I previously didn't pay attention to all the critics about his ball playing skills, or lack of it. And still I don't think it's as imperative as some on here, since he is a very solid defender and we don't have many better options anyway. But looking at his passing, and by passing I mean a 20m pass to his partner or to the full back, you just can't miss how the ball always lands half a meter behind the receiving player. I mean he is a professional footballer, I'm sure he can work on that at least.
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Season Average Rating
- Appearances
- 45
- Clean sheets
- 20
- Goals
- 4
- Assists
- 0
- Yellow cards
- 4
- Status
Agreed- I wouldn’t expect him to turn into Pique overnight, but simply working on basic passing would surely improve his ability to play out from the back.
Another big frustration I have with him is the consistent kicking the ball out for a throw in. I know as a kid you’re taught ‘if in doubt, kick it out’ but surely a professional footballer has the composure and ability to take a touch and asses your options. Kicking it out for a throw in should be the last resort, as just invites pressure from the opposition.
Amongst everything in this thread, Ithink these two are the most balanced / fair ones that I Agree with.
Always will see Smalling as a follower in defence rather than a leader. Put a leader next to him and it will suit Smalling moreso than him having to take charge and organise.
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That is.... Not great. Started in half of our games, and 9 of the 10 defeats have come in those games.
Man Utd 2:1 Liverpool
Can you imagine the state of this thread if Smalling had made a mistake such as Bailly’s?
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Issues at set piece aside he was excellent, especially late on .
I think he was alright and did enough in the end. Was worried a few times.
Then Bailly started looking daft and my attention shifted to him.
Then Bailly started looking daft and my attention shifted to him.
He was immense at the back today. If somebody could post the gif of him throwing Salah to floor that would be great. @GifLord ?
Excellent pure defensive performance today.
Often feels like there's an error in him but he was solid today for the most part and especially towards the end helped keep them at bay. Was being bullied a bit by Van Dijk in the first half at set-pieces but managed to recover from that as the game went on.
Good performance.
He was excellent today, aggressive and assured. I loved that shove he gave to Salah near the touchline. 
Him and Matic kept on losing VVD, thankfully it didn’t cost us - aside from that he was great
Loved when he pushed Salah over
Loved when he pushed Salah over
He had one header in injury time with a quite ridiculous leap.
VVD is very good in the air so I'm not going to get on to him about it too much.
Another towering performance from Smalling today. Blocks, interceptions, headers and shoves on Salah . He struggled a couple of times in the air against the 75M man though.
. He struggled a couple of times in the air against the 75M man though.Absolute rock today along with the rest of the back 4. He and Young did a phenomenal job keeping Salah almost completely neutralized.
Get outjumped twice by van Dijk for corners, other than that, was really quality performance by him today.
Absolute fecking giant back there.
Corners with him and Matic aside he was very solid defensively. When he's on form like that he's brilliant.
When Smalling doesn't need to think he's great. The lad's decision making makes him look thicker than a brick wall. When all he has to do is defend and knock it away he's pretty reliable though.
So I’ve read for years.
Probably a self-fulfilling prophecy in that whenever he DOES make a mistake, it will be ‘see, that’s what he does’.
He’s a quality defender, and has been our most reliable for 5 years.
He's alright, but today alone he was pretty poor on set-pieces. One of his better performances today but I don't see what's wrong with saying he's got an error or two in him.
We relied on our fullbacks and towards the end Fellani (acting as a better central half then either of the two starters) to get us over the line. Both of our central defenders were at best mediocre and at times both were p...poor. Thank the lord they had excellent cover. Christ some Cafcards are so far up their own backsides that I wonder whether they actually see any part of the game
There's an error in ALL of our defenders. Not just Smalling. We shouldn't single Smalling out.
What’s wrong with it is that it implies he has an error or two more than other centre halves, which isn’t true. It draws attention to the mistakes he does make, and overlooks the fact that he’s on the most part, not making errors at all and defends very well in the overwhelming majority of games.
Credit where it’s due, since the awful outings against Newcastle and Spurs he’s been excellent.
Him and Bailly were a great pair today. A freak own goal is what kept them in it. Otherwise, they didn't threaten despite all the pressure high up the pitch. They were blocking everything.
That was a Monster performance from him. Superb.
Defensively I do not think that is true at all. On the ball maybe, but he is an entirely different style of defender than Bailly for example. Bailly is the aggressive one trying to win every ball, Smalling tends to wait for the right moment, stand up, try to funnel attackers into areas where committee defending takes care of the problem. Defensive decision making not really the problem, occasional clumsiness more so. He has had really strong defensive performances recently against all types of attacking player.
Every CB does, so show me the data that shows that he makes more errors than his colleagues.
What game were you watching?
timestamp?
13:47 apparently so about 60 mins is it I think
I think he's generally more error prone than Bailly, for one, albeit Bailly obviously made the much more notable error today. But I still don't think it's incorrect to point out that he's not always the most reliable - today alone in spite of his often excellent defending he was left wanting at set-pieces, and I don't think his passing from the back is always particularly great and can often be a bit of a liability. As a centre-back he's clearly good; he'd slot into most PL sides without a problem but if we're discussing ourselves as a top level team then I don't think it's unfair to point out the weaknesses in his game. And I say that while also stressing that I do think he played well today, for the most part.
Ah, the "he's got a mistake in him" spiel is back, even after a pretty solid game. It's such a lazy criticism. It applies to every centre back on earth. There is no centre back who doesn't make mistakes.
Not only that, but his partner - who becomes more and more invincible with each game he misses - made probably the worst mistake a centre back for United has made this season, but it's Smalling who has a mistake in him.
OG aside, they were both fine. Solid defensively performance from the whole back four, the two infront and even Mata and Rashford (and later Sanchez).
Not only that, but his partner - who becomes more and more invincible with each game he misses - made probably the worst mistake a centre back for United has made this season, but it's Smalling who has a mistake in him.
OG aside, they were both fine. Solid defensively performance from the whole back four, the two infront and even Mata and Rashford (and later Sanchez).
With a stat like that, it has to be remembered that Smalling tends to always play against the top teams. This season in particular I believe Smalling has played in every match against a top team, whereas the period that he was out for happened to coincide with a run of matches that were all against lower teams. To a lesser extent I think the same was true last season. As such we invariably had a higher loss percentage with him.
Defended well and benefits from us using two DM's as he did under LvG.
Absolutely loved it when he shoved Salah to the ground in front of the bench. We need more fire like that in the team.
Also, a good performance overall!
Also, a good performance overall!
Himself and Bailly look a good partnership.
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