I don't think its much about ability either, and yes he does look awkward but he should be more confident and more adventurous with his passing if he can pull it off, which i think he can. I think turrets are a good, safe mechanism for turning.. it does the job. Don't think he always takes as long as that implies, and i stand by my statement regarding the pressing.
12
Season Average Rating
- Appearances
- 34
- Clean sheets
- 8
- Goals
- 1
- Assists
- 0
- Yellow cards
- 2
- Status
I'm a fan of Chris but that's too much. Van Dyke radiates calmness and has had a clear calming effect on those around him. Smalling doesn't. He gets on with his own thing, very effectively for the most part but is not a leader in the Van Dyke mould. Our job is finding central defenders that feed off each other, operate in tandem. I'm starting to think that himself and Lindelof might be our best hope of that in the current crop.
I disagree with the calmness aspect, the only calmness Van Dyke can give is his dealing of long balls since he's a giant that wins almost every header.
Van Dyke still falls asleep when maintaining the defensive line and has slips of concentration. A very good defender with obvious flaws, although not in the same ways Chris Smalling is also a very good defender with obvious flaws.
In before the latest episode of ‘he played well tonight but I can’t help feel nervous everytime I watch him play’.
#SmallingPlusOne
#SmallingPlusOne
On a side note, I know you changed him for Rojo for a minute there so that originating the # thing has lost some value. You should have known better It was a brief show of support for Rojo, I changed it back to Smalling ages ago though.
And it must have been at least 4 years since I been on this, give a dude some credit!
He had a good game last night - we need to find him a good partner in the summer.
It's ludicrous that a lot of people don't rate Smalling.
Was just in the post match thread and noticed he only had 1% of the vote for MOTM. I thought he was really good last night. That block he got in as well and he again was owning that defence, again refreshing to see both he and Lindelof pushed right up to the halfway line and even going beyond it.
Yeah, spot on. Smalling definitely deserves to start every game as he's by far our most consistent/dominant CB. But that's a low bar and he's clearly a level below the likes of Van Dyke or some of the other top CBs in Europe (or former CBs at United). I agree that him and Lindelof look the most likely partnership but we're crying out for real leadership at the back and that's not something you associate with Smalling. Who knows, though? CBs mature late and he could still improve a lot over the next few years.
@GifLord Got a GIF of when Smalling made 2 excellent blocks when Dalot slipped?
I never understood why people wanted to sell him. Even if you don't think he's good enough to be a starting XI CB he's not a major injury concern, is good even when he gets isolated by attackera and is the one CB we have who is good in the air, in both boxes.
He's really the least of our problems. If you want to get a better CB in than him it's Jones and Rojo who need replacing.
He's really the least of our problems. If you want to get a better CB in than him it's Jones and Rojo who need replacing.
Timestamp?
Other than not having the touch of Zidane, there’s literally nothing wrong with Smalling as a centre half at the very top level, nothing you would not also find in other top CBs like Ramos. He’s just unfashionable, and that is so crucial I’m today’s game it seems. Prejudices and stereotypes stick. Smalling is as good at defending as anyone in the league for my money.
Well Daley Blind isn't here anymore so i guess they need someone to take that line with.
"I mean he had *insert big fast striker* in his pocket, but I just know he's going to cost us!"
Not that Smalling is world class or anything but we should call a spade a spade and accept he's our best defender.
It's funny to think how many dopes wanted him sold. We'd be absolutely fecked without him at present.
The only player out of our five central defenders who tries harder than others to be what Mourinho requires from every mature player, which is simply being consistent.
No wonder we were hunting for an experienced CB in the summer. It's all about giving Chris a solid partner in defense and patiently waiting for further developement of Bailly and Victor.
No wonder we were hunting for an experienced CB in the summer. It's all about giving Chris a solid partner in defense and patiently waiting for further developement of Bailly and Victor.
Probably the most under-appreciated player in the squad. Watch the last 3 wins, he wins absolutely everything in the air whilst his CB partner doesn't help him out in that regard in the slightest. He has his clear weaknesses and it is such a shame that he's so poor on the ball but he is so reliable defensively, but he seems to get tarred with the same brush as Jones as being clumsy/a donkey.
Man Utd 1:1 Wolves
Had another good game today, think we'd be a much better team now if he had one of our CB targets from summer next to him. He's probably first name on the team sheet defensively.
He defended well but his passing is constantly behind his team mate, meaning it slows down any attack, this was most evident during the last 15 mins of the game when we pressed higher and he kept passing it out to the wide players (behind them).
The frighting thing is there were far worse players in the team today.
The frighting thing is there were far worse players in the team today.
Its not Smallings fault the attackers doesn't know how to attack. This has got to stop. Passing the ball slightly behind a players path a couple of times isn't detrimental and sure as shit isn't slowing down any attack as you said. On the flip side, he actually did his job offensively this game and passed through the midfield to create an opportunity for attack, when the midfielders just stood there. That type of initiative is very welcome of our CB's, and Smalling was surprisingly fresh in regards to that this game. Also did his job defensively, but you picked a bad game to blame Smalling for the attack imo.
Our pretty much every player does that, and yet it's only Smalling who is constantly criticised for that.
He can defend but he cant play football.. Lindelof doesnt do either one well and neither do the other defenders in the squad. Smalling needs a better partner and after that we should think about replacing Smalling with a better player but at the moment i think he is the best defender in the squad.
His hair still looks terrible...
His hair still looks terrible...
Nah. I'm one of Smalling's biggest fans on here, but him passing behind the recipient (especially when going out wide) does slow us down. It makes it impossible for the winger/wingback to actually move onto the ball with momentum and drive forward. Instead they have to stand there and wait for it, or even come backwards to get it, which ends up giving the opposition plenty of time to come over and cover them so now they can't go forward. Of course, considering it's normally Valencia that he's passing to, it's questionable how much he'd drive forward anyway.
The majority of complaints on Smalling are ridiculous, but this is the one main one where they do have a point.
I think you’re wrong when a wide player has to come backwards instead of running onto a ball it massively slows down their momentum. Smalling is probably the most limited technical player I have seen at united in recent times. If you think he’s good enough, good for you but personally I expect one hell of a lot better for a starting cb at Man Utd.
Well yes that is a problem that even our so called attacking players do it (Lingard in particular) but that’s where we are right now and it’s very worrying.
Valencia as the right back, and Mata and Lingard at the right "wing" and it seems like blaming Smalling for them not bombing forwards is ok, as if every ball Smalling gives them is behind them. It isn't like that, it was a few balls late in the game where he did that and earlier this game he clearly had sufficient forward passing, and guess what it did move the game on but the buck usually stopped with Valencia, Lingard and Mata anyways. So because they didn't do anything with the successful hard passes in front of them, Smalling didn't do his job?
Im not disputing that a pass behind someone is trash, especially going forwards but i'm not that bothered about it when the defenders have the ball with no outlet while they can't afford to lose possession. It probably has been a few games where Smalling slowed us down, i feel in Europe when we have dominated teams, but this is a bad game to bring that up, as it wasn't even a culprit for anything at all. It really wasn't.
If that happens every game, every few passes the fair enough but its not like that, is it? He might be limited or at least reserved about his abilities but its a terrible game to criticise him for those things. Thought he handled the ball really well this game and he provided more offensively than Lindelof. I don't think Jones has more ability on the ball, actually for his size I would say Smalling isn't bad if you consider the ability of our other defenders as well.
It's behind them because they're usually coming backwards to receive the ball. Smalling is a limited player in terms of technique, passing and vision, but he is easily our best defender.
The problem today was that he had Fellaini in front of him, who is equally as clumsy on the ball. I felt that this was a game for Pereira to start, he would've helped build attacks from deep and give Smalling another option, while being mobile enough to plug holes when Wolves broke forward.
Smalling was decent again, he is far from our biggest concern moving forward.
The problem today was that he had Fellaini in front of him, who is equally as clumsy on the ball. I felt that this was a game for Pereira to start, he would've helped build attacks from deep and give Smalling another option, while being mobile enough to plug holes when Wolves broke forward.
Smalling was decent again, he is far from our biggest concern moving forward.
It's certainly not every pass, and more often than not the pass to them is the right one because they don't have the space to move onto. Passing it in front of them in that position would be likely just giving it to the opposition. But equally, there are generally a number of times each match where the space is there to pass into but unfortunately Smalling gives a slow pass straight to, or behind, the recipient and it ends up slowing everything down. It doesn't happen as often as some make out, but it does happen.
I agree with you that his passing in this game was probably better than normal so it may seem a strange one to mention it, but even today it happened a number of times.
Harsh on Fellaini. Yes he can be a bit clumsy on the ball for a midfielder, but his passing is quite decent when played deep where he has more time. He's got significantly better distribution from there than Lindelof (who is probably our best central defender in that aspect) let alone Smalling. He's actually quite surprised me a few times with some of the passes he's picked out. Obviously nowhere near the level of what Pereira would bring, but probably not much different than Matic.
Solid again, he's in good form.
I think you're being incredibly generous there mate, I wouldn't put Fellaini on par with Matic in terms of technical ability or passing range personally. I like the job Fellaini does there, he is a good screen against more direct and physical sides, and he is important on set pieces when you have a centre half that's very poor in the air. T
he performance wasn't bad from him at all, I just think Pereira would have been a better option given the opponents. Our problems lie in an attack that isn't coached, or afforded the freedom to make mistakes or move freely with and without the ball.
The problem is we have to play Fellaini to cover for Lindelof
Mike and Valencia were both great today defensively
We don't. We can just play someone instead of Lindelof.
Matic is technically better, but Fellaini has done surprisingly well at picking the right pass at the right time to get us on the front foot. It's one of the question marks over Matic that he may slow us down at times. Fellaini tends to release the ball a bit faster (based purely on these last few matches he's been playing that deeper role). In saying that, in the previous matches he was playing a deeper position than Matic does, so he had more space in front of him to see those passing options.
Night and day.
why don't we just do that then!?
Your expectation doesn't make any sense at all. You are only scapegoating Smalling, you could have blame other players for the slow build up.
Defender's main job is to defend not to be a playmaker, being a ball playing is just an extra bonus. Vidic & Smalling used to play together in 2011 couple of games and we never had any problem with our attack, neither are good with ball distribution.
If you want set expectation, set expectation on our midfield, why none of them can dictate the tempo like Scholes & Carrick did.
If we have Scholes & Carrick, you won't be complaining about slow build up, you won't be complaining about wide players to come backward instead of running onto a ball. We used to have Scholes & Carrick supplying great balls to our wide players. Vidic rarely did them.
If you still insist with having ball playing centre back then set your standard on Lindelof, why is he not good enough?
Because he is playing beside the only one better than him?
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