Perfect performance from him. I think he'll grow into the commanding leader we need. Let's sign someone to play next to him, keep Smalling and Bailly for backup, and sell Rojo and Jones.
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Season Average Rating
- Appearances
- 40
- Clean sheets
- 8
- Goals
- 1
- Assists
- 1
- Yellow cards
- 3
- Status
I'm really not so sure, and, anyway, would still offload him, along with Jones and Rojo. Just my opinion, but I think we all agree we need major surgery at centre back.
He wasn't rubbish at all aerially. In fact I was surprised how good he was heading the ball today.
Jones was awful today.
Bailly will come good, give him time, he was good in La Liga, very good indeed. Remember his 1st months with us before Mourinho and injuries sucked out his confident.
Lindelof was very good today but blame him for that Alli's shot thought.
He played well but isn't the long term solution IMO..
He has improved - but he always seems 10% behind the process of understanding where to position himself.
I want an defender that is a step ahead of the attackers & is able to read the game - enabling us to have a relative stability in defence.
Jones, Bailly, Rojo, Lindelof are all defenders that are too reactionary for me - they defend after the attack has happened.
Smalling on the other hand is a step ahead; normally making it harder for the attackers to attack what so ever. Not my favourite or anything - just the signs I see in our defence when he plays vs everyone else.
I want an defender that is a step ahead of the attackers & is able to read the game - enabling us to have a relative stability in defence.
Jones, Bailly, Rojo, Lindelof are all defenders that are too reactionary for me - they defend after the attack has happened.
Smalling on the other hand is a step ahead; normally making it harder for the attackers to attack what so ever. Not my favourite or anything - just the signs I see in our defence when he plays vs everyone else.
He’s massively improved but imho we need better, he was saved by DDG on quite a few occasions today.
I thought he was rubbish.. But we can agree to disagree on that.
Had DDG not made them saves, the tone in this thread would've been very different.
Great game and generally the only time Kane was a threat was when he was up against Jones. For me proved the doubters absolutely wrong when they talk about him being weak and having no pace. Like said, this lads been turning in these performances for a long time now but for some on here, they struggle to give him any credit for if nothing else having the balls not to fade away after a poor start (like others have before him) and to prove he has the mental strength and self belief to be a Manchester Utd player, at one of the worst times to join this football club....
The defence was very underwhelming today. A clean sheet is a combination of De Gea, luck and Spurs finishing.
*those saves
I agree, Bailly's time has come and gone. Too much of a liability, had a good start to his career at United but fizzled out very quick like Darmian.
We were also well organised; credit where it's due, every player threw their bodies in for the cause. We showed real character today.
We have a very dangerous attack so scoring afew more against Spurs wouldn't have been a surprise.
Each to their own I guess but there's a lot of 'ifs' and 'buts' in football. Not sure what long term is anymore in football but currently, it's others that have been here a lot longer will be worrying about their utd career and not him....
You do that and we literally have no one who can head a ball. It’s a crucial skill that’s seriously lacking
I agree..
A bit simplistic. They never had a shot on goal first half. Alamo stuff second half alright, but that was a team thing, not just defence. Phil struggled but I thought Lindelof was excellent.
Cheers for correcting my grammar, sometimes it's difficult to multitask. But I'm glad to see we have the grammar Police on standby.
once Smalling is fit I would like to them have a few games together. Smalling is excellent in the air and i think they could form a good partnership
Thought he looked better again today. Will benefit when we find a great partner for him. Still has lots of prove too.
But can Smalling play to the left?
Nothing compared to the players below.
Shaw
Jones
De Gea
Matic
Herrera
Pogba
Rashford
https://www.whoscored.com/Players/79554/MatchStatistics/David-De-Gea
https://www.whoscored.com/Players/81726/MatchStatistics/Phil-Jones
https://www.whoscored.com/Players/118244/MatchStatistics/Luke-Shaw
https://www.whoscored.com/Players/38128/MatchStatistics/Nemanja-Matic
https://www.whoscored.com/Players/97752/MatchStatistics/Paul-Pogba
https://www.whoscored.com/Players/71174/MatchStatistics/Ander-Herrera
https://www.whoscored.com/Players/300299/MatchStatistics/Marcus-Rashford
He does when Bailly plays.
Fair enough.
Lindelof has look really good since the Juve game so for this season Lindelof/Smalling has to be first choice and then sign a first choice partner for Lindelof with Smalling and Tuanzebe as back up and maybe sign Jones to a pay as you play contract but sell Darmian, Bailly and Rojo.
I dont see Bailly making it. Injuries and his play is too crazy and erratic.Fair enough, we agree we need changes as we go forward, but we just have a difference of opinion on Smalling. Personally I would prefer to keep Bailly instead, provided he can stay fit, but, if not, I would have Smalling ahead of Jones until we can recruit better.
Not to mention an interesting heading tactic.
Which of Rio and Vidic was left Footed? Which of Bruce and Pallister was left footed? It's a question of reading the game. I think Victor is good enough to play on the left of Smalling
Agree, and some of his best matches from a defensive POV were to the left. But more or less all his good matches where he has stepped up, taken initiative, played the ball, dribbled etc, are to the right. And it is those features that could make him a top player in the future.
This +1
The love in for Lindelof's performance today is OTT in my opinion.
It seems all the saves Dave made were down to Jones' errors whilst Lindelof had a blinder.
At times both of our centre halves were taken to the cleaners today, (not just Jones) and the defense was bailed out by a combination of brilliant goalkeeping and poor finishing.
For me Lindelof's performance was ok, but it certainly wasn't outstanding.
Stats show he didn't lose a single header, but yeah it was a difference of opinion.
His aerial game is rubbish, don't dissapear when he gets exposed..Stats show he didn't lose a single header, but yeah it was a difference of opinion.
You're kidding. We just played a very, very, very good Spurs team. And we are still finding a rhythm, these are not Ole's players ok. We defended well, of course Spurs missed chances, what would you expect? Lindeholf was superb today, all over Kane. I hope he can grow from this. Young was a superb captain, Matic, Herrera.. worked their socks off.
Give us time. We have had a few years of a lot of crap. We rode our luck, and DDG was superb. Although... Spurs finishing wasn't great. But I'll take all that. We earned our luck. Spurs were excellent, but we earned our luck.
Your bias is pretty apparent. When you see something that can be disproven with hard info, you might want to rethink.
How can anyone say we defended well when our goalkeeper made more saves in one half than any other goalkeeper has made in an entire game this premiership season?
That stat does not imply a solid defensive performance in my book.
Kane had 7 shots on goal. Very likely some sort of record.
It was a little of a wild and offensive match. DDG made four saves more than Lloris, remember that. And I know lots of United supporters love Vertongen and Alderweireld more than their own players, but to me they did not have a clue what to do with Martial and Rashford in first half.
Does his improvement have much to do with moving across to the right side of the pairing do we think? Or just the way the team is set up now?
A lot of those saves had got to do with our midfield not been able to stop those chances being created. I think only the Ali chances was due to Lindelof.
- Status