Smalling was almost always available for United and not often injured. This season he’s been racking up small injury after injury. Missed yesterday’s match vs Juve because of strain in his left thigh. Is it age or just bad luck?
Chris Smalling | Roma player
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In the latest episode of the United Hour Podcast, Nik and Imran hold a long overdue conversation about United's awful league form with 1 win in 7. They discuss a disappointing draw at Bournemouth, a not so disappointing draw against Liverpool and a crushing defeat at Chelsea - Is time nearly over for Erik Ten Hag?
Then in a special second half of the pod, Nik welcomes Natalie ( https://twitter.com/natalie_17) to discuss the fortunes of Manchester United Women as they booked a place in the FA Cup Final after a historic first ever win vs. Chelsea.
He's been massively injury prone this season, he's now picked up a knee injury that'll keep him out. The club did well to sell him.
He was reliable for us though injury wise. I still stand by my feeling that he would have been starting for us ahead of Lindelof for the majority of games.
He was never an elite defender but would have suited Maguire better.
Better in the air, one v one and quicker than Lindelof.
All the more reason on why we sold him at a good time. Seems like we got a good 15M just before his injuries had started.
Smalling or Lindelof doesn't matter for me, both are far apart from the standard that this club should be aiming for. Perhaps Smalling is a bit better in certain areas but we should never settle for that.
While I would be classed as a Smalling fan and was disappointed we sold him without trying the Maguire-Smalling combo, he was showing signs of starting to decline in his last season with us. Looked like he'd lost a bit of his pace and wasn't as solid as he'd been in previous years. He did get one good season with Roma but perhaps this season shows we did do the right thing.
Lightning in a bottle scenario.
We are poor playing from the back with DDG and AWB, now add Smalling to that and we would be totally fecked.
while Lindelof lacks physicality he is way more comfortable on the ball and gives us a good option to play out from the back.
Very fair point, and I'm not a fan of Lindelof.
No, the narrative is that our medical staff are a joke and that Phil Jones will play a 70 game season the moment he leaves us
You wouldn't be saying this if he stayed. He will be 32 and extremely injury prone. He played even lesser minutes than Bailly this season.
Still waiting for the days of Smalldini & Jonesta duo at Roma.
We're still incredibly shit at playing out from the back despite Lindelöf & our £80m captain Harry "ball playing defender" Maguire as our main CBs though. And Smalling was a better 1 vs 1 defender then both.
Should loan him back for just one match to play against Kane; always had him secure in his pocket.
Were not shit, because there are times we've done really well
However I would like to see how many times playing out the back has lead to errors or goals for opposition
Then comparing it to other teams and how much it benefits us
Smalling now is not better than Maguire so smallings past contributions are irrelevant to 2022 IMO.
He did have some injury prone seasons, mainly early on in his United career.
Now imagine adding Smalling to it. It would be nearly impossible to play out from the back.
Thats the thing right there. Stop playing from the back we don’t have the players or the coaching staff to teach this!
I think playing from the back is the way to go, the solution shouldn’t be “stop playing from the back” but actually fix the coaching to make it better.
I cant think currently of any top team that doesn’t plays from the back, not even Atletico. Is just the modern football standard today, cant afford to lose possession by dropping long balls from deep down.
Agree, what I meant was we should play from the back when we have the right players and the staff who know how to do it.
People still want him back? Had an absolute shocker today.
Yeah he was a car crash tonight. Their system doesn’t do him any favors.
Thank goodness it was Chris who showed up and not Mike.
Surely the night one of the Cafs biggest myths finally died?
Thanks Chris
Agent Mike
Where’s @Ekeke when you need him?
Smalldini is pretty shit? Who'd have known.
For a couple of months maybe
that was his best united performance in years.
Roma? Player
Yeah he's fecking bad. But isn't he still their best defender or was that so 2019?
Sorry Lindelof, I underrated you massively when I said Smalling was better.
Sorry Lindelof, I underrated you massively when I said Smalling was better.
Just back from injury tbf. Got a lot of time for Smalling.
Nothing has changed. The same old Smalling. He shits on the ball and is so scared to pass. If anything, his defending has gone down a level.
Was dreadful tonight, but hasn’t he literally *just* come back from injury? I think he looked gassed in the 50th minute or so, but couldn’t come off due to Roma maxing out on substitution spots.
He was our best player, kept 2 goals onside and then gifted a penalty.Bit harsh
We ripped them apart and it’s not entirely his fault.
Hilarious how muppets on here have slated Ole for getting rid of Smalling. Love to here from the muppets now haha
Definitely should have kept him 
Had a hand in all 6 of our goals. The sight of him ponderously pirouetting around a stationary ball only to pass it to the CB next to him brought back some horrible memories.
Had a hand in all 6 of our goals. The sight of him ponderously pirouetting around a stationary ball only to pass it to the CB next to him brought back some horrible memories.
Watch his positional play on both cavani's goals...Bit harsh
We ripped them apart and it’s not entirely his fault.
Makes a needless and clumsy foul on Cavani for the penalty.
Shit positional play for Pogba's header...
Yes we were very good, but Smalling was incredibly poor. I'm astonished anyone would defend his performance.
His marking was hilariously bad. He was all lost at sea for our equaliser, and never recovered from there. I like Smalling a lot, but was always very supportive of him being moved on because he wasn't good enough for United. Hopefully the myth about his brilliance has been killed for good now. Next target is Eric "When fit he's our best defender" Bailly.