[Dante]

He seemed well off the pace in the first half. It was like he was still mentally in the dressing room after he got subbed on. His defensive performance improved as the game went on, though. I still think he's our best defender when on form.

You could see how gutted he was after that Di Maria cross got fired in just ahead of him. He's probably never gonna have another chance to get a top flight hattrick. The chance was on, as well.

 

[MancFanFromManc]

Had to laugh at Smalling being given MOM last night. He had a shocker defensively, but quelle supreeze, scores a couple of goals and everyone votes for him. v Funny !

 

[m1y2]

Had to laugh at Smalling being given MOM last night. He had a shocker defensively, but quelle supreeze, scores a couple of goals and everyone votes for him. v Funny !

he won us the game ffs, your comment is bizzare

 

[Kostur]

Had to laugh at Smalling being given MOM last night. He had a shocker defensively, but quelle supreeze, scores a couple of goals and everyone votes for him. v Funny !

Yea he basically won us the game despite being awful defensively and it's not like anybody else played a fecking blinder that night to snatch the crown from him. You don't often get a defender scoring two goals in a match and given that our forwards were inept as feck we needed somebody to score it.

 

[Escobar]

Had to laugh at Smalling being given MOM last night. He had a shocker defensively, but quelle supreeze, scores a couple of goals and everyone votes for him. v Funny !

In the 2nd half he was much better and cleared and blocked so many balls. Compared to Evans, he was miles better as well

 

[Revan]

In the 2nd half he was much better and cleared and blocked so many balls. Compared to Evans, he was miles better as well

I am not sure. He looked like a schoolboy for the goal and his collision with Herrera (which I thought was mostly his fault) could have cost us in the second half. I think he was our worst defender yesterday but his brace took his awful defending out of people' minds.

 

[SirAF]

Had to laugh at Smalling being given MOM last night. He had a shocker defensively, but quelle supreeze, scores a couple of goals and everyone votes for him. v Funny !

 

[Ekeke]

He's now our joint 5th top scorer in the league this season, on 3 with Di Maria and Fellaini. Who saw that coming?

From a quick check I dont think any CB has more than 3 goals - Smalling, Terry, Koscielny. So hopefully he can keep it up and this is a part of his game now, because in the past goalscoring was lacking from Smalling, he was a 1 a season man... He had the size and would win cross now and again but the goals just werent coming.

His leaps for the goals were impressive and he took them well

 

[NoPace]

Had to laugh at Smalling being given MOM last night. He had a shocker defensively, but quelle supreeze, scores a couple of goals and everyone votes for him. v Funny !

If he scored 70 goals in 35 Prem games and was an average 15th placed CB defensively he'd be the greatest defender in the history of football, though. The best defence in Prem history gave up 15 and the worst gave up 89. So, 75 goal difference over 38 games. Divided up around 11 players, even with CB's being more responsible for conceding goals than most, the worst in a normal league season is probably not a bigger spread than more than, and this is exaggerating, 15 goals per CB.

 

[ravelston]

I am not sure. He looked like a schoolboy for the goal and his collision with Herrera (which I thought was mostly his fault) could have cost us in the second half. I think he was our worst defender yesterday but his brace took his awful defending out of people' minds.

Smalling and Rojo each had 24 defensive interventions; Evans had 16. It's unusual for the fullback to have more interventions than his CB - Rojo spent a lot of the game bailing Evans out. Smalling completed 86.7% of his passes; Evans completed 78.3. It's hard to think of any area where Evans could have been considered better.

 

[Count Orduck]

If he scored 70 goals in 35 Prem games and was an average 15th placed CB defensively he'd be the greatest defender in the history of football, though. The best defence in Prem history gave up 15 and the worst gave up 89. So, 75 goal difference over 38 games. Divided up around 11 players, even with CB's being more responsible for conceding goals than most, the worst in a normal league season is probably not a bigger spread than more than, and this is exaggerating, 15 goals per CB.

I have literally no idea what you're trying to say here.

 

[Silent_Running]

I have literally no idea what you're trying to say here.

 

[Count Orduck]

I am not sure. He looked like a schoolboy for the goal and his collision with Herrera (which I thought was mostly his fault) could have cost us in the second half. I think he was our worst defender yesterday but his brace took his awful defending out of people' minds.

Nah, Smalling was pretty awful and totally at fault for the goal (he let Ings just drift off him) but Evans was his usual shocking self.

 

[NoPace]

I have literally no idea what you're trying to say here.

Haha. Totally fair. Not sure I did either.

My point was that a defender not completely shitting themselves and scoring 2 goals per game, if he did it every game, would have the greatest season a defender has ever had , so Smalling getting MOTM makes perfect sense.

If he scored 2 a game, he'd be about 65-70 up over a full season on a normal CB. For a striker, that would mea scoring 80-85 goals in a league season. Even if you want to knock off 10-15 goals for Smalling defending poorly, he'd still be insanely productive.

I'm not sure this is any clearer.

TLDR: Score enough goals, and you're great.

 

[Silent_Running]

So basically we just need to get Smalling to score 2 goals every game, and we're good. Surely we can train him to do that.

 

[Loublaze]

Had to laugh at Smalling being given MOM last night. He had a shocker defensively, but quelle supreeze, scores a couple of goals and everyone votes for him. v Funny !

You're just a hater my man. He did very well in the last 25 minutes of the game..made at least two vital blocks and nothing that came through in the air went past him

 

[Laphroaig]

You're just a hater my man. He did very well in the last 25 minutes of the game..made at least two vital blocks and nothing that came through in the air went past him

Ah, I want the pass too. Or the entire move.

 

[Ballache]

*** pace Smalling is probably my favorite United player for some reason, I wish he'd stay injury-free for a season.

 

[Still ill]

Smalling's another one that thrives on confidence. We've too many sensitive souls, we're too needy. He got better and better as the game went on last night. Majestic aerially in the last half hour. I wish we had a couple more who didn't give a feck about the odd mistake, had a bit more brass neck about them. Rojo has a bit of that about him. Poor old Jonny looked like he could burst into tears at any moment.

 

[NoPace]

I think Smalling is our best CB, but passing isn't a strength of his. He doesn't make a ton of horrible errors, which is important (I can't really think of an underhit back pass of his causing a goal, for example) but he very, very rarely spots and hits a dangerous long pass forward and isn't great at slipping the ball hard into the feet of midfielder or striker centrally. He also hits passes behind or at his partner a lot, rather than just in front of them.

That said, most CB's aren't contributing too much offensively and you can be a top 5 CB in the world without being a great or even very good distributor. Miranda, for example, has probably been that good over the last 2-3 years and he rarely does anything brilliant on the ball.

It's like Silva's shooting. Something that keeps them from making a world's best squad and something you hope will improve with time and experience, but not a huge deal.

All in all, I'd say only De Gea, Di Maria, Rooney (as a 9), Blind Herrera and Shaw look as safe as Smalling to be healthy, effective starters over the next 5 years. So 4 other spots to look at improving first.

 

[MancFanFromManc]

he won us the game ffs, your comment is bizzare

Sorry for slow reply, havent been on for a few days.

Its great that he scored, but I'm judging him as a defender, cos thats what he's supposed to be. He's a bag of nerves, scared to bring the ball forward, panics when anybody runs at him, and seems to be constantly out of position

If thats what you people want from a Manchester United defender and I'm pretty damned sure I'm not the one being "bizzare"

I'm actually a fan, or would certainly like to be. I'd love him to cement a CB position, but he's got to play a lot of better than he has this season. He wouldnt be the first defender to look awful for a long spell then come good. Pallister and Stam had shakey starts and became legends

 

[Acole9]

Looked really uncomfortable tonight, panicked every time Preston attacked us.

 

[sizzling sausages]

Very unselfish of him to leave other players save the day today.

 

[Steven Seagull]

Too many times players get between him and the other CB. When he knows where his man is he's totally dominant but it's one thing he needs to improve with his defending.

 

[izec]

Was good in the air as far as i could see, but it is always the same with Smalling. Panic panic panic.

 

[saivet]

Expect better from him.

 

[Sweet Square]

My only issue with him is there's always one mistake in him every game(Today being the slipped clearance).

 

[Sam]

Two really bad defensive performances in a row. Real shame.

 

[Skills]

Was fine aerially, but he just looks so, so sluggish at the moment.

 

[DWelbz19]

Struggled against a couple cloggers tonight, his performance levels look so low from just a month or so ago.

 

[Devil may care]

He makes me nervous and he looked nervous, he's fine when the ball is hit in and he goes man to man for an aerial dual and he is a strong athlete, but the composure is lacking, there seemed zero communication between him and Rojo.

 

[Blue always red]

Has to cover for positional lapses of our other defenders too often. Rojo and Valencia kept being caught out which causes him to rush and try and save it. Dallies too long on the ball though, needs to pick the pass and play it.

 

[Getsme]

Rojo is our only defender playing with confidence, it's worrying.

 

[#07]

When Smalling plays on instinct he's fine, when he thinks about his game it seems to just make him panic. There are times when Smalling looks so commanding, and there are others when he plays as if someone has covered the ball in petrol and lit it. If he could just get his head straight he'd be a very accomplished defender. Its staggering that he's capable of marshalling our back line away at the Emirates but not at Deepdale...

 

[Walters_19_MuFc]

Has looked pretty shaky since he's come back on, but this is just his second game since returning from injury. I expect him to be better in the next few games.

 

[Kounan]

Rojo is our only defender playing with confidence, it's worrying.

Not really in almost every game he makes few stupid mistakes and others have to fix it.

The problem now is that none of our CBs is in form.

 

[Getsme]

Not really in almost every game he makes few stupid mistakes and others have to fix it.

The problem now is that none of our CBs is in form.

You can still make mistakes and play with confidence.

 

[Devil may care]

I wonder if him and Jones are playing with nerves as they know one of them is for the boot in the summer.

 

[Mciahel Goodman]

I wonder if him and Jones are playing with nerves as they know one of them is for the boot in the summer.

I think we should keep both for the sake of competition but get rid of Evans.

 

[marlowe78]

The man just isn't consistent enough. There are games like Chelsea where he's superb and then flounders against Preston.