A poor game from him, and he's had a few of them in the last couple of months. It doesn't reduce him to being a bad player though. He's been in our top 3 players this season comfortably. Given the unbelievable inconsistency of the whole team all season long, I think it's fair that he has 2 or 3 poor ones, and today was a terrible team performance. Very difficult for him to stand out on his own, as a centre back.
The midfield is garbage, he's been flanked by a revolving door of full backs. Seriously, how many fecking full backs have we fielded this season? He's got Blind next to him, who I do rate, but in tough physical games like this, it's clear he's not a centre back, and that leaves Smalling on his own in a back four with 2 kids and a midfielder-cum-defender.
deserves a bit of credit for only missing one game in all competitions this season, playing the full 90 in all but one. He must be running on empty.
He's the least of our problems, and still one of the best in the league. Everyone was shit today.