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2017-18 Performances

View full 2017-18 profile

6.0 Season Average Rating
Appearances
45
Clean sheets
20
Goals
4
Assists
0
Yellow cards
4
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Smalling is probably better than anyone Southgate has picked at pure defending anyway. The best of a bad batch if you will.

Just looking at that list though the quality of English defenders including smalling is shocking. England always used to produce good defenders.
 
Ekeke said:
A gross misrepresentation of Smalling's skills. He also makes the joint most interceptions of all our players as he's the best reader of the game in our team. Also joint 3rd most interceptions from CBs in the Premier League, Van Diijk and Monreal are joint 1st, and then its Smalling, Bailly and Tomkins all the same amount per game.

Meanwhile he has 19th most Aerial battles and 16th most won Aerial battles per game of any CBs in the league. So while he does take care of most of the high balls against us, its not where he stands out the most in comparison to the other CBs and teams in the league. Its the game reading and taking the ball before his opponent receives it.
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But my point is that Southgate seems to prefer players who are more comfortable with the ball at their feet. I never said Smalling couldn't read the game well or intercept the ball, and I never said he was anything other than "good" in the air, not "great" or "amazing".
 
Carl said:
Jones is comfortable with the ball at his feet, Smalling isn't. That's the difference.
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Jones is terrible with the ball at his feet too, his passing is terrible.
 
Amar__ said:
Jones is terrible with the ball at his feet too, his passing is terrible.
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I disagree that Jones is terrible with the ball, but even if he was, he's still significantly better than Smalling with it.
 
Southgate got this spot on. Jones, when fit is light years ahead of Smalling.

Smalling is only rated by a select number of united fans. The reality is he’s nothing like the quality we or England need.
 
All 3 United said:
Southgate got this spot on. Jones, when fit is light years ahead of Smalling.

Smalling is only rated by a select number of united fans. The reality is he’s nothing like the quality we or England need.
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But weirdly he was deemed as the quality required under SAF. How very odd.
 
All 3 United said:
Saf left us with a shite load of dross and mainly in defensive and midfield areas. Like it or not that’s fact.
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Why bring that game up though. It was meaningless. Evans played brilliantly on numerous occasions for us in his earlier years.
 
All 3 United said:
Yep as was Evans and the rest of the defence described by saf as the future of the club, that drew 5-5 to West Brom!!!
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Oh my god! 5-5 in a game that didn't matter! Criminal that.

Get a grip, Smalling is a fine defender under unnecessary scrutiny on the caf. We've had one of the best defensive records in consecutive seasons under LVG and Mourinho and Smalling has been consistent across all 4 seasons with both managers.

DDG doesn't solely contribute to our resolute defence, as great as he is. If Smalling is highly rated by 3 decorated managers, and if the team is in top 3 in least goals conceded in consecutive seasons, it points to him being a good defender.
 
MaxiPaxi said:
Why bring that game up though. It was meaningless. Evans played brilliantly on numerous occasions for us in his earlier years.
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My point was and is that saf left the club in a mess and made numerous poor decisions regarding players and value in the market toward the end. Evans was probably one of the worst cbs to play for the club on a regular basis (and yes even Smalling has been better!)
 
VP89 said:
Oh my god! 5-5 in a game that didn't matter! Criminal that.

Get a grip, Smalling is a fine defender under unnecessary scrutiny on the caf. We've had one of the best defensive records in consecutive seasons under LVG and Mourinho and Smalling has been consistent across all 4 seasons with both managers.

DDG doesn't solely contribute to our resolute defence, as great as he is. If Smalling is highly rated by 3 decorated managers, and if the team is in top 3 in least goals conceded in consecutive seasons, it points to him being a good defender.
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No it points to the defence not being addressed properly for some time.
 
All 3 United said:
No it points to the defence not being addressed properly for some time.
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If it wasn't addressed properly for some time, how have we had one of the best defensive records for 4 seasons running? It's like you haven't seen him or us play at all.
 
VP89 said:
If it wasn't addressed properly for some time, how have we had one of the best defensive records for 4 seasons running? It's like you haven't seen him or us play at all.
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Because every player on the pitch is asked to drop deep and defend and we have the best keeper in the world. It’s like you’ve never seen us play!
 
All 3 United said:
Because every player on the pitch is asked to drop deep and defend and we have the best keeper in the world. It’s like you’ve never seen us play!
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Yes. We drop deep and park the bus in all matches and DDG is the sole reason we have a fantastic defence.

Now I'm convinced you haven't seen us play. Sensationalism at its best. Your tag line fits btw.
 
VP89 said:
Yes. We drop deep and park the bus in all matches and DDG is the sole reason we have a fantastic defence.

Now I'm convinced you haven't seen us play. Sensationalism at its best. Your tag line fits btw.
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Ok!!
 
Revaulx said:
It used to be good. Gone off in recent years though.
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It’s strange; when he played rightback his distribution was very good, but when at centreback he always plays safe, generally back to the keeper.
 
Eyepopper said:
2016 - fewest goals conceded
2017 - 2nd fewest goals conceded
2018 - 2nd fewest goals conceded
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This one might sum up where our biggest problems are:
2016 - 10th highest goals scored
2017 - 8th highest goals scored
2018 - 5th highest goals scored
 
Carl said:
I disagree that Jones is terrible with the ball, but even if he was, he's still significantly better than Smalling with it.
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No, he's not. If you were actually watching the games, you would notice that Jones is equally bad, probably even worse with the ball. He is the master of backpasses to de Gea, I proved that last year here that he is using safest option far more times than Smalling.
 
All 3 United said:
Southgate got this spot on. Jones, when fit is light years ahead of Smalling.

Smalling is only rated by a select number of united fans. The reality is he’s nothing like the quality we or England need.
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Three of the greatest managers rated him but yeah only select few fans rate him. :lol:
 
Amar__ said:
No, he's not. If you were actually watching the games, you would notice that Jones is equally bad, probably even worse with the ball. He is the master of backpasses to de Gea, I proved that last year here that he is using safest option far more times than Smalling.
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"If I was actually the games"? Are you intentionally being a condescending prick?
 
TheFlagStaysDown said:
I thought Soutgate is a reasonable manager at least with some of his selections. Having not a pure defender who can actually defend is a bad mistake, crock Jones over him ffs:lol:
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It isn’t Jones that’s the problem, the head scratching decision is the fact that Cahill and Stones are going ahead of Smalling. Mind boggling.
 
All 3 United said:
Saf left us with a shite load of dross and mainly in defensive and midfield areas. Like it or not that’s fact.
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Whilst I agree, Moyes bought poorly and LVG spent a fortune bringing in players that have turned out to be the same standard or less as the ones he let leave.
 
roonster09 said:
Three of the greatest managers rated him but yeah only select few fans rate him. :lol:
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Two of those have tried to upgrade and he never fully established himself under the other.

It doesn't have to be either he's rubbish and we should get rid, or he's the best defender in the league. Hes somewhere in between and has cemented his place in the team through consistency. It doesn't mean we shouldn't keep trying to find someone better.
 
11101 said:
Two of those have tried to upgrade and he never fully established himself under the other.

It doesn't have to be either he's rubbish and we should get rid, or he's the best defender in the league. Hes somewhere in between and has cemented his place in the team through consistency. It doesn't mean we shouldn't keep trying to find someone better.
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Dont think anyone said we shouldn't upgrade on him, it's just that he is better than our other CBs and he is rated by so many great managers. Funny how none of them tried to offload him when Arsenal wanted to sign him.
 
I'm a bit torn about Smalling...
His constant shirt pulling and the fact that we don't get more penalties against us is mind boggling.
His lack of creativity or ability to pass into space... he runs forward, sees the halfway line, panics, turns around and passes the ball 10 yards behind Valencia.

In a pure defensive way he's a nice defender to have. He's got the height and is seldom out of position... and almost never injured
 
Lawman said:
Whilst I agree, Moyes bought poorly and LVG spent a fortune bringing in players that have turned out to be the same standard or less as the ones he let leave.
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I think LVG did more damage, Moyes only bought 2 players thankfully...
 
FootyGirl88 said:
I think LVG did more damage, Moyes only bought 2 players thankfully...
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Without doubt but Moyes should have bought more and that set us back also. Although His two signings have been poor imo so kind of glad In a way.
 
flappyjay said:
Yeah lvg was a joke, got rid of our wingers then a year later he complained about the lack of fast wide players
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The amount of money he wasted makes me teary eyed. He pretty much left our attack down to the bare bones and bought no quality replacements apart from martial.

Lawman said:
Without doubt but Moyes should have bought more and that set us back also. Although His two signings have been poor imo so kind of glad In a way.
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Very true, we missed out on some good players on his watch. If he knew what he was doing the midfield would be complete by now if he bought either Kroos or Thiago.
 
Hopefully Smalling will have a nice holiday and come back fresh ready for next season. He's been unlucky not to be selected for the WC, his form has been better than Maguire and Cahill and yet they'e going.
 
FootyGirl88 said:
The amount of money he wasted makes me teary eyed. He pretty much left our attack down to the bare bones and bought no quality replacements apart from martial.



Very true, we missed out on some good players on his watch. If he knew what he was doing the midfield would be complete by now if he bought either Kroos or Thiago.
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that’s so true and depressing buddy
 
Say what you like about him, but Smalling is English's best CB this season. potential wise Jones might be better, but he's unreliable what's the point of bringing injury prone player to event like WC? And i heard that Southgate is going to play with 3 in the back, if it's true then his decision to binned Smalling off couldnt be more idiotic. Smalling would be perfectly fit in the centre of 3 defenders.
 
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