[Stadjer]

Atleast Smalling can defend.. if Smalling would have been on Hazard instead of Jones at the moment Fabregas made the pass it wouldnt have been a penalty for Chelsea.

 

[wythyred]

Brilliant performance, I have been harsh on him for a long time.

However the penny dropped today he is an excellent defender.

 

[Skills]

Let's sell him guys!

 

[villain]

Great performance, he didn't deserve to be on the losing side.

Hope he enjoys his summer off, he's played well in a shambolic defence all season.

 

[3KDré]

He was great, credit to him.

 

[MadDogg]

Matic was much better

Pretty much 50/50 between them. Both were far better than anyone else.

 

[Ainu]

I've complained about him often this season but it was a very good performance from him today. Shame it didn't matter in the end, but at least he can hold his head high. Which is a lot more than what several of our other players can say.

 

[mohr]

Our best defender, and yet some people want him sold

 

[Ekeke]

Matic was much better

He had 80% pass completion at half time, trying to do way too much. Did better in the 2nd half though, as did Ander, when Matic stopped trying to do everything himself

 

[All 3 United]

He played well against a team that didn’t press and had little desire to attack, so yes Smalling looked good. Surprise, suprise!

This type of game is not Smalling’s issue.

 

[Tom Van Persie]

Aye, you can really understand how people pick Jones over him can't you?

Fcuking morons.

Gareth Southgate seems to rate Jones above Smalling Very worrying...

 

[Ekeke]

Gareth Southgate seems to rate Jones above Smalling Very worrying...

Mediocre England manager manages mediocre England side out of the tournament once again

 

[Beachryan]

He was good cause he had so little to do. For some reason Jones was in charge of Giroud, despite being well shorter than Smalling.

His job was really to watch Hazard's runs. Because Chelsea committed all of 0 men forward in the last 65 minutes of the match. Rio could have laced up and gone down there and been fine.

 

[Loublaze]

Matic was much better

Matic did feck all. He tried but what did he actually do to impact the game? Pogba was our best midfielder.

 

[Art Vandelay]

He did well today, but I'm hoping our defensive pairing is Bailly and Alderweireld(I may have just butchered both names there) next season onwards. Smalling is a good player, just not good enough to be first choice going forwards.

 

[Andersons Dietician]

Going 1 on 1 with Hazard more than once and coming out on tops. Not many can do that, played a blinder.

 

[IrishMcD]

I'd have smalling ahead of Jones or Rojo any day if the week. And I still don't think he is good enough to be a starting centre half for a team with ambitions of consistently winning big competitions

 

[Zoo]

He played well against a team that didn’t press and had little desire to attack, so yes Smalling looked good. Surprise, suprise!

This type of game is not Smalling’s issue.

Yeah because it’s so easy to stop Eden Hazard one on one..

 

[Ekeke]

He did well today, but I'm hoping our defensive pairing is Bailly and Alderweireld(I may have just butchered both names there) next season onwards. Smalling is a good player, just not good enough to be first choice going forwards.

By that logic Bailly isnt good enough to be in the squad

 

[dbs235]

Gareth Southgate seems to rate Jones above Smalling Very worrying...

Mediocre England manager manages mediocre England side out of the tournament once again

Not sure he rates him higher, but he's said he wants his defenders to be able to play with the ball. I doubt Jones will start, by the looks of things it could be Walker (yes, at RCB) Maguire and Stones.

 

[Sigma]

Our best player today. No idea how he's not going to the world cup.

 

[Kag]

Good as usual.

 

[Loublaze]

He played well against a team that didn’t press and had little desire to attack, so yes Smalling looked good. Surprise, suprise!

This type of game is not Smalling’s issue.

Just give credit where its due. Smalling marshaled Hazard handily when they came up against each other. At one point he beat Hazard to the ball in a foot race. Compare and contrast to Jones who shit himself everytime Hazard got close to him

 

[MadDogg]

He was good cause he had so little to do. For some reason Jones was in charge of Giroud, despite being well shorter than Smalling.

His job was really to watch Hazard's runs. Because Chelsea committed all of 0 men forward in the last 65 minutes of the match. Rio could have laced up and gone down there and been fine.

Smalling dealt with Giroud for the majority of the match. There were only three or four times where Giroud managed to get onto Jones instead, and he didn't really get any more luck from him.

 

[Litch]

Very good today and given the constant changes around him, it's easy to forget he's part of the reason for our excellent defensive record. Said it before, he's not our problem as he does want it says on the tin, it's a pity others don't....

 

[James_42]

Had a great game, Giroud barely had a sniff, and even in the 1 on 1s against Hazard he dealt with him more often than not. Weird how he isn't in the England squad.

 

[All 3 United]

Yeah because it’s so easy to stop Eden Hazard one on one..

Sorry but you’re missing the point, we need a football player in the defence otherwise we’re dependent upon midfielders dropping in to pick up the ball and then the whole team is too deep and the opposition is set up ready for our attempt at attacking.

 

[redom]

Him and Matic take credit out of that game, he's definitely our most consistent defender by some distance and is unfortunate not to be going to the WC, hopefully it works in our favour though and he comes back fresh for next season.

 

[Isotope]

He did well today, but I'm hoping our defensive pairing is Bailly and Alderweireld(I may have just butchered both names there) next season onwards. Smalling is a good player, just not good enough to be first choice going forwards.

I don't think Bailly could content physical Giroud. I also don't think he'd fare good against the trickery and experience Hazard.

 

[Loublaze]

Sorry but you’re missing the point, we need a football player in the defence otherwise we’re dependent upon midfielders dropping in to pick up the ball and then the whole team is too deep and the opposition is set up ready for our attempt at attacking.

You keep saying this but it doesn't always matter because in many situations you just need a defender who can actually defend. Smalling is one part of a unit of a back line and his ball playing ability is not as big a hindrance as you're making out. Perhaps we should've started with Lindelof and Jones?

 

[Andy_Cole]

My MOTM.

 

[Isotope]

Sorry but you’re missing the point, we need a football player in the defence otherwise we’re dependent upon midfielders dropping in to pick up the ball and then the whole team is too deep and the opposition is set up ready for our attempt at attacking.

Dude, we have 67% possession. What we do when having the ball is the real problem.

 

[All 3 United]

You keep saying this but it doesn't always matter because in many situations you just need a defender who can actually defend. Smalling is one part of a unit of a back line and his ball playing ability is not as big a hindrance as you're making out. Perhaps we should've started with Lindelof and Jones?

We didn’t need that type of defender today, Chelsea offered zero threat as they basically said, screw you jose you’re going to have to attack us, in this instance we need to be able to add numbers to an attacker, which includes the defenders, Smalling and jones tbf can’t do this.

Should Smalling have started? Probably because they’re all as bad as one another. Don’t get me started on Lindelof, if is going to Wolves that above his pay grade!

 

[el3mel]

Can't believe some want him sold while keeping Jones.

 

[Silas]

Thought he was solid.

 

[Seanus]

Would like to see him in a 3 at the back with Bailly and Lindelof-at their best these 3 give us a great combo of skills

 

[Jim Beam]

Very good game and a very good season.

 

[All 3 United]

Dude, we have 67% possession. What we do when having the ball is the real problem.

That’s exactly the problem.... we had 67% possession because Chelsea were set up ready for any attack and we simply laboured in their half, if we had defenders that could intercept the ball and play a ball out to a midfielder or heaven forbid even an attacker, we might actually be able to counter or if their defence is in situate involve the defenders in the attacking play.

You can’t have players at the very top level that are quite literally scared of having the ball.

 

[Isotope]

That’s exactly the problem.... we had 67% possession because Chelsea were set up ready for any attack and we simply laboured in their half, if we had defenders that could intercept the ball and play a ball out to a midfielder or heaven forbid even an attacker, we might actually be able to counter or if their defence is in situate involve the defenders in the attacking play.

You can’t have players at the very top level that are quite literally scared of having the ball.

So you blame a CENTERBACK of not able to ping passes, because midfield and attack have problem scoring goal, or create enough meaningful chances. Make sense.

 

[PlayerOne]

Easily our best defender this season. Hopefully we bring in a more experienced defender to help him a bit more