Anyone else notice how his passes are always to the feet or behind the player? It's a really annoying trait, especially when he finds himself free to run into the opposition's half.
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Look at how often Smalling defends both the right channels and the left channels, and the guardian may or may not agree, but Smalling was definitely the one who went to battle Lukaku the most. Blind came up on top against Lukaku, which I didn't expect, but was a pleasant surprise. How often do you find Blind battling defenders down on the right corner flag? Smalling does the opposite quite often, and that is mostly down to Blind's lacking physical qualities - in Michael Cox' words.
All that being said, Blind did great, but he plays on such small margins at times, and he is not close to having the recovery pace to make up for mistakes. In the last couple of games he hasn't made many mistakes, but he has been prone to a few, and Smalling has then had to run around saving his arse. There is a reason why Smalling frequently is top five player who covers the most distance in our team - not very common for a centre back.
You're right. At times it looked like Smalling was a fullback. I noticed him running the channels. Blind dealt with the direct balls to Lukaku in and around the box, and he did well, but Smalling did more running by far.
He is shittiest passer in the team right now. I hate it. Every time he gets the ball its like he doesn't know what to do with it or who to pass it too. He overruns it or passes it wide of the man and it goes out of play or gives it away.
It's painful to watch. You might say that it isn't his natural game, but for a modern centre back to be so short of confidence in his passing ability is a bad sign.
I think that Smalling need a senior defender or at least someone whose good in defending at his side. He's a good defender but he's not Rio or Stam (who were basically 1 man defense)
Smalling has been a '1 man defense' for the vast majority of this season, especially in the first half. He's more than just a good out and out defender, he's been immense. I think you're trying to say he needs a more complete partner, someone good or better with the ball at his feet.
There's no doubt that he's a good defender. However you also have to take in account LVG's patient ball possession game which basically put most of the team behind the ball. That does choke any ounce of creativity in the team but it also help the defense alot.
On the contrary we are actually highly susceptible to the counter attack when we push for a goal, especially when we push the fullbacks on, and because we tend to dilly dally on the ball in the middle of the pitch. Also many of the times one of the CBs is forced to bring the ball out and move out high the pitch due to our lack of movement and passing options.
We do protect the defense well in normal play, but also leave the defense open quick a bit when we are pushing in the "attacking"/or are pathetic excuse of an phase.
That's because eventually the players will start getting frustrated for not creating chances and they will break formation. I am not saying that Smalling is shit. Im only saying that he's not at Stam/Rio's level yet. Very few defenders reach that level.
I agree, I was just making the point that at times our defense has been very exposed because of how they play and Smalling and Blind have done well in those situations at times.
All I am saying is that Smalling needs that quality CB partner. Stam/Rio may have been a 1 man defence but they fared much better with Johnsen and Vidic around. Its time we find Smalling's 'Vidic/Johnsen'.
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Thought it'd be worth mentioning that Terry has voted for him in team of the year at RB 
Terry should have dropped one of the Leicester CB's but good to see Smalling being recognised.
Yeah, glad to see people appreciate how good he's been for us this year, we certainly do.
Tottenham 3:0 Man Utd
He did pretty well against Kane, then everything went tits up.
I think the problem was he was entirely focused on Kane. Whether that was our game plan or not, it worked in nullifying him but players like Lamela and Eriksen (particularly when Fosu-Mensah went off) came to life in the final third mishaps. Blind and the two defensive midfielders having relatively poor games didn't help either.
Still think that he was the biggest culprit on the first goal. It wasn't a risky ball and he decided to do it all by himself when everything was covered from Blind and Morgan, in the process disorganising the defense.
His tendency of Phil Jonesing every ball is annoying.
His tendency of Phil Jonesing every ball is annoying.
It's not his fault Blind is incapable of winning headers. It's clearly down to the instructions, Smalling is always battling the aerials duels even on Blind's side which always leaves lot of space behind him.
Also, even if he messed it up, if Blind simply tracked Alli earlier he could have prevented the goal.
I wouldn't blame Smalling and Blind today. I thought Rojo and Darmian were the main culprit we conceded 3 goals. Rojo was awful today, got beaten easily in defense, can't win header and not good enough going forward. And Darmian is just too slow typical of serie A player.
If it is instructed then yep, sure, but otherwise it is sheer incompetence.
Yeah, I agree with that, but I seriously think it's down to the instruction. Van Gaal said we conceeded first goal because Smalling lost a header, which probably means he is fine with him being there in the first place.
think he was pretty good, having liabilities like Darmian and Blind and a rookie player around is not helping him, need to find that partner for him
True, there a lot down to Blinds aerial incompetence basically Smalling has to do that side of his job. There was an aerial shot of that error and to me blind should not have gone for that, there were 3 defenders back at the time and he should have positioned himself to cover the left side and left Smalling to go into getting the header. Smalling needed a better partner at the back to take the load off him, he'll be a better player.
Rojo is a CB, a better defender and CB than Blind but he's playing at LB because he's got more pace than Blind, Rojo passing is not much worse than Blinds so there no loss there if he was to play at CB. He'd look a lot better at CB alongside Smalling. As for Darmian, we coincided 3 in the first 10 minutes of him coming on i believe. At a game like this it's not easy coming on as a subbed defender and getting a grip on the game straight away, the tempo, speed and instant pressure is extremely difficult to instantly adapt to, if he had started the game his performance would have been alot better. Poor management again from 1 Bollocks.
Just no.
Based on opinions of him playing at LB?
Based on the 19 appearances he has made at CB for us. It doesn't matter what position he is playing, his passing is no where near Blind's. He is also barely faster than Blind, he got outran by Carrick just a couple games ago. Blind is a better CB, a better LB, and just an overall better footballer than Rojo. It really isn't even close and is frankly laughable how someone could suggest Rojo's passing is anywhere near as good as Blind's.
To be honest, I'm not a big fans of Rojo as a CB either. He hasn't convinced me to be able to do a good job as a CB last season. Blind this season is much better than Rojo last season.
What's Blinds passing forward been like lately, pass it short or hoof it up, I'm sure Rojo more than capable of doing that, earlier in the season he was playing better passes but now he's no different to any of the defenders. Blind a better left back you must be joking, the last time I seen him at left back he barely got forward players were running past him at will and he was nowhere in sight once they got past him, at least Rojo can keep up to them and apply a bit of pressure. Blind is not good enough as a left back, only plays a CB due to his passing and he's not exactly great at his preferred position DM. He'll be one of the players that will be dropped if we bring in a new manager. Not good enough to be a UTD DM, CB or LB.
The point I made about Rojo is that having him at CB Smalling wouldn't have to do his heading side of the game and would be able to stick to his position thus making our defensive line more stable and not leaving holes in it. That's were our problem is defensive structure is lost every time a long ball is played.
The funniest thing I have heard in this forum. Blind wasn't good going forward at LB? If you want to know how he is at LB, watch the games from last season where he played at LB. we beat spurs Liverpool city and all. He was involved in most of our attacks with young and Fellaini. So either you don't watch our games or you make stuff up to win arguments.
His first pass of the game was absolutely atrocious. A mixed bag after that.
Needs someone more physical next to him, blind is an intelligent defender but doesn't have the physical attributes, put Mensah next to him, what have we got to lose now?
Yep, it was atrocious under no pressure at all. What's new though. His form has become really patchy after an excellent start to the season.
Yep, if is is instructed, then that makes Van Gaal a bigger idiot than he is now. You hardly see Pique going all over the place and winning headers in Mascherano position, despite that Mascherano is worse than Blind at headers (actually, Blind isn't that bad at them, he has around 50% success rate and he won headers against Lukaku who might be the most physical player in the league). In that particular instance, it was kind of crazy because there was absolutely no risk and there was a good chance than Morgan or Blind would win it. The Smalling went there, pushed Blind on his arse, lost the header and the only defender remaining was Darmian who has been a bit useless since the first few games.
It is very ironic that this miscommunication (or Smalling not trusting Blind) comes only a few days after Smalling said that him and Blind trust each other, have a great partnership etc etc.
The funniest thing I have heard in this forum. Blind wasn't good going forward at LB? If you want to know how he is at LB, watch the games from last season where he played at LB. we beat spurs Liverpool city and all. He was involved in most of our attacks with young and Fellaini. So either you don't watch our games or you make stuff up to win arguments.
If he's that good as a LB why isn't he playing there, he's shite all round.
Wow
Please explain what's he's good at. Please explain why we have his CB partner covering for him and leaving gaping holes in the defence which the RB has to cover leaving a gaping hole on the right side. It's a joke people back this kind of player. He's not good enough to be a starting CB, LB or DM but it's okay he can pass the ball or more accurately hoof it to Fellaini (he's another problem).
Pretty sure what was down to TFM following Ericksen inside, and nothing to do with covering for Blind. We haven't really seen that all season expect when Varela had a similar man marking job to do.
I think right now he should be starting CB with the current squad, but I would hope we upgraded on him in the summer.
I think he is a good player in a number of positions, fair enough probably shouldn't be starting but to say he is shite all round I don't agree.
he played well as a CB so why would we play him as a LB?
Rio was never a one man defence.
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