[Bobski]

I've never compared Smalling to any world class player, I dont even consider him world class. The flop Rojo is NOWHERE close to Ramos

Me neither, and I defend him. Mostly because he and to a lesser extent Jones get scapegoated to an unreasonable level. Smalling is a capable player, wouldn't argue if he was 3rd or 4th choice, but his aerial ability will always make him useful in the PL.

Feel like those who trace almost every problem in our team back to those 2 are just avoiding other issues. Believing Mourinho's approach would significantly change/improve with a world class ball player among the defensive unit is a stretch.

 

[RedSky]

@Ultimate Grib calls BS

Who knows, maybe he'll read my post and realise that actually Smalling isn't that bad and Jones/Rojo are bloody useless.

 

[Ekeke]

Me neither, and I defend him. Mostly because he and to a lesser extent Jones get scapegoated to an unreasonable level. Smalling is a capable player, wouldn't argue if he was 3rd or 4th choice, but his aerial ability will always make him useful in the PL.

Feel like those who trace almost every problem in our team back to those 2 are just avoiding other issues. Believing Mourinho's approach would significantly change/improve with a world class ball player among the defensive unit is a stretch.

Yup, Smalling is probably an 8/10 out and out defender. He'll still make a few errors every now and again although so far this season he didnt until recently.

The issue isn't that Smalling is a 10/10 perfect defending CB.

Its that all our others are 6/10 defensively, and our midfielders other than Matic and our fullbacks are probably 4/10 at best defensively. So we simply need our best out and out defender on the pitch to balance out all the players who have issues defensively.

If we could get one thats as good as Smalling defensively, but with better on the ball skills then fair enough. Sounds expensive though and I'm not sure exactly who that player is but I know we don't have them in our current squad.

 

[Loublaze]

Me neither, and I defend him. Mostly because he and to a lesser extent Jones get scapegoated to an unreasonable level. Smalling is a capable player, wouldn't argue if he was 3rd or 4th choice, but his aerial ability will always make him useful in the PL.

Feel like those who trace almost every problem in our team back to those 2 are just avoiding other issues. Believing Mourinho's approach would significantly change/improve with a world class ball player among the defensive unit is a stretch.

Great post and I agree

 

[Isotope]

"Jose Mourinho told Chris Smalling: With your feet, we surely aren't playing from the back"

^ i had enough of that bs tbh , it's been 8 years from him, see the keyword "inability to pass the ball WITHOUT inviting pressure and it's not just from ajax, it's from everyone else

so it's not like mourinho doesn't have any idea about how bad his footballing aspect is
it also means that whenever Mou played him , he is planning a hoofball tactic to be applied for our team, which of course sometimes works against high-line / strong pressing team
i hope you guys smalling apologist here isn't the same people who slate mourinho for using long ball tactic / defensive setup , one of the reason why it happens was because your fave defender is playing

It's weird for you to use that game to beat Smalling, as he came out as one of our best players in that game.

And seems like you easily forgot that during the other CB pair played last season, we're still like a glorified Stoke against "big" teams. None of our CB is good enough to make our team become more expansive in big games. At least, not under Mourinho.

 

[Antonedwin]

It's weird for you to use that game to beat Smalling, as he came out as one of our best players in that game.

And seems like you easily forgot that during the other CB pair played last season, we're still like a glorified Stoke against "big" teams.

and our best player is fellaini because he is the one who benefited the most with long ball tactic as he is the best in bringing the ball down from awkward height that nobody else could, but our best run of matches last season happens when rojo and jones was paired together, not him

Smalling isn't the one who hoof the ball the most in our team , but he is simply the reason why it happens, whenever he was in possession , all he did is giving 5 yards pass to everyone closest to him, either RB, GK or CB partner cause his long pass ability was shite as well, it's also shite 5 yards pass inviting pressure from opposition, forcing other player to hoof it off

he is okay for park-the-bus setup though, jose likes a tactical player to use them against certain opponent
pep would have got rid of him in an instant just by looking at how he play with his feet

 

[Ekeke]

and our best player is fellaini because he is the one who benefited the most with long ball tactic as he is the best in bringing the ball down from awkward heigh that nobody else could, our best run of matches last season happens when rojo and jones was paired together

Smalling isn't the one who hoof the ball the most in our team , but he is simply the reason why it happens, whenever he was in possession , all he did is giving 5 yards pass to everyone closest to him, either RB, GK or CB partner cause his long pass ability was shite as well, it's also 5 yards shite pass since it also invite pressure from opposition

he is okay for park-the-bus setup though, if you like smalling

How? We play just as many long balls if not more when he's not playing. Rojo and Jones play the most long balls of our CBs and with the combination of Jones and Bailly we were playing 50+ long balls a game without Smalling on the pitch. We do it with or without Smalling, with or without Fellaini, because we've always got Lukaku there too and to Mourinho thats enough of a reason to do it.

 

[Isotope]

and our best player is fellaini because he is the one who benefited the most with long ball tactic as he is the best in bringing the ball down from awkward height that nobody else could, but our best run of matches last season happens when rojo and jones was paired together, not him

Smalling isn't the one who hoof the ball the most in our team , but he is simply the reason why it happens, whenever he was in possession , all he did is giving 5 yards pass to everyone closest to him, either RB, GK or CB partner cause his long pass ability was shite as well, it's also shite 5 yards pass inviting pressure from opposition, forcing other player to hoof it off

he is okay for park-the-bus setup though, jose likes a tactical player to use them against certain opponent
pep would have got rid of him in an instant just by looking at how he play with his feet

We don't have any CB that is good in long ball either. So, are you saying we should sell all of our CB?

And how can you blame Smalling for others hoofing the ball, when he wasn't the one making it? Now it's getting ridiculous.

 

[Antonedwin]

How? We play just as many long balls if not more when he's not playing. Rojo and Jones play the most long balls of our CBs and with the combination of Jones and Bailly we were playing 50+ long balls a game without Smalling on the pitch. We do it with or without Smalling, with or without Fellaini, because we've always got Lukaku there too and to Mourinho thats enough of a reason to do it.

one trick pony , bringing other defender as an excuse for smalling , he is inexcuseable , has been here for 8 years and still having brainfart moment in most games , got his ass saved by de gea brilliance and still doesnt' look like proper footballer

We don't have any CB that is good in long ball either. So, are you saying we should sell all of our CB?

I see that as long as a CB can pass 5 yards with no problem, and defending well, he's a good defender.

no, cause we don't have unlimited budget like city to replace all our defender in one window, but he is the first one to sell ,
do you guys seriously think mourinho would play him regularly if bailly and jones was fit ? we started this season ( and started it very well i must say ) with them as our main pairing and him on the bench which is his proper place, he can be used in the last 5-10 minutes to shut up the shop when we are hanging in one goal lead to deal with aerial threat
in mourinho's head , he rates bailly and jones ahead of smalling so his competitor is either new comer lindelof and ACL damaged rojo

Edit : @Loublaze Jones was never properly fit , he was fit for few weeks and got injured again, smalling won't start ahead of jones when they both fit that's one thing for sure

for years , smalling career has been lucky enough to have lot of crook as competitors, not because he is brilliant

 

[Loublaze]

one trick pony , bringing other defender as an excuse for smalling , he can't be excused, has been here for 8 years and still having brainfart moment in most games , got his ass saved by de gea brilliance and still doesnt' look like proper footballer



no, cause we don't have unlimited budget like city to replace all our defender in one window, but he is the first one to sell ,
do you guys seriously think mourinho would play him regularly if bailly and jones was fit ? we started this season ( and started it very well i must say ) with them as our main pairing and him on the bench which is his proper place, he can be used in the last 5-10 minutes to shut up the shop when we were hanging in one goal lead to deal with aerial threat

He was ahead of Jones in the pecking order last season you clueless man! . Smalling was suspended at the start of the season, a suspension carried on from last season. Jones and Bailly did well and Mourinho stuck with them until the inevitable injuries put paid to that. At the start of the season Mourinho even described Smalling as an important player who wouldn't be available

 

[Ekeke]

one trick pony , bringing other defender as an excuse for smalling , he is inexcuseable , has been here for 8 years and still having brainfart moment in most games , got his ass saved by de gea brilliance and still doesnt' look like proper footballer



no, cause we don't have unlimited budget like city to replace all our defender in one window, but he is the first one to sell ,
do you guys seriously think mourinho would play him regularly if bailly and jones was fit ? we started this season ( and started it very well i must say ) with them as our main pairing and him on the bench which is his proper place, he can be used in the last 5-10 minutes to shut up the shop when we are hanging in one goal lead to deal with aerial threat
in mourinho's head , he rates bailly and jones ahead of smalling so his competitor is either new comer lindelof and ACL damaged rojo

Edit : @Loublaze Jones was never properly fit , he was fit for few weeks and got injured again, smalling won't start ahead of jones when they both fit that's one thing for sure

for years , smalling career has been lucky enough to have lot of crook as competitors, not because he is brilliant

One trick pony never having any kind of argument to bring to the table as to why Smalling is to blame and ignoring the several arguments using facts that poop all over your nonsensical blame posts.

 

[roonster09]

Loublaze has to be a WUM. Either that or he’s Chris Smalling himself.

There’s no way anyone would have this much affection for a bang average CB.

 

[roonster09]

Having one person in the team who completely inept on the ball cause us to hoof more , it's not surprising we didn't attack well.
I hope Bailly play against Chelsea , we will see massive upgrade in our attacking game. Trust me

Yeah sure. Did you watch how good Bailly's passing was against Chelsea at Bridge?

If one player makes all our midfielders to hoof the ball then they should quit playing football. Or maybe you should making up things to suit your agenda.

 

[11101]

Smalling didnt play in our loss against Bristol in the league cup (Well, he came on in the 93rd) It was Rojo and Lindelof. Romero had 22 long balls, Rojo 10, 5 from Lindelof, 4 from Darmian and so on.

We played 53 long balls that match.

So yes clearly Chris Smalling is the reason our defensive players hoof the ball up the pitch. He's the reason because we play less long balls when he's playing and he plays the least of our CBs.

Huh? Our defenders being good or bad on the ball has little to do with how many long balls we play. Top ball playing defenders will play plenty of long balls.

The issue with Smalling is that he cannot play those 30-40 yard passes through midfield. He needs to pass it short, which means our midfield drops, a big distance opens to our attack, and oppositions are able to push higher up the pitch. Or, he plays it long, often under pressure and straight down the middle of the pitch to an isolated Lukaku (as everyone else has dropped back).

He's not the only one at fault to be fair. All our fullbacks are pretty ineffective there.

 

[All 3 United]

I thought this thread was the most appropriate place to share this stat.

14 - David de Gea has conceded 19 Premier League goals this season, but based on Opta xG data for the shots on target he's faced, the average goalkeeper would have been expected to concede 33 goals. This is the biggest differential by a PL goalkeeper in 2017-18. Exceptional.

 

[Ekeke]

Huh? Our defenders being good or bad on the ball has little to do with how many long balls we play. Top ball playing defenders will play plenty of long balls.

Some will, some wont. But it seems like any will in Mourinho's United. The point is we play just as many long balls from the back regardless of whether Smalling is playing or not, which is what the poster was suggesting - that we only play long balls because Smalling isnt good on the ball.

Its just something he made up because he'd like it to be true.

 

[Kostov]

He didn't check behind his shoulders & didn't notice muriel lurking in at all. school boy defending , for 28 years old defender playing with us , that's pathetic , and some people credit him for the clean sheets we got is embarrassing , there would be no clean sheets yesterday with lesser keeper & it's his fault

It is, and it was a bad mistake. I don't want to use that reference that all CB make mistakes but, it's true to some extent, otherwise there won't be a goal scored. Smalling was our top performer on the night along De Gea and Lindelof, and I repeat what i said before, if everybody else played as those 3 we would have won.

 

[arnie_ni]

Itl be funny when smalling is still starting most games next season. Apart from de gea matic and lukaku, he's the only other dead cert in the squad to start when fit

 

[roonster09]

It is, and it was a bad mistake. I don't want to use that reference that all CB make mistakes but, it's true to some extent, otherwise there won't be a goal scored. Smalling was our top performer on the night along De Gea and Lindelof, and I repeat what i said before, if everybody else played as those 3 we would have won.

Someone should ask these agenda posters which CBs they rate and see if they made any mistakes for goals, chances created or even silly passes.

 

[Kostov]

Someone should ask these agenda posters which CBs they rate and see if they made any mistakes for goals, chances created or even silly passes.

People are just frustrated, but they bang on the wrong door. We have fans having a go at one of the 3 players that I will say could held his head firm after the game.

 

[roonster09]

People are just frustrated, but they bang on the wrong door. We have fans having a go at one of the 3 players that I will say could held his head firm after the game.

Exactly. Team losing control or not able to score means blame CB and post the chances created when he started games. mental gymnastics and this is taking to new level.

 

[Ultimate Grib]

I remember one time a muppet on the Caf once declared that Jones was better than Vertonghen.

Vertonghens had 43 clean sheets in a possible 103 games - 41.7% of the games he plays in is a clean sheet. Now that's what I call a proper CB.

In the modern game it isn't just about defending. You need to be able to do much more than that. You need to be a complete footballer. Which Smalling is not.

I'm sure you watched our game vs Tottenham, and seeing their CBs carry the ball into midfield effortlessly just made my blood boil at how inept ours are.

Phil Neville did a decent analysis of this:

 

[haram]

Jose Mourinho has revealed he told Chris Smalling that he wasn’t capable of playing the ball out from the back before Manchester United’s Europa League final win over Ajax.

United sealed a comfortable 2-0 victory in Stockholm to confirm their return to next season’s Champions League.

Speaking during a seminar at the University of Lisbon, Mourinho went through the details of his tactical plan for the Europa League final and admitted that he structured his system to minimalise Ajax’s strengths, as well as his own side’s weaknesses.

One of which, from Mourinho’s viewpoint, was Smalling’s inability to pass the ball out of defence without inviting pressure from Ajax.

And the United manager has revealed that to get around it, he instructed his defenders bypass the central midfielders.


Stuff like this is a big reason why we struggle to transition and counter properly away from home.

 

[flappyjay]

Spare me these useless stats.

Anyone who watches the game with their own two eyes can see that we play better football with Rojo and Bailly than we do with Smalling and Jones. The way they carry the ball out from the defence, the aggression in their tackles and overall passion on the pitch makes them much better options than the latter two. Even opposition fans I know point out Smalling and Jones as the weak links... they always have a mistake in them. Regardless of what form they’re in, we’re always waiting for THAT moment. In Jones’ case, it happened at Spurs. In Smalling’s, it happened at Newcastle. AND he almost cost us a penalty with a handball last week...

Rojo isn’t the best defender in the world but he’s capable of getting us titles. Argentina got to the World Cup final with him in defence. He even got into the Team of the Tournament.... Smalling and Jones will never accomplish that. With or without Messi in their team. They have no business being at an elite team. They’re fecking Stoke quality. No difference in the likes of Shawcross, Evans, etc and these two. I don’t care what anybody says.

The difference between Smalling and Rojo is that Smalling passes the ball to De Gea and De Gea hoofs it. Rojo hoofs it himself yet somehow he is gotten this tag that he brings the ball out well. I will give him the fact that he is very comfortable on the ball but he hoofs more than the other cb's

 

[MadDogg]

rojo tore his ACL , it's not an injury that anyone can recover in short time even till today i don't think he is completely fit ,but one thing for sure he was picked ahead of smalling when they both fit

What? When was this? The only time in his entire time here where Rojo was picked ahead of Smalling was in the mid part of last season, a chance he only got after Smalling got injured and he did well enough to hold that place (although once Smalling was back he still played in a significant amount of games). And that's really how it's been so far under Mourinho. When Smalling has had an injury or suspension Mourinho has kept faith with the defenders who were doing the job while Smalling was out (but Smalling continues to play often and it's only during these periods where Mourinho has tried three man central defences). But once a spot opens up Smalling goes straight back into the starting 11 and plays almost every game while his partner gets rotated.

 

[Robbie Boy]

I'm confused by this thread: So is Smalling absolute shite or is he some misunderstood defensive genius?

 

[RedSky]

In the modern game it isn't just about defending. You need to be able to do much more than that. You need to be a complete footballer. Which Smalling is not.

I'm sure you watched our game vs Tottenham, and seeing their CBs carry the ball into midfield effortlessly just made my blood boil at how inept ours are.

Phil Neville did a decent analysis of this:

I don't buy that. There are 9 other outfield players, they should be able to carry a relatively poor passer in Smalling. Keeping a clean sheet is half the battle in football.

This CB must be complete footballer is a fad driven by Pep. Smalling being poor on the ball is not the reason why we struggle in the opponents half of the pitch. It would be a valid opinion if we were leaking goals, but Smalling doesn't.

 

[Pogue Mahone]

I don't buy that. There are 9 other outfield players, they should be able to carry a relatively poor passer in Smalling. Keeping a clean sheet is half the battle in football.

This CB must be complete footballer is a fad driven by Pep. Smalling being poor on the ball is not the reason why we struggle in the opponents half of the pitch. It would be a valid opinion if we were leaking goals, but Smalling doesn't.

Fergie's always had quality footballers in central defence. And even the supposedly less skilful partner would have been very comfortable in possession. Vidic gets caricatured as a blood and thunder wrecking machine but he was streets ahead of Smalling on the ball. Feck it, even the likes of Terry and Cahill would be better than him in this regard.

 

[haram]

Fergie's always had quality footballers in central defence. And even the supposedly less skilful partner would have been very comfortable in possession. Vidic gets caricatured as a blood and thunder wrecking machine but he was streets ahead of Smalling on the ball. Feck it, even the likes of Terry and Cahill would be better than him in this regard.

Terry and Cahill were definitely better on the ball.

 

[Varun]

The difference between Smalling and Rojo is that Smalling passes the ball to De Gea and De Gea hoofs it. Rojo hoofs it himself yet somehow he is gotten this tag that he brings the ball out well. I will give him the fact that he is very comfortable on the ball but he hoofs more than the other cb's

Yep, Rojo's absence has transformed him into this mythical ball player I wish we had.

 

[RedSky]

Fergie's always had quality footballers in central defence. And even the supposedly less skilful partner would have been very comfortable in possession. Vidic gets caricatured as a blood and thunder wrecking machine but he was streets ahead of Smalling on the ball. Feck it, even the likes of Terry and Cahill would be better than him in this regard.

Rio and Vidic also had much better players around them and played in a system all the players were comfortable in. Vidic was about the same standard of passer as Smalling IMO.

You guys make it out that Smalling struggles to pass 10 yards.

I assume you read my defensive stats post last page? Seems to have got ignored by those attacking Smalling (no surprise).

 

[11101]

Huh? Our defenders being good or bad on the ball has little to do with how many long balls we play. Top ball playing defenders will play plenty of long balls.

The issue with Smalling is that he cannot play those 30-40 yard passes through midfield. He needs to pass it short, which means our midfield drops, a big distance opens to our attack, and oppositions are able to push higher up the pitch. Or, he plays it long, often under pressure and straight down the middle of the pitch to an isolated Lukaku (as everyone else has dropped back).

He's not the only one at fault to be fair. All our fullbacks are pretty ineffective there.

In the modern game it isn't just about defending. You need to be able to do much more than that. You need to be a complete footballer. Which Smalling is not.

I'm sure you watched our game vs Tottenham, and seeing their CBs carry the ball into midfield effortlessly just made my blood boil at how inept ours are.

Phil Neville did a decent analysis of this:

Quoting myself from upthread but this clip is exactly what im saying.

In the first clip Smalling's pass puts Jones in a horrible situation. As soon as the ball leaves his foot Newcastle know if they press up the pitch Jones has nowhere to go.

Second to last clip Carrick is dropping deeper than he should because he knows they dont have the ability/confidence to play it to him higher up the pitch. The whole Newcastle team is then able to push further up.

Jones has his own issues but this isn't his thread. Smalling is a problem in our team, not the biggest one, but a problem nonetheless.

 

[Ekeke]

I'm confused by this thread: So is Smalling absolute shite or is he some misunderstood defensive genius?

Good defender, but not very fashionable because a lot of posters value passing ability over defending in their CBs

Everyone is Barcelona now

 

[Ultimate Grib]

I don't buy that. There are 9 other outfield players, they should be able to carry a relatively poor passer in Smalling. Keeping a clean sheet is half the battle in football.

This CB must be complete footballer is a fad driven by Pep. Smalling being poor on the ball is not the reason why we struggle in the opponents half of the pitch. It would be a valid opinion if we were leaking goals, but Smalling doesn't.

Trust me I would be very far away from Pep driven crap. I don't buy into Pep at all and I think he's a complete fraud but this is the game today. Every player needs to do almost every job. Its something that Mourinho is especially adamant on.

Smalling just isn't a good footballer. He absolutely shits himself under pressure. Even defensively he is error prone, like very stupid errors.

Do you honestly think we will be competitive in the league firstly but even in the latter stages of the CL with him in our defence? I doubt the board and manager think so too. We have 5 centre backs without considering youth options and I bet you we will be in the market for more in the summer.

 

[RedSky]

Trust me I would be very far away from Pep driven crap. I don't buy into Pep at all and I think he's a complete fraud but this is the game today. Every player needs to do almost every job. Its something that Mourinho is especially adamant on.

Smalling just isn't a good footballer. He absolutely shits himself under pressure. Even defensively he is error prone, like very stupid errors.

Do you honestly think we will be competitive in the league firstly but even in the latter stages of the CL with him in our defence? I doubt the board and manager think so too. We have 5 centre backs without considering youth options and I bet you we will be in the market for more in the summer.

Depends what you mean by latter stages of the CL. We are in the knockouts already and imo we'll get to the quarters with him in our back line, we are also 2nd in the League (granted I think we'll finish 4th). My beef is with the people who think he's a shit player and needs to be sold. He's not shit, he's defensively sound, i've just been through all of the stats again in more detail this time and Smallings stats are very similar to that of Rojo and Jones. The big difference however is that while Rojo/Jones has missed over 55 games each through injury, Smalling has missed 24. To put that into perspective, Jones and Rojo have missed an entire seasons worth of football in the last 3 seasons. They were both missing for over a third of our games.

Now if you're looking for squad players what would you prefer? A player who's fit and ready to fill in and although limited in passing you know precisely what he will do and has proven that he can keep clean sheets (51 in the past 3 seasons). Or would you prefer a player who will break down injured and despite people claiming they're better actually has precisely the same stats.

Pts per Game:
Phil Jones - 1.87 (52 games played)
Chris Smalling - 1.90 (114 games played)
Marcos Rojo - 1.91 (70 games played)
Eric Bailly - 2.15 (48 games played)

Hopefully the above also puts away the notion that Jones is first choice CB for us. He's played 45mins or more in only 52 games in the last 3 seasons. Bailly almost has the same number as him despite having almost an identical injury record.

Games Missed through Injury:
Phil Jones - 35.4%
Marcos Rojo - 34.4%
Eric Bailly - 32.7%
Chris Smalling - 14.6%

Keep Smalling as a squad player, sell one of it not both Rojo/Jones. That's what we should be doing.

 

[Ultimate Grib]

Depends what you mean by latter stages of the CL. We are in the knockouts already and imo we'll get to the quarters with him in our back line, we are also 2nd in the League (granted I think we'll finish 4th). My beef is with the people who think he's a shit player and needs to be sold. He's not shit, he's defensively sound, i've just been through all of the stats again in more detail this time and Smallings stats are very similar to that of Rojo and Jones. The big difference however is that while Rojo/Jones has missed over 55 games each through injury, Smalling has missed 24. To put that into perspective, Jones and Rojo have missed an entire seasons worth of football in the last 3 seasons. They were both missing for over a third of our games.

Now if you're looking for squad players what would you prefer? A player who's fit and ready to fill in and although limited in passing you know precisely what he will do and has proven that he can keep clean sheets (51 in the past 3 seasons). Or would you prefer a player who will break down injured and despite people claiming they're better actually has precisely the same stats.

Pts per Game:
Phil Jones - 1.87 (52 games played)
Chris Smalling - 1.90 (114 games played)
Marcos Rojo - 1.91 (70 games played)
Eric Bailly - 2.15 (48 games played)

Hopefully the above also puts away the notion that Jones is first choice CB for us. He's played 45mins or more in only 52 games in the last 3 seasons. Bailly almost has the same number as him despite having almost an identical injury record.

Games Missed through Injury:
Phil Jones - 35.4%
Marcos Rojo - 34.4%
Eric Bailly - 32.7%
Chris Smalling - 14.6%

Keep Smalling as a squad player, sell one of it not both Rojo/Jones. That's what we should be doing.

Regardless of all that you agree that he's not good enough to be in our starting 11 though? Not good enough to be the focal point of our defence?

 

[RedSky]

Regardless of all that you agree that he's not good enough to be in our starting 11 though? Not good enough to be the focal point of our defence?

Oh for sure. That's what i've always said. He's a great player for us and would be a terrific squad player but we need to find an experienced CB to be partnering Bailly (when he's fit) and when he's not fit partnering Smalling.

I don't think you'd find many people on the Caf who think Smalling should be first choice CB. My argument is that he's a very good squad player and are other CB's are simply deadwood.

He's also first name on the teamsheet for me at the moment mainly because our other options are trash. Not to mention both Rojo and Jones are... surprise... injured again.

 

[Ultimate Grib]

Oh for sure. That's what i've always said. He's a great player for us and would be a terrific squad player but we need to find an experienced CB to be partnering Bailly (when he's fit) and when he's not fit partnering Smalling.

I don't think you'd find many people on the Caf who think Smalling should be first choice CB. My argument is that he's a very good squad player and are other CB's are simply deadwood.

He's also first name on the teamsheet for me at the moment mainly because our other options are trash. Not to mention both Rojo and Jones are... surprise... injured again.

I think we should give Lindelof a chance and Blind is more than decent backup and much more versatile. And so is Rojo, but I take the point about his injuries although he has been unfortunate rather than a sick note. His biggest injuries were when he dislocated his shoulder on an awkward fall and when he did his ACL, but Smalling, he has had 7-8 years to prove his worth and he's just not good enough so I think we should cash in. I wouldn't be against cashing in on Rojo, Jones at the same time too but regardless of whether he should be sold or not he just isn't Man UTD quality and can't be starting games for us week in week out, and this is the main point most people are making against a sea of ridiculous comments by the three Smalling amigos

 

[RedSky]

I think we should give Lindelof a chance and Blind is more than decent backup and much more versatile. And so is Rojo, but I take the point about his injuries although he has been unfortunate rather than a sick note. His biggest injuries were when he dislocated his shoulder on an awkward fall and when he did his ACL, but Smalling, he has had 7-8 years to prove his worth and he's just not good enough so I think we should cash in. I wouldn't be against cashing in on Rojo, Jones at the same time too but regardless of whether he should be sold or not he just isn't Man UTD quality and can't be starting games for us week in week out, and this is the main point most people are making against a sea of ridiculous comments by the three Smalling amigos

Plenty of people make crazy statements regarding Smalling though. I can understand why they defend him to be fair. If Rojo misses the PL game against Chelsea he'll have missed 38 PL games since the start of 15-16 season. If Jones misses the game he'll be on 37 games missed. That's ultimately the problem at United, we have too many sick note CBs. Blind is a weird one, Jose just doesn't trust him for whatever reason, he and Lindelof has been fit all season so far and yet they've not really played much.

 

[MadMike]

Plenty of people make crazy statements regarding Smalling though. I can understand why they defend him to be fair. If Rojo misses the PL game against Chelsea he'll have missed 38 PL games since the start of 15-16 season. If Jones misses the game he'll be on 37 games missed. That's ultimately the problem at United, we have too many sick note CBs. Blind is a weird one, Jose just doesn't trust him for whatever reason, he and Lindelof has been fit all season so far and yet they've not really played much.

Because neither of them is a good CB. Blind isn't even one. He played DM during his POTY season in Netherlands and as a LB for hi national team.

At least Lindelof has time on his side. But when you see how easily he gets dribbled or out-muscled or gets caught out of position when he plays, your immediate thought is not why he's not playing more. In fact, the opposite.