Maybe. I havent seen much of himSo you think Acosta is one of the best players Rooney has ever played alongside then yeah? After all he said it so it must be true!
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Theo Walcott with a run on his blindside and a 10 yard head start, yeah not even Usain Bolt would get back at Theo
desperate.You're missing the point.Theo Walcott with a run on his blindside and a 10 yard head start, yeah not even Usain Bolt would get back at Theo
The point is his positioning, that he doesn't know which area he should be covering. He's covering Lindelof in case Gylfi gets past him, instead of going to cover the biggest danger, which is the space between them and our goal.
When you look at situations you don't focus on the outcome, but what's leading up to it.
And yet the clip you're talking about is showing the end of a move, not what led up to it
No what’s funnier is people have taken a clip that starts at a specific spot ignoring that Smalling is the one that has won the header from the long throw by Everton as he has gone with Calverin, then either Dalot or the Everton player has knocked it in to Gifi’s path and at this point Smalling has had to leave what’s his face as he sees the danger is Theo who has a 5 yard start as he’s left Matic for dead.
Nothing to with positioning and more about how the others around him have let him down.
We’ll ignore the irony of your last sentence
I wonder how Smalling (and Jones) would have developed if Ferguson hadn't retired? Could those years of building of the person and mindset have made a difference? The continuity of an evolving system of playing?
The outcome is the goal, not Smalling's positioning. There's no problem debating his positioning from that clip.And yet the clip you're talking about is showing the end of a move, not what led up to it
The outcome of that breakaway is the positioning you see from the clip. All we see in the clip is Walcott having a big headstart on Smalling and Smalling not being Usain Bolt and catching him
You've got this one badly wrong, which isn't a surprise by any means.No what’s funnier is people have taken a clip that starts at a specific spot ignoring that Smalling is the one that has won the header from the long throw by Everton as he has gone with Calverin, then either Dalot or the Everton player has knocked it in to Gifi’s path and at this point Smalling has had to leave what’s his face as he sees the danger is Theo who has a 5 yard start as he’s left Matic for dead.
Nothing to with positioning and more about how the others around him have let him down.
We’ll ignore the irony of your last sentence
The goal is a disaster on so many different levels.
You have Young and Smalling challenge for the same ball, sandwiching an Everton player. The lack of communication is astonishing, and Smalling certainly shouldn't be pushing up there, he leaves space to go into a meaningless aerial duel that Young is already challenging for.
Walcott is quicker to react and knocks the ball onwards to Gylfi
The main issue is the picture below. Smalling (opposed to what you're claiming) has a head start on Walcott, but he decides to cover the wrong space. It's pretty damn obvious what area he should cover and which one is the least dangerous. If he'd moved to the right area but Walcott still beat him to it, then fair fecks, but Smalling tracks Lindelof and creates even more space for Walcott to operate in. It's one of the worst pieces of defending in recent months.
If he had half a brain he'd cover the right area, where I've drawn the arrow, then simply foul Walcott if it looks like he'll beat him.
The last picture shows just how bad it is, in the end you have Walcott in an excellent position to either go for goal or just roll it to his right for a tap in, which is absurd given the situation earlier in midfield.
No, what we see in the clip is Smalling covering Lindelof, it's only after the ball is played into space left by Smalling for Walcott that he sees the issue and has no chance of catching up. The outcome is the goal
It's not a very difficult situation to analyse, and the full video is easily available.
You'll have to find me an example of a CB who is past the half way line moving into a central position to start defending a position before he's even in an area to defend it.You've got this one badly wrong, which isn't a surprise by any means.
The goal is a disaster on so many different levels.
You have Young and Smalling challenge for the same ball, sandwiching an Everton player. The lack of communication is astonishing, and Smalling certainly shouldn't be pushing up there, he leaves space to go into a meaningless aerial duel that Young is already challenging for.
Walcott is quicker to react and knocks the ball onwards to Gylfi
The main issue is the picture below. Smalling (opposed to what you're claiming) has a head start on Walcott, but he decides to cover the wrong space. It's pretty damn obvious what area he should cover and which one is the least dangerous. If he'd moved to the right area but Walcott still beat him to it, then fair fecks, but Smalling tracks Lindelof and creates even more space for Walcott to operate in. It's one of the worst pieces of defending in recent months.
The last picture shows just how bad it is, in the end you have Walcott in an excellent position to either go for goal or just roll it to his right for a tap in, which is absurd given the situation earlier in midfield.
Smalling is jogging back because Lindelof should be enough to hold up the play. Sigurdsson does well, but the ball is played through Lindelof's legs which isnt particularly good. Smalling isnt running towards the middle because a diagonal line takes longer to get back. I cant think of any CBs in the current day that are as fast as Walcott, if theres going to be a foot race between him and a defender he's going to win.
And he challenged for the header because he obviously thinks Young is weak in the air, which he is. In hindsight yes, it requires that Lindelof does a good job of holding up the attacker if Smalling is going to try and win the header. So by making that choice Smalling must be confident that Lindelof will do a good job else its probably not worth going for. Hopefully Smalling won't make that mistake again as clearly we need him to be in a good position to defend as the other CBs arent as good at it and cant be relied upon.
This is nauseating stuff.
Here 1minute 19 in. Watch it.You've got this one badly wrong, which isn't a surprise by any means.
The goal is a disaster on so many different levels.
You have Young and Smalling challenge for the same ball, sandwiching an Everton player. The lack of communication is astonishing, and Smalling certainly shouldn't be pushing up there, he leaves space to go into a meaningless aerial duel that Young is already challenging for.
Walcott is quicker to react and knocks the ball onwards to Gylfi
The main issue is the picture below. Smalling (opposed to what you're claiming) has a head start on Walcott, but he decides to cover the wrong space. It's pretty damn obvious what area he should cover and which one is the least dangerous. If he'd moved to the right area but Walcott still beat him to it, then fair fecks, but Smalling tracks Lindelof and creates even more space for Walcott to operate in. It's one of the worst pieces of defending in recent months.
If he had half a brain he'd cover the right area, where I've drawn the arrow, then simply foul Walcott if it looks like he'll beat him.
The last picture shows just how bad it is, in the end you have Walcott in an excellent position to either go for goal or just roll it to his right for a tap in, which is absurd given the situation earlier in midfield.
You’ll see defenders time and time again going out to the wing to back up a RB. Smalling had gone with Calvert Lewin all day. If anything I’m asking why is Matic so high and not covering the space and why is Lindelof all the way out there and why is Dalot not shifting across and where is Young in all of this.
No doubt it’s a horrible bit of defending but by no means is it really something to pin on Smalling alone when there are about 4 players more culpable. I’m guessing we’ve just had a set play or something being the reason people were so high and Everton took a quick throw in and caught us out of shape.
Stop upsetting Mrs Smalling guys.
Our best defender by a fecking mile, paid probably around the same or even less than some of them, one with best injury record, and yet he is the most criticised one. Great stuff. Only Lindelof comes close and that's because of this season, and yet all managers are still afraid to pair him with other defenders while Smalling is fit.
They do it when they already have cover.......You don't leave a massive gap in the most dangerous zone to protect the space between Everton's midfield and Lindelof, essentially the least dangerous zone on the pitch.
I honestly have absolutely no idea whatsoever how anyone can try to defend any of this.
And if you're asking why our attacking fullbacks are higher up the pitch than our fecking cb, then it seems that it's pretty worthless having any sort of footballing discussion with you
Ummmm Dalot is the 2nd furthest back... I never also mentioned anything about that being a particular issue, something you’ve just made up. What I meant was why there seems to be no midfield in that current moment and why Matic is jogging when he should be covering or the one trying to win that header instead of Smalling.
Anyway enough of this nonsense, simply once again people over reacting to a player they don’t like and trying to pin everything on them.
This is some of the most absurd stuff I've read on here, essentially you're trying to argue that 2+2 = 5,1. You're analyzing the situation based on it being Smalling, not on what's actually happening.
If you show picture 3 to anyone with half a brain, they'll point out that the CB (Smalling in this case) needs to run towards goal to position himself between Lindelof and goal, essentially in the direction I've drawn the arrow. That's the most dangerous space and the direction of the arrow is the shortest route to cover it. A diagonal line on flat surface is the shortest distance.
It's not a question about being as fast as Walcott, it's a question about positioning yourself correctly and covering the right areas.
A pretty standard rule in football is to avoid two teammates challenging for the same header. In this case the immediate consequence is that Smalling has left space behind him that the opposition can move into.
The rest is simply a disaster, he positions himself as wrong as wrong can get.
No actually I'm talking about football. Why are you talking about maths? This is a clip of football players playing football, not someone doing the 9 times tables.
This is some of the most absurd stuff I've read on here, essentially you're trying to argue that 2+2 = 5,1. You're analyzing the situation based on it being Smalling, not on what's actually happening.
If you show picture 3 to anyone with half a brain, they'll point out that the CB (Smalling in this case) needs to run towards goal to position himself between Lindelof and goal, essentially in the direction I've drawn the arrow. That's the most dangerous space and the direction of the arrow is the shortest route to cover it. A diagonal line on flat surface is the shortest distance.
It's not a question about being as fast as Walcott, it's a question about positioning yourself correctly and covering the right areas.
A pretty standard rule in football is to avoid two teammates challenging for the same header. In this case the immediate consequence is that Smalling has left space behind him that the opposition can move into.
The rest is simply a disaster, he positions himself as wrong as wrong can get.
The pitch is a rectangle, a diagonal line is the longest line. He'd have to run diagonally and cover more ground to put himself where you want him to put himself.
Like I said, in hindsight I'm sure he'd agree its a mistake because he trusted Lindelof to deal with Sigurdsson and block off the route towards goal. Lindelof committed and the ball broke through his legs where a speed merchant can run onto it. So hopefully next time Smalling doesn't do the same thing and realizes that he needs to be the one back defending and holding players up because Lindelof wasnt up to it.
Matic is a walking disaster that struggles with high tempo football, but everyone agrees on this so it's nothing new, he consistently gives players too much space because he's worried that if he tries to close the distance they'll knock the ball past him and beat him on pace, so instead he gives them space. He shouldn't be anywhere near our starting lineup unless we have an injury crisis. Doubt there's anyone that'll actually try to defend the clips of him lumbering around.
What's absurd is that Smalling, for some bizarre reason, has a group of followers that will happily lie (blatantly) about situations in order to make it out as if he's doing everything right. Why are you pretending that everything is being pinned on him, you'll literally not find a single post that states that if we just get a proper CB to replace Smalling we'll be golden and ready to compete for trophies next season. He's miles away from being the problem, but he's very much a part of the problem and not the solution.
Yes.
Theres your math you're so keen on
But what I'm curious about is how you think it proves I'm wrong....
Already explained. Try again.
Are you sticking with a diagonal line being shorter than a straight line directly forwards from Smalling's position like you said above?
I think this is the biggest lie on the forum as I’m sure if we look hard enough we’ll find plenty saying it’s all Smalling.
You said I missed the point in your very first response to a video that only shows half the story and chosen to make it look worse than it actually was.
I think you’ll also find that even some of the most ardent Smalling defenders say the exact same thing, he isn’t the answer but right now he is the best we have and if we had 2 better CB’s he should just become a squad player. I would think @Ekeke and @Mcking would even agree with that but it gets tiresome seeing every little thing get pinned on him when for the most part he’s been really good.
Reading the guff like you’ve written in the Varane thread about padded stats and his overheading is just something to be laughed at at this point I’m afraid.
Anyway in summary he might not be the man for all seasons but if the midfield isn’t sorted you could bring in any defender and it wouldn’t make a difference. We need at least 5 new players for midfield and defence alone.
Pretty much. He's the best we have currently in my opinion, but not the player I'd buy if I was manager and had £200 million to build a defense.
What is a diagonal
If there's plenty saying it then it shouldn't be all that complicated to find examples, so go ahead.
The video doesn't show half the story, it shows Smallings positioning. You could show the full replay of the match and it wouldn't portrait it differently. Smalling positions himself incorrectly and it opens up more space for Walcott to run into, that's the main problem.
How many times don't we see Smalling clear the ball, either with his head or feet, when he has plenty of time to actually control the ball. If you feel it's not an issue, then by all means.
Ah that explains it. Fair enough then, I wont press you anymore if you honestly dont know this stuff
This is priceless..Unless him or Jones are injured looks like they’ve both been dropped
Prices now? You really do love maths
I'd assume he's injured, overall Smalling is still our best defender (worryingly enough)
End of an era hopefully.
Might be. The era where our CBs could at least defend a bit
Smalling usually have very strong games against Chelsea.
Don't get ypur hope up, he is injured. But then even injured he is better than Bailly, so it must be a bigger injury if he isn't playing even half fit ahead of others.
He and Jones were at the team hotel.
They aren’t injured
They aren’t injured
Better be. Mourinho's season went to hell going with Lindelof and Bailly together at the start of the season.
Maybe they can try to make up for it today. It would be a big game for them to do that in.
Alternatively it could be ole repeating Jose's mistake
The whole team was at the hotel sky just said. So thats not evidence.
Id wager they're injured
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