He is more confident with his head than his his foot. I'm not even joking.
12
Season Average Rating
- Appearances
- 55
- Clean sheets
- 24
- Goals
- 2
- Assists
- 1
- Yellow cards
- 13
- Red cards
- 1
-
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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Mcnair? TFM? Basically if they are in our squad, they should be used and rotated especially for cup matches like this.
He has just missed three matches. He shouldn't be worrying about a rest but rather figuring out how to pull his head out of his ass.
TFM hasn't played CB for the first team. McNair has been awful.
Watford.
He has. Partnered Blind vs Watford
Been really poor lately.
He is so poor on the ball too. Barely progressed in that aspect.
He is so poor on the ball too. Barely progressed in that aspect.
The most overrated player in the history of this forum.
Meh, when he was great, we acknowledged it. When he lost his form, the praise stopped, and he was criticized quite a lot lately (and rightly so)
Has always been overrated here, decent defender, at times even below-average.
jesus
Not sure. Still think that would be Herrera. Smalling at least has shown a very high level of form to warrant the praise at some point. His form has dropped considerably though, definitely.
Doesn't help that he plays alongside Blind and Rojo. Even Rio or Vidic would struggle alongside them. In fact Rio wasn't great before Vidic and Evra came along.
Is he available?
That was so stupid, he had to contort himself basically to make the header. Sometimes I wonder what goes through our players' minds.
He was by no means good yesterday, but what kind of defense are we playing? Look at their second goal, why is it Smalling who is trying to block Firming's shot? When Rio and Vidic played they had an understanding, and they defended as a unit. Smalling has to defend all over the shop because Blind won't win any battles.
Smalling got beat to a cross by fecking Lallana.
Blind is a much better centre back than him.
If Carrick could do regularly what he did against Arsenal, he'd be a fine option. Far better than TFM and McNair fo shizzle.Carrick.
What about what he did against Liverpool?
They have not been playing like a partnership. More like two defenders trying to outdo the other, for that I rate them both as shite.
That's just rubbish. Smalling did once what Blind has been doing all season - being beat by all sorts of attackers. Then Smalling stumbled once, but once again, Blind was found wanting whenever there was defending to do. We have to play Fellaini because there is no presence in the air with Blind. He is just so poor in the air. Smalling didn't have his best match, but once again he had to try and carry the defense on his own.
It says it all when you think Blind is a MUCH better centre back than him - he's not even a qualified, even average center back.
I really like Carrick, but this season he has been well below par, unfortunately. One can still see the quality is there, but he makes too many mistakes and looks battered after 30 minutes of playing. His passing is still the best in the team though. However, recall the times when Carrick facilitated Scholes' passing? That says it all really - although he is a good passer, he is not close to say Scholes.
Man Utd 1:1 West Ham
Decent performance but I often feel he has too much ground to cover.
Solid performance and it looks to me he also did most of Blind's defending job today. Carroll, Emenike and Sakho couldn't win anything against Smalling. Varela and Smalling are my MOTM. Can't do much for the goal as it was Blind who gave the foul and it was also a brilliant free kick from a long distance as well.
That's what happens when you have to cover for your fellow cb all the time.
For God's sake get him a proper CB partner.
He's gonna be even more beastly with a proper CB next to him. Good game from him today, loved when Sakho went physical on him and Mike just pushed him away.
Man Utd 1:1 Liverpool
He's made a fair few costly mistakes in recent times and looks nowhere near as flawless as he did in 2015. Shame.
Just been poor since the new year imo.
He's been solid tonight.
Has had Sturridge in his back pocket, as well as bringing the ball forward well on several occasions.
Has had Sturridge in his back pocket, as well as bringing the ball forward well on several occasions.
I think the worst thing about Smalling is how he complete lack of passing ability harms us as a team. It has been very apparent tonight. He has almost always taken the easy option. Lingard or Rashford were screaming at him for a pass and he bottled it, he tried it later on a completely fluffed the pass.
Still a very strong basic defender but I think we need more.
Still a very strong basic defender but I think we need more.
Probably could've helped Varela there. He was marking no one.
Solid first half and probably best player before half time. Poor second half.
I doubt he can do much in that situation.
Was okay. Been ages since he produced a brilliant performance though.
He really wasn't. Carrick ran the game for us. Smalling defended OK but was poor on the ball. Safe passing. I much prefer Blind at centre back to Smalling. I now understand the appeal in having a David Luiz type centre back over an old school English type one.
Looks shaky and clumsy during the second half of the season. He is decent and can be good but is a step down from the top defenders we used to have.
Steadily returning to his real level ? I think so.
I would say both Carrick, Smalling and even Fellaini are our best players in first half. Smalling won almost every challenges in first half to me. Blind was the worst player in first half too many error but much better performance in second half. David Luiz is not a good centre back. He looked good only if he has good centre back alongside him. Smalling ahead of Luiz to me.
He's been awful the last 3 games, really not convinced he's cut out to be a top defender without someone far superior next to him. His passing is abysmal.
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