Of course, they took 6 months or so to adapt to the pace and physicality of our league. Thats fine. I can except that. To be honest i dont think Rojo has shown had that problem. He's very physical. Evans aside pace and strength isnt a problem for us. The problem is distribution, composure and bringing the ball out of defence. The only thing i can really complain about with Rojo is i am not overley confident, or to qoute the the post i picked upon "trust" Rojo when he's in possession. There is no excuse for giving the ball away needlessly.
12
Season Average Rating
- Appearances
- 29
- Clean sheets
- 8
- Goals
- 4
- Assists
- 0
- Yellow cards
- 3
- Red cards
- 1
-
In the latest episode of the United Hour Podcast, Nik and Imran hold a long overdue conversation about United's awful league form with 1 win in 7. They discuss a disappointing draw at Bournemouth, a not so disappointing draw against Liverpool and a crushing defeat at Chelsea - Is time nearly over for Erik Ten Hag?
Then in a special second half of the pod, Nik welcomes Natalie ( https://twitter.com/natalie_17) to discuss the fortunes of Manchester United Women as they booked a place in the FA Cup Final after a historic first ever win vs. Chelsea.
Of course, they took 6 months or so to adapt to the pace and physicality of our league. Thats fine. I can except that. To be honest i dont think Rojo has shown had that problem. He's very physical. Evans aside pace and strength isnt a problem for us. The problem is distribution, composure and bringing the ball out of defence. The only thing i can really complain about with Rojo is i am not overley confident, or to qoute the the post i picked upon "trust" Rojo when he's in possession. There is no excuse for giving the ball away needlessly.
Yeah, well we're not far off in our opinions then. I'm not convinced by Rojo yet at all. I think it's fair to reserve judgement for now though. Let's not forget Paddy Evra looked absolutely diabolical in his first few months at United. When a player is settling in and adapting his game to a new league, it can fall apart completely.
Take it like this, I would take Smalling suffering minor injury(it's happening all the time anyway) when we have easy run than having manager who thinks Evans, Jones and Rojo deserve to start ahead of him.
That was my worry too, but I hoped there was some valid explanation(as you said, he was injured in the warm up, right?).
I dont disagree.
Evra looked poor as managers where overloading on him and telling wingers and full backs to get at him. Equally, teams where hanging up balls to the far post with centre forwards peeling off onto him.
Vidic suffered with the pace and quite ironically with aggression and physicallity. I remeber Jermaine Defoe of all players basically "ruffing him up" at White Heart Lane. I havent seen that problem in Rojo and I dont think we will. The language certainly isnt a problem with him, he's the most vocal player on the field!!
Id compare Rojo very much to Gabby Heinze, he enjoys that aggression and physicallity. Like Heinze his problem is when he has time and space on the ball. My original point was giving away possession uneccesarily is not excusable, regardles of where you where born, where you are playing or what language you speak.
Evra and Vidic's settling in period was excusable, their problems was the culture shock of English football. Thankfully, I dont believe that to be a problem with Rojo.
Personally i would like us to revert to the 4 at the back and pair Carrick with Rojo and have Blind protecting infront. Its the closest we have to the silk / steel combination that qaulity centre back partnerships have. Having carrick there will allow Rojo to be aggressive and attack the ball. It'll also provide him with an easy go to pass!
That makes no sense whatsoever. This site can be strange at times.Take it like this, I would take Smalling suffering minor injury(it's happening all the time anyway) when we have easy run than having manager who thinks Evans, Jones and Rojo deserve to start ahead of him.
That was my worry too, but I hoped there was some valid explanation(as you said, he was injured in the warm up, right?).
Smalling having an injury changes nothing, the manager isn't going to suddenly trust him any more now that he's picked up another injury. If anything it's going to put him further down the pecking order, especially if Jones and Rojo have a good game in his absence.
For those that think Smalling is going to survive here, getting injured (again) is the worst thing that could happen.
It seems like you are the only one who doesn't get what I was trying to say since few other people too tried to explain my post, so the only one who is strange is you.
I am talking about last game, I like it more that he wasn't picked because he was injured rather than dropped for no reason for other three.
What you’re trying to say is that you’re glad Smalling is currently injured as it somehow confirms in your eyes that LVG rates him higher than the rest of our defenders.
You have no idea if he was dropped or injured, why would he named on the bench if he was injured? Why didn’t he come on for Evans when he came off injured? Why was there no mention of him getting injured in the warm up? Why was there no mention of it on MUTV or during todays press conferance? It’s much more likely that he was dropped. Saying that, unless we hear from within the Club why he was on the bench then we can only guess.
Please tell me you are just kidding me. It's not even hard to understand, everybody got it from the first post,.
I give up.
Man Utd 3:0 Cambridge
Admittedly a game to look good in given the level of opposition but he did exactly that. Looked comfortable, stepped up well, played the ball positively out of the back line and generally put in a good shift tonight.
I think his tendency to switch off will cost us more points in the future. I really don't think he's a United quality CB.
Yeah, he let a Cambridge player get in when he was ball watching tonight. At one point he followed the ball out to left back when Rojo was already dealing with it and a Cambridge player was in space where he should have been. Then he had that awful pass straight to the opposition.
Our best centre back imo
Would you be unhappy to see any of them replaced?
Easily our best CB. The only one we have who takes charge and deals with the problem instead of fannying about. His passing ability is coming back but he needs someone next to him who can play the ball because currently, he's the one tasked with it.
That pass near the end is the kind of shit our cb's need to cut out. Its just sloppy and stupid.
Thought he looked good, though it was only Cambridge. He and Rojo are by far our best CB partnership at the moment.
Jones and Evans can be replaced but Rojo and Smalling are worth a run imo
I love his little jaunts out of defence where he forgets he's Chris Smalling and thinks he's Lionel Messi - only to realise he's not Lionel Messi and is, in fact, Chris Smalling - promptly shit himself, pass/get rid/lose the ball ASAP and leg it back to defence in the hope that no one will notice...
it was sloppy and stupid, I think it was a lack of concentration, we lead 3:0 home so I guess it was nothing serious. Rooney made terrible mistake also as well as Blind in the opening minutes.. He is our best center back, absolutely dominating there
so is not Rooney and Blind who made the same costly mistakes. He will be fine, better than Jones and Evans together
He is better at distributing the ball than Jones. He's better than Jones in every way actually.
Jones does that far more frequently.
I'm starting to think this too. Smalling gets a lot of flack for his own ball prowess, and his lapses - but really, is Jones any better in either regard?
Plus Smalling has the pace, height, and isn't quite as much of a reckless fanny... now, if only he could take a corner.
But there's something charming when Smalling does it. When Jones does it I'm just worried about the safety of everyone on the pitch.
Pair him up with Rojo and we have our starting CB partnership for the rest of the season. I hope we don't get rid of him.
Btw, he almost had a successful through ball to Di Maria(?) in the first half that was lovely. I think he's getting more confident for each passing game he plays.
Btw, he almost had a successful through ball to Di Maria(?) in the first half that was lovely. I think he's getting more confident for each passing game he plays.
Jones sorts of hovers around a little longer. It's a sort of, 'so... do I get involved in the attack now?'
He's better than Jones, simple as. Smalling--Rojo for the rest of the season please..
I agree just need Smalling to stay injury free.
Both are prone to brainfarts, but somehow Smalling is having far less. I still think both are very good backup players, so is Evans. We need at least one CB (ideally two) who are better than them to strongly challenge for the title and Europe at the same time. We are not consistently solid enough with Smalling/Jones/Evans in the side.
Same thing as Jones against Leicester, solid for the bulk of the match and then loses concentration, does something sloppy and the opposition get a chance, we were 3 up in both matches so it wasn't costly, but it's still an issue.
Promising to see him try a clever long through ball to Di Maria around a CB. Didn't come off, but I didn't think he had that in him, creatively.
Far too clumsy in my opinion. Was always hopeful that Smalling and Jones would step up to be our next great centre-back pairing, but it hasn't happened. At ages 25 and 22, respectively, they can't be ruled out completely, but I don't think they've done enough to convince anyone they are United quality.
Too many errors, too many injuries, poor distribution from the back, poor communication at times, and for big centre backs, nowhere near enough goals either.
Too many errors, too many injuries, poor distribution from the back, poor communication at times, and for big centre backs, nowhere near enough goals either.
Jones has a permanent ridiculous look on his face. It doesn't help to breed confidence.
I think Jones will surprise a lot of people. He's much younger and still has a lot of rough edges but has a good chance of developing into a class centre-half. Smalling is slightly more assured right now but still a good bit short of the level required. He also has less time on his side in terms of potential for improvement but will hopefully get there too.
Obviously, for either of the above to happen the pair of them will need limbs that are not made of of balsa wood and crepe paper. Which is the really big worry here. Far more than the occasional brainfart.
Obviously, for either of the above to happen the pair of them will need limbs that are not made of of balsa wood and crepe paper. Which is the really big worry here. Far more than the occasional brainfart.
thought he did well from november onwards, until his recent injuries of course. a bit surprise he was on the bench over the last few weeks with jones getting the nod.
kind of agree it should be smalling-rojo at the moment. not saying jones has been bad, but smalling is probably one of our better performer whenever he is fit.
about the occasional brainfart, every single of our centre back is prone to that. the difference is evans probably does it more often than others.
kind of agree it should be smalling-rojo at the moment. not saying jones has been bad, but smalling is probably one of our better performer whenever he is fit.
about the occasional brainfart, every single of our centre back is prone to that. the difference is evans probably does it more often than others.
I thought he was our worst defender yesterday. Sloppy at times and gave the ball away far to many times. I reckon he will be gone in the summer.
The bold part is just ridiculous, which isn't surprise considering you obviously hate Smalling.
He was our third best passer yesterday only behind Evans and Mata(actually on par with Mata). He misplaced just three passes out of 62, and only one was bad, other two were actually very creative from him, something which he was actually excellent yesterday, much better than his partner Evans who was happy to play it safe all the time. Apart from that mistake(which he corrected btw just few seconds after with help of Blind), his passing was spot on yesterday, he played some diagonal creative passes, and one or two through balls too, I think he even created one chance carrying the ball out of defence.
If you hate him at least watch the game and blame him for the Cambridge's first chance of the game when they hit the post(which wasn't just his mistake btw, but he was off anyway, so he could have prevented it).
I stopped reading after the "you obviously hate Smalling" bit.
None of them are a patch on Pally. He was fantastic at it.