I am starting to really dislike Smalling. I have no problems with his no nonsense defending but he just looks so clumsy with the ball. Unless it's a 5 yard pass forward or a side pass to the other defender, he just doesn't know to play with the ball. Ridiculously surprising at this level of football. You just know he's gonna lose the ball if he attempts anything else. In all his years at the club, I doubt he has completed a single decent long ball but that doesn't stop him from hoofing it nowhere all the time. No world class team would want to have a player like him in their squad. Being comfortable with the ball under slight pressure is bare minimum you'd expect from any professional footballer. Compare him to Bailly or Blind who are so composed and brilliant with the ball for a defender. If only we could combine player abilities somehow.
As a defender, he doesn't even pose too much threat during set pieces. I had so much expectations from Jones and Smalling but they've been nothing short of disappointing. I would sell them both once we get hold of better CBs.
Entire post is agenda driven, but the bolded part says it all. Our only defender, apart from Blind, who has scored any goals(2 in all comp), gets criticised for lacking goal threat. Rojo, Jones, Bailly, Darmian, Valencia, Shaw, Young, are all on 0 goals this season in all competitions. Yet for some reason Smalling is the only one criticised for lack of goals.
Last year also, Smalling had 3 goals, Rojo, Jones, Valencia, Shaw all had 0, and Darmian and Young had 1 each.
But yeah, let's blame Smalling.