I think he (too often) clears the balls when could have passed it instead.
12
Season Average Rating
- Appearances
- 34
- Clean sheets
- 8
- Goals
- 1
- Assists
- 0
- Yellow cards
- 2
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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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Why?
As far as I know, there has been no sign of VAR being harsher in that regard than what we've always had. Obviously if it's a truly terrible incident VAR will likely make a difference, but Smalling very rarely crosses that line (which is why he's only ever given one penalty for that in his time here).
I don't think he made any attempt to pass vetwbet the lines today.
Good defender but he's abysmal on the ball.
Good defender but he's abysmal on the ball.
With Smalling what we see is what we get. Even when he plays quite well, as he did today, he's still very grabby and risks giving away cheap fouls. On the ball he is abysmal.
After partnering Lindelof with Jones and Bailly, Ole has settled on Smalling as a first choice centre back. That speaks volumes about our need to go into the market and get a world class central defender this summer.
After partnering Lindelof with Jones and Bailly, Ole has settled on Smalling as a first choice centre back. That speaks volumes about our need to go into the market and get a world class central defender this summer.
You're not going to stop blowing that trumpet are you.
I actually didn't think it was a penalty today but eventually it will happen. He always has a panicked look in those situations. Imagine having two ice cold CBs instead...
VAR will definitely see an increase in attackers diving at any contact, hoping that slo-mo will make whatever contact is there look more dramatic. Early on we will probably get a lot of soft pens.
Look, as much people don't like it, shirt pulling and grabbing has always been part of defending, it is a grey area in officiating. They should release stark outlines of what VAR will be looking at, what is acceptable. Football is a contact sport after all, I don't want to lose that part of it and make it easy for strikers by de-fanging defenders.
That is true. It is very much an art form to defend that way. It is a risk based game so you have to be very clever and experienced to get away with it as often as he does. Don't bullshit a bullshitter type of thing, you do it to the wrong guy at the wrong time and you get exposed. Not to ruin a good conversation about Smalling being a shit defender though, but I've seen Italian defenders become legends from mastering the dark arts in defending so it is funny to see how talking points are formed about our own players sometimes. He is the sort of defender that gets in the head of the attackers he faces. Dominating them. Alfamale defender
He does that sometimes, I agree but I don't think it has anything to do with precision. He is very risk-averse.
He won the ball and had a nice pass into the lane of Lukaku on a counter, almost dangerous. We played 4-4-2, with a mid high line. You wont see a lot of passes between the lines because we want to keep the ball wide to stretch the opposition in the build up, then when we get closer to goal we crowd the area centrally and create chances from it. That's how we scored all our goals. I don't think he misplaced one pass, but he kept the game flowing with hard longer passes out wide to spread play. I didn't have one issue with him on the ball today.
In world cup, referees were giving many soft pens for shirt pulling. It depends a bit on EPL's direction, but on general EPL's refereeing has become very similar to continental ones and you see softer penalties, softer red cards and yellows which probably 10 years ago wouldn't be even fouls. With VAR on, I believe we will see many more soft penalties, and shirt pulling will be targeted from refs considering that it isn't allowed to do so, and with VAR it is very easy to detect it.
It just annoys me that so many people talk so much about something that so far has shown no sign of actually happening. If anyone is 'blowing a trumpet' I would say it is the posters doing that.You're not going to stop blowing that trumpet are you.
I actually didn't think it was a penalty today but eventually it will happen. He always has a panicked look in those situations. Imagine having two ice cold CBs instead...
If things change in terms of VAR, then there might be an issue. Let's wait until we see that, and that Smallling is unable to change, before we write him off.
we had var against chelsea just two weeks ago and he absolutely bossed it defensively
He had a very close decision on Rudiger that could have been given...
Yet it wasn't given
Aye. A sample of one is very significant.
That's one game, think the point is over the long term he'll be punished more.
Think he's played well lately though in general.
Its better than a sample of none and making something up
It's not making anything up. There have been quite a few cases of VAR giving pens for shirt pulling, so it is quite logical to think that with VAR he won't be able to get away with it (like now when he has mastered the act of pulling the shirt of the opponent with ref not seeing him doing so).
And no, a sample of one is totally irrelevant, so it is not better than anything.
Unless Smalling plays 10/10 every week, people will continue to spin their useless reasons on why he’s ‘not good enough’ - god forbid he takes an extra couple of seconds to complete a pass once or twice in a game and you’ll be convinced he’s a Sunday league footballer.
Also, referees don’t care about defenders being handsy in the box, the same way they don’t care about strikers crowding a goalie. VAR won’t make a big difference, unless he’s dragging players to the ground or interfering with play.
Also, referees don’t care about defenders being handsy in the box, the same way they don’t care about strikers crowding a goalie. VAR won’t make a big difference, unless he’s dragging players to the ground or interfering with play.
Yes, it has become an accepted part of the game, always was really, and as long as you do not make it blatantly obvious you get away with it. Smalling might push the boundaries more than most but every defender in the league is doing it.
As for his passing, I watched Alderwerield today and 95% of his passes were the exact same options Smalling takes, GK, Full back on his side, CB partner(s) or DM. He just looks smoother playing the same passes. That other 5% might open the game up a little but they are less significant than most make out.
He switched off twice in todays game against relegation fodder Southampton. He holds onto shirts far too much. He is a defender in his prime and in my opinion he is average at defending. Van Djik, Alderweireld, Vertonghen, Lindelof, Rudiger are all far better defenders and can actually pass a ball at the same time. It is a fact that Smalling holds shirts too much, he does it numerous times through the season. So with VAR coming in next season you think it is acceptable to have him as a starter? Also when talking about defending it is about commanding the players around you. Lindelof pushing Fred forward etc and organising the defence. Smalling is nowhere near vocal enough for our most experienced defender. Also his positioning when we are on the ball is not great, he always hides from the pass.
Exactly this, watching other leagues and competitions which have VAR already implemented you’ll see defenders playing very close contact with the attackers in almost every game. The refs just don’t care as long as you’re not taking the piss.
Good point about the passing, my only complaint with Smalling’s passes is how awkward he looks because he’s so lanky, but the actual passes hit their target and he rarely loses possession - that’s the most important thing.
When VAR comes and referees still refuse to see anything wrong with Smalling, can our haters have the heart to find new excuses for hating him ?
Yeah when VAR comes in it will be giv.... Wait. So it was a VAR match, the ref saw it and decided it wasnt a foul? Doesnt sound like its very close. He didnt go to watch it
Pretry sure that was McTominay, or someone else from midfield. For all the talk about his passing, all our other defenders are far more dangerous to our goal when they have the ball, especially Bailly and Rojo. Also, Jones is the master of back passes to de Gea and getting him into a trouble, Smalling hardly ever does that.
Agree with all of this. Would he be a starter for any other club in the top 6?
Arsenal easy. Playing better than all Spurs CBs. And Chelsea's other than Luiz
Wasn't a close decision at all, it was never in a million years a penalty
You can see that Smalling has taken steps to adjust himself to the way Ole want his team to play. People see what they want to see. I hate to see goal conceded from sloppy passing. I hate to see slow passing deep in our own half between our defenders for the sake of keeping possession. Im very happy we don't get that with Smalling, we should get David Luiz in and have some fun though, right.
I love when a team try to keep the ball in the team, and while Smalling is no Iniesta he isn't as terrible as people seem to think. He doesn't hoof the ball more than other top defenders. He has fewer passes between the lines than most ball-playing defenders and sometimes his passes are on the wrong foot of his teammates, but generally he is not totally inept at playing himself out of trouble. He makes good decisions, thats the thing. Sometimes you need to clear the ball or hoof it, sometimes you need to slow play down instead of playing a risky pass. You see this with Lindelof also. He is good when he drives forward, but he rarely ever get caught out because he understands when to do it.
I'll give you Arsenal. But would he be a starter at these clubs for the number of years he has been with us? I don't think he would have been.
Thought he was United´s best defender today.
He was. Thought Lindelof and Young played well too but he was the one organising and leading a team who went forward and didn't defend as deep collectively as the previous two games. Tbf to him, he had to do that with McTominay in front of him and Young being a bit of a maniac on the right of him. I think the perception of us conceding goals and us going forward left him a bit unnoticed, which is already normal. Southampton barely got anything through us. I have to applaud Ole for setting his team up in a way that lure the opposition into try making opportunities where our defenders are expected to be at their best, and our defenders for not sleeping on their job.
I love how Smalling potentially giving away hypothetical fouls to cost us games is the now the big problem. Forget the amount of headed clearances he made today. Without out him how many of those would have turned into second balls we lost to set Southampton up with more attacks.
Hey, you are thinking more than one step ahead there. He is using his head which means it is useless in modern football, don't overcomplicate it. He is trash
He's a good defender but at the same time he does love a pull and there is potential for a pen when VAR comes in. It doesn't mean he's a bad defender but you also have to account for his brain farts like today (there was no need for him to hold his shirt) and not ignore that due to him having a good game (applies to every defender at United not just smalling). He was really good today minus that potential pen.
Nothing wrong with people making that conclusion IMO.
The point is he didn't give away a penalty. And I don't remember his shirt pulling costing us a goal off the top of my head. So this particular criticism of Smalling is odd.
I did say when VAR comes in, there will potentially be pen/pens for brain farts like today. As for today, with VAR that would have been a pen (it doesn't matter who the defender was, it would have been a pen).
Like the Rudigar incident against Chelsea? Also a VAR game in which he dominated as opposed to giving away loads of penalties and fouls as some caf posters would have you believe.
But we shall see, as always I think Smalling will prove to be our best defender even when VAR comes in.
Yes........ lets conclude on a massive sample of.............one game
. That rudigar one wasn't a shirt pull (like today) but rudiger backing into smalling (if i remember correctly). I also hope smalling improves his game and has no need to pull shirts but at the moment its the likely event just as its likely for Young to give the ball away under no pressure. For some reason you seem to think my opinion is based on my disliking of smalling, on the contrary. I think he's been good for us but his shirt pulling is a fact and not some made up nonsense. It's ok to have concerns (even if you like the player) and not ignore them because he's good at other aspects. Javier Hernandez was a really good finisher but I had concerns about his ability to play a major role in the build up, it didn't mean he was a crap player but he wasn't good in that aspect.
I base my decisions on what I see and not on what other people say (I agree some people have agendas on here, if that's what you're suggesting).
So in a game in which he was one of our best players, did very good defensive work, and was our only threat on set pieces, he was the one getting most of the criticism. Amazing stuff, people can't wait to criticise him for every little thing for some reason.
There was no var today, though. Smalling held a little bit, but not enough for the ref to give a penalty. That´s good defending.
Smalling is Smalling. Good defensively but as mentioned before he's fecked once VAR comes in.
Good sqaud player. Shouldn't be starting for a team who wants to be the best though.
Good sqaud player. Shouldn't be starting for a team who wants to be the best though.
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