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2015-16 Performances

View full 2015-16 profile

6.3 Season Average Rating
Appearances
55
Clean sheets
24
Goals
2
Assists
1
Yellow cards
13
Red cards
1
Status
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I really rate Smalling defensively but he really is atrocious on the ball.

He's incredibly clumsy and constantly invites pressure to our defence by being cumbersome and indecisive. He also has no left foot which makes him hoof it out any time the ball is on his side.

Blind gets a lot of criticism but the only reason he's in the team is because Smalling cannot be trusted on the ball for a possession based team.

He's 26 now and becoming an experienced player and I'm really surprised that he's still so poor technically.
 
Smalling, Martial and DDG are the only players who have managed to stand out in our team when the other players are rubbish. Smalling was no worse than the rest of the team today, and he still has to adjust to playing next to someone new every second match. Give him stability and he will flourish. Darmian was absolutely rubbish today, which didn't help things, and whatever happened to Schneiderlin I do not know.

One might argue that Smalling is at fault for the goal, but it looks like the whole defense was sleeping there.
 
El Jefe said:
I really rate Smalling defensively but he really is atrocious on the ball.

He's incredibly clumsy and constantly invites pressure to our defence by being cumbersome and indecisive. He also has no left foot which makes him hoof it out any time the ball is on his side.

Blind gets a lot of criticism but the only reason he's in the team is because Smalling cannot be trusted on the ball for a possession based team.

He's 26 now and becoming an experienced player and I'm really surprised that he's still so poor technically.
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He's in the team as he's our second best centre back! Yet he is not a centre back, that sums us up at the moment!
 
He keeps getting into these unnecessary tangles with defenders when the ball in the air which almost always results in him not winning the ball. He needs to be much smarter and stronger with his challenges.
 
Does he close his eyes when in attacking positions? He gets into so many good positions but then just misses the ball completely. Like hes closing his eyes swinging at it.
 
He's gone well off the boil recently, such a shame considering he's been excellent for us most of the season.
 
El Jefe said:
I really rate Smalling defensively but he really is atrocious on the ball.

He's incredibly clumsy and constantly invites pressure to our defence by being cumbersome and indecisive. He also has no left foot which makes him hoof it out any time the ball is on his side.
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El Jefe said:
Blind gets a lot of criticism but the only reason he's in the team is because Smalling cannot be trusted on the ball for a possession based team.

He's 26 now and becoming an experienced player and I'm really surprised that he's still so poor technically.
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He's in the team because he's the only other player in that position who can stay fit.

Your criticism of Smalling is way over the top also
 
He badly needs a rest, been saying it since the New Year. It's ridiculous really how much he is playing without any rest.

Revan said:
Considering that Blind has outperformed him for half of the season, it is difficult to say that. When Jones tries to do other people job and fails, the consensus is that he is shit (not that I complain, he is shit indeed), but when Smalling does it, he needs a proper partner, other players are leaving him down, yadda yadda. Lets call a spade for what it is.
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Blind has outperformed him in about 4 games in last two months. In first half of the season Smalling was basically one man defence bullying opposition strikers and for the rest they were both average/poor.

To say that Blind outperformed him for half of the season is laughable, even if you don't rate Smalling at all.

The difference is quite clear really, during Smalling's good spell we hardly conceeded any goals in first half of the season, once Blind started "outperforming" him we are conceeding like crazy.
 
Amar__ said:
He badly needs a rest, been saying it since the New Year. It's ridiculous really how much he is playing without any rest.
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This. He's only missed the Bournemouth game, and has played the full 90 in every game in all comps except for the game against Ipswich where he came off after 70 mins. It's an enormous amount of games with no rest, especially for a player who was considerably injury-prone prior to this season. He needs a rest, but he just can't have one as we have nobody else.
 
SteveW said:
He's in the team because he's the only other player in that position who can stay fit.

Your criticism of Smalling is way over the top also
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Even if the others were fit Blind would be first choice for most games.

Opposing teams don't even mark Smalling when he has the ball because they know 95% of the time he will feck it up. I've lost track of the number of times he's run into a sea of space left by the other team's midfield only for him to drive into that space and play a sloppy pass with no pressure whatsoever.

I'll say it again, defensively he's as good as there is in the league but his ability on the ball is bottom half of the table standard.
 
Acole9 said:
He's gone well off the boil recently, such a shame considering he's been excellent for us most of the season.
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Totally agree. He's been making mistakes consistently for a number of games now. Not that we have anyone challenging for his place so he'll just play anyway.
 
El Jefe said:
I'll say it again, defensively he's as good as there is in the league but his ability on the ball is bottom half of the table standard.
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I agree, but I don't really think it is a major issue, especially if we can finally ditch the possession football once LvG is (hopefully) binned. Vidic's dribbling and distribution was ropey as well, often pretty awful. Smalling, like Vidic, is a pure defender. Nothing wrong with that. I don't think every centre back needs to be a ball player.
 
Acole9 said:
He's gone well off the boil recently, such a shame considering he's been excellent for us most of the season.
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Agree. All the defenders are suffering from the chopping and changing because of frequent injuries or tactical switches by the manager.
 
Poor error. He has been making more and more lately. I think he needs a break. I said it a few pages ago but he has never played this many games in a row so I think he is struggling mentally to maintain the focus that is required.
 
He is a protected specie on here. He plays crap and everyone wants Blind replaced. Blind has been very good in that position all season. Smalling was great for the first half of the season but has dropped off badly. I would rather see Smalling replaced and Blind partnered by a top centre back. A player that can defend and play out.
 
I'm still not convinced by him.

He's nowhere near the quality we're used to at CB and he never will be - the same can be said for the majority of players on our team though.
 
His form has fallen off a cliff. Coincided with our midfield going to pot and offering far less protection.

Nice while it lasted...
 
GE said:
I'm still not convinced by him.

He's nowhere near the quality we're used to at CB and he never will be - the same can be said for the majority of players on our team though.
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Rio and Vida? If so, you should get used to it.
 
Has looked a bag of nerves recently and the composure and assurance have gone

I think he needs a more experienced and dominant partner
 
GE said:
Not just the two you mentioned. Our defence the worst I have ever witnessed at Old Trafford.
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You can't remember the days of Silvestre and Wes Brown as our CB partnership? Not that long ago...
 
TwoSheds said:
You can't remember the days of Silvestre and Wes Brown as our CB partnership? Not that long ago...
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I'd take them two over the bag of shite we have currently.

Smalling and Shaw are the only two defenders we have with any promise. It's a little early to judge Jackson, but the rest are crap.
 
Smalling has played almost every game this season and almost every single minute of those games. He's a very good defender, but his body and mind need rest. Badly.

But who do we turn to for a CB to pair with Blind...Carrick?
 
Midtjylland 2:1 Man Utd
What happened to this guy? He was an absolute beast first half of the season.
 
2mufc0 said:
What happened to this guy? He was an absolute beast first half of the season.
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He's being tested more often. Granted, he's still a very good player and it doesn't help that he's in a team so low on confidence, but he's probably not as good as we thought he was.
 
Cheesy said:
He's being tested more often. Granted, he's still a very good player and it doesn't help that he's in a team so low on confidence, but he's probably not as good as we thought he was.
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:( looks so nervous complete opposite to how he was a few months ago.
 
Can be excellent but not consistent enough and ALWAYS has a big mistake in him every game, no matter how good his form is. Soft a shit too and every ref knows he's a shirt pulling in the box feckwit.
 
Not in the top bracket of centre halves for me. He needs a leader beside him. We really messed up not buying a replacement for vidic
 
Come on, he needs quality around him. Even Messi would look shit in this team......
 
Disappointed in him tonight, it might not be ideal having Love and McNair either side of you but this is where I'd hope to see his leadership potential kick in, instead he just looked overwhelmed by the responsibility..
 
It's a miracle that a guy with his injury record has managed to keep himself fit for 38 of our 39 games this season. He gets points for that only from me.

Form has dipped dramatically since the Wolfsburg game. Needs a rest, a better CB partner, and a settled defense. He is good but not a "top, top" player.
 
Needs a rest tbh but we cant afford to give him one cos we (United / LVG) fecked up by not getting suitable competition for places.
 
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