3
He wasnt comfortable with his first touch today, and is always our worst culprit with sliced clearances and skying the ball instead of clearing it with distance.
Haha no worries. Give the poochy a pet from me
Sorry misread your post. Too hyped up. Time to take my little poochy for a walk I think.
Wrong. He obviously trusts him to manage the players we have better than the alternatives right now - else he'd be gone, but he doesnt trust him to spend £70 million on a CB unless its who the club considered the world's best CB, Varane.
It's not a healthy situation. The club have taken a lot of punts on promising CBs, but those players also need that steady hand that the club doesn't want to "overpay" to acquire. When you take a look at your CBs and they would all be better with a steady hand next to them, price is almost irrelevant.
They werent punts. They were top end available CBs from non-top clubs, thats why they were expensive for the time. But they were chosen poorly.
Embrace reality and deal with it
All of the CBs in the price and age range we've been shopping are punts.
They were the same profile of players that Maguire and Toby were this summer
I think it was a fluffed pass back to De Gea? He was rushing across to cover Young again and miskicked it under pressure.
Surely not? He's running towards the right side touchline and kicks it with his right foot, if he though he was going to get the back to De Gea then he is a dumber player than I thought.
Thats what it looked like to me. I dont know what else he could have been trying to do.
I think he was just uncomfortable with the pressure by the opposition player and wanted to play the ball out to be safe, but i cant explain why he didnt put it out for a throw in instead...
He's physically very good, fast, skillful and very good passer. But I don't see a centerback in him. I was suggesting of moving him to DM, which would suit all his attributes. Jose played him once as DM, and I kinda liked it. Or maybe some kind of an all action midfielder, ala Gatusso, Kante, and Marchisio. He could then burn out all of his excessive hormone, playing in that position.
Seemed to me he was trying to pass it back to Dave but fecked up. That shit happens, but the challenge for the penalty was a shambles.
I don't think he's a very good passer at all.
I think being a CB makes it more difficult to not act panicky. Being the last line, you mess up a pass, then the opponent is through on goal. But he's not Hummel for sure.
Bailly is capable of some pretty decent passes that Smalling isn't. The one that always comes to mind is the lofted pass to Lukaku that started the sequence for our second goal against City last season. Of course, that could have been pure luck.
He might be better on the ball than Smalling, but he's a patch off the very best center backs.
Agreed, I don't think Bailly's ability on the ball is anything special, although there's some potential there if he really works at it.
That’s something Steve Bruce could/should have worked on.
The same Smalling who embarrassed Kane twice last season by keeping him in his pocket? I don't think so. He's vastly superior performance and consistency wise
The first part of last season he looked like he was making very nice strides until his injury. Afterwards, he rarely played, Mourinho even going as far as to say he was leaving him out just because Ivory Coast weren't going to the World Cup.
This seems to apply to a good many players under Jose at Utd so far.
I’m sorry but that’s indeed laughable like @limerickcitykid said. Centre backs track the striker laterally all the time, especially on a punt up field like that. It’s nothing that doesn’t happen a dozen times a game. That this would have “thrown” Bailly who proceeded to put the ball for a corner instead of a throw in, is beyond preposterous.
Bailly did play a decent amount after the injury, and was then dropped because he was playing badly. Mourinho made the world cup comments a month or so later, but that wouldn't have been an issue if Bailly was actually playing well. There was a reason why in the last couple months of the season it was always Smalling (who by then knew he almost certainly wasn't going to the world cup) plus another. Smalling was simply playing better than everyone else, while the spot next to him was open for whoever wanted it. The world cup thing may have been the reason Bailly had less opportunities than the others to stake his claim, but if he'd performed it wouldn't have been an issue and he would've been in the team just like Smalling was.The first part of last season he looked like he was making very nice strides until his injury. Afterwards, he rarely played, Mourinho even going as far as to say he was leaving him out just because Ivory Coast weren't going to the World Cup.
If anything he has gone backwards, his first month here has probably been his best period of performances. No doubt he has something but just makes stupid decision after stupid decision.
Exactly what I came in to post.
Defenders track strikers but when they go too far out they pass them off to someone else. Young was not allowing that to happen, and it was pointed out on Match of the Day how Bailly and Lindelof were covering the full width of the pitch. The two centre backs should always be compact together in the middle of the pitch. All three goals originated on that side of the pitch and all three were from players getting in behind Young.
