Rate our centre backs

[spiriticon]

People take the piss out of Stones defending, but then hate Smalling because he is 'bad on the ball'

I'd like my defenders to throw bodies on the line and head stuff away under pressure. Smalling is one of the best at that.

Leave the ballin to Pogba and Sanchez

1. Jones
2. Bailly
3. Smalling
4. Rojo
5. Lindelof
6. Blind

 

[Leftback99]

Currently:

1. Smalling
2. Jones
3. Bailly
4. Lindelof
5. Blind
6. Rojo

 

[SNes]

1. Jones
2. Bailly
3. Smalling
4. Blind
5. Rojo
6. Lindelof

 

[Mick1]

1-Kinda hoping Jones would eventually get over his fitness issues and do a RVP. I genuinely believe he has it in him to be world class. 4 managers had him as an undisputed starter whenever fit, and he was the captain of a premier league team at 19, whilst hisbfirst season with us he was as exciting as Martial's first imo.

2-As fir Baily, the jury is still out on him. Many see him as the absolute best we have, and borderline world class, whilst imo he has it all to prove. I believe Mourinho agrees on that.

3-Smalling is solid as a defender, and he would have been great in the 90s, but this is no longer his era imo.

4-Rojo is a hothead, and he s old enough now to have the necessary maturity to deal with it but it seems he doesn t. A poor man's Ramos imo.

5-Lindelof id rather wait till the end of the season to form a solid opinion.

 

[EyeInTheSky]

Jones:

Tackling: 8/10
Pace:7/10
Arial strength & heading: 7/10
Distribution/Passing: 6.5/10
defensive readding:6.5/10
control/command when on the ball: 6.5/10
Error-prone: (high is bad):5/10
Positional intelligence: 6/10
Copes under pressure: 7/10
Injury likeliness: Very

Smalling:

Tackling: 6.5/10
Pace: 6.5/10
Distribution/Passing: 5/10
Arial strength & heading: 7/10
defensive reading:6.5/10
control/command when on the ball: 4.5/10
error-prone: (high is bad):6/10
Positional intelligence: 5/10
Copes under pressure: 7/10
Injury likeliness: Low

 

[Paul the Wolf]

On current ability and assuming all fit
Jones
Bailly
Smalling
Rojo
Lindelof

Jones Bailly and Lindelof are quite young and have more scope for improvement.
Smalling is a better defender than Rojo and Lindelof but they have better distribution.

Preferred two are Jones and Bailly but not concerned if the others are playing.

 

[Stormsurfer21]

1. Jones
2. Bailly
3. Smalling
4. Blind
5. Rojo
6. Lindelof (jury's still out)

 

[NoPace]

Anyone have stats?

 

[sully1]

When Fit
Bailly
Jones
Smalling
Lindelof
Blind
Rojo

 

[Inter Yer Nan]

1. Bailly
2. Jones
3. Rojo
4. Smalling
5. Lindelof

Lindelof may have a high enough ceiling and the fitness to be #2 soon enough but I think this team next year we still won't really know. He's a work in progress.

Jones' injury record is so bad and I know Bailly isn't much better but I trust his fitness more than Jones. Rojo is our best on the ball and perhaps the most mentally prepared for tough games/big games. Smalling being #4 shows we have great depth and options as he'd get in most sides.

 

[mitchmouse]

Bailly is the best and I still think Lindelof will be his partner some time in the near future. Jones has been brilliant this season but I just have a feeling that is a blip! Smalling can leave as far as I care

 

[DWelbz19]

Jones
Smalling
Bailly
-
Rojo
Blind
Tuanzebe
Fosu-Mensah
Lindelof

 

[utdman]

Jones
Bailly
Smalling
Rojo
Lindelof
Blind

 

[tomaldinho1]

Assuming all are fit (a big Q in Jones' case)

1. Bailly
2. Jones
3. Smalling
4. Lindeloff
5. Rojo
6. Blind

We haven't seen enough of him but I am confident Tuanzebe could come in and comfortably sit around No5 before improving as he matures - his ceiling is much higher than Jones or Smalling IMO.

Would love for our CB pair to be Bailly and Lindeloff (who I am a believer in) longer term with Tuanzebe slowly integrated in.

 

[haram]

In terms of current ability:

1. Jones
2. Bailly
3. Smalling
4. Rojo
5. Lindelof


In terms of potential:

1. Bailly
2. Jones
3. Lindelof
4. Smalling
5. Rojo


Smalling/Rojo is perhaps the controversial point and some might argue that Rojo showed a very high level of ability last season before his injury. I think some might have forgotten Smalling's form under Van Gaal which lasted even longer.

I think I might agree with this. Smalling I cant tell because under van gaal I think the system just made him look better than he actually was.

 

[Jib]

1. Bailly
2. Jones
3. Lindelöf
4. Rojo
5. Smalling
6. Tuanzebe
7. Blind

 

[Tom Van Persie]

Bailly
Jones
Smalling
Rojo
Lindelof

We have a very good group of centre backs.

 

[meamth]

Reading most of the comments here criticizing Smalling's on the ball skills are mentally challenging.

I will resist and stop wasting my time debating about that.

 

[Idxomer]

Anyone have stats?

I can't embed images, but here you go.

http://oi63.tinypic.com/2mryxq9.jpg

 

[OverratedOpinion]

Jones
Bailly
Smalling
Rojo
Lindelof.

Smalling and Rojo is the most competitive ranking for me. Honourable mention for Axel who I think could very easily surpass all 5.

 

[Andersons Dietician]

Smalling
Bailly
Jones
Lindelof
Rojo

Pretty hard question because I’ve seen Lindelof be better than what he has shown here. I think Bailly is probably the best but he just has this wreckless inexperience about him and for me Smalling is Just consistent and more often than not tends to do the right things and seems to be the only one who takes any leadership.

Every single one of them is better at one aspect of the game than the rest, I just think if I was going to push forward the 3 I’d have are Bailly, Lindelof and Smalling.

 

[Swift Football]

If you look at the posts, its amusing to see all kinds of rankings. You can literally find all possible combination.

I think all our defenders are very good but not quite 'top' defenders except for Lindelof who has been quite poor to be honest. Jose might have signed him to play 3 in the back and we needed sumbody who is good in the ball.

My ranking would be below:

1. Smalling - Powerful header. Dominant in air in both boxes. While defending set pieces, tends to hold the man, which I find quite risky. Also, too focussed on his man while defending rather than seeing overall picture. Good on 1 vs 1 defending, extremely limited on the ball, as soon as he receives the ball, looks like he is panicking and trying to get rid of it asap. Less injury prone, and consistent.


2. Jones - Even when he is fit, I am not sure he has it to be a top defender. He lacks reading of the game and gets pulled out of position easily. Not dominant in the air, and does not go to opponents' box in setpieces. Not judging him by that, but many big games are decided by set pieces. Rash, aggressive, decent on the ball, good recovery pace

3. Baily - Would have placed him higher than Jones, if not for his long absence now. Very aggressive, quite good on the ball, very good at 1 on 1s, not a power header, fast

4. Rojo - Very rash and aggressive and gets booking quite often. Has a fight in him. Strong tackles. Can hit long passes

5. Blind - Versatile. Good reading of the game. Poor in air. Very good in passing. Lacking in strength and pace. We have hardly used him all season and keeping in mind his contract situation, I will move him on. Could be a good fit in 3 man backline.

6. Lindelof - Not sold on him yet. Some very poor defending. not great in air. Very good in passing. He needs to improve fast to make it here. Probably he brought o play in 3 man defence rather than 2.

 

[NFM]

Central defenders need to good at their job, defending. This latest vogue of 'ball playing' defenders is just daft if they can't defend, and a lot of them can't.
Jones , when fully fit, is the best defender playing in England, bar none.
Smalling is fine for typical, 'muck and nettles' type of game such as at Burnley.
Bailly and Rojo are decent international standard defenders.
Lindelof might be very good, jury still out, but has the attributes.
Blind is not, never has been, nor ever will be, a central defender. He has done the job there on occasion, because he is an intelligent bloke who uses his brain to overcome obvious physical shortcomings. Ditto when played at left back.
United do not need to spend any more money on these positions, especially with a decent young back-up.

 

[SteveW]

Rash? He's the least rash of all the others you've mentioned

Yeah its insane to single him out as rash amongst that lot. Typical of this forum though.

 

[SteveW]

Jones:

Tackling: 8/10
Pace:7/10
Arial strength & heading: 7/10
Distribution/Passing: 6.5/10
defensive readding:6.5/10
control/command when on the ball: 6.5/10
Error-prone: (high is bad):5/10
Positional intelligence: 6/10
Copes under pressure: 7/10
Injury likeliness: Very

Smalling:

Tackling: 6.5/10
Pace: 6.5/10
Distribution/Passing: 5/10
Arial strength & heading: 7/10
defensive reading:6.5/10
control/command when on the ball: 4.5/10
error-prone: (high is bad):6/10
Positional intelligence: 5/10
Copes under pressure: 7/10
Injury likeliness: Low

Smalling only 6.5 for pace and 7 for heading. Wtf?

Edit: both players are extremely quick. Pace 8 for both imo. Opta had smalling as our 5th fastest player in 2016 by the way

 

[NoPace]

I can't embed images, but here you go.

http://oi63.tinypic.com/2mryxq9.jpg

Thanks. Those are the action stats, which I tend to be mostly skeptical of, especially with defenders. Any expected goals or just goals scored and conceded tied to strength of schedule?

 

[Donut]

Jones
Smalling
Bailly
Blind
Lindellof
Rojo

 

[KirkDuyt]

1 Jones / Bailly
2 Smalling
3 Rojo
4 Lindelöf

 

[ghagua]

1. Smalling
2. Jones
3. Bailly
4. Lindelof
5. Blind
6. Rojo

 

[limerickcitykid]

Jones
Bailly
Smalling / Blind
Rojo
Lindelof

 

[DeOddi]

If we only look at their defensive qualities i´d say:

Smalling
Jones
Bailly
......
Rojo
......
Lindelöf

Looking at the whole package (defending, distribution from the back, technique)

Jones/Bailly
Smalling
......
Rojo/Lindelöf

 

[RedPed]

Reading most of the comments here criticizing Smalling's on the ball skills are mentally challenging.

I will resist and stop wasting my time debating about that.

Good lad!

 

[VeevaVee]

They can all do a job but I don't trust any of them as individual players. I can't even put them in order because one game they'll do something good and the next their ankles will break because someone put a cross in (literally with Jones).

 

[OLLY ORANGE]

Bailly - Quick, solid and settled well at the club.
Jones - Great when fit and settled. Good all rounder
Smalling - strong in the air, forwards don't like playing against him. Poor on the ball
Rojo - underrated versatility, tough as boots.
Lindelof - Started to see signs of a player in there. Next season should see another step up in performance.

Pretty solid group all in all. None of the top 6 can boast the depth of the above.

 

[MikeKing]

1. Smalling - Our most experienced defender. Our most reliable defender, currently with the highest peak level and a good consistent-level as well. The least injury-prone of them all.
2. Bailly - Highly talented, has the highest ceiling of them all. + He's like Evra and Vidic rolled into one crazy mofo. On his way to become a cult hero

3,4,5: Lindelof, Jones and Rojo tied. Unreliable, injury prone, rashness, inexperience. They all have different weaknesses that they need to get rid of. They are not consistent. Jones is still talented and English, so he's got that going for him at least. The other ones will have a tougher time to come back. They are not terrible, just unreliable at this moment.

I don't think we need to look for new defenders now. Jones, Lindelof, Bailly, Fosu, Tuanzebe, Willams are young defenders with plenty of talent and we should hope that in a couple of years, 2 of them will have stepped up by then. If not, we buy other defenders from the same age-group that will have surpassed them

 

[soad]

Bailly is by far our best CB. Just a few weeks more, he will be back and our good defence will become even better.
Rojo before the bad injury last season was an absolute beast. I still rate him high (but only as a CB, at the LB he is awful) and can't wait to see him in form again.
Jones is very consistent this season and actually I feel very calm when he plays.
Smalling makes some mistakes but overall he's a good defender and it's good to have him in the team.
Lindelof made a lot of errors in his first few matches but then he showed that he's got potential. Still young, have enough time to get better by the time.

So, we've got a pretty decent central defenders and it's the last position I'm worried about.

 

[Sparky Rhiwabon]

Does no one else feel that Bailly is slightly overrated on here? I mean he's good but he is prone to rushes of blood to the head. Just me then.

 

[Leftback99]

Does no one else feel that Bailly is slightly overrated on here? I mean he's good but he is prone to rushes of blood to the head. Just me then.

I agree. Still needs to prove himself at the level many talk of him as being at. Prone to lapses of concentration and weak in the air.

 

[Mickson]

1. Jones
2. Bailly
3. Smalling
4. Rojo
5. Lindelof

 

[limerickcitykid]

Does no one else feel that Bailly is slightly overrated on here? I mean he's good but he is prone to rushes of blood to the head. Just me then.

Easily overrated