Foxbatt
New Member
- Joined
- Oct 21, 2013
- Messages
- 14,297
One of his best games and probably our best player today.
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Had a great game and surprised with his vision and long-range pass to Shaw and the couple of through balls for Lingard/Rashford. De Gea MOTM for me though, that save was immense.One of his best games and probably our best player today.
Who's that?So much better when he doesn’t have a non-footballing entity next to him. Good game and some really good passing.
Yeah, no it was surprising. It has been a couple of seasons since we've seen that of a complete performance for 90min from a CB, and with his great passing out from the back too. But to be fair to him and I think some of us probably almost forgot that this was an important CL night, but still good of him to know that, and he came prepared. Also, he is usually very confident against teams that sits deep against us so he can isolate and dominate the striker when we play with a higher line. Gave us plenty of chances to keep our attacking shape and go again, too bad we couldn't make use of all the time spent in their half. Good to see him actually take responsibility to try to play for once and not just pass it to the next man, as most of our team usually does these days.Mike Smalling decided to turn up, incisive forward passing and calm under pressure with the ball. No idea where this came from but hopefully we can carry on.
Good shout that. Not much more needs to be said about him, another superb performance. Rack em up!MOTM... Looked way more comfortable with Jones next to him... I suspect because he is less worried about babysitting Jones so he can play his own game, but that's just a guess
I'm not sure about statwise, but they do tend to often do well. There is a reason they were the main partnership last season. The problem is that they'll occasionally throw in a poor performance (normally Jones), and those poor performances are absolutely terribly bad.I had to post just how impressed I was with Smalling's excellent long passing and play.
Seemed to command and relax as I think he has a better rapport with Jones.
What is our overall record with these 2 at centre back?
Even Jones had a good game getting forward
He has some good ball playing skills in his locker - but we were playing Young Boys!! I enjoyed that pass and a couple of surges forward and forward passing from him yesterday.He played like he did under Van Gaal. That one pass where he just switched the ball to Martial or Shaw was so good. Hopefully he plays like this instead of being scared to pass more than 5 yards.
The thing is Lindelof and Bailly have moved the goalposts on how bad bad can be this season. Jones will be happy with that because he's more capableI'm not sure about statwise, but they do tend to often do well. There is a reason they were the main partnership last season. The problem is that they'll occasionally throw in a poor performance (normally Jones), and those poor performances are absolutely terribly bad.
Both were great tonight, comfortably our best two outfield players.
Foot injury apparently.Injured or another one the manager has taken a dislike to?
Injured.Injured or another one the manager has taken a dislike to?
First goal he tripped over the Arsenal player behind him. But overall tonight he wasnt called on very much with all Ander's ball winning in midfield, the constant falling over of Arsenal players leading to set pieces and Bailly took charge at times as wellThought he was off tonight, even forgetting the first goal he looked laboured in his movement.
I watched him closely for a while just in general play and his movement was stiff. I know he was carrying an injury, who wasn't in the back 3, but he didn't look smooth. As Devil said a back 3 might not be a good fit for him either, well especially with 2 headless chickens alongside, at times that central pivot of the 3 does need a greater passing range than he possesses.First goal he tripped over the Arsenal player behind him. But overall tonight he wasnt called on very much with all Ander's ball winning in midfield, the constant falling over of Arsenal players leading to set pieces and Bailly took charge at times as well
Its far more important on the sides. As we saw with Rojo who released the ball early and got us moving at times. He has the confidence to do it, although he also has the record of giving the ball to opposing attackers too.I watched him closely for a while just in general play and his movement was stiff. I know he was carrying an injury, who wasn't in the back 3, but he didn't look smooth. As Devil said a back 3 might not be a good fit for him either, well especially with 2 headless chickens alongside, at times that central pivot of the 3 does need a greater passing range than he possesses.