[Shimo]

Glad to see he's doing well. The pace of the game really suits him there.

Not sure having him back would be such a good idea though. He's deficiency would again be highlighted in a high pressing game and he won't at all be one for the future.

Hopefully these good performances will fetch us decent money for him and both parties can move forward.

Surely you can't be serious about a high pressing game when it comes to Smalling. That's one of his strengths and one of the glaring issues with our current pairing. Both of them backpedal all the way to our 18 yard box soon as team breaks and both lack a bit of pace, so tend to drop a bit deeper to have little less space behind.

Granted, Smalling main deficiency is when receiving the ball in that if we are being pressed, he will get rushed a bit more than the current pairing but, he's never been one to actually cough up the ball when pressed, just doesn't look elegant when he is.

 

[LVGSdive]

He looks like he is back to being Mike Smalling like he was under Van Gaal. He looks commanding in the tackle, making great passes and extremely motivated. Fair play to him.

 

[devips]

Smalling has quite a few productive years ahead of him. I would advise him to switch to another club ( Arsenal, for instance, will be immensely strengthened if they get him) and steer clear of the toxic and disgust-worthy Manchester United fan base.

 

[Ekeke]

Who is that luiz Alberto lad??

Is he a top player?

The most in form CM in Serie A, so yes

 

[arnie_ni]

Even if it was true and he'd struggle. Who is actually pressing though? Against the top teams we've done well, but against the smaller teams which makes up the majority of our games in the league we have been struggling to keep a high line because of our tendency to defend in numbers to protect Lindelof and Maguire due to their lack of pace and ability in 1vs1 situations. We have also conceded piss poor goals against those teams and offered no aerial threat in attack despite us creating enough to get a bunch of corners. Smalling is great in a high line against those teams when he can isolate the striker and bully him, we haven't seen that once this season as the small teams just continues to build attacks from their long balls cause we can't get to them. Then we have to start over, and over. Just one of the things we miss after letting him go.

He has also done well against a lot of the top teams before, dominating the likes of Kane, so I don't see how letting him go was even a choice for us unless he was toxic or something. But he clearly is well liked within in the club, just also undervalued unfortunately.

Perfect summary of why we need him back.

He might not be elegant but he will win the ball higher up the pitch and more regularly than any cb we currently have.

 

[Ekeke]

C'mon he hardly had work to do. Inter was awful today and left the ball to Roma for large portions of the game. Dreadful game.

What are you smoking? Only Godin had more to do than Smalling out of the 5 CBs on the pitch

 

[Hammondo]

Honestly wouldn't be surprised if he went and joined a better team.

 

[Classical Mechanic]

What are you smoking? Only Godin had more to do than Smalling out of the 5 CBs on the pitch

Southgate was there last night!

 

[saivet]

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[Ban]

To remember how many posters were glad we sent him on loan..

 

[meamth]

Smalling has quite a few productive years ahead of him. I would advise him to switch to another club ( Arsenal, for instance, will be immensely strengthened if they get him) and steer clear of the toxic and disgust-worthy Manchester United fan base.

Oh boy you haven't see AFTV I presume..

 

[Rozay]

I knew he would get an England call once he began playing abroad. That shit clearly excites Southgate, and he’s never slow to call up an Englishman playing well in another league.

Was saying for ages that it is a Smalling/Koulibaly partnership or Smalling/Maguire partnership that I could see as having Championship potential. He’s a rock, and one of the best defenders in England aside from his passing. That said, him at RCB and AWB at RB may well be overkill on that side as both are limited on the ball. Still, he’s fast, strong, aerially dominant and positionally strong. I always thought his deficiencies on the ball were a bit overstated too, he’s hit plenty of brilliant passes, gone on many a run from the back too. For a centre half, it’s serviceable.

He should be brought back and partnered with Maguire at the earliest opportunity. The reality is, if he was brought back into the squad, he’d quickly establish himself as first choice anyway, as he always has despite any defensive changes.

 

[Cassidy]

Its pretty obvious we should terminate his loan in Jan but we wont

He has moved his whole family out there so I doubt he’ll be back which is a shame

 

[Paul_Scholes18]

To remember how many posters were glad we sent him on loan..

Lots of people against Rashford,Mctominay, Fred too. People want new guys and overrate them all the time.

 

[Godfather]

I was against that loan deal from the start. It was mental to send him on loan and keep the likes of Jones.

 

[Prodigy24]

Always said that he's been one of our most underrated players for a long time. Really happy that he's doing well in Italy, and I enjoy reading people changing their opinion of him and wanting him back. Absolutely insane that we gave Jones a new contract and sent Smalling on loan.

 

[Ekeke]

One more thing to point out is that he's played LCB a bunch of times this season, its his current position with his partnership with Manini and including against Inter. Of course we know he can play RCB as well, its just an interesting note given all the posts the last few years about Lindelof needing to play RCB, or us needing a LCB.

He can clearly play both comfortably

 

[Shimo]

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Am floored. In the way he dropped him and then ignored him even when he was in far better form than Jones ever was for United, didn't think he'd ever backtrack. Even something simple as going to watch him.

Smalling must be really doing superbly well for Southgate to even entertain the possibility.

 

[El Zoido]

I’d prefer him to Lindelof, he’s a player that suffered by playing for a dysfunctional United side. He’d probably be exposed again, sitting behind a Fred/Pereira midfield. Maguire’s stock has dropped since joining us, but I’m certain he’d look like a monster also in Serie A.

 

[Member 119614]

What are you smoking? Only Godin had more to do than Smalling out of the 5 CBs on the pitch

Since your opinion is different than mine it's possible I could be wrong. I only remember a handful of duels with Lukaku, he pretty much kept him out of the game but I didn't have the feeling he was tested really.
Anyway the match itself was pretty much a waste of time, right?

 

[LVGSdive]

I was against that loan deal from the start. It was mental to send him on loan and keep the likes of Jones.

Jones would have been more difficult to shift than Smalldini based on Jones' injury record.

 

[PoTMS]

Jones would have been more difficult to shift than Smalldini based on Jones' injury record.

And based on the fact he's shit.

 

[Adam-Utd]

Roma knew he was a good defender, like some of our fellow caf members.

Funny how outside the country people don't get swayed by the press and Meme's. Smalling has unfortunately been thrown into the same group as Jones when he never deserved that.

 

[forevrared]

Lindelof and Maguire have done nothing to dissuade me from thinking Smalling is one of the best CB’s at United. He’s been great at Roma - hope we bring him back instead of selling him for peanuts. The confidence he’s gaining this year is exactly what he needed for United.

 

[Woodenlung]

Smalling's performances should be enough to dissuade you. He's never been good enough. Maybe better than Rojo and Jones, but they're awful. If we can get a good price for Smalling then sell asap.

 

[Bobski]

Smalling has probably declined in the last couple of years, and is still a better pure defender than our starting pair.

 

[MadDogg]

Smalling's performances should be enough to dissuade you. He's never been good enough. Maybe better than Rojo and Jones, but they're awful. If we can get a good price for Smalling then sell asap.

His performances have been better than any other central defender we've had since Rio and Vidic.

Obviously that's not exactly high standards seeing as pretty much every other defender we've had in that time has been poor, but that doesn't change the fact that he has been (quite comfortably) our best. And he still would be if he were here as he's significantly better defensively than our current two.

 

[Bebestation]

Smalling & Blind Partnership was great.

Smalling Lindelof was only good because of Smalling - anyone who didn't see that was blind.

 

[Jacob]

Smalling & Blind Partnership was great.

Smalling Lindelof was only good because of Smalling - anyone who didn't see that was blind.

I see what you did there

 

[ShinjiNinja26]

Could’ve done with Smalling tonight, for all the stick he gets for being poor on the ball and rightly so he’s terrible at times, he’s actually a pretty damn good defender and that’s his job first and foremost. Bizarre how we loaned him out yet kept hold of that lump Phil Jones despite being our best and most consistent CB for the last few seasons.

 

[11101]

It's Serie A. Of course he looks good when given time on the ball and having to deal with attacking movement that isn't that complex, he's a good old school defender. I wish people would stop thinking that means he's suddenly become good enough for the PL.

 

[Bwuk]

What do people think he’d of done tonight to change the game?

 

[golden_blunder]

What do people think he’d of done tonight to change the game?

Defended properly?

 

[MadDogg]

Smalling & Blind Partnership was great.

Smalling Lindelof was only good because of Smalling - anyone who didn't see that was blind.

Lindelof was actually quite good in the second half of last season to be fair, even when Smalling was injured. It was always strange though that a lot of people tried to make out Lindelof was much better all season, when it was quite obvious Smalling was better in the first half of the season. Overall they were fairly even with Lindelof maybe having a slight edge, but the fact that it was close in a season where Lindelof had his best season and Smalling had his worst for a while says it all.

 

[Bebestation]

What do people think he’d of done tonight to change the game?

Mate he was our best defender for how many seasons? When did that change? No one overtook him? Because he holds on to people's coats?

 

[Ludens the Red]

It's Serie A. Of course he looks good when given time on the ball and having to deal with attacking movement that isn't that complex, he's a good old school defender. I wish people would stop thinking that means he's suddenly become good enough for the PL.

I think the problem is that Maguire and Lindelof still havent even reached the performance levels of Smalling, that is deeply deeply concerning. It's not saying Smalling was the greatest but even the standards he had are not being met by the guys who replaced him.

 

[Paul_Scholes18]

It's Serie A. Of course he looks good when given time on the ball and having to deal with attacking movement that isn't that complex, he's a good old school defender. I wish people would stop thinking that means he's suddenly become good enough for the PL.

So the Juve defenders would not be good enough for us too like De Ligt, Bonucci, Chiellini and company? Only Pl defenders are great and you can't impress playing in another league?

 

[criticalanalysis]

What do people think he’d of done tonight to change the game?

It'd be hard to speculate what he would have done to change the game but his qualities would allow us to play a higher line and he probably would have cleared the cross for the first goal.

To be honest, I'd given up on the idea that any one player would make an overall drastic change to our game. I've done it to myself too many times (i.e having hope). The fall always starts and ends with the manager imo.

 

[Yagami]

Defended properly?

I like Chris, and would've preferred to keep him to partner Maguire, but he alone wouldn't have changed much, in my opinion. Our big issue is tactics. There were plenty of games with Smalling in defence where we looked all over the place due to tactics then, too.

 

[11101]

So the Juve defenders would not be good enough for us too like De Ligt, Bonucci, Chiellini and company? Only Pl defenders are great and you can't impress playing in another league?

You'd expect they would step up to the higher level of the PL. Smalling we know cannot.