I mean he’s 23... how much more younger do you want a CB to be?
Milan Skriniar
- Thread starter devilish
- Start date
Wasnt saying Skriniar wasnt young or talented enough, but that we can wait till summer to get a younger and more talented player relative to the defensive leader we get in January
Didnt they want 65m
No fecking way Inter will sell Skriniar while they are still in the Champions League, which seems to be the case thanks to our resident Premiership bottlers.
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fecking Spurs, guess we will end up with Milenkovic
Milenkovic would be a very good acquisition if we can get him for a reasonable fee.
The last Serbian CB did well for us
But we already have a Bailly and it hasn't exactly worked out for him. That comparison (although I haven't seen him play) doesn't fill me with confidence. Especially given our recent success rate of signing CBs.
Hmm.. I don't know, for some reason He doesn't look trustworthy to me..
I belive he will sign a new contract soon with FCIM
Average in the air? That would be a problem.
i wouldnt say Škriniar is average in the air, he is not smalling, but definitelly better than what we have already. I think his biggest weakness is positional game, but he has quite good reading of the game and very good tackle to make for it
Hopefully there is truth in this, having to pay van Dijk money is expected at this point.
Well, he is not great in the air either. Off the ball, he reminds be a bit of Carragher; aggressive, a bit rash at times, not very fast, not very good in the air, but a leader and often at the right place at the right time. On the ball he looks far superior of course and a much more modern player in that perspect.
Milinkovic on the other hand seems much more «agile». Almost two inches taller than Skriniar, and quite fast (like many tall players he is faster than he looks). He too looks very good on the ball. (Reminds me more of a less good and less elegant version of Rio than Vidic.)
Skriniar is probably better for us since we need someone right now, but I think both of them are interesting prospects.
La Rebubblica is a decent source in Italy so let's see.
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It seems odd that CB become so popular nowadays than a striker in the transfer market, I don't see a lot of striker getting hyped and chasing by many of top clubs such as City, Liverpool, Chelsea, PSG, United, Spurs, Barcelona, Juventus, Bayern, Atletico Madrid, etc, they all seem to be targeting DM/CB as top priority.
Without Smalling our defenders are relatively weak in the air. Skriniar is fairly average in that sense. I miss the days of Vidic dominating. Milenkovic seems great in the air but he is too young for what we need. I dont think there is a natural leader available on the market. Skriniar and Bailly is a very rash partnership. Skriniar and Lindelof is a very slow partnership. As much as people dislike Smalling there is a reason Jose has played him - he is the only well rounded Athletic CB we have.
Personally I'd sign Milenkovic and trigger the £25m clause of Aldeweireld in the summer. Would enable us to strengthen considerably in other areas too.
This I think is the more prudent approach.
With milenkovic we also get cover for RB.
The other worthy addition would be a young left footed CB that can play LB.
With that we can move on from Darmian, jones, rojo, Valencia and Young, and still have room for 1 or 2 more young defensive prospects
What other Canadians did well at Bayern? Guess he’ll be at united soon.
Wrong thread mate..
Since he's a favourite suggestion for an expensive transfer, on Eriksen's goal last night to win it for Spurs he did something some posters often criticize Chris Smalling for doing. Number 37 Skriniar moves out to the left to mark Son when Asamoah has pushed up from left back and Sissoko has been passed into some of the space that Asamoah has left behind. So Skriniar is covering Asamoah at left back.
Sissoko drives forward with the ball and actually Skriniar doesnt even commit to making a challenge, he allows Sissoko to run the ball inside him and then Sissoko who is now inside the box plays the ball to Alli also inside the box and he finds the free run from Erisken again inside the box to finish off the chance for the winning goal.
Normally when Smalling pulls wide to cover a fullback who has an attacking player taking up the position behind them he'll at least try to block the cross, or confront the player with the ball and try to make a tackle. He won't always win the ball. And sometimes the ball is then played into the middle where Smalling has moved from and posters on here will blame Smalling saying its his central position, his responsibility.
But its good defending for a CB to cover their fullback, it just requires teamwork for other players to understand thats whats going on and they need to adjust their positions. Skriniar doesn't confront Sissoko, he does let him get through the middle too easily but I'm sure he'll say that he had confidence in his teammates, De Vrij his CB partner and D'Ambrosio from RB to adjust their positions to cover the area he left behind to deal with Son and Sissoko out wide. But on this occasion Inter's defense has got it wrong.
Because Asamoah was out of position in the first place, it was 3 defenders where there should be 4. Because Skriniar let Sissoko inside him centrally too easily, De Vrij decides to come across and try to confront him. Doing that pressures Sissoko to try and pass and he finds Alli. So now the only player in the central area of Inter's box is the right back D'Ambrosio. Unfortunately for him while he's close to Alli, theres a pass on to his left to Erisken joining play and actually another pass further to Davies also in space. Either one of those players could finish the move. So D'Ambrosio has been given 2-3 players to deal with which is not really his fault and he cant stop the shot coming in. Inter's defense as a whole got that one wrong starting with Asamoah committing and getting nowhere near the ball 10 yards into his own half. But then Skriniar does a poor job with his covering. He is covering his fullback and thats the right call, but he does a poor job when he allows Sissoko to do exactly what he wants to do and run the ball into the box without any pressure from Skriniar. De Vrij does something but its leaving his right back a lot to do and then Spurs score because he couldnt deal with all 2-3 players.
One mistake, and particularly one mistake where he's come out to cover for another player, doesnt mean Skriniar isn't a great CB. He wasnt in that piece of defending, but that doesnt mean he isnt for most of the rest of the match. Likewise when Smalling covers for Young/Valencia and then he either doesnt block a cross, or a player beats him, or the ball comes across and someone has an easy chance because Smalling isnt in the middle... Thats just something thats going to happen sometimes and it doesnt mean Smalling isnt a very very good CB. It means that as an entire defense the organization, planning and reacting to the situation wasn't good enough. And usually Smalling does better than Skriniar did this time. But at least its a good example that the grass isnt always greener just because a CB isnt Chris Smalling. Even the most talked about, most hyped up CBs do the very same thing and sometimes do it worse like here.
Sissoko drives forward with the ball and actually Skriniar doesnt even commit to making a challenge, he allows Sissoko to run the ball inside him and then Sissoko who is now inside the box plays the ball to Alli also inside the box and he finds the free run from Erisken again inside the box to finish off the chance for the winning goal.
Normally when Smalling pulls wide to cover a fullback who has an attacking player taking up the position behind them he'll at least try to block the cross, or confront the player with the ball and try to make a tackle. He won't always win the ball. And sometimes the ball is then played into the middle where Smalling has moved from and posters on here will blame Smalling saying its his central position, his responsibility.
But its good defending for a CB to cover their fullback, it just requires teamwork for other players to understand thats whats going on and they need to adjust their positions. Skriniar doesn't confront Sissoko, he does let him get through the middle too easily but I'm sure he'll say that he had confidence in his teammates, De Vrij his CB partner and D'Ambrosio from RB to adjust their positions to cover the area he left behind to deal with Son and Sissoko out wide. But on this occasion Inter's defense has got it wrong.
Because Asamoah was out of position in the first place, it was 3 defenders where there should be 4. Because Skriniar let Sissoko inside him centrally too easily, De Vrij decides to come across and try to confront him. Doing that pressures Sissoko to try and pass and he finds Alli. So now the only player in the central area of Inter's box is the right back D'Ambrosio. Unfortunately for him while he's close to Alli, theres a pass on to his left to Erisken joining play and actually another pass further to Davies also in space. Either one of those players could finish the move. So D'Ambrosio has been given 2-3 players to deal with which is not really his fault and he cant stop the shot coming in. Inter's defense as a whole got that one wrong starting with Asamoah committing and getting nowhere near the ball 10 yards into his own half. But then Skriniar does a poor job with his covering. He is covering his fullback and thats the right call, but he does a poor job when he allows Sissoko to do exactly what he wants to do and run the ball into the box without any pressure from Skriniar. De Vrij does something but its leaving his right back a lot to do and then Spurs score because he couldnt deal with all 2-3 players.
One mistake, and particularly one mistake where he's come out to cover for another player, doesnt mean Skriniar isn't a great CB. He wasnt in that piece of defending, but that doesnt mean he isnt for most of the rest of the match. Likewise when Smalling covers for Young/Valencia and then he either doesnt block a cross, or a player beats him, or the ball comes across and someone has an easy chance because Smalling isnt in the middle... Thats just something thats going to happen sometimes and it doesnt mean Smalling isnt a very very good CB. It means that as an entire defense the organization, planning and reacting to the situation wasn't good enough. And usually Smalling does better than Skriniar did this time. But at least its a good example that the grass isnt always greener just because a CB isnt Chris Smalling. Even the most talked about, most hyped up CBs do the very same thing and sometimes do it worse like here.
This got me excited. The state of our defense lol.
Thumbs up
I think it's a flawed approach to have. We should have two Right backs and two left backs, specialists.
And it's interesting that you want a CB who "can play LB." Isn't Rojo exactly such a player. Injury-prone Rojo is an unfortunate purchase due to flawed LVG approach of buying and bringing up "multi-functional players".
Signed him on FM19. He's great.
That won't be included in a fancy youtube video though, so it's irrelevant right?
Smalling get's a real hard time for some reason (I guess he looks clumsy) but he's a good defender.
Aren't they in a poor financial situation? Added to that, they have decent cover at CB. They could get more for Skriniar in January than in the summer.
Its desirable to have such players even if not as first or second choice cos they give your squad flexibility both for tactical changes and subs i.e. you can change tactics and formations more easily, and can use the additional space on the bench for other impact subs. (With only seven subs, and one spot dedicated to backup GK, having defenders that can cover multiple roles, makes more room for needed midfield and attacking subs).
Also being flexible does not mean a drop in quality for the primary spot. There have been quite a number of players that played well both as fullbacks and CBs e.g. Maldini (LB) and Ramos (RB). Even Rojo played well before his cruciate ligament injury.
Finally such CBs are usually more suited to playing in a back 3, as LCB or LRB
Why aren't you doing youtube analysis videos? Superb
I feel we should pass on Skriniar and focus on Milenkovic and Alderweireld. It will possibly save us around £15m and would improve the squad more than just shelling a huge amount on Skriniar.
But we must not miss out on Milenkovic. His potential is huge..
But we must not miss out on Milenkovic. His potential is huge..
Thankyou for the suggestion. Maybe its something to think about. Usually theres more negative reaction to my posts
Why would Inter or Napoli even sell in January? They are very much alive and favorites to progress in their champions league groups. If it happens it's in the summer and not now.
Is all this really just to defend Smalling?
No, its to explain that even a CB people want us to pay £70-100 million for still does something Smalling gets blamed for.
It was actually a good analysis. I just don't really see the need to defend Smalling during it, though. Even though you seem to be a serious Smalling fan, we still need another CB either way.
I cant remember seeing this (people criticing Smalling for play like this). Do you have an example? Smallings problem is his ability with the ball.
He is a good defender. He have had a couple of instances with «ball watching», but overall his defending is not a problem. But he is very limited on the ball.
I understand that but it has not worked for us. We already have players like Bailly, Rojo and Lindelof who have played in RB or LB. There is no point if Manager does not think that way. In any case, all i am saying is that a club like Man Utd should have four top quality full backs who have quality, ability to create and supply from width,pace etc. We don't have that. We only have Luke Shaw who the manager is playing, and even his attacking quality is routinely questioned.
And, good luck to us buying the next Maldini and Ramos.
If I didnt mention Smalling would you and everyone else have made the connection? And I dont see your point anyway.
Its something someone considered a top CB like Skriniar does, and its something Smalling does. But its something any good CB tries to do too. Not just those 2.
Its just maybe some (or a lot?) of fans/posters dont understand its actually good defending, but can look like bad defending when it goes wrong like this 1 example with Skriniar or if you aren't looking hard enough maybe the CB gets blamed simply for "being out of position", when his teammates were supposed to take up his position.
It happens anytime Smalling is covering for a fullback and the opposition have a good chance, or score a goal. There are comments in his thread blaming Smalling for it when realistically, he's covering for a teammate and the rest of the team hasnt reacted to pull across and cover his position. Because they dont have the natural defensive instincts that Smalling has to almost always cover for someone.