Best CB pairing

[Neo_Mufc]

Bailly hasn't had a proper run of games since he's been at the club. Lindelöf has never been fancied. Why are they both being played?

Smalling should be our first choice CB and should have started the season considering he didn't go to the WC.

 

[Leftback99]

Seems more are finally realising that it definitely has Smalling in it like it has done for the last 5 years.

 

[Roboc7]

Jones and Smalling, they are injury prone and not good enough but I think they are better than all the others. They will probably both start the spurs game now.

 

[MadDogg]

Jones and Smalling, they are injury prone and not good enough but I think they are better than all the others. They will probably both start the spurs game now.

Smalling isn't really injury prone. He does pick up the occasional knock, but he's fit far more than the rest of our options.

 

[Norris]

I think Matic needs to move into defence. He is a bit of a leader and can probably guide Lindeloff, Bailly. He also has the composure to play out from the back and organize the defense. He needs to supported by someone who is quick and very physical though. It would mean Herrera playing in the deep role, which is the best I've seen of him as well.

 

[Sylar]

Im tempted to say Rojo + 1 as hes the only one that can play LCB for us.

 

[Ahsan_6386]

Hmm well for us it has to be Smalling and Bailly . I believe we will try again for Alderwerield again in January .

 

[royboy16]

Not sure why Bailly and Lindelof are starting over them tbh. Is it Mourinho's little message to the board?

You know I was just thinking that myself today.
Didnt he also say we are in for a difficult season also if he didnt get one of this defensive targets?

 

[Bastian]

I think the only two who have any chance of getting to the required level are Bailly and Lindelof. But the best pairing I've seen from the 5 we've got is Jones and Rojo.

 

[royboy16]

We badly need a proper CB pairing.I know Jose has spent money on defenders but is he not allowed to get it wrong from time to time ?At least he tried to rectify it by trying to sign a better defender.

 

[Andycoleno9]

It would be Smalling and Jones if Jones could be fit

. There are still people on this forum who believe in this nonsense?
To answer on question; all our defenders are shit.

 

[Robbyb03]

Bailly and Smalling. Bailly is quick, physical, but prone to be out of position. Smalling is probably our smartest CB now that Blind is gone.
I’d suggest a 4-3-3
De Gea
Valencia Smalling Bailly Shaw
Matic
Pogba Herrera
Martial Lukaku Rashford

Subs:
Romero
Jones
Dalot (when healthy otherwise Darmian)
Fred
Pereira
Sanchez
Lingard

 

[::sonny::]

Smalling Rojo the less terrible

 

[Classical Mechanic]

You know I was just thinking that myself today.
Didnt he also say we are in for a difficult season also if he didnt get one of this defensive targets?

He barely played Lindelof last season and had a big problem with Bailly so starting them over Smalling and Jones who were his first choice for the most of the season seems weird.

 

[Canagel]

Bailly and Rojo. For now.

 

[Cathy Ferguson]

He barely played Lindelof last season and had a big problem with Bailly so starting them over Smalling and Jones who were his first choice for the most of the season seems weird.

Yep, Jones and Smalling are not fantastic but they have never as bad as Bailly and Lindelöf were in the first half. They were shocking. Smalling and Jones should be first choice.

 

[11101]

Bailly and Lindelof.

You cannot blame defenders who are left exposed by their teammates.

Young = continually out of position forcing Bailly to come across and cover awkward situations, leaving acres of space in our defence.
Mata / Lukaku = sat off and allowed Brighton to fire in accurate long balls all game long straight at our centre backs.
Pogba / Fred = losing the ball cheaply in transition forcing the centre backs to quickly switch back to defending when they've just pushed up and broken the line.
Andreas / Pogba / Fred = dropping far too deep and allowing Brighton to press us extremely high up the pitch.

Everyone in the team was poor today, with perhaps Shaw as the only exception. With the system we played, inviting pressure right into the middle of our defence, none of our players would do any better.

 

[kouroux]

. There are still people on this forum who believe in this nonsense?
To answer on question; all our defenders are shit.

They're all shit but you can still rank them. Besides it was obviously a not very serious answer...

 

[VivaObertan]

Smalling & Rojo

 

[MadMike]

It's Smalling +1. He's the only one who can defend properly. I don't give a shit about looking fancy with the ball. It matters for nowt when you can't win a header and get dominated and bullied by Glenn fecking Murray.

 

[MikeKing]

Jones is not best because Bailly and Lindelof kinda sucks together.
It is nothing new tho, the fact is we need Smalling in order to keep the defence somewhat up to standard. Don't think it matters who we pair him with. But isn't this what some of you wanted? Bailly and Lindelof pairing as some sort of ball-playing CB thing to get the attack to work properly. Now that we concede easy goals because of it, you come crawling back u cheap sack of shit (its sunny reference, not to be a dik)

 

[SteveW]

Smalling +1 (probably Bailly)

 

[SteveW]

Jones is not best because Bailly and Lindelof kinda sucks together.
It is nothing new tho, the fact is we need Smalling in order to keep the defence somewhat up to standard. Don't think it matters who we pair him with. But isn't this what some of you wanted? Bailly and Lindelof pairing as some sort of ball-playing CB thing to get the attack to work properly. Now that we concede easy goals because of it, you come crawling back u cheap sack of shit (its sunny reference, not to be a dik)

My sentiments exactly.

 

[Giggsy92]

It surely has to be Smalling plus one. Don't think it really matters who that plus one is out of Bailly, Lindelof and Jones, think Jose might be tempted to go with Lindelof at home against weaker opposition and play Jones in the bigger matches.

 

[AndyJ1985]

We don't have a best pairing. We have whatever pairing isn't injured that particular week. Ability wise they are shit.

 

[buckooo1978]

test of character for our CBs

we aren't signing anyone else anytime soon and we know Jones/Smalling aren't much more reliable

out of the 5 of them.....

who has the balls to make the position their own

I'd go Smalling/Bailly v Spurs as Chris is half-decent in the air but lots of our players need to have a word with themselves in spite of Jose - easy to blame him but some of the mistakes today were embarrassing

 

[Reiver]

A better title for this thread would be "our least shit centre back pairing"

 

[AlwaysRed66]

I agree with OP that Smalling & Jones are best pairing. For all their faults, neither have ever given as poor a display as Bailly did today, & Lindelhof is rubbish.

 

[jesperjaap]

Problem is every single one of our defenders has fundamental floors, most of them being poor on the ball and diving in to the tackle. Individually as rash as he is I would say Bailly is our best defender, no partner is suitable for him though. I would actually say (which is scary) in terms of a partnership Smalling and Rojo is actually probably the best pairing we have.
The general idea I am getting is that we thought Aderweiweld and Maguire were too expensive, failed to convince Godin (hardly surprising considering where Ateltico currently are in Europe compared to us) and maybe or maybe not bid for Skriniar and Koulibaily and possibly enquired over Varane which was never going to happen.
Shocking really as Blind, Rojo, Darmian, Smalling, Lindelof, Bailly, Jones, Tuanzabe, Mensah, Valencia, Shaw, Young....that must be £200-250m worth of defenders, pretty much any of them could have been expendible and there could well have been an argument for up to four new defenders being signed, yet we have managed to sell one for £15m odd and spent little more on bringing just one in, so poor

 

[King Andow]

We don't have a best CB pairing, we're relying on the "less bad". We have potential on Bailly and Lindelof, but as we're seeing, they can't be trusted right now (and the others are well known donkeys). Currently none of our CB's are good enough to be a First XI player for a ambitious big club, aiming to win the league or the UCL. I don't know if it was Jose's or the board's fault not buying a single CB (I think we need 2) on the last window, probably both parts are guilty, but it was a huge mistake.

 

[golden_blunder]

I can’t believe that some would persevere with lindelof and Bailly

Lindelof is simply not good enough and I don’t think he will ever get to the level we need him to be in order to challenge for trophies. We should be setting our sights for defenders who could get to the level of Rio and Vida. He just doesn’t have it - can’t head, is not a leader, not physical, not quick. Even his so called strength of passing seems to be overstated

Bailly IS physical, strong and quick but is brainless so needs a calming influence. Lindelof is not that. Panic stations today

 

[Andersons Dietician]

Smalling then which ever one is fit.

It is bad that the best display defensively by any duo has been Smalling and Blind and last season we never really saw Blind at CB or at all. They were superb in the UEFA cup final as well.

 

[starman]

Bailly is too rash to be a top quality CB, i wanted to see him tried as a RB, but we are stocked in there now.

I would go with Smalling and Rojo

 

[Ekeke]

Bailly is too rash to be a top quality CB, i wanted to see him tried as a RB, but we are stocked in there now.

I would go with Smalling and Rojo

Rojo has the exact same problem. Jones possibly too.

 

[Red_toad]

Jones and Smalling, they are injury prone and not good enough but I think they are better than all the others. They will probably both start the spurs game now.

Yeah mate keep peddling that crap about Smalling being injury prone 147 appearances in the last 3 seasons. Try sticking with facts!

 

[stevoc]

Smalling +1

This. Smalling isn't world class by any means, and he's not popular among the football hipsters. But he's the best we have defensively and by a stretch, right now i would give him a run with Lindelof to see if they can complement each other and form a decent partnership.

Bailly is done i think, showed some promise but he's just not good enough and i fear now he never will be. Phil Jones hasn't been involved which means he's probably injured again or will be soon. And Rojo is Rojo nuff said.

 

[Keeps It tidy]

Bailly and Lindelof were terrible this match but, Mourinho should stick with them. We already know Smalling, Jones and Rojo are not the answers.

 

[hobbers]

Aside from his really shit games, that he has from time to time, I generally think Jones is our best defender now, but with his fitness issues he's fit for a fraction of the games. Smalling is the next least useless centreback. Between the five of them it really is a clusterfeck of lack of experience, lack of consistency, lack of quality, lack of concentration, lack of intelligence, lack of composure, and lack of fitness.

 

[stevoc]

Not sure why Bailly and Lindelof are starting over them tbh. Is it Mourinho's little message to the board?

Only if the message is to not trust him to identify good centrebacks?

 

[El-Manos]

Agree with this. Smalling is the best we have at the moment.

Yup. The only one I trust.