chosen Smalling to start with Tuanzebe getting chances. He didnt.
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Of course, but not too sure many would have been happy with a Maguire - Smalling partnership last season, with Lindelof been loaned out instead either.

We just need to buy a new CB.
 
C'est Moi Cantona said:
Of course, but not too sure many would have been happy with a Maguire - Smalling partnership last season, with Lindelof been loaned out instead either.

We just need to buy a new CB.
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I think we do because Smalling would like to leave. But actually the partnership would work very well defensively. That would be our best chance at a rock solid defence other than spending £60 million on a CB and not getting it wrong like we very usually do. Theres better than Smalling but they cost a lot and we always seem to manage to pick someone not as good
 
Ekeke said:
I think we do because Smalling would like to leave. But actually the partnership would work very well defensively. That would be our best chance at a rock solid defence other than spending £60 million on a CB and not getting it wrong like we very usually do. Theres better than Smalling but they cost a lot and we always seem to manage to pick someone not as good
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I would take Smalling plus a new CB personally. Sell Maguire and Lindelof

Smalling only wants to leave because he has been disrespected
 
Ekeke said:
I think we do because Smalling would like to leave. But actually the partnership would work very well defensively. That would be our best chance at a rock solid defence other than spending £60 million on a CB and not getting it wrong like we very usually do. Theres better than Smalling but they cost a lot and we always seem to manage to pick someone not as good
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I don't disagree with what you're saying, and under Jose for example I could see Maguire and Smalling looking really good, but Ole doesn't want that, that much is obvious by now, if he fails becasue of it then so be it, but his transfers have been ok in the main so far, he just hasn't been allowed to do enough of them, he just needs backing to follow through on what he's trying to do.

I really hope he isn't forced to taking a player back he doesn't want to play, and gets sacked on the back of not been able to make it work.
 
Caesar2290 said:
Why stop here? Why not say that he's better than Rio and Vidic combined.

Jesus, the state of this place after a defeat. A season ago 80% of caf wanted him sold because he's deadwood. And now he's our best defender.
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No they didn't. Most people wanted us to strengthen enough so that Smalling would no longer be our starting defender. There was a hope that Maguire coming in would do that, but most still thought it was very risky to let him go when he's better than all our other backups.

The posters who didn't like Smalling and wanted him sold were always very vocal, but over the years every time there was a poll or a thread asking who should be our starting defenders the consensus was always Smalling plus another. There's a reason Smalling +1 became a bit of a caf meme for a while. People hoped that would come to an end last season, but this "people are only saying he's our best defender because he's not here" thing is wrong. He spent 4-5 years as our best defender, so it's not surprising that many people think he still would be (especially since he made the Serie A team of the year).
 
C'est Moi Cantona said:
I don't disagree with what you're saying, and under Jose for example I could see Maguire and Smalling looking really good, but Ole doesn't want that, that much is obvious by now, if he fails becasue of it then so be it, but his transfers have been ok in the main so far, he just hasn't been allowed to do enough of them, he just needs backing to follow through on what he's trying to do.

I really hope he isn't forced to taking a player back he doesn't want to play, and gets sacked on the back of not been able to make it work.
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I dont think Ole wants anything different to Mourinho. Remember Mournho signed Lindelof. He went back to Smalling because our defending isnt good without him
 
Nou_Camp99 said:
Selling our second best CB. Great logic.
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Always loved Smalling, but I think I am right in saying Ole offered him the chance to fight for his place but it was Chris who decided he would like to go out on loan? Ole's stance is he is always welcome to the squad. Or have I misinterpreted the point?
 
TrustInOle said:
Always loved Smalling, but I think I am right in saying Ole offered him the chance to fight for his place but it was Chris who decided he would like to go out on loan? Ole's stance is he is always welcome to the squad. Or have I misinterpreted the point?
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Yeah that's it pretty much. Tuanzebe got the nod over him so that's what did it. Usually, Smalling finds it easy to win a starting place but this time the manager placed too many players in front of him. Little did he know that he'd have found it the same as usual considering Tuanzebe is as injury prone as the others he usually easily is better than.
 
I'd be willing to bet those that are crying for Smalling are those same people who lament AWB for not being good enough going forward. The point being it's Smalling's on the ball ability which is why he's deemed surplus for both club and country

We should take whatever Roma are offering so we can reinvest asap
 
Smalling and bailly are easily our best defenders when fit. Figures that Ole doesn’t like either.
 
charlenefan said:
I'd be willing to bet those that are crying for Smalling are those same people who lament AWB for not being good enough going forward. The point being it's Smalling's on the ball ability which is why he's deemed surplus for both club and country

We should take whatever Roma are offering so we can reinvest asap
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IF the plan is to reinvest the money then sure, but if the plan is to get the money and sit on our hands then I’d rather keep smalling as a defender who can actually defend properly
 
golden_blunder said:
I don’t see the harm in trying maguire + smalling. Hell we might even score from a few corners again.
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It's a really good partnership that. It should fit with the way we are playing too. We could be a lot more aggressive and play with a higher line while Maguire can take more risks with his passing since Smalling has recovery pace.

I mean, even if we can't offload Jones, Rojo etc we can't play them either so whats the point. I doubt we'd be able to get a CB as good as Smalling for around 20m as a replacement, and really any money we might have for big transfers should already be going towards Sancho and Haaland.
 
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