As good as de Gea is, I would say van der Sar was the superior goalkeeper at the time and Evra was comfortably a level above what Shaw is currently.
12
Season Average Rating
- Appearances
- 29
- Clean sheets
- 8
- Goals
- 4
- Assists
- 0
- Yellow cards
- 3
- Red cards
- 1
Except anyone who could header.
Great post. The gif below is a great example of Smalling's positional awareness and his speed. This is the reason why, like Rio, Smalling is our least error prone CB among himself, Evans and Jones. He's a great marker who im yet to see get skinned by any player
No doubt about it, in fact that defence of O'shea/Brown, Rio, Vidic, Evra and VDS hold a record of less goals conceded over a period of time from the 08/09 season if I'm not wrong.
I agree with both of these statements.
Rio is criminally underrated in my opinion, technically gifted - great positional strength and read the game excellently.
Different type of defender to Vidic of course, but I much prefer watching Rio's game.
Top post. I would add, re the bold part, that composure on the ball and passing are both very confidence based abilities. I think Smalling can improve this part of his game as his confidence grows. Problem is I can't see him growing in confidence until he can put a strong run of games together, which won't be happening unless he can turn his injury record around.
Great post. The gif below is a great example of Smalling's positional awareness and his speed. This is the reason why, like Rio, Smalling is our least error prone CB among himself, Evans and Jones. He's a great marker who im yet to see get skinned by any player
This was one of my strongest memories from that game. I was in the Stretford end and when Willian charged forward I was really impressed with the way Smalling immediately sprung into action, backing off and matching Willian for speed before waiting for the right time to take the ball off him.
Extremely harsh on Van Der Sar. I don't see how De Gea (at his current level) would be an improvement on Van Der Sar. He's not even on his level, let alone an improvement.
Arguably Shaw is better one-on-one in the challenge than Evra, but he's clearly not at his level yet as a full back.
Not sure how you can claim they'd be improvements on that defence, if that's what you're implying.
He had a very solid game against Chelsea, also held Rojo's hands while doing it. How some people think he should be sold as early as January is beyond my understanding.
fecking baffling isn't it. Good performance against Arsenal and everyone will act as though they never said a bad word about him... Until the next poor game at which point he should be sold again.
The thing I will add about Smalling (after all the Rio comparisons on this/last page) is that when he joined the club he was actually regarded as being very good on the ball (hence the Rio comparisons). The U-Turn from that into him being technically deficient and incapable of a 5 yard pass is astounding. Based on the early performances though, Smalling obviously has it in his locker to pass the ball well and be pretty comfortable in possession - a few consistent games to build his confidence and I imagine that side of him will re-emerge.
It wasn't just with us, though. His reputation with being good on the ball was going on since he first came up at Maidstone. He was never your typical old-school English defender who was poor on the ball. Of course, I don't think he can handle receiving the ball in tight spaces as he often did as a full back, but as a central defender, when he'd have that bit more space and time on the ball, Smalling's been fairly good with his passing. His issues have only been with his long balls, but I'm sure that he'd perform fewer long balls, particularly with Carrick and/or Blind looking to support him.
Great post. The gif below is a great example of Smalling's positional awareness and his speed. This is the reason why, like Rio, Smalling is our least error prone CB among himself, Evans and Jones. He's a great marker who im yet to see get skinned by any player
Thanks mate!
That piece of defending by Smalling there is pure world class. Willian is very, very fast but doesn't stand a change, even when you can see that he tries a simple hit and run move. Also, the way Smalling stands him off forcing him out wide instead of directly at goal is great.
Thanks. I too think he can improve. I doubt he'll ever reach Rio's levels, but he does have other abilities like his heading ability which I would place above Rio. Smalling isn't poor on the ball, just awkward.
You're absolutely right. His average pass completion this season is almost 90%. Thats higher than anyone else on the team.
You're spot on! Most of our other CBs would have probably panicked. I can see Jones handling it differently and attempting one of his last ditch tackles, probably getting a red and conceding a penalty. Smalling didn't get enough praise for this, yet Jones got a lot of praise for a last ditch tackle against Swansea, for keeping the score down in a game we lost anyway. If Willian scored from that chance we would've certainly lost, and Rojo would've been the next scapegoat.
With Smalling, it isn't the talent that is in doubt. It's his lack of being able to string a few games together without getting injured or his general lackadaisical or stupidity on the ball. He isn't exactly great passing the ball out and doesn't look particularly comfortable on the ball either, but he's a great defender when he's actually on form. I just wish he can show that promise once more as he's 25 now and is surely running out of time at United.
Echo the second bolded statement, and for me that's why he won't last too long once we get defensive reinforcements in, half the time he looks like he about to fall over the ball, or play a stupid pass, and he just doesn't seem to be improving with this either.
Yes he can head the ball, and is quick but that's not enough long term.
I'm a massive Smalling fan, and I really hope he'll be able to string together quite a few matches now.
Great post. The gif below is a great example of Smalling's positional awareness and his speed. This is the reason why, like Rio, Smalling is our least error prone CB among himself, Evans and Jones. He's a great marker who im yet to see get skinned by any player
I've been critical of his technique on the ball but that's quality defending.
Also, wtf was Rojo trying to do?
Great post. The gif below is a great example of Smalling's positional awareness and his speed. This is the reason why, like Rio, Smalling is our least error prone CB among himself, Evans and Jones. He's a great marker who im yet to see get skinned by any player
Initially, when I first saw this during the match, I was thinking that Willian screwed up a great opportunity to get through (I still gave Smalling credit, but I thought it was more of an error from Willian than brilliant defending from Smalling).
However, having watched this wonderful GIF many times, I have to say, this is all Smalling and zero Willian's mistake. He did amazingly well to stop a very tricky and dangerous dribbler. He never looked fazed and seemed like he was in perfect control. I also imagined that, if Evans was back there, he would most likely have been beaten by Willian, whilst Jones may have made a rash challenge.
Rojo was real nervy against Chelsea. His passing was all over the place.
You're spot on my friend. Any of our other CBs would've been raped by Willian. Dare I say Vidic probably would've too because he always struggled with pacy players (Torres 1v1 on two occasions springs to mind). Rio in his prime would've done exactly what Smalling did
Agreed, Rio was the master of showing players outside and then beating them to the ball and it looks like Smalling has a knack for it too.
Glad Smalling will be back (please don't get injured before then). Our best CB IMO. Needs to put in a good performance to make-up for his silly red though.
He owes us a good game after his f*ck up against City.
He doesn't owe us anything. Defenders mistime challenges now and again - sometimes they get red cards. In his 4 completed seasons Smalling got 4 yellows and no reds; Vidic, in the same time period, got 13 yellows and 3 reds; Evans 10 and 2; Rio (mister never gets booked) got 6 yellows; and in just 3 seasons Jones accumulated 15 yellows. Defenders get booked and sometimes sent off (even Rio got sent off once, years ago). Smalling is better than most in that regard.
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Great post. The gif below is a great example of Smalling's positional awareness and his speed. This is the reason why, like Rio, Smalling is our least error prone CB among himself, Evans and Jones. He's a great marker who im yet to see get skinned by any player
That's some good defending right there!
Yeah, but he still f*cked us against City.
Just like Evans did a few seasons back and Vidic did serially against Liverpool. Sh!t happens, get over it.
It's refreshing to see people accepting that he had a shocker against City but is still essentially a good defender who should be starting. Normally on the Caf he'd be the antichrist for at least three months.
I suppose injury crises make realists of us all.
I suppose injury crises make realists of us all.
You appear to be the one more concerned with his sending off versus City. All I said was that he owes us a good performance, I'm sure van Gaal feels similarly.
I was wondering about the stats on this so thanks for that. Doesnt entirely surprise me and reinforces the belief that what happened against City was an abberation - unfortunate and foolish, and with the above in mind I have no doubt he will learn from it and make sure it doesnt happen again.
You could see as soon as he got up from the tackle on Milner that he realised he was off, and you could see the disappointment and feeling that he had let the team down. Like I said, I suspect Smalling will try even harder now to stay disciplined. A hard lesson to learn, but a very valuable one for him I reckon.
You're right. Defenders will make mistakes. What's harder to forgive is an actual pathetic overall display like Evans against MK Dons
That's where we'll see how he does mentally coming back. He knows he messed up like you said but, can very well fall into a too cautious frame of mind which can be equally costly down the road. The good in a way is this is his first time he's really messed up big that we've never had to question how he deals with adversity.
Yeah. But you can prove anything with statistics, even the truth.
I could happily have crucified him after the City match, but I've gotten over it now and am willing to give him another chance.
Yeah its a possibility, but Smalling has always struck me as an intelligent lad. The sending off against City was so out of character for him. I am confident that he will bounce back stronger.
Won't get into whether he owes us or not but It wasn't that he got sent off but more how his 2 yellow's were both utterly stupid and preventable too which cost us a Major game by reducing us to 10 men early.
And just getting a yellow card as long as you don't get a red until the last few minutes maybe is fine. Dunno why you are listing that.
He's fit for Saturday, right?
I think he's good enough for a place at the club, but he picks up to many niggles to be dependable and the new face of our backline..