They were all before Christmas. He was a bit shit for most of the second half of last season.
Although he was very very good in the first few months.
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Season Average Rating
- Appearances
- 36
- Clean sheets
- 18
- Goals
- 2
- Assists
- 2
- Yellow cards
- 0
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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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Although he was very very good in the first few months.
I dont really think Bailly was that much worse to be honest.But that will take us completely of tangent.
My main criticism of Smalling today was the shirt pulling.With new PL regulations that will cost us big time.Also his lack of composure when playing from the back is problematic especially without that sort player in midfield.
This are two areas that he should be worked on.
Needs to dropped when we play a Mike Dean refereed game.
Spot on. Go to another thread if you want to speak about another player.
Very good observation. Otherwise he's going to cost us some stupid penalties.
Minus his miscommunication with De Gea, he was perfectly fine
That's fair, I thought he was incredibly dominant last season before Christmas game, before the Wolfsburg game where everything started to fall apart for him. I didn't think he was that bad in the second half of the season but then I won't have seen him as much as you.
It's probably because I have friends who watch more La Liga than me who really rate Bailly, and when I saw his first few appearances I thought he looked the finished act so I'm probably holding him to unfair standards (last mention of Bailly I swear
)Yeah the shirt pulling is terrible, he's so bad for it, it's not like he has to overcompensate for not being physical enough.
Agreed about the passing thing too, would you bench Smalling permanently or play Blind/Carrick in midfield instead?
So now this forum doesn't rate him anymore? the state of this place fecking hell.
Bit rich of you to tell people what to talk about here when you change your opinion of him in just few days:
Odd. What did I change my opinion on exactly? He's good enough to be a squad player but I don't really want him as a starter. And yes, he's overrated by plenty on here. Bit rich of you to talk utter shit to be honest. I think he's average, there's far worse problems in the team such as Rooney but yeah, no opinions changed.
Contrary to what I posted earlier. I think he's a good defender - I just think Blind is the best one we have overall and Bailly is probably just as good right now. I just can't stand this idea he's a nailed on starter - I haven't seen anything to justify that. He's just as prone to make a balls up than any player in the side.
Defending isn't just about brute force and hoofing the ball away.
Defending isn't just about brute force and hoofing the ball away.
You say there's far worse in squad and no reason to complaing about him and you come here complaining about him after a game in which he was better than Bailly and probably better than our fullbacks and couple of other players too. Apart from that mistake with de Gea he did nothing especially wrong anyway.
Didn't we have the best defensive record last season using Smalling Blind, and that was without Shaw
Centre backs are the least of our problems. What is infront of them is a mess.
Centre backs are the least of our problems. What is infront of them is a mess.
Both Bailly and Blind are much better than him.
His lack of technique at times as well is astounding, I struggle to think of any defender who's been a part of a side looking to challenge for the title who has looked less composed on the ball than him.
People act like he's world class on here, he wouldn't get on Real Madrid, Barcelona or Bayern Munichs bench.
His lack of technique at times as well is astounding, I struggle to think of any defender who's been a part of a side looking to challenge for the title who has looked less composed on the ball than him.
People act like he's world class on here, he wouldn't get on Real Madrid, Barcelona or Bayern Munichs bench.
We had two holding players in front of them who aimlessly kept possession, and a world class keeper.
De Gea and negative tactics made our defence look better than it is.
Complaining? Really you would call that complaining? I was more having a dig at all the people who seemed outraged at the idea that he won't be a starter this season. He's ok, average like, nothing special. He had 4 very good months at the start of last season and was pretty meh after that.
Who cares what Bailly did? Go to the Bailly thread and make comments about him if you wish to. This thread is about Smalling and his performances. His performance today wasn't great. Considering how some on here go on, you would have expected a far more dominant performance.
You quote me on something unrelated and then randomly tell me my opinions changed when they eh haven't. I mean seriously, are you ok?
Yeah his lack of technique is absolutely shocking at times. Spot on about him being massively overrated by some on here. He's another of the 'teachers pets' on here though and some get overly defensive when people point out that he's pretty average. He's capable of having very good defensive performances but overall, I don't want him as a starter long term.
He is in my opinion our best defender. Him and Bailly should be the CB pairing and move Blind into MF.
It can be a problem when people make claims like "best CB in England" after half a decent season. For all the talk of how good he was for about six months from around March 2015 to November there's still plenty of cockups such as Aguero's 2nd goal against us in the 4-2 win, and the Ozil's goal in the 3-0 loss to Arsenal.
You are right, you weren't complaining, it was just a knee jerk reaction to a defeat blaming everyone and everything, something people in here are very good at and it wasn't even worth responding so I have no idea why I quited you.
Also, you are not a mod to tell people who should they mention in which thread. If someone says he is not good enough and doesn't deserve to be a starter, people responding to it by saying he was better than his partner is completely fair argument.
What are you even on about? I made a comment after the match in which I didn't think he played particularly well. The comment was more directed at all those who basically think he's world class etc. You're obviously a big fan and that's great and all. I'm not a big fan. Don't get me wrong, I would hang onto him, but he definitely isn't top class and I don't think he's good enough long term to be a starter. If I feel there are far worse problems, I'll speak about those problems in their relevant threads.
I didn't make the original comment about what people 'should' be talking about in the thread, btw. Take that up with whoever I quoted if you have an issue there. It is kind of annoying on here lately when you can't say anything in a player performance thread without getting told by a fan of said player that 'x' player was far worse today. So what? Go to 'x' players thread and take the topic up there. I mean, maybe it doesn't make sense to you, but discussing players in their respective 'performance' threads, definitely makes sense to me and keeps things on topic.
I agree with the general consensus about Smalling's technique (or lack of I should say), and for what it's worth I think it will stop him ever being a true world class CB, but I think it wouldn't look so bad if he had more passing options in front of him at times.
Fernandez at Swansea is a woeful passer, but Ki and Cork always come deep to collect the ball (as Carrick does) which goes a long way when it comes to bringing the ball from deep. It's different with Blind as he's a very good passer, but he does have weaknesses at CB too.
Fernandez at Swansea is a woeful passer, but Ki and Cork always come deep to collect the ball (as Carrick does) which goes a long way when it comes to bringing the ball from deep. It's different with Blind as he's a very good passer, but he does have weaknesses at CB too.
Hes a six yard CB where crosses are coming in (although that will be questionable given he wont be allowed to hold shirts any longer to his advantage).
I do think he lacks brains but also think he needs a leader next to him. Always thought he would turn into one but unfortunately he needs to be playing next to one.
I do think he lacks brains but also think he needs a leader next to him. Always thought he would turn into one but unfortunately he needs to be playing next to one.
I always worry that he is a penalty waiting to happen at corners. Can't we get him to wear boxing gloves?
In our current formation,Id play Blind ahead of him.That's fair, I thought he was incredibly dominant last season before Christmas game, before the Wolfsburg game where everything started to fall apart for him. I didn't think he was that bad in the second half of the season but then I won't have seen him as much as you.
It's probably because I have friends who watch more La Liga than me who really rate Bailly, and when I saw his first few appearances I thought he looked the finished act so I'm probably holding him to unfair standards (last mention of Bailly I swear
Yeah the shirt pulling is terrible, he's so bad for it, it's not like he has to overcompensate for not being physical enough.
Agreed about the passing thing too, would you bench Smalling permanently or play Blind/Carrick in midfield instead?
Not sure whether Blind at CDM and Smalling as CB would work though.We can always try it.
It should work. We need someone to control the game, I personally would prefer Carrick or Schweinsteiger at CDM over Blind, and dictate play. The problem with using Smalling + Bailly in defense and Fellaini in front of them is that none of them are adept at passing the ball from the back. This leads to confusion, which turns into unnecessary hoofs and make us surrender possession to the opposition. If we have either one of the three holding, then Bailly and Smalling will simply need to defer the ball to them and concentrate on their defending.
Smalling, Blind and Bailly seem a really strong group of defenders from my point of view. I imagine Mourinho will mix and match them dependant on the game. Having TFM as cover isn't a problem either.
Don't understand the polarisation in this thread. He's a solid centre half with periods of being excellent. Oh and his "miscommunication" with De Gea was the latter having a brain fart. Smalling was doing his job.
Don't understand the polarisation in this thread. He's a solid centre half with periods of being excellent. Oh and his "miscommunication" with De Gea was the latter having a brain fart. Smalling was doing his job.
Noticed that too. Even Baully has suddenly lost his calmness.
Would Blind at CB and Carrick at CDM be too slow?
It should work against most opposition. We should be fine with the recovery pace of Bailly/Smalling, Valencia and Shaw. There is need to surrender possession against every shit team that we came across, like we are now. We should pin them back in their own halves and make them resort to hoofing to their lone striker.
I hate that we do that.We give teams far too much respect.
Then we resort to hoofing ourselves.We would need to play Herera around Carrick for the energy and Pogba just ahead supporting Martial on the left.A partnership between those two could really blossom.Right now they are both just suffering.
We finally have CBs where any combination can be built into a partnership.
Changing my opinion from 'he's good, but nowhere as good as Caf thinks' to 'he's a donkey'.
If Rojo played yesterday and was as bad as Smalling, this thread would have had dozens of pages asking for him to be sold. Which is totally fine, cause he is shit, but so has been Smalling in the entire 2016. It isn't now a matter of form if it continues for one year.
If Rojo played yesterday and was as bad as Smalling, this thread would have had dozens of pages asking for him to be sold. Which is totally fine, cause he is shit, but so has been Smalling in the entire 2016. It isn't now a matter of form if it continues for one year.
Because we kept possession and didn't bother attacking (that was a form of our defense) when we attempted to open up we got exposed.
I think he is a good defender btw, but lets not overhype, there were clear reasons why we didn't concede many goals last season. A big one is because we just didn't commit
He's been poor for the whole of 2016 now?
Blimey. When the Caf kneejerks, it really does kneejerk.
A couple more bad games and Chris' mother will be posting to say that he was an accident.
Blimey. When the Caf kneejerks, it really does kneejerk.
A couple more bad games and Chris' mother will be posting to say that he was an accident.
Is it any more kneejerk than people calling him the best CB in England after a purple patch of solely a few months in which he had two DM's playing ahead of him.
Standing in the middle of nowhere for the second goal, looked as rusty as all hell today. Very similar player to Bailly and I worry they aren't versatile enough. I think only 1 of the 2 should really start but I'll reserve that judgement until they've played a few more together. The first 2 games from this partnership have left a lot to be desired however.
It was more than a purple patch. It was the vast majority of the season. But the amount of games he was good for last season seems to reduce every time he has a ropey game, or every time Blind has a good game.
And let's not pretend last season was the first time he was highly regarded. This place had been begging for some time to see him get a run in the centre of defence, and not at right back. His capabilities were recognised for a number of years.
To kneejerk after his first Premier League start, after having practically no pre-season, seems a bit daft to me. It doesn't compare to people claiming he is one of the best in the league after getting the run of games in his best position they'd all been waiting for. Because he was one of the best in the league. Proven by the defensive record and the PPotY award. And sure, we can say it was the two midfielders, and the possession and De Gea who were responsible for the record, as if such factors don't effect any other teams. Spurs also play two midfielders behind a front four, also play possession football, also have a top goalkeeper, yet it's never used to discredit Alderwiereld or Vertonghen.
The defence is a unit. No man does it all on his own. Smalling is among the absolute least of our worries, but there's a bizarre obsession with discrediting him, for some reason.
Yes, he has. He was the league;s best CB until November, but since then he was outplayed even by our Blind, and was quite poor for many games, with the others being just 'average'. He's big though, so it is all fine.
Great post,agree 100%.
What is up with the lazy assertion that Smalling and Bailly are similar? Is it because they are both black, strong and fast?
Bailly is more an all action defender using his physical attributes much more; notice how often he sprints in a game compared to Smalling. Also, Bailly prefers to attack the ball in front of the defender,whereas Smalling stays tight and is more ready to sweep in behind.
They can compliment each other really well I think. Smalling is much better in the air,but Bailly is better with the ball. Smalling is best suited to a Rio role,but I think Bailly is more of a Vidic character with pace. Neither has the passing of Rio, but Smalling isn't much behind Vidic at all. Difference is that Vidic played in a functioning team.
Bailly is more an all action defender using his physical attributes much more; notice how often he sprints in a game compared to Smalling. Also, Bailly prefers to attack the ball in front of the defender,whereas Smalling stays tight and is more ready to sweep in behind.
They can compliment each other really well I think. Smalling is much better in the air,but Bailly is better with the ball. Smalling is best suited to a Rio role,but I think Bailly is more of a Vidic character with pace. Neither has the passing of Rio, but Smalling isn't much behind Vidic at all. Difference is that Vidic played in a functioning team.
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