The way he took both Blind and the Wolfsburg out was just beautiful. That is heart of a player that wants to win.
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Season Average Rating
- Appearances
- 55
- Clean sheets
- 24
- Goals
- 2
- Assists
- 1
- Yellow cards
- 13
- Red cards
- 1
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In the latest episode of the United Hour Podcast, Nik @Rood and Imran @Annihilate Now! start with the good news by celebrating Manchester United Women's emphatic FA Cup win over Spurs at Wembley and the future of manager Marc Skinner.
Then it's the bad news and the ever worsening form of our Men with losses to Arsenal and Palace.
Finally the main debate - ETH Out now or keep him until the end of the season - if not longer. Are you Team Nik or Team Imran?
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He's taken Blind out a few times this season. Not only does he have to fend off a big CF in the air, then Smalling just comes in and takes them both out. Poor Daley
It may have been said before but he has some attributes of Vidic and Rio combined. He seems to have the speed of Rio so he can recover when players put the ball behind him, but also seems to dominate in the air like Vidic. He has the presence now that you want from your cb. Ability wise he seems to have it all, but if anything he sometimes lacks concentration and possibly the reason why we conceded on Wednesday. For me the best in the league and he is still improving too.
https://www.redcafe.net/threads/how-good-is-chris-smalling.337985/
After his first season - which was the last time he got regular game time as a CB before LVG. Those years in-between where he was wasted at RB really misguided some people on his ability. He's just picked up from where he left off.
After his first season - which was the last time he got regular game time as a CB before LVG. Those years in-between where he was wasted at RB really misguided some people on his ability. He's just picked up from where he left off.
I think it helps that LVG has a clear system with an attention to detail. Smalling knows exactly what is expected of him.
His growth has also coincided with the return of Carrick from injury and the subsequent purchase of Blind, Schneiderlin, and Schweinstiger.
Just like John Terry can look terrible without the proper midfield protection, I think Schneiderlin makes the central defender's job much easier for them.
Having more settled fullbacks has helped as well.
Has Smalling been great? Sure. But his personal improvement is due to the team understanding around him as well.
His growth has also coincided with the return of Carrick from injury and the subsequent purchase of Blind, Schneiderlin, and Schweinstiger.
Just like John Terry can look terrible without the proper midfield protection, I think Schneiderlin makes the central defender's job much easier for them.
Having more settled fullbacks has helped as well.
Has Smalling been great? Sure. But his personal improvement is due to the team understanding around him as well.
Having Blind next to him has also helped; both of them seem to have developed a great understanding. Well done Van Gaal, I'm sure his attention to detail and positioning has greatly benefited Tall Mike.
This always bemused me.
Why is it the default opinion that Jones was always better or has greater potential than Smalling?
I've never bought it, and I'm the least surprised that Smalling is performing the way he is, it's been clear to me for years that he had it in him.
Well it is just my opinion. I always liked Jones and he can be really rock at the back at times. Plus he is for a defender quite good on the ball which is very important in our team.
Has a rougher time with Smalling then any striker he's come up against this seasonHe's taken Blind out a few times this season. Not only does he have to fend off a big CF in the air, then Smalling just comes in and takes them both out. Poor Daley
I agree. Jones has never shown the same quality of Smalling, he's more of a gung ho defender and I think that style makes people think he's better than he actually is.
Smalling has actually shown dominance like this in periods before, he just usually ended up injured or shifted to fullback.
No it's fair enough that's your opinion I just wanted to know why you felt that Jones was better?
I've personally never seen him display anything Smalling hasn't and I can't remember a game he's dominated for us for quite some time. The only one that stands out was when he played for Blackburn at home
Precisely, Smalling has shown his quality before plenty of times he'd just be injured afterwards, I'm trying to think of genes where Jones has done the same for us
Jones is the new Duncan Ferguson and John Terry rolled up in one don't you know? Future United and England captain and all, the new English hope. He reminds people of old school English centerbacks so naturally he has the 'higher ceiling' by default.
He is much better on the ball, better passer and is better in caring the ball from defense to attacking positions.
He is also quite good in defending, sometimes a little rash but if he can improve his positioning he can be at least just as good in defending as Smalling is.
Yeah big fan of Jones as well. Let's hope he can get a consistent run of games under his belt. He's got the lot, apart from being too rash but that can be worked on with a run of games.
Arsenal 3:0 Man Utd
best player we had
Yep. Hard to believe we conceded three and I don't think our centre halves did much wrong.
He did well considering the shit show going on either side of him.
Hard to really say any defender had a great game when we conceded three, but Smalling didnt really do anything wrong on an individual level. Had it between him and Martial for MotM.
Not really at fault today, the third goal you just have to applaud Sanchez there.
Don't see why he was our best player. Don't remember him doing anything to stop the barrage.
Terrific second half performance when he nullified their attacks almost single handedly. In the first half, it looked like the Arsenal did everything they could to avoid him.
The match was over by the second half. In the first they played around him as much as they were everyone else. Didn't see him intervening .
Hard to judge really, the rest of the team basically let Arsenal come charging at him and Blind in that first 20 minutes and there wasn't a great deal they could do and after that Arsenal weren't really interested in attacking and we kept possession without much effort.
Neither did you, other than setting up every counter attack against us
The over praising of Smalling annoys me when talking about him on here, he wasn’t great today, he wasn’t even good, he was as bad as the rest of them.
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Totally agree, I said before the season the club badly needed a top CH. I think Smalling is the best there is ATM but still doesn't totally convince me.
The jury is out on Jones and I don't think Rojo or Blind are the answer.
Smalling has been very good for around 12 months, I'd struggle to name many better centre backs in the league in that time. He'd benefit from having a specialist centre back next to him enormously rather than Blind out of position. Today it was obvious Wenger targeted Blind and there was not much Smalling could do in that situation in fairness, the midfield cover from Carrick and Schweinsteiger was non existent at times. Swansea did it in a slightly different way but also had success with Gomis bullying him. I was surprised Benteke didn't exploit that weakness in the backline when we played Liverpool at home too.
Jones doesn't convince me. He has good moments but I always feel as though he's seconds away from some sort of disaster moment and he's not progressed in the way we'd have hoped- although he does have time to get it right still. Rojo was given a run of games in central defence both at the beginning of the season and after he came back from injury after the new year but he didn't seize the opportunity to cement his place in the same way Smalling did. He's similar to Jones in that he can also be quite erratic at times and whereas Smalling currently offers some level of consistency it seems as though with Jones and Rojo you can almost flip a coin as to whether they'll be very good or very poor. Unfortunately he seems to be another defender we've bought that's injury prone.
It's one thing not wanting to praise him after a match like this, it's true he didn't single-handedly stop all of the opposition's attacks (for once). But if you're not convinced by Smalling's performances over the last 12 months, I'm not sure what would - he's been outstanding.
Most of us know you don't rate Smalling. The basic praising annoyed you too last season when you kept bigging up your boy Evans. You also rate Jones higher than him. We know
I don't rate Smalling, where have I said this? Also where was I bigging up Evans? But yes I do think Jones has a higher level of potential than him, so you got one out of three, well done.
Do you think Smalling played well today?
Smalling definitely did well second half. Was our only competent defender. He was the one nullifying most of Arsenal's attacks.
Probably our best player in the second half. Don't think he was at fault individually in the first half but he has to take responsibility as part of the collective.
He is the defensive captain and I guess the 3rd choice captain. He has to take responsibility for defensive failures.
For sure. I agree with that.
in the fisrt half he was all over the place, trying to cover for absentees in the deference.
Broadly speaking I thought he done ok yesterday. That said, I'm disappointed he didn't get over and help darmian. It was clear he was having a tough time and I would have expected Smalling to get over and, for lack of a better phrase, roughed Sanchez up given half a chance just to give darmian a bit of time to get his head back in the game.
How many of his defenders is he meant to help/cover? He's spent the entire season covering for Blind in the middle and Darmian was playing well enough to cover Smalling. That right side combination has been one of the most functional parts of our team. Nobody was expecting Darmian to collapse like that.
It was basically a repeat of the Everton away game last season except Arsenal are a far better and more clinical team.
Didn't do too much wrong but wasn't great either. Maybe could have been a bit vocal and calmed the rest of the team down, after the way Arse started and conceding the first goal we should have parked the bus and waited for things to calm down, conceding the second goal so quickly was fatal. We needed someone to stand up and tell the team to calm the feck down esp the midfield, I think this is the part he needs to improve on esp if he is going to be our long term captain. Rio & Vidic were great at this.
I thought he was very good. In his attitude as much as anything. He really stood up when the rest of the team was crumbling apart.
The "he has to take responsibility for the rest of his defence" argument is ridiculous. He didn't sign Darmian, or decide to pair himself in central defence with a midfielder who's rash and can't cope with pace or strength. Pretty sure he doesn't sneak sleeping pills into Carrick's pre match meal either.
Van Gaal takes responsibility for picking inadequate players, not Smalling...and yesterday Smalling had three inadquate defensive partners and an inadequate defensive midfielder to contend with...against some world class attacking players.
The "he has to take responsibility for the rest of his defence" argument is ridiculous. He didn't sign Darmian, or decide to pair himself in central defence with a midfielder who's rash and can't cope with pace or strength. Pretty sure he doesn't sneak sleeping pills into Carrick's pre match meal either.
Van Gaal takes responsibility for picking inadequate players, not Smalling...and yesterday Smalling had three inadquate defensive partners and an inadequate defensive midfielder to contend with...against some world class attacking players.
Another aimless long ball from Smalling was the basis of losing possession for the second goal, if he really is the best defender in the league then he should know that just after conceding the important thing is not to give away possession again cheaply.
Also, for the second goal if Blind is on Walcott then who is Smalling meant to be marking? Considering he's the closest player to him before he scores I would say Ozil.
Also, for the second goal if Blind is on Walcott then who is Smalling meant to be marking? Considering he's the closest player to him before he scores I would say Ozil.
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