Yup. He’s been a strange player for us. Often very good but also played a starring role in almost all our most catastrophic defensive performances. Would have looked right at home in yesterday’s shambles.
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Oh yeah? Remember our biggest win in the Champions League in recent history? 1-3 Comeback in Paris. It was Chris, with a MotM performance that night who had Mbappe in his back pocket all night long. But those don't count right? I don't know, maybe some of you guys don't even watch the games?
Stay, sweet prince
Great post.
Do you deny it?
Well that would come under the "Often very good" part of his post.
We never had as good players as We do today.
Hehe.
Not being able to get Roma to buy Smalling is what is probably not helping with the Sancho situation...
"He's the best out of the shit bunch and is actually a shit defender".
"Saying he was our best defender doesn't tell anything".
Could someone please enlighten me what do these kind of posts mean?
First of all, he did well at Roma. Is he better at defending than Lindelof? of course. Maguire? for me, at purely defending, yes but if he plays Maguire will be his partner anyway. Better than Baily, Jones and Rojo? for sure. Smalldini is not a shit defender and if by some miracle he is, ours are shittier right now, you always try yo keep the less shitty version, not the useless, nothing special nor important ones.
Secondly, the fact that he was our best defender mean exactly that. It tells you everything you need to know. If right now we have prime Nesta and Maldini then Smalldini will look like the imitation of Maldini, a Maldini wanna-be but not as good and rightly so because that's what imitation means. But when you have two ball playing CBs that are currently shit at ball playing and being Centre Backs, Smalling will look like a godsend.
Look, I get it, it's hard to accept that these two modern CBs a.k.a our newest ones might not work out but the truth is they're currently shit and haven't done anything that suggest us "these are two modern CBs right there, they do incredible passing, could play a high line very well". Literally nothing. I remember Maguire trying to dribble past Matic, is that what you mean by modern CBs? if that's the case give me pure defenders any day. Conceded 6 against Tottenham. Are you mental.
If we want to cherry-pick, I remember Maguire and Lindelof's mistakes during their time here which were just as bad as Smalling's. When Smalling did it, he got dog abuse. When Maguire did it, De Gea's fault. Instead of criticizing the defenders for being shit at defending, people wanted De Gea to come out of his box more often ffs. Like really? it seems like it's very hard for some people to accept that their newest toys or their aspiration of United having "modern CBs" might not work out this time. Currently, I'd play Smalling ahead of both Lindelof and Maguire easily.
"Saying he was our best defender doesn't tell anything".
Could someone please enlighten me what do these kind of posts mean?
First of all, he did well at Roma. Is he better at defending than Lindelof? of course. Maguire? for me, at purely defending, yes but if he plays Maguire will be his partner anyway. Better than Baily, Jones and Rojo? for sure. Smalldini is not a shit defender and if by some miracle he is, ours are shittier right now, you always try yo keep the less shitty version, not the useless, nothing special nor important ones.
Secondly, the fact that he was our best defender mean exactly that. It tells you everything you need to know. If right now we have prime Nesta and Maldini then Smalldini will look like the imitation of Maldini, a Maldini wanna-be but not as good and rightly so because that's what imitation means. But when you have two ball playing CBs that are currently shit at ball playing and being Centre Backs, Smalling will look like a godsend.
Look, I get it, it's hard to accept that these two modern CBs a.k.a our newest ones might not work out but the truth is they're currently shit and haven't done anything that suggest us "these are two modern CBs right there, they do incredible passing, could play a high line very well". Literally nothing. I remember Maguire trying to dribble past Matic, is that what you mean by modern CBs? if that's the case give me pure defenders any day. Conceded 6 against Tottenham. Are you mental.
If we want to cherry-pick, I remember Maguire and Lindelof's mistakes during their time here which were just as bad as Smalling's. When Smalling did it, he got dog abuse. When Maguire did it, De Gea's fault. Instead of criticizing the defenders for being shit at defending, people wanted De Gea to come out of his box more often ffs. Like really? it seems like it's very hard for some people to accept that their newest toys or their aspiration of United having "modern CBs" might not work out this time. Currently, I'd play Smalling ahead of both Lindelof and Maguire easily.
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That’s been going well for our “ball playing” defenders
If we keep him, I’m calling it a win until we sign a long term CB next summer
I am still for him to be sold, from his PoV, he wants to leave, on other side, dont think he is that great plus he is doing ">" move which boils my blood for some weird ass reason.
I want him sold but if an agreement can't be reached now, the January window opens in 3 months. See if he has any chemistry with Maguire or Lindelof until then. If not, let him leave if Roma still want him.
You're the one cherry picking if you think our CB's mistakes have been swept under the rug, they are (rightfully) the most criticized players from our best 11 alongside Pogba and that doesn't go away just because people also think De Gea is terrible coming off his line. I'd say there's comfortably more posters who come up with insane theories of why our CB's are to blame for just about every single chance and goal we concede than there are posters trying to shift the blame from them onto other players.
I think it's simply the fact that our current CB's are so wank that anyone that isn't them is seen as a big upgrade. The problem as you point out is that Smalling was decent in a worse league, I mean a 35 year old Ashley Young has 4 goals and 5 assists in 21 games for Inter, numbers he hasn't even come close to since 11/12 and if that isn't a huge red flag for the quality of that league then I don't know what is. If Maguire had been the one going on loan to Roma I have no doubt a lot of people in here would be arguing that he's the rock we need in defense and we were fools to let him go etc.
I didn't say the CB's mistakes have been swept under the rug. But it's true that there are posters here even before the Tottenham game, who refused to see if the current CBs have done nothing special so far, not just this season by the way. Some even posted happily when Smalling made mistakes, it's ridiculous, just because you want your players to be successful doesn't mean you have to hope your ex player to fail. I'd say Smalling did better last season than Lindelof. Fair is fair.
For some, it's like ball playing CBs are a must when they haven't done anything to improve us. We still concede the same type of goals due to clumsy defending. I'd say if De Gea was a problem (I didn't say he wasn't), the back four in front of him, especially the CBs were also at fault. That's all I'm saying. Just like if Smalling is shit and the current options are also shit, at least Smalling was our best defender before Maguire came. So it makes sense to consider him as an option. I don't want to rewrite history just because I fancy Maguire to be a success, which I really hope will happen at some point. Smalling deserves a chance as a short term option at least. I wouldn't sell him to Roma if I was Woodward, because i will have to buy a garbage CB for a hefty price if he leaves.
Our only defender bossing oppositions forwards constantly, OK maybe not contantly but he has many dominating performaces againt most of the best forward in the PL. There are many examples. And I actually can't remember even one time one of our other defenders doing this. Shocking if he is first out of the door - Jones, Rojo, Baily, Lindelof are no better defenders and Maguire is 50/50 for now.
Not really sure how to feel about it, something in the way Chris moves, makes me feel like we can't live without him. It takes me all the way, I want him to stay.
We had a choice few months earlier, but now we simply don't have it and Smalling can stay fit longer than what we currently have. With knowledge of not getting Sancho, we poked Gabriel, Badiashille & Upamencano deals and did absolutely nothing in the end.
The result is Smalling is our new old signing. Will be absolute comedy if he'll show more professionalism than the rest of his overpaid British teammates. Football, bloody hell...
If he stays he should play. Better than anything we have. Absolute shambles.
I'm coming round to that idea as well.
It would be funny if he plays in the next few weeks. He'll be thinking "I left when the defense was a nightmare, I come back a year later and its even worse. What a joke"
As much as he should be annoyed, if he stays I hope we play him. He’s considerably better at actually defending than Lindelof and Bailly and I think would help keep AWB in check positionally.
Why would we sell our best defender?
I thought that was the amount we had a problem with until now?Yeah that £20 million is obviously what makes the difference
If he is not sold, needs to be integrated back into the squad.
Of course he does, ASAP. I'd have him start against Newcastle.
Send a feckin message to those clowns we currently have at centreback.
Not on the money side. On the "We dont want to pay this even though we can" side
We've got more than enough money to sign Sancho, we just dont want to pay too much for him
Get in him that team vs Newcastle.
I know our defence is shit but I was really pleased Smalling was leaving. Still hope it's happening before deadline.
I think after yesterday’s debacle then him staying isn’t a bad thing.....after all he was always slaughtered for his poor passing and distribution - he was always good in the air and scored a few goals and has some pace - well certainly more than the new incumbents - and you can’t say that he is as error prone as Bailley - right now a defender that puts the ball into Row Z ain’t a bad thing - least he won’t go passing to an attacker on the edge of the box like yesterday
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Looks like he's staying.
Poor fecking guy.
Yeah he already signed the contract.
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