Against Tottenham, in what Smalling describes as probably his best performance for United, he nullified the man-of-the-moment, Harry Kane, and he was impressive against Daniel Sturridge in the Liverpool game. There was also the flashpoint with the Liverpool substitute, Mario Balotelli, when the pair crashed into the advertising hoardings. The
Italy striker, who is not in Antonio Conte’s squad for Turin, had to be held back from Smalling by a couple of Liverpool fans.
“If you’re doing your job and not giving the striker much of a chance he’ll probably get angry and Balotelli is someone who can lose his temper very quickly,” Smalling says. “I’m happy to see them get frustrated. I thought that it could be round two on Tuesday but I’ve seen that he’s not in the squad. We’ll have to wait for that.
“I’ve not had too many different managers and Van Gaal is my first foreign coach. He’s really worked hard on the training field right from the double sessions in pre-season. We’ve had the tactics and quite a lot of meetings in terms about the vision that he wants. It is all clicking together.
“The manager stresses that he wants the centre-halves taking responsibility rather than the easy option and passing to the full-back when the room is too narrow and they can’t really do much with the ball. He says: ‘Why pass it to him when you’ve got no one marking you? Try to entice and, if the opportunity comes, pass it to someone in a better position.
