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I'd go as far as to say just his first season. Right at the beginning, I think it was against Bolton away, where he looked so so good at right back. Set up at least one goal.
Pepe-Ramos?
It's not a good partnership IMO. Give me Smalling next to Rojo any day.
Pepe is similar to both but Ramos is not, yes he picks up a lot of cards because he's got a dirty streak, but he's commanding and positionally very good, he's not prone to lapses in concentration or flat out brainfarts.
I think we need some fresh blood at CB but for the rest of this season the Smojo partnership would definitely be my first choice.
I'd like to see a run in off Smalling and Rojo. Evans can go and Jones looks more and more like a poor mans John O'shea. Good squad player but nothing more but the difference being O'shea could play equally well in left or right side so was such a specialist squad player and a great fall back sub.
The difference was that O'Shea might not have been as psychically gifted as Jones but he was consistent and reliable, not prone to stupid brain farts that coughed up dangerous chances every match.
Hard to disagree with any that Devil
There was a moment he was thinking of charging out or running back. Did neither and Sanchez was through.
Because Van Gaal encourages his defenders to take it down if they can, which allow us to keep possession, as opposed to heading it back out and possibly losing it.
This.
Our win percentage when he's in the team is awful.He wasn't bad today and I'm not saying it's his fault, but it looks like every time he plays our other defenders play like shit.
I'm not sure giving it to Valencia would help us keep possession when de Gea would have just kicked it back out. It was just a dumb decision from him and a really shite pass from Valencia. Valencia probably panicked because it was such an odd decision to do that with an Arsenal player right behind him.
Why should De Gea get a red? I rather lose a goal than a red card. Even though we got a red later on. Plus we need DDG in the next month, I'm chuffed he did nothing crazy.
If Valencia played a better ball back to De Gea and our centre backs split, we probably would have played it out from the back. We were doing it all game. If not, then it would have been kicked out by De Gea, but more in a controlled manner than if Jones headed it out.
In the last two games he's played, he's been blamed for a perfectly reasonable decision to control the ball to Valencia, and for not bounding into the middle to cut out a cross whipped in to the other side of the goal. I wonder if people actually watch the games, or it just registered that Phil Jones has played again so they need to repeat the same inaccurate comments from the last game he played. The more advanced managed to catch the highlights and go out of their way to find a way to portray a goal we've conceded as his fault.
Which is an almighty cluster-feck that has ruined our last two seasons.
It is ridiculous. Van Gaal's philosophy and Guardiola's philosophy that evolved out of that involves the defenders playing ball, even under a high press, this isn't a secret.
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