Agreed, he seems incapable of doing his job without holding or shirt pulling.
It's his only stand out quality, not that he's awful but we need better. His poor distribution hurts us.
Let me spell it out for you since you're finding it so hard to grasp.
Well, that's patently wrong. He's played for SAF, Moyes, LVG, Mourinho and now Ole and everyone has found a use for him whichever way they play. Because he's a good defender. And his ability to move the ball quickly, while inferior to other defenders, is nowhere near as problematic as you guys make it sound. You're talking like a team with Smalling in it, can't play football or something. Obviously results and performances disprove that quite easily.
And your point is?
Defense isnt their strong point. If he can get in Liverpool and Chelsea's team he can get into Spurs. Sanchez does
I mean that there are different aspects to the position of centre-back. Lindelof is better in possession, for example but if you are looking for someone to repel the opposition, defend our box, get headers, tackles, blocks in, I think Chris is the best we have. That's not a complicated concept, is it?
It is a very complicated way to say that he is not as good as Lindelof, to be fair.
The reason why Ramos will...
No he doesnt. And your argument falls apart because we have CBs who are better on the ball than Smalling but dont play
I thought it was pretty straightforward. Your centre-backs are a partnership. Do you think Rio and Vidic had exactly the same attributes? Ramos is marshalling a defence that has conceded 31 goals in La Liga this season, more than any of the top 5, more than Getafe, more than Alaves, almost twice the amount that Atletico have conceded. Look at our defensive record, at our clean sheet record while he out and since he established himself again. Outside of VVD, there are very few outstanding centre-backs operating in the Premier League. I really don't think England caps is how we should be rating our players.
For some unknown reason, people seem to dumb down their own players yet covet others. Easier being a big fish in a small pool than turning out with 76,000 expecting the win or playing away in the other team's cup final. The song 'you've only come to see utd' is often true and the pressure as we know finds lots of players out. Smalling has played in our biggest games and scored in them too....
Well he's quite safe and unadventurous with his passing, and looks a bit awkward.
Matches: 24 for Lindelof, 17 for Smalling (so this needs to be taken into consideration):
This season both him and Lindelof have scored a goal, Lindelof has one assist (Smalling none), and Lindelof has created 4 big chances compared to 0 for Smalling. All stats are only for EPL. Lindelof has 25% more passes, with a slightly higher pass accuracy (which probably would have been higher if he passed only to Smalling, Shaw and De Gea, something that Smalling does but switch Young for Shaw).
Good post. The devil in stats is always in the detail. I don't know if this is measured in some shape or form, but I would love to find out the "decision-making" stats of Smalling vs Lindelof. Just by watching Smalling, he sometimes makes rash decisions or gets himself in a bad starting position which then creates problems for himself.
It's not his job to be "adventurous". He's a defender. His job is to help build it up from the back and then give it to a midfielder or perhaps the odd long ball to mix things up...
A defence is about a lot more than the individual players in it. Spurs and City have a group of defenders that work with their style of play. Smalling would not fit in.
The sample for him is quite smaller, and I believe that he has missed some big matches (when you expect stats to drop). He has better tackling stats (but then it might be cause his positioning is bad so he is forced to make tackles, unlike Lindelof and to a lesser degree Smalling who are positioned better). He makes significantly less clearances, but surprisingly has as many interceptions as Smalling ( despite playing only 12 games). He has higher duel win rate and aerial battles rate win, but in both cases makes less attempts than the other two. His pass accuracy is the highest out of them three, but he hasn't created any chance (compared to Lindelof's 4) and he makes 5 passes less than Lindelof.
I think it's daft to say he will give penalties away because he clearly will stop doing it when VAR comes in. What worries me more is why he does it in the first place, quite often it's to stop players getting away from him when he's missed a run. He has always suffered from a slight lack of awareness and it's not something he's going to able to fix. That will cost us when players get beyond him.
And here's the actual stats per game instead of ludicrously comparing accumulation between 1 player who has played 26 matches and another who has played 17, over a third less and comparing "duel success" which means people who shy away from duels are more likely to have more success % :
Not sure it's that easy to simply stop and in principle, you've answered your own question.
It says we had a shit first half of the season as a team, because the same defence was one of the two best for the previous 2 years and Smalling was at the heart of it. Let’s see where it stands at the end of the season, now that we have a stable partnership and a manager that knows what he’s doing.
Except that he is not. He does a bit more blocks, that's it. All the other stats are equal for all practical purposes. And yeah, Lindelof has 1 own goal.And here's the actual stats per game instead of ludicrously comparing accumulation between 1 player who has played 26 matches and another who has played 17, over a third less and comparing "duel success" which means people who shy away from duels are more likely to have more success % :
Smalling more interceptions, clearances, beaten less with dribbles, more blocks and less own goals. He also attempts and wins more headers by a large distance.
Lindelof more tackles and less fouls. Offsides is a weird one because it requires a team effort but if you want to say that we play people offside more often with Lindelof than with Smalling be my guest. Thats 5 to 3 at best. 6 or 7 if we include headers and/or attempted headers (attempting to win a header against a forward is often enough to stop them doing exactly what they want and scoring the header).
Lindelof is obviously better on the ball. So if you want to say he's been just as good as a player I think its completely fair. But if we're being specific about defending, then thats a no. Thats Smalling
Maybe but it isn't something he can just get rid of when VAR is in place if he's been doing it for so, so many years.
Interesting. The issue I have with Stats is it never gives the context. Hard to make a judgement without it....And here's the actual stats per game instead of ludicrously comparing accumulation between 1 player who has played 26 matches and another who has played 17, over a third less and comparing "duel success" which means people who shy away from duels are more likely to have more success % :
Smalling more interceptions, clearances, beaten less with dribbles, more blocks and less own goals. He also attempts and wins more headers by a large distance.
Lindelof more tackles and less fouls. Offsides is a weird one because it requires a team effort but if you want to say that we play people offside more often with Lindelof than with Smalling be my guest. Thats 5 to 3 at best. 6 or 7 if we include headers and/or attempted headers (attempting to win a header against a forward is often enough to stop them doing exactly what they want and scoring the header).
Lindelof is obviously better on the ball. So if you want to say he's been just as good as a player I think its completely fair. But if we're being specific about defending, then thats a no. Thats Smalling
Evans/Vidic was the prefered during the 12/13 season.
% doesnt equate to work rate and what players are doing on a game to game basis. It just means 1 player only attempts duels when its easier than the other while the other is always trying to defend, because they take on that responsibility
He's also our best marker. Name one other CB who's as beastly as Smalling when it comes to the physical tussles, the one on ones, Smalling seldom ever gets beat for speed. He makes the least tackles out of our CBs and he makes the most interceptions which shows he has better awareness and anticipation than his teammates.
It says that Lindelof and Bailly were terrible at the start of the season, Smalling came in and did better but isnt VVD and wasnt going to magically stop all the goals alone. Now that Lindelof has improved, having taken on more responsibility while Smalling was away and he was playing next to Jones, Smalling finally has a decent partner to start next to and our central defense doesn't look bad. But the damage was done early in the season when that wasnt the case.
