I agree.
12
Season Average Rating
- Appearances
- 55
- Clean sheets
- 24
- Goals
- 2
- Assists
- 1
- Yellow cards
- 13
- Red cards
- 1
- Status
I agree.
Thought Blind was pretty good actually and has been all season. Handled Mitrovic far better than Smalling did.
I guess we'll allow him the odd bad game considering his average performances this season. The lack of cover he seemed to be offered by the midfield 2 today seemed to cause him a world of problems.
It does makes you wonder how many of his impressive performances have been him, and how much has been LVGs solid defensive set up.
It does makes you wonder how many of his impressive performances have been him, and how much has been LVGs solid defensive set up.
Oh yeah, he's been the one holding our defense together all season, while it was clearly Smalling who needed the protection from midfield to look good
I think he hasn't been the same since the Watford game. feck knows what's happened to be honest.
Oh yeah, he's been the one holding our defense together all season, while it was clearly Smalling who needed the protection from midfield to look good
Happens with all centre backs in those types of systems. Look at Mourinho's Chelsea or Inter or the current Athletico Madrid I agree though if we play like that Jones is a better partner than Blind.
To be fair to him... if he was surrounded by other people who could actually defend, he probably wouldn't feel the need to have to win every ball by himself all the time
Just get him a proper partner, so he doesn't have to be in stupidly good form for us to have a hope of a clean sheet. His form has suffered since the Watford game and we've kept 4 cleansheets since then. 2 of them against a dreadful Chelsea team and one against a league 1 team.
I'm sure he'll eventually get back to form, because he's far too good not to but we're far too reliant on him individually.
Has dipped lately, but it happens.
I think he could do with a rest. I don't think the midfield today did him any favors either.
I think he could do with a rest. I don't think the midfield today did him any favors either.
He's had a great season, whilst not perfect it's undoubtedly been very good. Tonight was a horror show though, at fault for the first 2 goals and never looked comfortable. Hoping it's a flash in the plan and he's back on it by the weekend!
Smalling was carrying Blind at the beginning of the season, but since November, Blind has been comfortably the better of two.Oh yeah, he's been the one holding our defense together all season, while it was clearly Smalling who needed the protection from midfield to look good
Blind's often been the more suspect of the two, but I thought he was mostly fine tonight. Smalling was easily the bigger liability.
Been quiet good for most of the season, bad tonight though.
His poorest game of the season tonight, but he's allowed an off day.
The so called defensive midfielders ahead of him were about as useful as chocolate teapots. They did nothing to protect him.
The so called defensive midfielders ahead of him were about as useful as chocolate teapots. They did nothing to protect him.
Nah, Blind is not good at actually defending. Most of his good defending comes as a result of him making up for some shit defending he's done moments before it.
There's a reason Smalling is now running around like a crazy person trying to do all the defending himself... because the blokes who are around him aren't very good at it.
Needing protection certainly had nothing to do with conceding that penalty though, and his arguably being out of position for their first certainly wasn't the midfielders fault. Hell, it was even Fellaini who covered him!
I don't think the lack of cover in front of him is that much of a problem, physically he can compensate with anything in front of him.
The problem is he has defensive liabilities literally left right and centre. Right/left back, central defensive partner AND a non existent midfield. Watch how eager/assertive he is to cover space ACROSS the penalty box whenever opposition players pass our full backs on the inside or outside. It'll take experience and a solid partner to help him overcome that.
Of course things it's ridiculous to expect everything laid out on a plate for him but I think he absolutely deserves praise for his performances and deserves every chance to continue being a stalwart for us.
They haven't been good enough all season, but his run of form from the start of the season was unbelievably good. It was probably just foolish expecting him to be able to continue in the same vein for the entire season, without a noticeable blip.
If he had a competent partner who's able to step up, it would've just gone through this run without being noticed.
True I guess, our midfield was just porous in general throughout!
True, that certainly didn't help. Schneiderlin was anonymous, and Fellaini's always poor positionally.
The thing is, Blind is quite good at defending. Since when we applaud defenders trying to do all things by themselves, isn't that considered bad (Phil Jones)?
Not that stats tell everything, but I looked at it and well: http://www.squawka.com/comparison-m...ck_score/defence_score/possession_score#total
Blind is better at tackling and not making fouls while being quite better at posession/attacking score. Smalling is better in the air, interceptions and clearances. Blind is better in any attacking/posession attribute and in total ranking (whatever it means) is comfortably the better player. Forget about the last thing though (total score), but the other points stand.
I think that Smalling was brilliant at the beginning of the season, but for the last two months or so, Blind has been quite better than him. Which is kind of surprising, with our defense getting less protection, I would have thought that it would have been the other way around.
Anyway, he has been here almost Welbeck-overrated, so he might play every day like this and Blind can be Baresi, and people will still claim that he is carrying Blind. For whatever reasons, a lot of people got this idea that Blind can't defend despite that he has been doing a solid job here and at the very worst case, is our second best central defender.
Blind never taken responsibilty from smalling, chris just hasnt been as dominant as before past coupe of games, Blind makes two reasonable errors per game, how can anyone claim that he's been better, this game also people will talk about smalling but Blind made another two big mistakes which people didnt even notice as they only see big man
Smalling's mistakes were ultimately the ones that cost us goals though, so he's always going to come in for more criticism due to that.
Any CB playing behind Fellaini in midfield will struggle.. Had a bad game tonight but so did many others..
and for today's game I agree with you but it would be quite a nonsense to claim that blind has been better in recent weeks as he certainly hasn't
He does this quite a lot to be honest, going to the edge in the penalty area, especially at corners. He always grabs the opponents shirt. Honestly, I'm quite surprised that we haven't conceded a penalty earlier in the season because of it, always thought it was just the english game or the referees let him pass due to domestic bias.
Blind is good at defending the way any defensive midfield of his mold is good at defending. In that, he does roughly the same job that a 25 yr old Carrick would do at centre back. He can make a tackle when and where he needs, will do a good job at reading the play and will obviously be excellent in possession.
BUT because he isn't a centre-back (and he really isn't a centre-back) then he will constantly struggle with defending that is suited to a natural centre-back. Matching players runs, intercepting the ball, staying with your man, heading and - the main one - positioning. Blind often finds himself in the wrong position when defending, quite simply because he's not a centre back.
Example, there was a point against Sheffield United where there striker had the ball with his feet, was running down the wing, and Blind manged to get himself in-between him and the ball to push him off the ball and effectively regain possession. Thing is, the only reason their player had the ball at his feet and was running down the wing in the first place was because Blind got caught the wrong side of him, so attempted to win the ball before him and completely ballsed it up.
Another example... late(ish) in the second half, Blind again did well to get the right side of Mitrovic and win the ball back from him when he had the ball in a dangerous position. The reason he had the ball in a dangerous position? A high ball was dropping down and Blind completely spooned his clearance, giving it straight to Mitrovic.
It's little things like that with Blind. He will generally be okay/good in most defensive moments... but because he isn't a centre back, a lot of the time he'll find himself in the wrong place or doing the wrong thing - and when we find ourselves under the cosh/pressure, and the amount of defending back there that he has to do increases, the more he struggles and the quicker he gets found out.
The issue today was Blind was a 4/10 performance the entire game, Smalling was 7/10 for 93 minutes and 30 seconds and a 1/10 the other 30 seconds. When you feck up that badly you're going to concede.
Thankfully it's a very rare occurrence nowadays, it's just frustrating.
Thankfully it's a very rare occurrence nowadays, it's just frustrating.
That penalty was pure and utter stupidity, and was 100% Smalling's fault. If Blind had done it people on here would be a lot less forgiving.
Next time we should get Blind to mark the 6'3 striker. We'll see how it goes...
I don't agree. I think that Blind is really good at defending. For example tackling that you mentioned. He has more tackles in less minutes than Smalling, while also having a better percentage of successful tackles. So that isn't just 'he can make a tackle', but it is 'good at tackling'.
Being excellent in possession is extremely important for CBs in modern football. Actually, look at any top CB nowadays and you'll find that they are great at possession. It is becoming as important as being great at defending.
Mascherano isn't a CB, but has been one of the best in the world in that position for the last 4 seasons or so.
Example, there was a point against Sheffield United where there striker had the ball with his feet, was running down the wing, and Blind manged to get himself in-between him and the ball to push him off the ball and effectively regain possession. Thing is, the only reason their player had the ball at his feet and was running down the wing in the first place was because Blind got caught the wrong side of him, so attempted to win the ball before him and completely ballsed it up.
And yet - in my opinion, you don't have to agree - Smalling has been struggling more than him in the last two months (it was completely different in the beginning of the season). There is something wrong here. Either Smalling isn't that great, or Blind isn't that bad. Or both are decent with neither being great (which in my opinion is the closest to the truth). In my opinion, Smalling has some mistakes in him while having a shit technique, Blind has a great technique but lacks physical attributes. They are doing an alright job, but either of them is far from a top player. And in my opinion, during the course of the entire season they have been around the same level.
Saying that, I never got the Smalling hype (similarly how I never got the Welbeck hype when he was the new Henry), and found ridiculous how people thought that he is the best in the league/world class defender after like 5 great performances. I think that he is a very good player and maybe can become the best in the league, but still many aspects of his game needs to be polished to be considered a top defender.
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Horrendous today. Hopefully all the praise he's been getting hasn't went to his head because he's been poor last two months.
He had to put in his worst performance of the season tonight just when we needed him most. Such a shame because he's been brilliant for us this season.
The cleverly won penalty aside where he was pulled onto Mitrovic by the neck and shirt like like two wrestlers in love, there were times when I was wondering what the hell he was doing.
I'll chalk it up to mental fatigue from the festive period.
I'll chalk it up to mental fatigue from the festive period.
Poor for the last two months?
A lot of refs will stop play and sort it out before allowing the corner to be taken. From what I saw, Dean could just as easily given us a free kick instead of awarding them a penalty.
What is this shit? Red Cafe is the worst place to be straight after a loss.
Anyway, really really bad performance. His form has definitely dropped but I am not sure when it happned. I've only started to notice it after he picked up the groin strain. He's trying to do too much and it is backfiring. The penalty was brainless. They were both pulling and holding but Smalling was more obvious and probably doing the worst of it. Terrible game and he needs to pick it up again ASAP.
Looked like he was fatigued. Still not a good excuse for that performance. He hasn't been at his best recently, but I do think he's having good games with bad spells, as opposed to being flat out terrible. He's not in his early season form, but he's played 31 games this season. Last season, he played 29 games in total. And the season before that, he played in 38 games.
Had an absolute stinker.
He could have got sent off today the way he handled mitrovic. He wasn't thinking straight. It wasn't the rock solid smalling today. It's the way he was committing fouls. Already on a tellies card and he was literally wrestling with mitrovic in the last minutes. That's insane.
But as i said in another thread, if anyone can be cut some slack it's smalling
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