Sounds like you're talking about Rojo. Lindelof has been very underwhelming overall.
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Season Average Rating
- Appearances
- 29
- Clean sheets
- 13
- Goals
- 0
- Assists
- 0
- Yellow cards
- 1
- Status
Least conceded goals and most clean sheets says it all, and no its not all De Gea.
Smalling made 0 passes to Lukaku in the Newcastle game, 3 to all attackers and 6 to the midfielders, out of 50 passes in total. He is nervous on the ball and the players are nervous when passing it to him, it's so obvious.
And yes, it's been mostly thanks to DDG, like it has been since Sir Alex retired, which is why he was voted 3 years in a row as best player at Manchester United, first time a player achieves that in the history of the club. Joint 2nd in most saves made this season in the EPL, most clean sheets, spectacular or difficult saves almost every game, consistent world-class performances and then some incredible ones as well like against Arsenal, where he made the joint most saves in the EPL in a single game since they started taking this stat in season 2003/2004. Says it all.
Never got the idea that Goalkeepers are non-entities on the football pitch. Schmeichel was a monster and opposing players were intimidated by him. We have a similar effect with De Gea, where he is so good that opposing players hesitate because they have to be perfect to get it past him.
A goalkeeper is arguably the most important part of the defense, because he can completely transform it through his shot stopping, organisation, distribution etc.
This may be a reach but I would love to see Lindelof and Tuanzebe paired together. Yes I know that Tuanzebe is on loan at Villa but to me he has so much potential that next season I would love to see in an EFL cup game that pair get a game together with TFM at RB and Shaw at LB. I have a hunch that D could grow well together as years progressed.
Feck me. Does your job description as Smalling’s number one fan include a clause insisting you shit on all our other central defenders?
Smalling was voted by his teammates as player's player of the year in 2015/16. Does that mean anything to you? That Arsenal game this season is the one game United faced the most shots against.
I agree with that, that's why even the best and biggest clubs in the world with the best defenses still want great goalkeepers. How is me saying 'it wasn't all De Gea' implying that he's a non entity?
Pot called the kettle black! You insist on shitting on Smalling at every given opportunity. I even saw you bemoan his passing completion against Spurs (it was 81% and not the 79% you mentioned). Do you know that Rojo has the worst pass completion stat for the season among our CBs at 81% per game average? Against City for the 45 minutes he played it was 39% (the 1-2 home loss) and for the game before that against Arsenal it was 47% for the 90 mins he played. Smalling managed 76% against city and 64% against Arsenal. Against Liverpool at Anfield Smalling got 100% while Rojo's highest was against Huddersfield (94% in 90 minute game in the 2-0 win). Why are Rojo's passing completion stats so low against high pressing and superior teams compared to the inferior on the ball Smalling?
Pass completion is such an irrelevant stat for CBs. Especially Smalling, as I reckon 90% of his passes are to Valencia, the other CB, or De Gea. Rojo's far more adventurous with his passing so it makes sense that less of them come off.
I know it pretty much is, that's why I brought it up because it was used as an attack against Smalling, but 81% for Rojo for the season is a low number for a CB no matter which way you look at it. He's not a play maker, so basically the vast majority of those 'adventurous' hoofs and passes are going to the opposition or out of play. What's the point of being adventurous out the back if you lack the execution?
All this defending of Smalling is hilarious. What will you do when he is inevitably sold 
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.Become west ham/stoke/west brom etc supporter maybe ? Smalling is bound to be their player very soonAll this defending of Smalling is hilarious. What will you do when he is inevitably sold
What's hilarious about defending a player who has played for over 8 years at the club? Polarizing players like Jonny Evans, the Da Silva twins, O'shea, Phil Neville, Darren Fletcher, Park, Silvestre, Veron and even Quinton Fortune had a set of supporters who defended them to the hilt even when they were often the subject of heavy criticism at many points in their united careers. Life won't end if Smalling is sold, i'm a United supporter first and foremost.All this defending of Smalling is hilarious. What will you do when he is inevitably sold
I've probably supported United longer than you have buddy.
I can imagine when he is settled in the premier league he will be a marvelous player.
We just have to patiently wait..
We just have to patiently wait..
Then this is the last year for you as united fans. Smalling contract ends in 2019 , i am pretty sure jose won't be stupid enough to extend , he will be cash in this summer
As united fans , the first thing i won't do is to be biased to certain player when they are clearly not good enough
On topics , lindelof should have play next game or put jones with rojo , we will see a better football
Ps : smalling is good enough for stoke , not us
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That's an opinion we don't share clearly, so that makes me less of a supporter than you?
There is a difference between defending him like he is a top CB whilst largely ignoring his deficiencies and trashing our other CB’s and just accepting that he is only good enough to be back up here. If we are to improve the squad long term, we need better back up as well.
I've never said he's a top defender. Show me one post where I even remotely suggest that. I've compared his output to the others. Im defending him because he's a scapegoat and because his general performances don't warrant the barrage of abuse he's getting from the likes of you. How am I even trashing our other CBs? I've presented my arguments fairly with stats that you can't refute. You can't force your opinion on me.
I dont abuse Smalling. He isn’t good enough and we need to upgrade. Same goes for players like Herrera.
Yet you keep saying Fellaini is good enough for us. Makes you wonder about the blatant bias.
As a squad player? Yes Fellani is useful and a good option atm. I said Smalling should he upgraded soon not that we should sell him now. We are short in CM already, Carrick is retiring, we can still use Fellaini.
I would rather keep Herrera as a squad player than Fellaini because we invariably use him as a hoof-ball plan B when we are trailing. At least with him going, we will try to play on the ground to score rather than aiming at his chest all the time.
There is nothing wrong using Fellaini’s strength in the air. He’s better with the ball than Herrera anyway.
???????????????????????????????
This season? I don't think its even a discussion. Ander has been horrid for the most part.
He is not better in any way except for using his chest. He is decent at playing 5 yard passes but anything more with the ball at his feet is asking for too much. Cannot believe anyone would think Fellaini is better with the ball at his feet than Herrera.
While Fellaini has been injured and not really setting the world alight himself.
Rojo is capable of making a simple forward pass to the feet of the attacking players. Smalling isn't cpaable of doing so. Under slight pressure, Smalling panics and kicks the ball out. I don't see other of our defenders doing that. There is no argument that while Smalling is pretty good at duels, but when it comes to passing and Zonal marking, he isn't. He's good when he is given a set of instructions to do. For example, marking Player X. But when he needs to "think", all his flaws are exposed.
He isn't a scapegoat. Scapegoats are Lindelof who just got here, came on and made mistakes and people are writing him off.
Smalling have been here for 8 years. In my eyes, he is still a calamitous defender who occasionally induces panic. He hasn't really improved much and while i would love him to stay, he shouldn't really be starting.
Smalling and Young are one of the reason why we are shitty against the press. With Young, is always launching it up with his right foot. With Smalling, he either passes it to the LCB or the RB. If we had Lindelof there, he provides us a better outlet to play it long since he has a better pass in him than Smalling does.
Was clearly playing well until he got injured.
Even in his worst form Herrera is a much better passer.
He was doing OK. But we may have different expectations of what a United midfielder must be doing on the pitch to say he is doing well.
No one said he was Scholes. He was doing well, if people want to rewrite it now, whatever.
No one said he was Scholes but you are the only one rewriting anything. His goal returns has been abysmal and he is not really played as a proper midfielder. When he does play there against good teams, he gets shown up most of the times.
We need upgrading and I am glad he is leaving at the end of the season.
Well, ok that’s your opinion. This is the Lindelof thread anyway so we should leave it here.
the only one that matters, goals conceded
So this is the only stats that matter if you are evaluating the defenders?
Man City, Spurs, Liverpool and Chelsea have a significant lower expected goals against tally than us.
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Im from sweden, and i love lindelof, obviously. But what are you guys think of him? Why has not mou given him more chances? I think he really deserves chances to prove himself. Hes been, in my opinion, very good when he plays. Maybe his poor start and that mistake against huddersfield is what everybody remembers from him.
It’s really strange. He go many chances when he played poorly in the first matches, then he had some good matches and is out, not even part of rotation despite the poor performance of the other CBs. It’s also worrying for Sweden with the World Cup coming up as he is one very important player for the Swedish team.
After a rough start he seemed to be settling in, error free relatively and picking up some confidence. Not sure what has happened, but am sure we will see him back in the fold soon. Might be some behind the scenes work in the gym is taking precedence but find it hard to imagine Jose has given up when he hasn't done anything bad recently.
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