I agree, its completely annoying. Got a haircut but forgot to lose the beard.
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Season Average Rating
- Appearances
- 56
- Clean sheets
- 22
- Goals
- 2
- Assists
- 4
- Yellow cards
- 3
- Status
No I am certainly not saying we can afford to have Blind in there. Pretty sure I said he will be a problem when we come up against better opposition. Can you read?
Also this ball playing tempo dictating CB stuff is a load of rubbish. A CB really just needs to be able to defend well and give simple balls to the more attacking players. When Blind gets cleaned out a few times you'll be begging LVG to put an actual defender in there.
Blind is now a brilliant ball player?? If he was a brilliant ball player we would have seen it last season when he was playing midfield. Instead he really struggled. For a CB he would be a good passer. But he's too small, weak and slow for the position.
I dont think thats true. We dont need a ball playing CB; but having one helps a tonne. There are times in matches where it is only our 2 central defenders occupying our defensive area and not having an intelligent/calm/composed defender like blind will bring about its own problems.
You're so deluded about him, as a CB Blind is one of the best passers you'll get. He actually did a good job in CDM in the first half of the season, faded away afterwards.
He's a midfielder playing CB. Of course his passing will be better than most CBs. I don't dispute this.
My problem with playing him at CB is that his physical attributes are completely unsuited to playing at position. He's literally the only CB I've ever seen at a top league club who is small, slow and weak. He didn't have the physical capabilities to cut it in midfield last season where you don't need to be as quick or strong. But now he's suddenly the answer in central defence?
Yep. I'm the one who's deluded.
No, but he's complementing Smalling's shortcomings with his attributes, while Smalling's complementing his and thus they've formed a great partnership thus far. It's not about personnel itself but about the unit and as a unit we've conceded just 1 goal which was an own goal in opening 5 games and that's without DDG and his superhero abilities. You don't fix something that's not broken.
Oh, and no, being a defender nowadays is not just about defending, especially in LVG's system. Mascherano himself is even smaller than Blind, he's not built like a rock and not Bolt himself either yet it didn't stop him playing CB for Barcelona.
As a balance sometimes smallings physicality is enough for the both of them.
This is a nice idea. But realistically we're playing a midfielder at centre half. A midfielder that wont be able to deal with pace or power. Eventually we will be at a disadvantage compared to teams who have two specialist centre halves.
A few times vs Brugge he was caught out of position and tried to play offside.... however I have to say he has done remarkably well AND he can defend.
Or eventually we won't. His lack of pace is not a problem as long as he's positioning himself well enough, as he's shown against Sterling when he played at LB last season in the Liverpool match. Specialist centre halves probably don't have Blind's passing range unless they're, don't know, Hummels himself, so we'll benefit from it and our system, like it or not, relies on playing it from back.
The other thing is; even against teams like chelsea, city, spurs we will dominate posession to the point that playing 2 strengthy CB's is an almost useless excerise.
I worry more against teams who will battle us for possesion itself like arsenal, swansea & liverpool.
It's not like we dont have rojo to add a bit of steel when we do need it.
I worry more against teams who will battle us for possesion itself like arsenal, swansea & liverpool.
It's not like we dont have rojo to add a bit of steel when we do need it.
The difference is he was playing as the only defensive midfielder with 4 offensive midfielders in front of him in a new league and struggling shit, what do you expect? He isnt one of the slowest CB's around as well, he's a relative slow LB but some act as if he has Pirlo's pace, that's a huge exagerration. And even though he's small, he proves that timing is most important, besides that, he's just a few centimeters shorter than Ramos ffs. Looking forward to see you jumping on the bandwagon after he makes a mistake. Cheers.
I don't agree with the second half of his post but the jury is still out on blind. He hasn't come up against any real notable strikers yet,
So far so good so there can be NO complaints IMO, I definitely see the effect he has there but he IS yet to be tested. Of course that doesn't mean people should pretend that he's a timebomb waiting to happen.
Boom get in. I just dont see how the guy is a slow CB. Might not be koscielny but neither is he a mertascker or terry.
Wankfest over Kane doesn't stop, one of the top scorers last season, was meant to wipe the floor with Blind. Then you've got this guy who scores 70% of his goals with headers at Villa, not even bothered either. Who are we waiting for, Aguero who destroys just any defender in the league and probably world to 'prove a point'? Benteke or Lukaku who had no problem manhandling Smalling and Jones? Then Blind will be busted as slow, weak physically, etc.?
Agree with Sammy here, this thread will turn into right shit once something bad happens.
I find it odd people say he aint played anyone of note yet, when we played vs Spurs first game of season
Defending tactics LVG uses are not just positioning, intercepting and tackling.
A lot of the tactics used by LVG are meant to keep opponents running. If players are asked what they remember most when playing against LVG's Ajax they always say they remember that they had to keep running all the time.
This is accomplished for instance by different players running forward from the back or from moving the ball from left to right on the pitch and back again, using CB's too. Many of these tactics have to be organized from the back and CB's need to pass well and with pace too. If this is organized and done well this will result in outnumbering opponents in midfield or atackers from opponents defending and being out of position.
Blind is organizing this from the back. He will concede goals because of his strenght, height and pace, but he is also preventing goals because opponents are tired down and the midfield can dominate.
A lot of the tactics used by LVG are meant to keep opponents running. If players are asked what they remember most when playing against LVG's Ajax they always say they remember that they had to keep running all the time.
This is accomplished for instance by different players running forward from the back or from moving the ball from left to right on the pitch and back again, using CB's too. Many of these tactics have to be organized from the back and CB's need to pass well and with pace too. If this is organized and done well this will result in outnumbering opponents in midfield or atackers from opponents defending and being out of position.
Blind is organizing this from the back. He will concede goals because of his strenght, height and pace, but he is also preventing goals because opponents are tired down and the midfield can dominate.
Yep a tired kane and agbonlahor are the best the premier league have to offer. Hmm.
Swansea away will be a good test as gomis looks in form and ayew loves to cut inside and shoot. Hope he does great.
I see what LVG is trying to do with blind and it is working. I'm just waiting before coming to an opinion.
I'm not going to slag him off and say he's a timebomb likewise I won't say he's going to be brilliant there, the jury is still out for me.
This is another thing, against Brugge I think both Blind and Smalling had covered nearly 10kms during the match, it is a bloody lot for a CB.
What?
And no, I didn't mean Agbonlahor, I was talking about that new striker who was meant to strip Blind off his aerial weakness.
Menippean satire is a tad wasted on you isn't it? I thought I made it abundantly clear I didn't agree with your post, obviously not.
Still, keep to your 'defenders don't need to be footballers' stance akin to the early 90s, I guess we also need to play 4-4-2 with a big man little man combo up front, if only someone had told Barca they've been doing it all wrong!
We'll see how this one pans out. Personally I hope we bring Jones or Rojo back into the side when fit. Smalling and Jones had a good partnership at the end of last season without having a good right back and two midfielders screening the defence. Now that we have the midfield and full back positions sorted we are close to having a fecking brilliant defensive unit. Swap Romero and Blind with De Gea and Jones and I think we'll be almost impossible to score against. That would be a great foundation to build from and make us a genuine threat in all competitions, even the CL. Let's stop fecking around with playing players out of position and get the basics right.
What I will say which I probably haven't so far in this thread and needs to be said is how well Blind has done. For a player with limited experience playing there and who lacks almost every physical attribute required for the role he has handled it extremely well and deserves a lot of credit. I don't think he's that good a player but I'm coming around to the fact that he's a very solid professional who will not let us down when called upon. He deserves respect. I don't want to see him become a whipping boy when his lack of pace and power inevitably costs us goals
What I will say which I probably haven't so far in this thread and needs to be said is how well Blind has done. For a player with limited experience playing there and who lacks almost every physical attribute required for the role he has handled it extremely well and deserves a lot of credit. I don't think he's that good a player but I'm coming around to the fact that he's a very solid professional who will not let us down when called upon. He deserves respect. I don't want to see him become a whipping boy when his lack of pace and power inevitably costs us goals
I have no idea what that is so yes it probably is wasted on me. Is that second bit menippean satire as well? Can't you just respond to what I've actually been saying?
Rijkaard was a midfielder playing at CB too. Was a big part of how great a team that was.
Why don't you accept that LVG plays different tactics and needs different skills in positions as a result? Why don't you accept that players need to adapt to that over time and can make mistakes? Even struggle at times.
Do yourself a favour and watch a game from a year ago and appreciate the enormous progress made.
OK here goes.
Football has progressed, you need defenders capable of more than just being a physical presence at the back now, every top manager has a ball playing centre back in their starting XI and when you play the type of controlled football out from the back we do a player like Blind is even more important.
Nobody is saying he's the next Bobby Moore, but his supposed weaknesses - pace and physicality - seem to be wildly exaggerated, we seem to have people queuing up to knock him down the moment he makes an error.
For me, so far this season he's been our best player, giving a consistently high performance in every game.
I disagree, he hasn't been our best player, he forms a real partnership with Smalling and they both have been the best part of our team.
Jones and Rojo's lack of positioning, rashness and reading of the game compared to Blind will also cost us goals inevitably, we wont keep a clean sheet every match for the rest of the season, but the Smalling - Blind looks most promising until now, and there's no reason why LVG should change that at the moment.
I think our fullbacks have been the most impressive of all the pairs.
They are more flashy but numerous times the fullbacks have left the center backs exposed. Darmian and Shaw have been excellent but Blind and Smalling have formed a consistent and calming base to our defense. At the moment we have a good back four and center backs are the main reason for it.I think our fullbacks have been the most impressive of all the pairs.
Couldn't disagree more to be honest, from a defensive perspecitve they've both been excellent.
They have been excellent but because they attack a lot, the defense has been exposed, I'm not criticizing them, they can't duplicate themselves.
Rijkaard is well over 6 foot and strong. He had the physical attributes to play there. Blind does not. By the way, did you just compare Daley Blind to Frank Rijkaard? fecking hell
LVG has a lot to prove. His tactics barely scraped top 4 last season and that was mainly due to Liverpool being shite. I agree that we are a better team now but we should be with the players we have signed.
Anyway if you think playing one CB and CM beside him to do the passing is good tactics that's your business. Out of curiosity, would you play like that against good opposition? Say Barca?
You don't think he's slow and weak? You are actually arguing that
Nobody wants to knock him down. Blind is a good professional who will give his all wherever you play him. People just don't want to see him getting destroyed when he comes up against quality opposition who will exploit physical disadvantages that he can't really do anything about. He's done well so far and he'll be fine against most PL sides but against the better teams we will need two actual centre halves.
Look at it this way, if we came up against Real Madrid, Bayern or Barca and they had a Blind at CB would it not be something we would look to exploit? Of course it fecking would.
Don't agree at all.
I think the whole defensive unit has been excellent.
The fullbacks have very rarely left the centrebacks exposed. The centrebacks have been able to play a high line as a result of the confidence in the fullback's ability to cover. The midfielders have offered protection through the centre and cut off the source of any potential passes in behind and the centrebacks have been confident enough to pass the ball out as a result of this cohesive unit.
I never said that the all unit wasn't excellent, I actually said that they were all excellent, but by design our centre backs have to cover the fullbacks, that's what I said. For example, numerous times Blind has been in a foot race on the left side.
Tell me Steve, do you know what the word 'exaggerate' means? At no point have I argued that he is strong or quick, I'm stating he isn't as slow or weak as many, including yourself are suggesting. He's won his physical duels with De Sutter, the same with Gestede (he even beat him in the air) and kept pace and pushed Obbi Oulare off the ball a couple of times in the first leg.Rijkaard is well over 6 foot and strong. He had the physical attributes to play there. Blind does not. By the way, did you just compare Daley Blind to Frank Rijkaard? fecking hell
LVG has a lot to prove. His tactics barely scraped top 4 last season and that was mainly due to Liverpool being shite. I agree that we are a better team now but we should be with the players we have signed.
Anyway if you think playing one CB and CM beside him to do the passing is good tactics that's your business. Out of curiosity, would you play like that against good opposition? Say Barca?
You don't think he's slow and weak? You are actually arguing that
Nobody wants to knock him down. Blind is a good professional who will give his all wherever you play him. People just don't want to see him getting destroyed when he comes up against quality opposition who will exploit physical disadvantages that he can't really do anything about. He's done well so far and he'll be fine against most PL sides but against the better teams we will need two actual centre halves.
Look at it this way, if we came up against Real Madrid, Bayern or Barca and they had a Blind at CB would it not be something we would look to exploit? Of course it fecking would.
Lets actually watch the games and judge him on his performances, shall we?
Is the condescension really necessary?
We can revisit in a few months when we have a bigger sample of games to judge him on. My prediction is he won't be a good enough CB for us. Your prediction is?????
Na he's past it
Smalling has been much better than blind and both fullbacks have been as well, some of the praise lavished on blind is way over the top. He has done well but he has been a bing fortunate quite a few times and has been very well protected which won't last much
Offer.
It's too early to make a judgement on him yet because the opposition we have faced have all been poor going forward, tomorrow will probably be our first real test.
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