He is absolutely fine. The problem isn't Smalling or Fellaini. The problem is that we don't have anything from the RW, nothing from Sanchez and not enough from Lukaku. Sort out the attack first before blaming Smalling.
12
Season Average Rating
- Appearances
- 34
- Clean sheets
- 8
- Goals
- 1
- Assists
- 0
- Yellow cards
- 2
- Status
Did fine. Alerted with every attack, and almost blocked that goal.
If you read my previous post, I said Smalling had a good game defensively. Yesterday he was certainly not one of the major problems but the fact is when we are pushing for a goal and the centre backs are on the half way line, his passing is generally poor as it was yesterday.
Don’t get me started on lindelof!
You are confused! I was referring your statement about Smalling is to blamed for slowing down our build up, I wasn't referring your statement about him being good defensively. You are trying to use him as a scapegoat but the true is you could have blame other players for the issue. Why blaming defender not able to do playmaker task? Defenders job is to defend, playmaker should be for midfield job.
You set United standard of centre back to be ball playing but Vidic was never a ball playing and rarely show glimpse of passing skills that allow our wide player to run onto the ball. Majority the ones who did the job were Scholes & Carrick, midfielder!
As a verified moaner, you should stick with Lindelof and leave Smalling alone! Lindelof was signed to be that ball playing centre back and he fails to do the job.
I’m not using Smalling as a scapegoat for anything. He had a good game defensively yesterday but I will stand by my option that I don’t believe he should be starting for Man Utd.
Found it funny when Smalling berated Lindelof for not giving him the return forward through pass.
Saw alot of players berating others yesterday. Fellaini at Lukaku,Lingard at Pogba,Sanchez at everybody.
Saw alot of players berating others yesterday. Fellaini at Lukaku,Lingard at Pogba,Sanchez at everybody.
Lindelof's our 5th best CB but if Rojo and Jones are injured all the time, then well.... the question is why is Bailly not playing
Yeah, had to laugh at that. Not something you usually see from Chris as it was quite a risky pass he was asking for
Because Lindelof is better?
Precisely.
Good player. Least of our problems.
sure, have a good day
You are welcome.
Judging by the criticism of Smalling's passing I think some posters clearly didnt watch us much with Vidic at CB.
Yea, it is overstated. He looks awkward on the ball, but that's it.
Pretty much. Just a 6'4 player not looking like a 5'8 player on the ball.
You are blaming him for not able to do playmaker task instead of blaming the midfield first which clearly it should be midfield main job. That's what we call "scapegoate".
West Ham 3:1 Man Utd
Singlehandedly holding back the floodgates to this entire sewerage pit of a defense we have. Brutal, feel sorry for the bloke.
I think hes been quite good lately to be honest
He may not be Beckenbauer on the ball, but he's always been a very good defender when he's kept busy. Problem is that we don't want our defenders to be kept busy!
A mostly good performance, one or two not so great moments. Have to feel sorry for him playing CB next to Lindelof and McTominay
Imagine how much easier his life would be if we signed one of the best CBs in the world to partner him
Imagine how much easier his life would be if we signed one of the best CBs in the world to partner him
one of the few players who did well, he actually likes and know how to defend compare to other players
Very poor for their first and third goals but i'm beyond blaming any of our players now until Mourinho is gone. He's making it impossible for all of them.
Not a fan and he’s hugely overrated by a hardcore select on here but he’s been by far one of our most consistent players this season.
Had a good game I thought, shares the blame for their 3rd for me.
I think its harsh. He's doing the right thing making sure he isnt a million miles away from the runner outside of him, Matic doesnt put enough pressure on the passer and McTominay isnt a CB so doesnt read danger and tuck into the correct position closer to Smalling.
He has to do three jobs there and he forgets his man sadly. Its what happens eventually when you have to cover for everybody pretty much a whole game.
First goal he wasn't quick enough back to block the cross, but it wasn't for a lack of trying and you can't really blame him as its a fine line in these situations and its vital that the refs get their decision correct when a player is legally played offside. Basically gifted them a goal with that
One man defense. Wonder who will get the chance to play CB next game, Herrera, McTominay, Fellaini. Maybe Mata as Mou looks on and laughs.
Usual obliviousness to what's not directly in front of him. He should have been more concerned with the danger man in the middle than the wide player, but there were 3 or 4 others equally to blame for it.
This game just reminds us what level he is really at. One of the culprits for the first goal and fully to blame for the third. How he has been a Man Utd player for eight years is beyond me. Mourinho had no option in the second half than to push forward the defense was left exposed. We play with two defensive midfielders for crying out loud. This affects how we attack, no free flow play. We need a new defense; one that can play a high line and recover when need be. One that collect the ball from De Gea and push forward. I honestly think if we sort out our defense we would have sorted 90% of our problems.
Our best defender.
Lindelof is weak AF. Physically and mentally
Bailly is like a shit Mikael Silvestre
Jones is error prone
And Rojo where the feck is he? dead?
Lindelof is weak AF. Physically and mentally
Bailly is like a shit Mikael Silvestre
Jones is error prone
And Rojo where the feck is he? dead?
Where have you been for the last four years? Pretty sure you waited for ages to post this, but ended up picking the wrong day. And you actually forgot to bash our glorious hoof ball legend.
This post reminds us of what level you're really at. Not understanding how to defend.
And just to be clear, McTominay let the defense down on the first goal. Zabaleta would be offside but McTominay plays him onside and then lets his man get to the cross and score. Originally its Young's man but its McTominay's area and he has time to see Young isnt going with him. He doesnt have the speed nor does he sense the danger and we're 1-0
2nd no chance to do anything.
3rd Matic is ambling about in no man's land. Doesn't get in a good position to defend the pass or cut it out and neither does he pressure the player on the ball, allowing him time and space to make an easy pass. Meanwhile Shaw has a man running in behind him, so Smalling does what he has to do every game and comes across to cover the area. In any competent defense the other CB will come towards him too, making sure there isnt a big gap between them. Unfortunately we have a CM playing at CB and McTominay doesn't sense danger so, like with the first goal, he stands around instead of moving to a good defensive position and Arnautovic receives the ball between them.
Smalling could have just said feck it, Shaw is out of position and the left winger isnt helping and just let the opponent have a free run on the outside. But that would have been bad defending in most circumstances. In any organized team that would be the wrong move. But because we have a CM who doesnt know how to play CB playing next to him, perhaps it ends up being the wrong move to do the right thing. Because in actuality Smalling has to play both CB positions himself babysitting his partner. So its harsh to blame Smalling for doing what is normally the right thing to do.
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Come on now, are you really suggesting Smalling did nothing wrong on both goals? Lots of players were at fault, including him.
The first one he let a low cross go straight past him. He was well away from his own goal and he should be blocking that.
The second one is a basic error. The danger is the player in the middle, not on the wing. A striker should never be able to split the centre backs like that and he knew he shouldn't have gone across as soon as he saw Arnautovic there.
Both come from a lack of awareness, he had no idea there was a player behind him in either situation. I'm not blaming him directly for either goal though as the whole team was rubbish.
I'm saying he made the right choice in every scenario other than having someone incompetant beside him. And given we know McTominay isnt a CB, Smalling could have done some bad defending letting the man in front of him have a free run on the outside to save the player next to him. So he sort of made a mistake. But its only in this one scenario where that would be the right call. Next to Jones it would have been a bad call because they know what they're doing defending together. So Jones would know what hes supposed to do when Smalling covers the area. He knows the players around him, but he also knows what hes supposed to do. And in this scenario his partner doesnt.
The first one is McTominay playing Zabaleta onside and then not tracking the runner coming across. Smalling may have been able to get a foot on it, but even if he did thats the kind of ball that ends up in your own goal. I'm sure you would have been blaming him for that too. So I guess it doesnt matter
Man Utd 0:0 Valencia
Thought he did very well. A lot of crucial interceptions.
Think he's just edging it for my POTS so far, been good most of the games he's played IMO.
Did well, had to play more of a sweeping role given Bailly's reckless aggression.A few crappy passes which will no doubt lead to massive criticism but if people still think that the defensive issues are only on our CB's that game should change a few minds.
His passing is efficient, and his defending is functional. Next to an Alderweireld he’d be fine, moving forward. Crazy how much hate he gets for looking awkward.
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