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He ain't staying.
Any theories why Ole doesn't rate him? The other backups look inferior or injury prone. Also club didn't accept 15m€ but wanted 20m€ its all a bit odd. Surely he must be the better bench option than all the rest?
Pretty sure that would be admitting he was wrong and go against the phantom "Look Southgate sorted out the England defence and now we play beautiful football from the back" storyline
No it wasn't he was getting hammered left right and center by everyone before his loan spell at Roma. He now at least has gotten some recognition.
Yes it was. That's because half the people don't even watch the matches and just lump him in together with Jones. He's the best defender at the club. He's been my favourite since Rio and Vida retired. He's a brilliant centre back. It really pissed me off when Ole sent him on loan to Roma because I knew he would do well there. And we had to put up with fecking Lindelof who can't even jump higher than my little sister when trying to clear a ball in the air. It should have been Smalling Maguire from the beginning.
Don't have to argue with me about Smalling I think he is still the best defender we have on our books. But that said the environment towards him both at Utd and generally in England had become toxic. Ole gave him a platform to showcase his ability. I don't think we will sell him, Rojo and Jones will go and he, Alex, Harry and Victor will be here.
Ole probably feels the same as Southgate. Smalling is a very good defender but in the modern game you need defenders that are comfortable on the ball.
Why are you still a newbie? It's rare to see fellow Cafties who understand the art of defending.
He is not very good and very poor at ball playing.
You also need defenders who can stay fit. We have been lucky that Maguire and Lindelof stayed fit. But the fact that Maguire had to play so many games even against league 2 cannon fodder does not seat right with me.
I agree but what if next season Bailly and Tuanzebe stay fit? Smalling does not want to be 4th choice, he wants to be a regular for his international ambitions. The irony is that had he stayed, he would have played plenty this season.
Having one CB who can only do simple pass, in place of a CB who has average passing skill, won't change the team playing style. That's just absurd claim.
Tactics in football have changed since LVGs day. Pep and Klopps then new idea of pressing hard from the front is now commonplace in both Europe and the Prem. Even mid table teams do it. Back then teams would let you have the ball and play low block to counter possession based tactics. Under LVG our defenders would have all the time in the world to make dozens of sideways passes to each other near the halfway line. Nowadays teams press you from the front and defenders have to be able to do one-twos and other sharp passes with a guy right on their back from inside their own box in order to play their way out. Back then there was no such concept as being press-resistant. Now it’s a key feature for any defender for deep midfielder. You can't compare that era to this one.
Teams start pressing our defenders because they know how we play. And they know their pressing works. Why would they do that if our CBs are pressing resistance? Are they just plain stupid?
if you’re trying to argue that Lindelöf and Smalling are similar on the ball, I suspect we’re not going to agree on much.
Wth, man? where did I say that? I guess I didn't make it clear to you. I said that Smalling being a bad passer (only doing simple pass), won't change our playing style. Just because the CBs he's replacing, other than Maguire, have average ball skill. The downgrade of passing skill between him and the rest, isn't significant to change our last season playing style. I've explained why.
Thats a huge "what if" though because neither of those 2 has had a season where they didn't miss a significant amount of matches.
My error. When you said “Because other than Maguire, others are just average ball skill CBs.” I read that as all the others including Smalling.
Yes he thrived in LVG's team but the team didn't thrive and there was just endless passing from CBs to each other. We were just never link upto higher on the pitch. I think you need to revisit the threads at that time.
I agree, it's a weird situation. Imagine Smalling staying and that is the season where those two stay fit and Smalling barely plays, it would be unfair to Smalling. I don't rate him above Lindelof and Bailly as an all round player but i do like him and respect him as a professional and i do want the best for him. It's another year where he needs to play every game to have a chance for the EUROS so the best thing for him is to move on.
We’ve played through press many times and also many teams quit the press when they realised it was hard work for nothing. The occasions the press has hurt us havent so much been the CBs but more DDG to Pogba, or Williams.
So is it our playing style to link up from CBs to higher up on the pitch? Why did I see so often our DM dropping so deep, in line with CBs this season?
Firstly, we want our CBs to be able to pass to midfielders through opposition players. I remember Smalling would only be confident in passing to either the fellow CB, goalkeeper, or full backs (if they were sufficiently close to him). Opposition players would simply leave him alone and mark others.. leading to our famous back pass routine.
Then why wouldnt we sell him for a small amount knowing that "in the modern game you need defenders that are comfortable on the ball"? We're hoping someone pays a large price for a 30 year old and traps themselves into not having that?
Our defenders still pass the ball to each other. Every 2 games theres a nice pass up the middle from Maguire, and every 5 games theres a nice pass up the middle from Lindelof. They rarely lead to anything though because obviously theres so much to do from that point, its almost as if taking the chance of losing the ball in a weakened defensive position isnt actually worth it. So many goals were scored last season because teams were trying to be too cute in their own defense leading to pressing players receiving the ball in attack.
Agree.
We certainly far from perfect. We are not talking about CBs raking up assists but being able to progress the ball from defence to the midfield in most circumstances. Agree that sometimes you need long balls and not try to be too cute, which we are also too guilty of, without even having the ability to do so. We certainly need to strive for the ball playing ability of atleast Vidic and Rio (as a combo). Without that how can we develop into a world class team? Smalling is certainly not the answer there for us.
