He could only play one of them offside, the goal scorer, because the other guy who received the pass was actually onside. Then he was left facing two players, if he tried to cut off the pass he would have let the guy clean through to the goal. There were two mistakes from his teammates failing to mark their man or break up play before it got to him.
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Correct that its only the furthest forward that he would have played off, but the player who got the original pass may have been dealt with
What? Imagine that, hes writing about the club he's playing for.
I'm not a fan of his as a Man Utd player, but i do want him to do well; one of the reasons being that he chose to play rather then sit and collect wages, like the poster above said. It shows character, something that i hope Jones also has 
EDIT: watched to goals and he was at fault for the first goal for essentially losing his maker. Had another similar situation but got lucky that it was a miss.
EDIT: watched to goals and he was at fault for the first goal for essentially losing his maker. Had another similar situation but got lucky that it was a miss.
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Kudos to him, not hiding in the stands at Old Trafford. I watched the game in midweek and he was rusty, but to be expected as it was his first game.
If he had been where he was supposed to be the whole defence would have been more compact and the chance would probably never have opened up. Him being so deep left a lot of space open.
Did he play a preseason match with us? Of course, he'll be rusty with new teammates, language, country, style, etc.
He played a few. But not most of them and couple that with the injury and lack of matches while our season was going on and you have a point.
Nah I meant the whole
We lost but will work to make it right next game
Standard United player thing
How was he today?
Didn't watch but he was the best rated player on Whoscored for what it's worth. Won 7 headers, 4 shots.
The type of centre back we could do with.
Haven't watched him since he left but I don't need to, hes been our best CB for 4 years and it was a ridiculous decision to let him go.
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Well done, Mike. Hope you will enjoy your time in Rome.
Wait....4 shots?! Smalldini indeed, haha
He got beaten once but apart from that, he was excellent. His positioning was a lot better compared to what I've seen from him at United and his passes into midfield were really good and did help build attacks.
He was dominant in the air and was unlucky not to score a header from a corner. The thing I liked the most the most was that he was communicating and telling defenders where to go, acting like a leader.
It is only Lecce and he had a lot of time of the ball but he did everything really well. Big test for him will be against the likes of Inter and Juve etc.
Can we sign him? Should be cheap
4 shots taken 
Guessing set piece headers / chances. Even still expect him to score if that's the case
Guessing set piece headers / chances. Even still expect him to score if that's the case
I would go with him and Maguire. I understand if he doesn’t fit Ole’s system though. Smalling is good in the air yes, but isn’t the modern, ball-playing centre half that is currently in vogue. Not the system Ole is trying to implement. This is the thread to argue whether Ole’s tactics are right or not, but he’s not the type of player he’s looking for, for the type of system he’s looking to play. Also let’s not forgot that Smalling was frequently one of the first players on the list of “deadwood” that fans wanted out of the club.
Be great if they could get around 40M off Roma if they like him.
Roma will never pay 40m. I LL be surprised if they pay half of that.
Agreed.
I could never understand the terrible comments he was getting. Not world class but a good solid defender.
I wish him all the best in Italy and prove lots of people wrong.
Hope he does well and we can sell him to Roma for a decent fee
Smalling is a good player who has been harshly maligned due to his long service during these down years. Always held to a higher level of scrutiny than his partner and often blamed for their and others failings. Lindelof is seeing that effect this season.
Smalling never having a high class partner was not his fault.
Smalling never having a high class partner was not his fault.
So, did he give away 3 penalties because of var?
What if a new challenge was exactly what he needed to take that final step? Stranger things have happened. If that happens to be the case when he comes back in the summer I think we'd be stupid to sell him, even if it is for a profit. He'll probably have 3-5 good years in him at that point. If you disagree even in this unlikely scenario, what would be a decent fee for him in this market?
It was a stupid opinion to begin with. Maguire did those with us already, but those same posters just turn blind eyes.
Not a chance we splash big bucks with our owners. Like always, we'll look for a loan or a player in his final year so we can negotiate a cheap deal.
I think if we can't get Smalling, we may try for Lovren (whom we tried to get on loan but Pool rejected). I think he's in his final year (could be wrong on that) so wouldn't surprise me if we try and get him on the cheap...though I'd much rather have Smalling.
He'll play exactly the same as always but will actually be judged fairly for a change. Good defender.
Big bucks as in 40 plus million? Don't think it will be that much, if he plays well then can see him gone for 20 plus million.
Also it will open up market for the player, if he plays well in Serie A then other Serie A teams or even English teams will try to sign him, which is good for us.
If he plays well I'm sure there will be several teams in for him.
I'd have started him over Lindelof. Were not playing attacking football anyway. May as well play the better defender.
Absolutely. Lindelof has already cost us more goals this season than Smalling did in any season. And he's done feck all with the ball also. So fecking pointless.
Smalling was a good defender. I think with Maguire he may have turned out to be better than Lindelof.
As for ball playing, you need one ball playing and one destroyer. Or stopper as they use to call it in the old days. This ball playing CB is not a modern invention.
As for ball playing, you need one ball playing and one destroyer. Or stopper as they use to call it in the old days. This ball playing CB is not a modern invention.
Hope he does well over there. The only reason he is on loan is probably because of all our spare CB he's the only one with any value for another team. Just goes to show how pointless the likes of Baily, Jones and rojo are to us
More like he had the balls to go.
The definition of a dud. Expect the caf faithful to overrate him now that he's gone.
Of course he had a good game, shame Cafe thinks he's crap.
Still a better CB than Lindelof sadly
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