[okLaptop1]

Smalling has been dribbled only 21 times since 2009.
The thought of Sterling, Coutinho and Sturridge running at Smalling doesn't scare me, it interests me.

I'm curious, is this a good stat? What are some other defenders' numbers in this same time frame?

 

[Lewis.no.9]

I'm curious, is this a good stat? What are some other defenders' numbers in this same time frame?

its one of the better, if not the best stats on Dribbles for defenders if I remember correctly?...

 

[Bwuk]

How can you even use that as stat? What quantifies as a dribble.

 

[Browniee]

 

[Anderson15]

I don't think they really deserve it but I'd keep the same team but swap Jones and Young for Rojo and Di Maria. Think Rojo's just that little bit more composed and better on the ball than Jones. Think Di Maria is a big game player and we'd be stupid not to play him, unfortunately with young making way.

De Gea
Valencia Smalling Rojo Blind
Carrick Herrera
Mata Fellaini Di Maria
Rooney

My only worrie is if they stick Sterling on Blind.

I do expect to us to play a completely different side to the ones we're predicting though!

 

[Red Devil BB]

I'm curious, is this a good stat? What are some other defenders' numbers in this same time frame?

436 minutes per dribbled since 2009. All Premier League and Champions League matches. It is the highest I know of in Europe. Vidic and Thiago Silva are both 3xx minutes per dribbled since 2009. It is even more impressive considering the fact that Smalling has played several games at RB too and FBs tend to get dribbled much more often than CBs.

 

[RexHamilton]

436 minutes per dribbled since 2009. All Premier League and Champions League matches. It is the highest I know of in Europe. Vidic and Thiago Silva are both 3xx minutes per dribbled since 2009. It is even more impressive considering the fact that Smalling has played several games at RB too and FBs tend to get dribbled much more often than CBs.

Ah impressive. 100 minutes more than Vidic. Who doesn't remember fondly, Vidic cutting through defences with his mazy dribbles. If only he were still here.

 

[Red Devil BB]

Ah impressive. 100 minutes more than Vidic. Who doesn't remember fondly, Vidic cutting through defences with is mazy dribbles. If only he were still here.

Being dribbled, not dribbling ie defending

 

[RexHamilton]

Being dribbled, not dribbling

Oh. OK. I've been watching football for 25 years and I don't know what being dribbled means.

Is it being beaten by a player running past you?

 

[RedFish]

Oh. OK. I've been watching football for 25 years and I don't know what being dribbled means.

Is it being beaten by a player running past you?

sounds at least a 3 match ban to me!

 

[Trizy]

Oh. OK. I've been watching football for 25 years and I don't know what being dribbled means.

Is it being beaten by a player running past you?

Yup.

 

[Red Devil BB]

Manchester City players were dribbled 22 times last night against Barcelona. 10 by Messi.

 

[RexHamilton]

Manchester City players were dribbled 22 times last night against Barcelona. 10 by Messi.

OK, but

How can you even use that as stat? What quantifies as a dribble.

 

[Red Devil BB]

When we beat Liverpool 3-0, Liverpool attempted 34 dribbles. 17 were successful and 17 failed. Of those 17 successful dribbles, 8 were in their own half, 8 in our half and 1 in the penalty area.
Balotelli beat Rooney, Coutinho beat Young, Coutinho beat Rooney, Henderson beat Evans, Moreno beat Valencia, Markovic beat Mata, Sterling beat Mata twice and Sterling beat Jones in penalty area.
Being dribbled 9 times inside our own half sounds bad and it is, but we also won 35 tackles, 25 in our own half. Also, the defensive players were only beaten 3 of those 9 times. It be more worrying if it was the defenders failing all the time.
The players who are good at defending, ie not attacking players such as Mata, totally won the battle. Fellaini won 9 tackles by himself, 8 inside our half.
When we play on Sunday we SHOULD be playing the same team that beat Spurs. This team is even stronger defensively than the one that beat Liverpool in December, because 1. Smalling in defense 2. Herrera in midfield.
Valencia - Smalling - Jones - Blind - Carrick - Herrera - Fellaini is a very solid 7 man defensive unit. Young, Mata and Rooney can help out too, mostly in their half hopefully.

 

[Frank Grimes]

Will be disappointed if di Maria is not back in the team Sunday. He looked a lot more lively against Arsenal before his sending off and he will be a better counter attacking option than Mata imo.

 

[BlueCelery]

I'm sure Liverpool will be hoping Di Maria plays as well. More counter attacking opportunities with him on the pitch

 

[Rafateria]

its one of the better, if not the best stats on Dribbles for defenders if I remember correctly?...

You are no longer allowed to use stats on RedCafe .. Kraftwerker objects and believes they are an invalid judge of reality.

 

[Rafateria]

I'm sure Liverpool will be hoping Di Maria plays as well. More counter attacking opportunities with him on the pitch

You really can't leave out one of the world's best attacking / wide players, whether he is on form or not, for Sunday.

 

[Bwuk]

You really can't leave out one of the world's best attacking / wide players, whether he is on form or not, for Sunday.

Exactly. Whoever plays for you on the side AdM starts, would far rather be up against Young than him.

 

[YzWayne]

I'm not really keen on Di Maria coming back into the team this Sunday. We played one of our best performance in two years without him. Why should we try to accommodate him whereby he will lose tons of possession and 'unbalance' the team. This match is a 'cup final' for us and we shouldn't use it to bring him back to form.

Of course, we should not outcast him or anything, we can play him against Everton or opposition outside the top 6 and bring him back to form. I don't even mind to sub him in at 60min mark if we are chasing an equalizer or something. But to start him might be a wrong decision for me.

 

[CG1010]

Exactly. Whoever plays for you on the side AdM starts, would far rather be up against Young than him.

I am very sure Di Maria will play, but play in place of Mata and not Young. Our best performances this season (barring the early season performances) have come when Young has played in the team. He is currently the only one who has been able to get consistently behind defenders (as Di maria is injured and no other player does it in our team). I am sure LVG looks at him as a key player for the moment.

 

[Adebesi]

I would really like to see the same team put out - though I think its highly unlikely.

If we have to bring Di Maria in I would do it at Mata's expense, not Young's.

Quite confident about this one - and have been for a few weeks. I certainly think we can avoid losing but I wouldnt rule out us sneaking the win.

 

[DWelbz19]

436 minutes per dribbled since 2009. All Premier League and Champions League matches. It is the highest I know of in Europe. Vidic and Thiago Silva are both 3xx minutes per dribbled since 2009. It is even more impressive considering the fact that Smalling has played several games at RB too and FBs tend to get dribbled much more often than CBs.

Unsurprising. I've said many times that in a straight one on one scenario with any pacey forward, Smalling very often matches them as he's so quick he doesn't need to commit at all.

 

[Havak]

de Gea
Valencia Smalling Jones Blind
Herrera Carrick
Di Maria Fellaini Young
Rooney​

Can't see much different than that.. I always felt Mata was a bit suspect in away games in general, so Anfield is the ground I believe he's most likely to be left out at. No offence to Mata at all, but I just can't see him staying with whoever Liverpool's wing-back is on that side. I don't think Di Maria will be the best at it by any stretch, but I'm sure LvG and Giggsy will drill it into him that if we're to win this game, he will have to do a lot of grunt work. He has the pace and energy for it, just don't go lunging in.

I don't fancy us to win this honestly.. But hope we can sneak it!

 

[soapythecat]

Looking forward to this so much. Their speed on the counter does concern me, especially if ADM comes back into the starting line up as he has been shocking at tracking back.
Blind and Carrick will need to control the area ahead of the back 4 as they do like to shoot from range - quite successfully too.
Defeat won't be the end of our top 4 hopes but will be a massive kick in the pods.

 

[CG1010]

436 minutes per dribbled since 2009. All Premier League and Champions League matches. It is the highest I know of in Europe. Vidic and Thiago Silva are both 3xx minutes per dribbled since 2009. It is even more impressive considering the fact that Smalling has played several games at RB too and FBs tend to get dribbled much more often than CBs.

That's a nice statistic, and seems to back up my impression of him. I can't remember a situation where he got beaten in a 1v1 situation. He is our best defender currently barring shaw and should play every game. But I am still not completely sold on him as a long term prospect - he has been at the centre of too many recent drubbings for me to feel safe in his presence. Of course he has to remain injury free first.

 

[El-Manos]

Mata should and deserves to start this one the right.

 

[Salfordlad70]

I would continue with Mata. He deserves a start after the spuds game. I have a feeling we're gonna nick a late winner, bringing back memories of JOS late goal. Gonna stick a few quid on Blind to get a winner.

 

[Fergie's gum]

When I was selecting the lineup in the predictor, i was prompted with a message asking whether I was sure I wanted to select 7 midfielders in my starting VI. Could the mods disable this message for the remainder of LVG's reign. I can see it getting annoying.

 

[Turnip]

I too back Mr Mata, will be very disappointed if he isn't starting, don't see what more the guy could do to earn a place and if LvG start Di Maria ahead of him then I'm going to be very concerned.

Still thinking we have a chance here, not saying the odds are in our favour, but the Swansea match didn't sound like they particularly excelled. Though their domination in midfield concerns me, but if we play like we did against Spurs it could be alright. The other thing is I just can't see them having the bottle to pull off much more than 5 wins in a row.

 

[CG1010]

I would favour Di Maria against Liverpool - I don't think we would get enough pace and time to control the game as against Spurs and in such circumstances Mata can become quite a passenger. Not suggesting he is a bad player, ideally he should play instead of Fellaini. But as things are, I think we would need Di Maria's pace and threat to counter Liverpool

 

[Mojo_]

When I was selecting the lineup in the predictor, i was prompted with a message asking whether I was sure I wanted to select 7 midfielders in my starting VI. Could the mods disable this message for the remainder of LVG's reign. I can see it getting annoying.

Haha I had that too!

 

[ants7]

Amazing to think that it's actually difficult to decide whether to put Di Maria instead of Young or not in the team.

 

[Big red123]

Amazing to think that it's actually difficult to decide whether to put Di Maria instead of Young or not in the team.

You mean its amazing to think that when you are going to play 2 out of Young, Di Maria and Mata, Young is the certainty.

 

[Paul the Wolf]

When I was selecting the lineup in the predictor, i was prompted with a message asking whether I was sure I wanted to select 7 midfielders in my starting VI. Could the mods disable this message for the remainder of LVG's reign. I can see it getting annoying.

You should start worrying when the message says "Are you sure you want to select 11 midfielders in your starting XI"

 

[soapythecat]

Not sure if there is anything in it, but I've seen some training pictures on Twitter from today and Shaw was with Rafael without a bid on. All the fstarting 11 from last weekend had a bib on. Maybe we will see Blind or Rojo at LB. Didn't see ADM in any pic.

 

[Big red123]

We will see Blind at left back. Van Gaal won't drop his son, even though Shaw is more capable than he is of dealing with the speed of liverpools attack.

 

[Loon]

Nobody gives us a chance against this lot.

Get Fellaini to do what that big lad at Blackburn did against them.

 

[Walters_19_MuFc]

Not sure if there is anything in it, but I've seen some training pictures on Twitter from today and Shaw was with Rafael without a bid on. All the fstarting 11 from last weekend had a bib on. Maybe we will see Blind or Rojo at LB. Didn't see ADM in any pic.

http://www.gettyimages.co.uk/search/events/543610713?editorialproduct=Man Utd

Today's training session.

 

[ants7]

You mean its amazing to think that when you are going to play 2 out of Young, Di Maria and Mata, Young is the certainty.

Nostradamus couldn't predict that thing on our last season.