Smalling loan watch

Judas

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Ridiculous to think he went on loan and Bailly, Rojo and to a slightly lesser extent Lindelof and Jones are still here really. Not surprised he's doing ok.
 

pacifictheme

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Ridiculous to think he went on loan and Bailly, Rojo and to a slightly lesser extent Lindelof and Jones are still here really. Not surprised he's doing ok.
He wanted first team football. Fair play to him. Live in one of the best cities in europe for a year and play for roma or live in northern england fot a year and sit on the bench. Not a hard choice.
 

2 man midfield

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Ridiculous to think he went on loan and Bailly, Rojo and to a slightly lesser extent Lindelof and Jones are still here really. Not surprised he's doing ok.
He’s a good defender, I’m not surprised he had takers whereas Jones didn’t. I'm just shocked Everton wanted to sign Rojo, and even more shocked we didn't let them.
 

Samid

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He’s a good defender, I’m not surprised he had takers whereas Jones didn’t. I'm just shocked Everton wanted to sign Rojo, and even more shocked we didn't let them.
Have you seen the table? Rojo would walk into their team.
 

romufc

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Ridiculous to think he went on loan and Bailly, Rojo and to a slightly lesser extent Lindelof and Jones are still here really. Not surprised he's doing ok.
Not really ridiculous if you think about it.

Bailly got injured in pre season - No one will sign someone who is injured for 7 months
Rojo was close to joining Everton but Manutd pulled the plug
Lindelof is first team so I doubt he would be allowed to leave
Jones is injury prone, no one will really take a risk on his wages.
 

Judas

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Not really ridiculous if you think about it.

Bailly got injured in pre season - No one will sign someone who is injured for 7 months
Rojo was close to joining Everton but Manutd pulled the plug
Lindelof is first team so I doubt he would be allowed to leave
Jones is injury prone, no one will really take a risk on his wages.
Of course if you break it down. But on a purely talent basis, which is my point, he shouldn't have been the first out.
 

TrustInOle

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Of course if you break it down. But on a purely talent basis, which is my point, he shouldn't have been the first out.
Agreed! May not be comfortable on the ball, but defending, he is top notch. Minus the shirt grabbing, but hey, hes old school like that, and I like abit of roughness in a centre half.
 

davidmichael

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With how quick Smalling is and seeing as his strength is being a pure defender who is at his best alongside a ball player that can lead him I saw Smalling as the best partner for Maguire.

I’d rather we sold Jones, Bailly and Rojo in the summer and brought Smalling back so we have Maguire, Lindelof, Tuanzebe and Smalling as our centre back options for next season and then used an academy player as fifth choice.
 

Paul_Scholes18

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He did play well for us too. Maybe not as good last season, but he still had some great games.
 

romufc

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Of course if you break it down. But on a purely talent basis, which is my point, he shouldn't have been the first out.
If Smalling had stayed I feel he would be 4th choice and he wouldn't have liked that.

I appreciate what you mean he has been our most consistent defender over the last few years because none of the others could stay fit.

This is the problem with this squad, we have alot of players who have never been robust players. Jones, Bailly, Pogba, Martial, Dalot, Shaw to name a few just cannot stay fit for a whole season.
 

SteveW

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With how quick Smalling is and seeing as his strength is being a pure defender who is at his best alongside a ball player that can lead him I saw Smalling as the best partner for Maguire.

I’d rather we sold Jones, Bailly and Rojo in the summer and brought Smalling back so we have Maguire, Lindelof, Tuanzebe and Smalling as our centre back options for next season and then used an academy player as fifth choice.
Same. I assumed he'd start on the bench but quickly win his place back like previous seasons and strike up a great partnership with Maguire.

Still seems mental that we let him leave.
 

The Original

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Same. I assumed he'd start on the bench but quickly win his place back like previous seasons and strike up a great partnership with Maguire.

Still seems mental that we let him leave.
If there are any two decisions that continually baffle me it's letting both Smalling and Blind go. Maguire, Smalling, Blind and Lindelof in that order would have been a great core of defenders to have. Bailly, Jones, and Rojo all should have been allowed to leave much sooner than those two.
 

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Always rated him, think he is underrated and he was a scapegoat because people think we would play attacking football if he was a better passer. We have now got a better passer, but the attacking football seems still far away. And we are conceding more goals even.

He's not a world class CB, but he is a very good one. He will be very good at Roma and hopefully we can get a good deal for him. But I still think he is way better than Bailly, Jones and Rojo. A lot better to be fair. Axel has potential and so does Lindelof.
 

Adam-Utd

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Same. I assumed he'd start on the bench but quickly win his place back like previous seasons and strike up a great partnership with Maguire.

Still seems mental that we let him leave.
Think it was purely that he would have been in the way of Tuanzebe. I think Ole secretely knew by the end of the season he would be first choice.

Smalling isn't getting any younger, and let's be honest he's too good to be on the bench. I'm really pleased for him that it's going well at Roma, he seems a really top guy also.
 

DVG7

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It's no surprise to me to see Smalling do well in Italy, as from a defensive standpoint it's a league that ranks its defenders the old fashioned way i.e. How well do they defend? I don't follow Serie A as much as I used to so maybe someone can correct me but I'd be surprised if the overall style of defending has changed in the league, the way it has in England where distribution is now such an important prerequisite for a centre back.

Smalling has always had the pace and strength to be able to deal with a variety of strikers, and at Roma he mostly plays in a back 4 where the other defenders are much more comfortable on the ball than he is, which was never the case during his time at United. This somewhat masks what I would call his main weakness, as he really was never the type of centre back you trusted to play meaningful passes. But side to side passes to either Spinnazola, Kolarov or Florenzi and letting them be more assertive with their passing is suiting him really well. Smalling is also a fair bit taller than most of the strikers he comes up against, and the Roma frontline is quite adept at pressing the opposition defence, so he is able to utilize that height advantage and win a lot of those long balls being cleared out from the back, which is obviously something a defender should be pretty good at.
 

jackal&hyde

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I think it's because Ole told him he was 5th choice or something
Probably 3 ed with Tuanzebe getting as much game time as possible so the game time for Smalling would have been very limited compared to what he was used to. Wish he would have stayed instead on Jones but it is what it is. Can't fault the guy for wanting to be a first 11 player.
 

Bebestation

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If there are any two decisions that continually baffle me it's letting both Smalling and Blind go. Maguire, Smalling, Blind and Lindelof in that order would have been a great core of defenders to have. Bailly, Jones, and Rojo all should have been allowed to leave much sooner than those two.
Imagine a back 3 of

Maguire - Smalling - Blind

Now that's what you call ball playing ability. Our attackers would have chances created as deep as our defenders. :(

In my opinion - that's the best centre defense in the league.
 

SteveW

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Think it was purely that he would have been in the way of Tuanzebe. I think Ole secretely knew by the end of the season he would be first choice.

Smalling isn't getting any younger, and let's be honest he's too good to be on the bench. I'm really pleased for him that it's going well at Roma, he seems a really top guy also.
Yeah. Lindelof is the odd one out imo.

To me our best CBs are most likely Maguire, Smalling and Axel. The rush to crown Lindelof last season was strange.
 

ROFLUTION

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Im gonna say it: Smalling would have had us in top 5 by now. Lindelof is the sole reason we've let in stupid goals a couple of times. In areas Smalling would have us covered. I think it was a big mistake to let him go albeit he didnt suit the ball playing Man Utd - he should have eased Tuanzebe in and rotated with Smalling. Its not like two ball playing defenders right now is making us super creative and scoring many goals.

His stats in Serie A just shows he's underrated. Historically hyped defenders of Serie A like Manolas wouldnt have the same stats I think.
 

Bojan11

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4-0 away from home with his partner sent off early in the game.
 

Yagami

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Really happy to see that he's seemingly thriving there.

I still wish he was here to partner Maguire.
 

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So good with the ball at his feet they even gave him number 6. Great stuff.
 

flappyjay

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Smalling and Maguire would have complemented each other so well. We would also have two major threats at set pieces
 

ForeverRoma93

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Brilliant once again and nice to see him score a goal as he was unlucky not to score a couple in previous games. The composure was brilliant post Fazio's red card, it didn't faze him or us one bit. Despite what will be challenging in terms of the language barrier, he was smart in possession, strong against Okaka, winning everything in the air...he has really surprised me with his consistency early on. Hopefully that continues because our defence look so good with him (bear in mind how bad it was last season and at the start of this season before we got him on loan).
 

SmashedHombre

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Smalling has always been a very good defender. He, Maguire, Tuanzebe and Lindelof really should have been our 4 centrebacks. Jones, Bailly and Rojo just need to go.
 

DWelbz19

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Roma will be smart to wrap this one up as quickly as they can. The likes of Everton and others should be looking to purchase. Maybe even Arsenal.

I mean he should be starting here, but we’ve decided to keep weaker players. It happens.
 

Idxomer

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Happy that he's thriving in Roma as he's been one of the few United players I actually liked post-SAF.