See second goal against West Brom.
12
Season Average Rating
- Appearances
- 29
- Clean sheets
- 8
- Goals
- 4
- Assists
- 0
- Yellow cards
- 3
- Red cards
- 1
See second goal against West Brom.
You're right
It was his first game back in a while and he made a decision to press the midfield. I didnt think it was stupid maybe he was a bit rusty. Why Rojo/Rafael didnt try to cover is another question.
That's the problem we are always making excuses for them.
Why Sunderland? I would ship to QPR and let him hit relegation there.
Players and coaches turning against him.
Dont see anyone making excuses for Smalling but i guess its a matter of opinion. For most of the West Brom game i thought he did well, but for that one mistake which i put down to him being rusty
Throwing himself like he did when on a yellow was asking for the ref to send him off. The first card, I don't even understand wtf he was trying to do.
How does a facial expression convey that?!
Neither of those cards were the type of challenges I'd expect Smalling to make. It was just a really weird red for him to get. He's still head and shoulders above the other centre backs in the squad right now.
Think you are spot on. If it was a recurring theme with him, I could accept and understand the knee-jerk reactions, but people are going way over the top here. Silly place at times.
Yeah, I was wondering that too..
That's all true and kneejerk reactions are inevitable but yet again if he doesnt get a stupid red which he doesnt so often he gets injured himself every few games.
Uncharacteristic mistake from Smalling today. On another day he wouldn't just stood Milner up, but he had a rush of blood and dived in.
I hope he slapped him let alone gave him some poxy face.
I disagree it's knee jerk. I think a lot of people have had enough of the mediocre central defenders we had in line to replace Rio and Vidic, and I think the lack of quality of all three has been clear for a long time. I think this latest incident is just the latest thing that has underwhelmed me about Smalling. I have been saying for a long time he isn't up to scratch, because he isn't.
Can you honestly see him becoming the next Rio or Vidic? Honestly, after all this time? Same goes for Evans, and to a lesser degree Jones.
The answer is no if you're honest. So what are they still doing here?
He makes a mistake and his head is gone. That is the Smalling i know. In this case he went for a stupid tackle. His nervousness costs him every time. We really need to sell some of our defenders at the end of the season. Guy is 25, plays like a teenager. Shaw looks miles ahead of him in terms of intelligence.
Do you actually remember Vidic and Ferdinand when they were 24/25? They were far from the finished article. Smalling's still young enough for a CB and his weaknesses are things that can easily be improved. I think you are being far too harsh on him.
The tackle wasn't the problem, the stupid yellow card for getting in front of the keeper was. I agree that Smalling is incredibly imature on the pitch, but Shaw is not a good example. Shaw constantly loses position because he tries to recover the ball when he has no chance to win the tackle. The problem is we don't have anyone smart in any defensive position.
If our defenders aren't getting injured, they seem to be doing well and finding other ways to miss games.
He might have cost us the game today, but he's still our best CB imo.
Just finished the match.....shocking from Smalling..hes played enough matches to know better...no excuses today.
Smalling was a frickin' idiot whilst on a yellow, but does anyone actually know why he was booked for the first one? I saw exactly the same thing happen last weekend and that ref just had a quiet word with the player.
Is it actually an offense to stand 5 yards from a goalkeeper when he is kicking it out of his hands?
Dunno, all our senior centre-backs are at a similar level, none are reliable, unfortunately.
This. He's a very good centre half. Today was very out of character. Im completely shocked about it. I hope he goes straight back into the side after his suspension. He's the only one we have who I actually trust to defend properly.
Why are some focussing on the tackle that got him sent off, and not the ridiculous decision to get what was always going to be a booking, for a brain dead block for the goal kick in the 20th minute or so. What's even more astonishing is that despite the obvious yellow he would receive, he decided (as he had enough time to process this) that it was worth it to halt the play and play 70 minutes against possibly the best striker in the world, with a yellow to his name.
Its not the first time he's cost us at the Etihad either, as I recall him being at fault for Kompanys header in the decisive 1-0 loss. You can excuse mistakes from youngsters, but this guy is an experienced defender now and he hasn't stepped up, and I expect him to be shipped out.
Its not the first time he's cost us at the Etihad either, as I recall him being at fault for Kompanys header in the decisive 1-0 loss. You can excuse mistakes from youngsters, but this guy is an experienced defender now and he hasn't stepped up, and I expect him to be shipped out.
ClassyPlayers and coaches turning against him.
Really don't know why anyone is bothering to defend him. Under LvG who likes a CB good on the ball his time here is done now. Forget about him.
Hardly. By the time he was 23 Rio was Leeds captain. By the time he came to us at 24 he was the most expensive defender in the country. And he settled in pretty quickly if memory serves.
Vida was 24 when he came to us and within a year was a shoe-in alongside Rio. Smalling is now 25 and has shown little sign he is anywhere near their level – particularly in terms of mental strength and leadership. How you can say he is I have no idea. I would also say more or less the same for Evans, with perhaps giving Jones more slack because he still has a year or so on them.
I disagree about Ferdinand, he only really came good once Vidic joined and they built a settled partnership, IMO. I thought before that he was always liable to make a mistake.
I agree about Smalling's mental strength but that's something that can be improved with experience so it isn't something that worries me too much. I don't think Smalling has to be a leader, not every CB is so why does it matter if his leadership skills aren't like theirs were? He's good at reading the game, fast, strong and good in the air. They're most of the important attributes a CB needs.
It's too bad but we have to stick with him. It's not like he is the next Baresi or something but the alternative is that we go through another massive transition in defense if we go by some of the suggestions in this forum. Sell/replace Rafael, Evans, Jones and Smalling after we just lost 3 of our most experienced defenders last season?
I'm not saying we should blindly ignore our problems at the back and just stick with our injury-prone and shoddy defense but we don't exactly need to go for a massive overhaul either. Right now Smalling is the best central defender we have, at least for me, and we should stick by him. Ideally I wouldn't mind if we brought in a top-notch CB (not that there are many viable ones out there anyway) and 2 full backs as cover for Shaw and Rafael. I think it would be more sensible if we stuck with most of our current centre-backs and cut one or two of them (if McNair/Blackett show that they can make the step up) loose at most. It could be anyone from Smalling/Jones/Evans tbh but I think Smalling has the best chance at making it here out of the trio.
It's subjective and it's not clear-cut who is our best centre-back and has the best chance of making it here, among those trio and Rojo is just settling in for now. Who knows how our defense will line up 2-3 years from now. I just hope we don't have to go through another destabilizing transition and make over in defense or that we might come to regret letting one of our defenders go too soon.
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Probably because his passing has been more accurate than any of our other CBs this season
Its true thats an area of his game that isnt brilliant, but until we find a better defender who is also better on the ball you make do with what you have.
He's more reliable, more consistant than our other CBs and the other Cbs get away with poor distribution when he doesn't.
He shot himself in the foot today though after his injuries this season.
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I am very sorry for him. He was very good against Chelsea and he was actually very good till the stupid mistake.
He had to cover for Valencia (who was horrible the whole time) all the time, that's where the foul came from, he didn't make mistakes before and then that (actually if the referee had kept the criteria where he did not give Clichy and Zabaleta yellow cards, he could have gone away with it).
He is a better CB than any of other CB's but he just has to many injury problems and today this.
I really hope that he is back in the side after the CP game.
And LVG.... Why doesn't he comment RVP and his shit play? He just says that he is fit, even if he plays like shit. Rooney got against the playmaker role and he can't do it, it should be clear by now, but he still got the praise for running a lot and defensive work, but we have Blind and Fellaini for that, Rooney needs to do something upfront (like Herrera does, very good going forward and back). In two biggest games till now ADM was bad (I can image what abouse would have Nani got), but still no real criticism of that.
But my biggest problem with LVG is RVP, who is just not good enough right now and should not be playing. All the other players contribute to something, but not RVP (OK he scored against Chelsea), but he is safe, while LVG only attacks young players.
He had to cover for Valencia (who was horrible the whole time) all the time, that's where the foul came from, he didn't make mistakes before and then that (actually if the referee had kept the criteria where he did not give Clichy and Zabaleta yellow cards, he could have gone away with it).
He is a better CB than any of other CB's but he just has to many injury problems and today this.
I really hope that he is back in the side after the CP game.
And LVG.... Why doesn't he comment RVP and his shit play? He just says that he is fit, even if he plays like shit. Rooney got against the playmaker role and he can't do it, it should be clear by now, but he still got the praise for running a lot and defensive work, but we have Blind and Fellaini for that, Rooney needs to do something upfront (like Herrera does, very good going forward and back). In two biggest games till now ADM was bad (I can image what abouse would have Nani got), but still no real criticism of that.
But my biggest problem with LVG is RVP, who is just not good enough right now and should not be playing. All the other players contribute to something, but not RVP (OK he scored against Chelsea), but he is safe, while LVG only attacks young players.
Played well before getting the insane yellow. The 2nd is the kind of thing that happens when Valencia is at right back and a winger is running hard at the box with the ball.
The loss is basically entirely his fault, but I came out of the game more convinced that he should be the starting RCB for the next little while at least. We need to stop conceding so much and he's our best overall defender there. Not a good passer but Blind and Rafael as the 2 nearest players will help with that.
The loss is basically entirely his fault, but I came out of the game more convinced that he should be the starting RCB for the next little while at least. We need to stop conceding so much and he's our best overall defender there. Not a good passer but Blind and Rafael as the 2 nearest players will help with that.
The first yellow card annoys me everytime I think about it, it was akin to Rooney's versus West Ham in terms of how needless it was. So many men back and Hart was just punting it, it's baffling.
I really hope we go all out and get two starting XI quality centre backs over the next two windows then get rid of Jones, Smalling and Evans.
On reflection after emotions running high during the match the decision to block the keeper was not the smartest of choices.
I wouldn't be against that either but I can't think of two quality centre backs that we would be able to sign.
Do we really need amazing CB's to replace the average and injury prone lot we have?
An average CB that stayed fit and built a partnership would be better for us right now.