12
Season Average Rating
- Appearances
- 34
- Clean sheets
- 8
- Goals
- 1
- Assists
- 0
- Yellow cards
- 2
- Status
And look what happened in Conte’s second season. He won the league with Luiz who was arguably the best CB in the league in 16/17.
As for Gomez... his ceiling is much higher than Smalling. He is extremely fast, good tackler, tall, physical, he has all the attributes to be the best English CB of this generation. You’re talking about useless stats, I go by what I see on TV... Liverpool looked extremely solid with the Van Dijk and Gomez partnership. If it wasn’t for his injury, Matip or Lovren wouldn’t be in the Starting 11. I’m sure most Liverpool fans would agree with me.
As for your last paragraph, well that’s just laughable. Every big team would choose Laporte, Otamendi, Alderweireld and Vertonghen over Smalling. Stones also starts over him for England because he’s better.
We didnt just choose Smalling over Toby, we chose our other CBs too. Would be replacing 5th choice with a 5th choice remember?
Your facts are wrong. Conte won the league in his first season at Chelsea with Luiz doing well only in back threes. He is a liability in a traditional back two and he was exposed in season 2 when Conte finally ditched him. Its the same thing that happened during his first stint at Chelsea and at PSG. It will happen again with Sarri. Gomez may have potential but he still hasn't achieved what Smalling has in the game, most managers would play an experienced CB in their prime over a 21 year old CB.
How's my last paragraph laughable? Manchester United is a bigger club than the clubs those players play for and Manchester united chooses Smalling. He has more big game experience in this league than all of them combined. Stones is not better than Smalling, he's an overrated CB with decent feet who recieves a lot of protection from his midfielders because of City's style of play. Stone's stock hasn't even increased since he joined City, he's not a pivotal player for them and neither is Otamendi or Laporte, that's why they rotate so much. Fernandinho plays more regularly than any one single City CB, that tells you a lot. Look at city in the rare event they play with their backs against the wall, that's when you see how mentally fragile their CBs are. Its Fernandinho who shows more grit on those circumstances.
Laporte is literally the second best CB in the league after Van Dijk.
Your argument that “Smalling plays for United so he must be better than any player who plays for a smaller club than United” is ridiculous. By that logic, Lukaku and Rashford are better than Kane then?
Don't put words in my mouth, that's not a direct quote. You said those clubs would not give Smalling a chance because they are big clubs essentially, and I responded by stating a fact that United is bigger than all those clubs mentioned and Smalling is our most relied on and most played CB here going 7 seasons. You're not even taking time to check your facts before you post so I'll take a lot of what you say with skepticism as it appears you're just saying whatever comes to your mind to back up your assertions.
He plays for United cause the owners are too cheap to splash big money on better alternatives. Open your eyes.
So you're admitting that Rojo, Bailly and Lindelof are not really good alternatives? 75M down the drain and Smalling still gets more minutes. It will take an absolute world class player, 80M and up probably in transfer fees to properly replace Smalling. That's a huge compliment.
It’s not a huge compliment at all. Any remotely-decent defender would cost 80m. Look at what Leicester were asking for Maguire.
Rojo and Bailly are sicknotes. They weren’t exactly expensive either... Lindelöf is comfortably our best CB this season so I’m not sure why you’ve included him in this. It’s obvious he needs a commanding presence capable of winning league titles beside him. Smalling isn’t it.
Hypothetic faults, that is. Defenders will adapt to VAR, don´t you think?
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I've included him because the jury is still out on him. I don't see Lindelof being picked over Smalling when it comes down to a choice between the two longterm. Bailly had a good spell in his first season and everyone was waxing lyrical about him, but look where he is now. He's supposed to be ahead of Smalling in the pecking order, according to experts on here (btw I think he's better than what he's shown this season but his form took a dip and Lindelof took his chance). The same thing has happened to Rojo twice, purple patches that turned out to be false dawns.
Im not saying the same will happen to Lindelof, but he's not a dead cert starter, he's just in great form at the moment and he'll need to maintain this level for a while yet to solidify his position/make it undisputedly his. Its too early to say we should be buying a CB this summer to specifically partner Lindelof. Over the course of the last 7 seasons Smalling has been the only common denominator, the one CB who has partnered with each of our CB options more times than they have among themselves. Im willing to put money on it, Smalling's game time will not take a hit even if we sign a top CB this summer
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What's this based on? Care to go further? Do you remember how much praise Bailly was getting last season? Or Rojo in Mourinho's first?
Well if you are talking long term Lindelof is 5 years younger than Smalling for starters. If we sign a player that is dominant in the air and better on the ball, Smalling doesn't need to start anymore, simple.
Hasnt that been the case for like 5 or 6 years? But whos starting?
What been the case? Rojo and Bailly are not good enough. I am not talking about signing players of their calibre.
The urge of some to already write off Smalling because of the pens he will hypothetically give with VAR is beyond laughable 
It’s even more funny when you consider it’s only the next step of this classic discussion that plays out every. single. week...
- “I don’t like Smalling defending with his hands all over the strikers”
- “But he never gets punished for it, what’s the problem?”
- “It makes me nervous”
Listen sunshine, no one gives a feck if it makes you nervous, if it gives you heart palpitations or if it makes your bum as squeaky as halloumi cheese. If watching football’s too much for the old ticker you can always watch the antique roadshow instead. It’s clearly not for everyone. And until Smalling starts repeatedly getting pulled up for it, which I severely doubt will even happen, I hope he continues to rip the shirt off of every striker he faces. If only so I can come here and hear how nervous you all got about it.
Now all I want is for Ole to make him captain so I can come in here and laugh at how much that has rustled your jimmies.
It’s even more funny when you consider it’s only the next step of this classic discussion that plays out every. single. week...- “I don’t like Smalling defending with his hands all over the strikers”
- “But he never gets punished for it, what’s the problem?”
- “It makes me nervous”
Listen sunshine, no one gives a feck if it makes you nervous, if it gives you heart palpitations or if it makes your bum as squeaky as halloumi cheese. If watching football’s too much for the old ticker you can always watch the antique roadshow instead. It’s clearly not for everyone. And until Smalling starts repeatedly getting pulled up for it, which I severely doubt will even happen, I hope he continues to rip the shirt off of every striker he faces. If only so I can come here and hear how nervous you all got about it.
Now all I want is for Ole to make him captain so I can come in here and laugh at how much that has rustled your jimmies.
Is Lindelof good enough then? He's certainly on form right now. Last season it was Lindelof who wasn't good enough and Bailly was the fan's favorite
Or Smalling will end up being the guy partnering the new CB more than the rest. It always happens.
Yes Lindelof is good enough. Watching them in the flesh you can see how superior he is on the ball. Smalling is imperious in the air but we can replace that far easier.
All the other CBs are superior to Smalling on the ball. Its not hard to find a ball playing CB in Europe. Can you easily replace a player who physically dominates his area as much as Smalling does? Not just aerially but also on the ground. Only Kompany and VVD are comparable in this respect in the league IMO. Be wary of praising Lindelof to the heavens. He needs to sustain this for longer. Look at Rojo and Bailly.
You'd think they'd learn by now, but its always the new flavour of the month that'll replace Smalling, yet its always Smalling that eventually comes back ontop. I don't really mind, Smalling is more than good enough to see out his career at Old Trafford unless his body gives out. Which will annoy half the forum which makes me smile.
It really does not matter to me that Smalling is ahead of Bailly, Rojo and Jones. We need a top CB. I dont care what has happened in the past. I know what Smalling is good at and what he isn't. Rojo and Bailly do not compare to Lindelof on the ball. In fact, Bailly's passing is shit anyway.
Smalling always coming back into the first eleven is a PROBLEM. Stop acting like it is a good thing. We should have better, simple as. Smalling being in the first eleven even means Lindelof is pushed to the left.
Smalling always coming back into the first eleven is a PROBLEM. Stop acting like it is a good thing. We should have better, simple as. Smalling being in the first eleven even means Lindelof is pushed to the left.
You might see it as a problem. I personally don't. I prefer CBs that can defend and thats what Smalling does really damn well, not only that but he also scores goals which is a tidy bonus given that none of our other CBs ever seem capable of doing it. He also has leadership qualities in being able to turn up and score important goals. Granted he's not the current ball playing wet dream that so many fans seem to want, he's very much an old school defender. That isn't a problem for me, give me an old school CB that can defend over a wreckless CB that might be able to pass the ball a bit but is a calamity.
I know people seem to think Lindelof is now fixed, but wasn't that long ago that Bailly was meant to be our future CB after showing a few months of good form. Then it was Jones (again) before his inevitable numerous breakdowns and now its Lindelof. Personally I think Smalling and Lindelof show promise of building a very solid partnership, but if we can bring in Alderweireld for example then brilliant. We can finally get rid of Rojo/Jones and up our quality a bit. I don't think any Smalling fans see that as an issue.
I couldn't agree more
Yeh. Not that many then. Just realized he's played 335 games for us. You'd think he caused so many penalties (by shirt grabbing) like Ramos with red cards.
I mean, I don't rate Smalling anywhere near as highly as some do on here, but he's miles better than David fecking Luiz who is one of the luckiest players ever to have a career at the top level.
VAR! I'm already losing my sleep! But look at Smalling Seems so unconcerned Doesn't he read Redcafe and realise his doomsday is near?
Hes doing really well.
You'd hope they do.
I fully agree with you, I also think about the reserve.
Ta-da!
It was inevitable, every manager who was here rated him, just few weeks back people thought Solskjaer won't like him but he became a starter under him after just few weeks, even when our other options were in good form.
PSG 1:3 Man Utd
Top performance
Excellent.
He was fantastic.
Absolute rock today
Bossed it. Well done Chris, titan.
Should have played the first leg.
Chris "He's fecked when VAR comes in" Smalling plays another game with VAR and nothing happened.
Chris "He's fecked when VAR comes in" Smalling plays another game with VAR and nothing happened.
Beast mode second half. Who cares if he can’t pass, he can fecking defend!
What an incredible performance. So glad to have him starting again.
Sick to death of having to defend him every season. His performed like this so many times before then it gets forgotten because he looks awkward when he passes or something.
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