[Oldyella]

Rondon bullied him. Was man against boy.

Yeah, I got bored and was only half paying attention to the game too.

 

[Bobski]

Lost count of the amount of high balls Rondon took down with relative ease. That’s being bullied, by any definition.

Or just good CF play. Bullied is just hyperbole.

 

[MadDogg]

Of course there is. Step in front of him and intercept the pass.

Rondon is a big guy himself who did very well holding him off a few times in the second half. Emphasis on 'a few times'. Smalling comfortably had the better of him the majority of times over the match (to an absolutely embarrassing extent in the first half).

 

[MikeKing]

Lost count of the amount of high balls Rondon took down with relative ease. That’s being bullied, by any definition.

I don't have the count myself either, but I watched Smalling get the ball of him a lot of times so by definition that must be extreme-bullying or something then.

Tbh, I expected Smalling to dominate him even more than what he did in the first half, but I suspect there was a reason he wasn't being as aggressive as he is capable of. We had bad protection in the second half so was exposed on the break, better to be safe than sorry. He held him off that half rather than to try to get it off him. The other reason behind why he wasn't very aggressive is that we probably didn't want to give up possession by making silly freekicks.

But by definition, shouldn't Rondon be some sort of threat at least, if he bulled Smalling? Since they are both strong guys giving one off on each other.. what makes Rondon's small victories recognisable? I don't think he had a dangerous move all game and he was Smallings guy mostly, so yeah. Hyperbole

 

[charlenefan]

Always at least one person blaming our best CB for the deficiencies of the entire team. One of our best players today like normal

I'd fully disagree with that. Smalling wasn't the problem today, went about his business as usual. Pogba, Matic and Mata caused us more issues.

Smalling was no where near dominant enough with Rondon which lead to us to fail to sustain attacks, basically all West Brom has to do to relieve pressure was boot it up to him and he'd get them up the pitch so no Smalling wasn't one of our best players and yes Smalling was one of many problems today

 

[Red_toad]

"Whoscored?" says he won 67% defensive duels. I predict they were nearly all against Rondon. So he won more than he lost.

Rondon is a total lump to be fair, he's not good at much else other than bullying centre backs. He made mincemeat of Lindelof in the few duels they had.

Ah he's ok he gets a free ride on the Caf, better the persecute our long term loyal English players, it'll get you a few likes on here....

 

[Andersons Dietician]

Yeah what game were some watching? Thought he was good today was dominating Rondon.

 

[Red_toad]

Smalling was no where near dominant enough with Rondon which lead to us to fail to sustain attacks, basically all West Brom has to do to relieve pressure was boot it up to him and he'd get them up the pitch so no Smalling wasn't one of our best players and yes Smalling was one of many problems today

Wouldn't wish it on anyone else but go watch the game again. Smalling did his job just fine, thing is people just love to jump all over him for every mistake he makes and he even gets the blame (as per thread being bumped) after he has a game without incident, where he didn't feck up and actually did his job just fine.

 

[Leftback99]

Yeah what game were some watching? Thought he was good today was dominating Rondon.

Usual Smalling scapegoating, a game where we can't score at home against West Brom.

 

[Andersons Dietician]

Usual Smalling scapegoating, a game where we can't score at home against West Brom.

Funnily enough he was one of the closest to scoring the goal for us as well.

 

[Amar__]

Lost count of the amount of high balls Rondon took down with relative ease. That’s being bullied, by any definition.

Rondon:
Aerials won against United today: 3
Aerials won on average in PL: 4.5

 

[Bobski]

Usual Smalling scapegoating, a game where we can't score at home against West Brom.

Waiting for the move to blame him somehow for the goal, should have teleported to the ball after Matic and Lukaku messed up.

 

[TheFlagStaysDown]

Our best defender by a mile, he's my MOTM, nothing wrong with his performance. Losing a header with Rondon is not a big shame, he's one of the best

 

[Hammondo]

Our best defender by a mile, he's my MOTM, nothing wrong with his performance. Losing a header with Rondon is not a big shame, he's one of the best

Agreed.

 

[el3mel]

Smalling is one of our players that looks like to have a cult around him that will defend him anyway even on his terrible days, let's be honest.

Since he's never injured and always available he's reliable and I'll keep him, but should be backup for a better and more complete CB.

 

[Ekeke]

Smalling was no where near dominant enough with Rondon which lead to us to fail to sustain attacks, basically all West Brom has to do to relieve pressure was boot it up to him and he'd get them up the pitch so no Smalling wasn't one of our best players and yes Smalling was one of many problems today

Yes, he really was. Not much to choose from, but all the same. He was solid in his role, most werent

 

[OnlyTwoDaSilvas]

Smalling is one of our players that looks like to have a cult around him that will defend him anyway even on his terrible days, let's be honest.

Same can be said for those who have made their mind up on him no matter what he does, and give him pelters when he has a good game. There's not much middleground. Just two opposing factions of "Smalling is our best defender" and "Smalling is Championship quality".

 

[Revaulx]

We'll look more or less the same. Shite.

Just like how we've replaced Blind with a central defender that is worse at defending and worse on the ball.

Yup.

 

[Romez]

I feel like people are confusing Smalling with Lindelof.

Smalling was dominated by Rondon? WTF?

Majority of the game Rondon sat on Lindelof because it’d be a much easier match up than Smalling.

 

[manunited1919]

Always some in here looking to blame Smalling.
Don’t blame Alexis for playing shit and continuously losing the ball.
Don’t blame Herrera for making a 3 man midfield look like a 2 man midfield.
Don’t blame Mata for slow play.
Don’t blame Pogba for holding on to the ball and doing risky extra turns.
Don’t blame Lukaku for missing the one chance he had.
Don’t blame Lindelof for being completely unable to defend against Rondon.
Don’t blame our terrible fullbacks - worst fullbacks of any top 6 team, by far.

It’s Smalling’s fault. We know.

 

[Isotope]

Always some in here looking to blame Smalling.
Don’t blame Alexis for playing shit and continuously losing the ball.
Don’t blame Herrera for making a 3 man midfield look like a 2 man midfield.
Don’t blame Mata for slow play.
Don’t blame Pogba for holding on to the ball and doing risky extra turns.
Don’t blame Lukaku for missing the one chance he had.
Don’t blame Lindelof for being completely unable to defend against Rondon.
Don’t blame our terrible fullbacks - worst fullbacks of any top 6 team, by far.

It’s Smalling’s fault. We know.

I thought he was one of our best players, just second after DDGod. Why i'm not surprised, this thread is bumped with posters slagging him off and some suggesting him to be upgraded?

 

[el3mel]

Always some in here looking to blame Smalling.
Don’t blame Alexis for playing shit and continuously losing the ball.
Don’t blame Herrera for making a 3 man midfield look like a 2 man midfield.
Don’t blame Mata for slow play.
Don’t blame Pogba for holding on to the ball and doing risky extra turns.
Don’t blame Lukaku for missing the one chance he had.
Don’t blame Lindelof for being completely unable to defend against Rondon.
Don’t blame our terrible fullbacks - worst fullbacks of any top 6 team, by far.

It’s Smalling’s fault. We know.

All those are getting destroyed in their threads. This is Smalling thread, what are you expecting ?

 

[Ekeke]

Smalling is one of our players that looks like to have a cult around him that will defend him anyway even on his terrible days, let's be honest.

Since he's never injured and always available he's reliable and I'll keep him, but should be backup for a better and more complete CB.

Complete opposite. Some of our fans want to form a little club of people disrespecting one of our best own players. You're a member.

 

[settembrini]

Smalling was one of the very few players that can be satisfied with his performance. Laughable to suggest he was 'bullied'.

 

[Loublaze]

Lost count of the amount of high balls Rondon took down with relative ease. That’s being bullied, by any definition.

Rondon and Smalling had four aerial duels against each other. Each won 2, so 50-50. Rondon also won a single take on against Smalling. That was it as far as their head to head duels went, so where is this 'lost count of the amount of high balls Rondon took down with relative ease' coming from?

 

[pocco]

Thought he did well against Rondon and I'm sure he won more than 2 aerial duels against him in the first half alone.

Second half Rondon stayed away from Smalling when possible and had a better time in the air against Lindelof. Mainly from crosses, where he was behind Lindelof, as opposed to goal kicks and clearances, where our CBs were behind him.

 

[charlenefan]

I don't have an agenda against Smalling and in certain games against certain opposition he looks like a world beater such can be his aerial dominance however I challenge anyone to watch the game again and every time West Brom cleared it up field it was Rondon who collected it ahead of Smalling so again he was no where near dominant enough today and that lead to us failing to sustain attacks because West Brom just had it so easy to get up the pitch

 

[Pogue Mahone]

Rondon and Smalling had four aerial duels against each other. Each won 2, so 50-50. Rondon also won a single take on against Smalling. That was it as far as their head to head duels went, so where is this 'lost count of the amount of high balls Rondon took down with relative ease' coming from?

Presumably because it doesn’t register as a “duel” when Smalling stands meekly behind Rondon while he brings the ball down and lays it off to a team-mate.

 

[Bwuk]

It’s not just a Smalling thing (I don’t think he played well, none of our back 4 did today imo.), but people talk about how great our defence is on this forum, but I can’t think of a single defender we have where we can all agree that they are a great player.

Smalling for me should be far more aggressive.

 

[Loublaze]

Presumably because it doesn’t register as a “duel” when Smalling stands meekly behind Rondon while he brings the ball down and lays it off to a team-mate.

Did any of those actions hurt United? It just seems to me you're reaching and bringing this up because we lost. Our defense wasn't bothered much.

 

[Pogue Mahone]

Did any of those actions hurt United? It just seems to me you're reaching and bringing this up because we lost. Our defense wasn't bothered much.

I’m bringing it up because this is a thread about his performance. Which mainly involved being bullied by Rondon. It is allowed to discuss player performances in the dedicated threads, right?

As it happens, his performance had absolutely no bearing on the result. Rondon wasn’t involved in the goal and it’s not Smalling’s fault our attacking football was shite.

 

[Sylar]

Have no issues with him but we won't consistently challenge for major honours when he's deemed our best cb or he's our most consistent starter

Just the way it is imo

 

[Steven Seagull]

Joke of a player. Wouldn’t pick him on the rec pitches on Sunday morning. Beyond farcical

 

[Loublaze]

Joke of a player. Wouldn’t pick him on the rec pitches on Sunday morning. Beyond farcical

He's better than the rest of the jokers we have at CB. Behave

 

[SteveW]

The anti-Smalling bias is getting pretty tiresome at this stage. Jose clearly sees it as Smalling +1 these days. Bailly and Lindelof are being rotated depending on the opposition. Jose said as much in his pre match interview. If he was even a quarter as bad as people seem to want to believe there is no way Jose would rely on him so much.

He's a good defender and has been for a long time. If people could get over whatever aesthetic issues they seem to have with him and actually watch what he does they'd be able to see this.

 

[Loublaze]

Have no issues with him but we won't consistently challenge for major honours when he's deemed our best cb or he's our most consistent starter

Just the way it is imo

Smalling would've won a shitload of titles playing as a starter under SAF.

 

[TMDaines]

My number #1 CB currently too. I like Lindelöf long term. Jones is injured all the time. Bailly seems to have a few too and is very raw. I’ve no idea what Rojo is really like post injury.

I’m happy with our centre backs. I just wish there was a leader out of them lot.

 

[SteveW]

Presumably because it doesn’t register as a “duel” when Smalling stands meekly behind Rondon while he brings the ball down and lays it off to a team-mate.

There were about 2 of these instances. Big lump of a striker got his body in the way and managed to keep the ball with his back to goal well outside the box. Not sure what you expected Smalling to do. Mow him down? Rondon is a big guy, he will be able to get his body in the way and hold up the ball sometimes. Not every ball is winnable. You obviously know this.

 

[Sylar]

Smalling would've won a shitload of titles playing as a starter under SAF.

Which isn't the same conditions as now so it's a moot point

 

[Loublaze]

Which isn't the same conditions as now so it's a moot point

It's a moot point indeed but I laugh when I see all those posts about how 'we won't challenge for titles with Smalling starting/in the team'. Its nonsense.