Ability wise I trust them to be more than good enough with potential to unseat Lindelof. But we also can't have both of them as the main cb back ups because they are both injury prone. Jones played 8 games last season because of this. I would rather keep 1 and sell the other than keep both.
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Tuanzebe we can't give up on yet. I will not mind having Smalling instead of Bailly but problem is Smalling is not content with being 2nd choice behind Lindelof which makes sense. Also he has been away for a year, has his heart set on playing in Roma and suddenly he will have to adjust to our way of playing under Ole which might not suit him.
Maybe he can play right wing instead of Sancho. Had a goalscoring habit in open play a couple of seasons ago
There are these things called contracts.
We can use him as our new Fellaini too! Hoof it long and head it down towards Martial and Rashford on the run.
He played Right Back too, once upon a time!
Not the same hair cut and chest control.
Nope it is a big downgrade. We should never have let Fellaini go as our plan B.
Could have helped vs Sevilla near the end and in many more games.
Hated player, but did a good job when asked to do a specific job.
Now Smalling and Maguire are our best options for a late bombardment.
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He used to come on and we'd abandon any type of decent buildup to launch the ball towards him. Sometimes he would win it. Occasionally he would score.
The best thing thats happened in recent years is that we stopped having him as our crutch. It was nowhere near as effective as you make out. He scored a couple off the bench
I say we keep him if we’re not getting another centre back, which it looks like we might not. He’d probably be our second best centre back, assuming Bailly’s injury record is terrible again.
Feck Roma he is to good for them anyway.
It was more effective than our current lack of plan B. When was the last time we turned a game around? We have gained a point a few times like against Spurs with Pogba on.
Although it is very rare our subs and change of plan works.
Even if he was our best out and out defender (he isn’t), he can’t play in this team. Can you imagine him next to AWB and us trying to play the ball out. It would be chaos.
He’s quite a thick footballer too. Maguire gets quite a lot of stick but I don’t see him making the same tackle as Smalling did when he got sent of vs City. Or in the FA Cup final. His lowest level is way lower than Maguire’s.
He’s quite a thick footballer too. Maguire gets quite a lot of stick but I don’t see him making the same tackle as Smalling did when he got sent of vs City. Or in the FA Cup final. His lowest level is way lower than Maguire’s.
Van De Beek will be a lot more effective with intelligent runs and good finishing when we need a plan B than bringing Fellaini on and launching the ball 40 yards towards him and him winning 1 out of 3 balls
I'd say that's more down to poor management. Just because Fellaini comes on doesn't mean we have to abandon all buildup and rely purely on longballs. Some of the best football we played during Mourinho and particularly LVG times were with Fellaini starting, so it's obviously not impossible to play good football with him on there. It was just mentality. Obviously we'd look to increase the amount of longballs and crosses, but those games where we'd just flip a switch when he came on and relied purely on that was terrible management IMO.
You're right we didnt have to, but we did it. Its not Fellaini's fault, but we would do it everytime he came on so it was a problem
Like a new signing 
If the roles were reversed and Smalling was a Roma player and we were interested in buying him what fee do you think we would be quoted?
I reckon it would be just shy of 20mil quid and yet I bet we will be lucky to get half that amount of Roma.
I reckon it would be just shy of 20mil quid and yet I bet we will be lucky to get half that amount of Roma.
Bailly deserves feck all. He has been here for 4 years and except a half a season when he was decent, he never showed anything.
Tuanzabe is another story.
I think we show too much loyalty to these players. Hopefully Mengi is as good as Redcafe claims. It's bad that some of our players are not good enough, when you add in the inability to stay fit it exasperates the whole thing
Is he staying then? Amazingly we could start him tomorrow, mental really.
For all the complaining about not signing Sancho. The fact we havent moved anyone on is equally as damning.
He does play well when he's fit though. All his injuries seem to be different which suggest he's not got a long-term injury problem.
It's just whether we can afford to keep someone that only plays 20 games out of 50. It is normal now though, for United to have 4 CB's permanently recovering from injuries!
That's one of the major plusses about Maguire, he plays every week and brings an element of consistency to our defensive play.
Nobody can afford our players though. Nobody wants to pay the likes of Jones, Lingard, Rojo's contract and a transfer fee.
Which is what's damning.
Bailly is a penalty and a red card waiting to happen, the way he tackles
You got stats to back that up or is it just the usual turd that people perceive as a truth!
He’s far more likely to injure himself, than get carded.
Wonder if he’ll be involved tomorrow.
If he was 25 instead of 30 then I think they'd want £30 million
I would consider putting him on the bench to show Roma that if they’re not willing to pay well keep him as part of the team for next season
He's been training away from the rest of the squad so I highly doubt it. He will definitely leave before the deadline. Clubs are just taking Woodward for a ride as per usual.
We really are the donkey of transfers only surpassed by Barca. The fact that we have him training away from the rest of the group is us showing our hand. He is not a disruptive personality so you wonder what's the benefit. Maybe his ambition would rubb off on the likes of lingard and Jones.
Oh yeah forgot he was training away from the others.
Ok, that's your opinion, we will agree to differ.
I really hope we still sell, his time here has passed and I for one do not want to see him in our team again.
Almost like we knew we weren’t buying many so needed to keep the squad padded..
So no stats then. Cool story bro...
Romano:
Roma manager Paulo Fonseca: “We’re negotiating with Manchester United to have Chris Smalling back. I’m in contact with Chris himself. He wants to come back to Roma and we want him, I hope I’ll have Smalling here in some days”. #MUFC #Smalling #transfers
I think it’s close.
Roma manager Paulo Fonseca: “We’re negotiating with Manchester United to have Chris Smalling back. I’m in contact with Chris himself. He wants to come back to Roma and we want him, I hope I’ll have Smalling here in some days”. #MUFC #Smalling #transfers
I think it’s close.
Hear hear.
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