So would you keep Smalling?

[Champagne Football]

You are similar camp to those people who think Williams is better than Shaw. Tuanzebe hasn't even proved if he is good enough to start for Newcastle nevermind Manchester United.

Tuanzebe has 2 times the ceiling of Smalling. From the few times I've seen him, he just looks like a massive talent, but sadly could end up becoming a wasted talent like Jones.

In regards to Williams, I think he'll develop like Gary Neville in that Neville looked bang average to start out with for 2 seasons, but he had a special elite mentality that leaders have to become the best, and I think Williams may have a similar mentality despite looking average a lot of the time in this moment.

Southgate has about 10 central defenders he will pick before Smalling. The likes of Michael Keane, Tyrone Mings, Tarkowski, Ben Mee etc and Southgate has a strong reputation for building a solid defenses.

 

[Oldyella]

He would have been a better partner for Maguire and I don think theres too much between him and Slab head anyway, but it's too late now, we need to move on.

 

[Samid]

I've wanted him gone for years but at least he's able to stay fit unlike Jones, Bailly, Tuanzebe who all are made of glass.

Ideally we buy a CB and ship both the chuckle brothers. But if we don't buy I'd keep Smalling and ship Jones. I know it's easier said than done considering there's a decent market for the former while no one would even want to touch the latter with a barge pole.

 

[PieCrust]

Smalling is our second best defener, better than Lindelof. But I don't think he'll be back. Even if he did come back, we'd still need an upgrade at CB even as I rate Smalling, but he's not good enough to be a regular starter for United.

 

[jamesjimmybyrondean]

Tuanzebe has 2 times the ceiling of Smalling. From the few times I've seen him, he just looks like a massive talent, but sadly could end up becoming a wasted talent like Jones.

In regards to Williams, I think he'll develop like Gary Neville in that Neville looked bang average to start out with for 2 seasons, but he had a special elite mentality that leaders have to become the best, and I think Williams may have a similar mentality despite looking average a lot of the time in this moment.

Southgate has about 10 central defenders he will pick before Smalling. The likes of Michael Keane, Tyrone Mings, Tarkowski, Ben Mee etc and Southgate has a strong reputation for building a solid defenses.

Was this in the championship? Villa fans seem to rate Mings more and he's not killing it in the pl

 

[Web of Bissaka]

Only if we're not going to get another new CB.

We need to sell Smalling eventually but for next season, do we even have good CB department?
No. Big fat no.

We've only two fit CBs, and the other three you can't count on them to be fit when you need them the most. At least with Smalling, you'll know he'll be fit, can defend and can score during set-piece. Just don't tell him to play on the ball.

So use him only for next season. Don't extend his contract.

 

[Isotope]

I've wanted him gone for years but at least he's able to stay fit unlike Jones, Bailly, Tuanzebe who all are made of glass.

Ideally we buy a CB and ship both the chuckle brothers. But if we don't buy I'd keep Smalling and ship Jones. I know it's easier said than done considering there's a decent market for the former while no one would even want to touch the latter with a barge pole.

Of course if we buy a class player, there's no reason to keep Smalling (and it seems like he prefers to play, anyway). But if we're just buying the like of Ake, man... I don't think he's better than Lindelof. Just what's the point? Might as well keep Smalling and lose that 18-20m fee.

At least we know that with him and Lindelof, they're good enough to get United 2nd in the League. And him and Maguire seems like complimenting pair.

 

[golden_blunder]

That ship has sailed now. Ole clearly doesn’t rate him

 

[vangagal]

Selling him is the right decision to go forward. No need to go back to mediocrity.

 

[LawCharltonBest]

You can see from how we play that Solskjaer wants us playing out from the back more.

It would surprise me if he then brought back Smalling, who he let go on loan mainly due to his inability on the ball.

 

[Donald Silverbridge]

No, Some United fans need to stop overreacting, He needs to leave, He's outstayed his welcome as well.

 

[ICHM]

Rojo and Jones need to go. Depending on funds, if we can't get a better CB then I would keep him, he is better than Maguire at the moment TBH.

 

[A-man]

United have played very well for many games now, why move back to something that doesn’t seem to fit the kind of game they’re playing. The idea that you don’t need to be good at passing or playing the ball as CB is ridiculous imo. Almost every team press high now. Most of the time we pass through it and many of our quick counters come from playing through the press.

When it comes to pure defending, Smalling has been involved in many conceded goals at Roma and I believe that those who want him back, have not watched him lately. I would say that everybody in the United defence has performed better than him in the last 20 or so matches. Looking at Whoscored ratings where headers count but mistakes and poor positioning don’t cost, is not the way to evaluate a defender. He was good in the first half of the season, but not lately.

 

[Kostov]

Smalling and AWB would be comedy worthy. The other teams might decide to press us with 3 players instead, while the remaining watch the show of him and AWB passing overhit imprecise passes to each other. We would get stuck in our own pitch and Ole would manage to cure insomnia like LVG did before him.

It could be tragic, but with the tendency of Matic dropping as an additional CB and as I already said Lindelof very predictive passing patterns I believe that we might make it work. However as someone already said, we should try and move forward not backwards, meaning we should at least try and find a CB that could offer both.

 

[Fredo]

Sell him and get us Skriniar or Koulibaly. Smalling has been here an awful lot(since SAF days) and never looked as the defender to build our defense around (i.e him leading the back line), good servant to the club but again that was the "next" Ferdinand for us, so no thank you.

 

[Rozay]

Should never have been loaned in the first place. He and Maguire would have made an excellent partnership. Before Maguire came in, everytime we brought a centre half in, he has still established himself as the best one at the club, and our best spell has been with Smalling plus another. Right up until the end of last season, and then we let our best defender go!

 

[Chabon]

Selling good, but not quite top level players and then replacing them with expensive, yet distinctly inferior ones is the closest thing we have to an ‘identity’ in the post-Fergie years, why stop now?

 

[Walters_19_MuFc]

Just wouldn't make sense with the direction Ole wants to go. Smalling is a good defender, but he struggles with possession of the ball. If we want to improve on our build play, then Smalling, unfortunately, isn't the answer. Lindelof and Maguire are meant to be specialist in this department and even they seem to struggle at times. Smalling would have no chance!

 

[Bebestation]

I rate him good enough for a United team that has Bailly, Lindelof, Jones & Tuanzebe because I see him as a better defender than all of them even if he is less technically gifted -

However, my issue with him is that he clearly didn't feel like he wanted to fight for his place here. Even if he started on a level playing field at the start of the season - there was no way that Smalling wouldn't have overtaken Lindelof and kept his place next to Maguire in my opinion.

However, if he didnt want to do that then we should maybe move forward because even the Maguire-Smalling partnership could be improved eventually to the point where Smalling drops down to the third best defender at a club; leaving a good selection of defenders with us that have different qualities and are less injury prone.

 

[MadMike]

While I certainly rate him as good enough defender to be here there are 2 problems.

One, Smalling has a certain pride in himself (good for him) that he doesn't want to be a backup in this stage of his career. Two, that while he's a better pure defender than probably anyone we have (personal opinion disclaimer), Ole puts his defenders under a lot of pressure by always playing out the back even when teams are pressing us high. Lindelof is not the best defender, especially for this physical league, but he's very comfortable with ball at feet and even advancing into midfield with possession. So long as Ole persists with this playstyle, Smalling can't be anything more than squad option for us and then we fall back into problem #1.

So with those in mind, it's probably best for him he continues elsewhere much as I personally like him as a player and character.

 

[NK86]

Selling good, but not quite top level players and then replacing them with expensive, yet distinctly inferior ones is the closest thing we have to an ‘identity’ in the post-Fergie years, why stop now?

This made me chuckle and is unfortunately very true for us. Smalling is definitely not the best defender in the league, nor is he great with the ball at his feet. Having said that, he is better than Lindelof, who is pretty awful defensively and doesn't compliment Maguire at all.

Unless we have an additional 60-70 mil lying around somewhere to bring in another CB after spending on Sancho and a midfielder, I don't see the need to sell him for 25 mil and having someone like Jones and Bailly as back ups.

 

[Ekeke]

Yes, unless we sign a great CB and Lindelof becomes a backup

 

[flappyjay]

Tuanzebe has 2 times the ceiling of Smalling. From the few times I've seen him, he just looks like a massive talent, but sadly could end up becoming a wasted talent like Jones.

In regards to Williams, I think he'll develop like Gary Neville in that Neville looked bang average to start out with for 2 seasons, but he had a special elite mentality that leaders have to become the best, and I think Williams may have a similar mentality despite looking average a lot of the time in this moment.

Southgate has about 10 central defenders he will pick before Smalling. The likes of Michael Keane, Tyrone Mings, Tarkowski, Ben Mee etc and Southgate has a strong reputation for building a solid defenses.

The few times you have seen him against weak opposition and in the championship? In whatever ceiling he has does not matter when he can't stay fit. You don't develop whilst seating in the treatment room, harsh but true.

Southgate builds solid defenses, like where? In the world cup as soon as England faced a decent team their defenders got exposed by Mandzukic. And some of the names you put on your list, I mean Keane really were you that desperate.

 

[Dan_F]

People are slaughtering AWB for his on the ball abilities, yet think that Smalling would make a difference yesterday.

 

[Solius]

Smalling is awful when pressed and not exactly Beckenbauer with all the time in the world on the ball. No doubts that we should sell.

 

[Devil81]

I was all for selling him but Bailly and Lindelof are a complete waste of time for differing reasons so I'm starting to have a change of opinion.

As a squad player, Smalling could still have a future with us if we move on Bailly.

 

[VP89]

I'd keep Smalling purely because I don't see us signing a center back this window.

 

[Superunknown]

We 100% have to sign a quality centre back this Summer. Not just any old centre back, we need to be looking to add quality members to our team. The same calibre of player as Fernandes, a signing who is going to come in and add stability to the defence and really tighten things up.

We should definitely not be keeping hold of Smalling in place of bringing in a player who is better for us in the long-term. What we don't want to have is a long list of defenders who aren't going to add anything or improve us.

 

[Machine Elements]

Why people are acting like we're building up from the back very well? Both Maguire & Lindelöf are incredibly overrated when it comes to their ability on the ball. Neither are anything special on the ball (unless you count Maguire's persistent ball hogging and eventually giving the away like we saw just yesterday as a good ball-playing skills) and clearly inferior as pure defenders than Smalling (worse physically, getting dominated by strikers like Giroud which Smalling never had after playing against them for years, slower, worse defenders etc.). They don't score the goals from corners, free kicks etc. that Chris occasionally scored either.

This stupid experiment already failed and some of us knew it would've even before it got tested. Now people only have the "goals against" stat in their hands to prove otherwise. When the reality is this defence gives no confidence to anyone and is absolute shambles after spending 180 million euros (£160m). If you want to compare our current defensive record please do it with the last 5-6 years' records and not just last season when Mourinho sabotaged the whole team. We were always going to concede less this year no matter who plays in defence. Like it or not but Chris Smalling is still our best defender and we paid so much money only to get a bit better defenders on the ball and give up on defensive solidity.

 

[freeurmind]

If we're going to go out and spend big on a top level defender like Gimenez, I'd be fine letting him go. But if it's just going to be Lindelof and Tuanzebe, then we need him back.

 

[BenitoSTARR]

I’d sell him if we get £15m+ for him.

He’s a good defender but he won’t be first choice and I think we need to consider what Smalling wants too. He wants to be first choice and he deserves to be first choice at a club because he’s good enough for that.

It wouldn’t be fair to keep him and not play him.

 

[ClaytonBlackmoorLeftPeg]

I’d sell him if we get £15m+ for him.

He’s a good defender but he won’t be first choice and I think we need to consider what Smalling wants too. He wants to be first choice and he deserves to be first choice at a club because he’s good enough for that.

It wouldn’t be fair to keep him and not play him.

I agree with this. Just a shame he’s our second best central defender.

 

[Corey]

It's a tricky one but I think we should keep Smalling.

At the very least, he is a good backup option. If we were to sign a top class CB who's quick and good on the ball then I would vote to get rid, but there seems to be a lack of top class CBs available and I doubt we can afford one anyway given the other positions that need strengthening.

However, a defence with Smalling and Wan-Bissaka would be absolutely atrocious on the ball and we would be in big trouble against any half-decent pressing side. We're already starting to see Wan-Bissaka get the Smalling treatment where our opponents encourage us to pass to him and then pounce when we do. Imagine having both of them together...

 

[Manny]

Sell. Our buildup play would suffer massively with him in the side.

You think our playing out from the back is bad now, imagine what it would be like with him as one of your CBs.

 

[Smores]

Sell. Our buildup play would suffer massively with him in the side.

You think our playing out from the back is bad now, imagine what it would be like with him as one of your CBs.

We don't need to imagine he's played plenty of football for us. The issue is with the so called ball playing centre backs that replaced him there hasn't been an improvement so we may as well go with the better defender.

That said he won't want to come back so it's a non issue. We made a poor decision and now we need to move on.

 

[OnlyTwoDaSilvas]

I'd prefer him to Lindelof, but I'd ultimately prefer that we upgrade. The CB position is a mess really. We spent big on Maguire and whilst he's been decent, I'm still not wholly convinced.

Bailly was relatively expensive and he's never made the position his. Lindelof was also fairly pricey and whilst he has good games, I'm still not sure if he's good enough.

I am a fan of him and have felt the need to defend him a lot, but bringing Smalling back doesn't address anything. Whilst he has qualities, he also has shortfalls. I think he could have made a decent partner for Maguire this year, particularly with his recovery pace, and he's tough to beat in the air too. But there's an insistence that we play out from the back right now, and even though we're not great at it now, Smalling would surely worsen it. I think it's best that we move on, and if we can get a fee for him, even better, as we surely can't get anything for Rojo or Jones.

 

[Mr Smith]

I have some great memories of him, but I think the team has moved on. I think he'd be uncomfortable with the responsibility placed on our defenders currently to step out and play passes into midfield. Roma want a permanent deal, lets pay some good money and move on.

Best of luck Mike

 

[Garethw]

Giroud wouldn’t have scored yesterday if Smalling was playing.

Call me old fashioned but I want a defender to actually be able to defend. Playing out from the back is great but it means nothing if your centre back can’t defend to save his fecking life!

Bring Smalling back, Sell/release Jones Bailly And Rojo and try and buy another CB.

 

[Superunknown]

Giroud wouldn’t have scored yesterday if Smalling was playing.

Call me old fashioned but I want a defender to actually be able to defend. Playing out from the back is great but it means nothing if your centre back can’t defend to save his fecking life!

Bring Smalling back, Sell/release Jones Bailly And Rojo and try and buy another CB.

A top class defender in today's game needs to be able to do both.

If you want a defender who can just defend, you end up with AWB. We need to be more forward thinking. If our players can't play out from the ball, they will get pressed by the opposition in every game and this will lead to more defensive mistakes and we will concede more.

 

[ClaytonBlackmoorLeftPeg]

I'd prefer him to Lindelof, but I'd ultimately prefer that we upgrade. The CB position is a mess really. We spent big on Maguire and whilst he's been decent, I'm still not wholly convinced.

Bailly was relatively expensive and he's never made the position his. Lindelof was also fairly pricey and whilst he has good games, I'm still not sure if he's good enough.

I am a fan of him and have felt the need to defend him a lot, but bringing Smalling back doesn't address anything. Whilst he has qualities, he also has shortfalls. I think he could have made a decent partner for Maguire this year, particularly with his recovery pace, and he's tough to beat in the air too. But there's an insistence that we play out from the back right now, and even though we're not great at it now, Smalling would surely worsen it. I think it's best that we move on, and if we can get a fee for him, even better, as we surely can't get anything for Rojo or Jones.

This is my take as well.

I think Smalling and Maguire would be a decent pairing, far better than what we have now - but we would need to play a different way.

Smalling is obviously better than Bailly, Jones and Rojo - I honestly don’t see any rational argument about that. In my opinion, he’s better than Lindelof, but can understand and appreciate anyone who thinks Lindelof is better.

It’s mind boggling really when we are moving Smalling on, yet will likely have at least one of Jones, Bailly and Rojo still at the club next season. Honestly wouldn’t surprise me if all three are still here.