[OnlyTwoDaSilvas]

"Has a mistake in him" is the laziest of criticism there is, as it applies to every single footballer on earth.

He makes much fewer mistakes than anyone of our other defenders, for absolutely certain. And for being bad on the ball, his passing today was much, much better than the supposed ball-player next to him.

 

[villain]

He does not have a very good argument.

It's a Merson-esque phrase people throw around that has literally no meaning.
Assuming his logic is true, every player has a mistake in them - therefore no player is good.

 

[Andycoleno9]

@Mcking , @Ekeke , @villain . Lets put that second goal aside and the fact that he is better than all other our defenders. I will ask you only one simple question. Do you think that Smalling is quality for Man Utd?

 

[Mcking]

"Has a mistake in him" is the laziest of criticism there is, as it applies to every single footballer on earth.

He makes much fewer mistakes than anyone of our other defenders, for absolutely certain. And for being bad on the ball, his passing today was much, much better than the supposed ball-player next to him.

I think it is just something that have been tagged on him, and it would be very difficult to shake off.
The games he does not make mistakes are outliers while a single mistake in another game - which he rarely does - is the norm.

 

[Mcking]

@Mcking , @Ekeke , @villain . Lets put that second goal aside and the fact that he is better than all other our defenders. I will ask you only one simple question. Do you think that Smalling is quality for Man Utd?

With the performances he has been putting in the last three-four years, then he most certainly is good enough. We can hardly do much better than him.

 

[MikeKing]

I swear some people are just incapable of perceiving defending as an art of its own. Maybe its the lack of entertainment in our games that makes people half sleep when watching. I would have thought the average fan is more knowledgable these days, but no, many still only notice the things that are very obvious or fit their preexisting view. Like for this instance with the guy blaming Smalling above. Our team is conceding goals and playing bad despite having a solid CB doing well at the moment, must mean he is actually shit too, right? Then it all becomes black, white and easy to grasp.

Looking to blame Smalling for the goal today and use this as an example to prove the many mistakes he has do be doing each game that we all are too blind to see is blatant laziness. I certainly don't buy it. You could at least have waited until he had a bad game or made a real mistake.

 

[A-man]

"Has a mistake in him" is the laziest of criticism there is, as it applies to every single footballer on earth.

He makes much fewer mistakes than anyone of our other defenders, for absolutely certain. And for being bad on the ball, his passing today was much, much better than the supposed ball-player next to him.

Agree he makes very few mistakes, but think he was the worst of all today when we are talking passing.

 

[Ashley R1+O]

Thought he was good again today, there was even a point where he found himself on the halfway line with Hazard and just bossed him. It’s still a little weird that our defence doesn’t seem to function all that well or be solid, it’s more like individuals just having good games than a complete unit but he really has been solid so far this season.

I don't really understand why it is weird.

We don't have a right fullback, all of our partners for Smalling are all over the shop for various reasons and he himself is not a leader and can't bind it all together. Add in that our left back is a young and raw 23 year old who is first choice with no proper backup at all. (Nor does he have any over-guiding player to influence him and bring him through.)

I'm actually more suprised at how we kept it together for the last few seasons, it is obvious now that the defense has fallen apart and we can't keep clean sheets.

 

[MikeKing]

Agree he makes very few mistakes, but think he was the worst of all today when we are talking passing.

Not totally sure, but I think he had 2 nice passes between the lines and 2 hoofs that gave up possession. Both as a solution to being pressed. The rest of his passing was just safe and unadventurous, as expected from a CB. Don't really think he had a misplaced pass that put us in any danger, and we had a few of those. Matic and Lindelof from what I can remember. Don't think he was the worst.

 

[el3mel]

Smalling is our best defender by far and deserves to play every minute.

However, at the same time if we decide to upgrade on him from outside the leagues, I don't think we'll find troubles.

He's not world class but a very good defender and the best of our lot. Can be upgradable though, but we'll need to upgrade his partner first before thinking about moving on from Smalling.

 

[villain]

@Mcking , @Ekeke , @villain . Lets put that second goal aside and the fact that he is better than all other our defenders. I will ask you only one simple question. Do you think that Smalling is quality for Man Utd?

Absolutely.

He has a reputation for being a bad defender, so people are often looking to blame him for things, and put a higher standard of expectation on him than what's reasonable.
Just so that when he does make a mistake they can point to that to confirm their preceding thought about him being a bad defender.
That's just confirmation bias, and he's one of the biggest victims of it in our squad.

When you watch other teams regularly, you can see that in comparison he's actually a very good defender, who looks awkward as feck on the ball.
It's just easier to say Smalling is shite because everyone else says it.

Look at the goals that other teams concede, and analyse the mistakes that their defenders make and you'll see that Smalling isn't the bumbling buffoon he's made out to be.

For example, imagine Smalling did this;
https://streamja.com/VWpQ

Or this;
https://streamja.com/G45e

Or this;
https://streamja.com/bkQo

I mean you're talking about some of the best defenders in the world, players who we'd all love at this club - and these are just the casual mistakes that they have in them.

 

[Mcking]

The problem is people watch our games - with Smalling's bad reputation etched into their minds and they, try to find faults that are not really there. Just watch other games that involves the apparent top defenders in the world, and for the whole 90mins, try to focus on finding faults. You'd see that they are no better than Smalling. Smalling is one of the best defenders out there and he is just unlucky to be playing for us during our lowest ebb. He makes defending look so easy.

 

[Mcking]

Smalling is our best defender by far and deserves to play every minute.

However, at the same time if we decide to upgrade on him from outside the leagues, I don't think we'll find troubles.

He's not world class but a very good defender and the best of our lot. Can be upgradable though, but we'll need to upgrade his partner first before thinking about moving on from Smalling.

It would be tough - very tough to upgrade on him.

 

[Stadjer]

People think he is a bad defender? I thought most people agreed on that he can actually defend pretty well but turns into a non footballer when is on the ball himself... oh and that he has a terrible haircut.

He might not be worldclass but he is good enough to be a defender for Manchester United and at this moment he is our best defender. I said in another topic today that the question shouldnt be "which two centrebacks should play today" but the question should be "who will partner Smalling". Not sure if Lindelof is the answer to that question though...

First upgrade rb (read : no more Young/Valencia) and his centreback partner before talking about upgrading on Smalling.

 

[A-man]

Not totally sure, but I think he had 2 nice passes between the lines and 2 hoofs that gave up possession. Both as a solution to being pressed. The rest of his passing was just safe and unadventurous, as expected from a CB. Don't really think he had a misplaced pass that put us in any danger, and we had a few of those. Matic and Lindelof from what I can remember. Don't think he was the worst.

He had a few really poor long balls, but nothing that put Unitednin danger or costing more than lost possession. Today is not the day to complain about that, as passing in general was pretty good from all players.

The problem is people watch our games - and Smalling, trying to find faults that are not really there. Just watch other games that involves the apparent top defenders in the world, and for the whole 90mins, try to focus on finding faults. You'd see that they are no better than Smalling. Smalling is one of the best defenders out there and he is just unlucky to be playing for us during our lowest ebb. He makes defending look so easy.

Yes and most goals come from small mistakes by CB. That comes with the job. Last season i think he was on of the top three CB in the PL.

 

[Trophy Room]

The problem is people watch our games - with Smalling's bad reputation etched into their minds and they, try to find faults that are not really there. Just watch other games that involves the apparent top defenders in the world, and for the whole 90mins, try to focus on finding faults. You'd see that they are no better than Smalling. Smalling is one of the best defenders out there and he is just unlucky to be playing for us during our lowest ebb. He makes defending look so easy.

I completely agree with this.

 

[POF]

He was fantastic against Chelsea. The club needs to tie him down to a new contract ASAP. It's crazy that they seem content to just let it expire. I can't imagine how bad that defence would be without him.

 

[Andycoleno9]

I think that some of you have the same problem like i have with Lukaku or Alexis. I like them and i am trying to see something which is not there and refuse to see some real facts.
Lets go from beginning. Nobody is saying that Mike is bad defender. But why Jose wants to replace him? Why Southgate does not rate him? Why he did not establish himself in these 7 years as first 11 player?
Because he has flaws. Flaws which are costly in big games.
He is not good in ball playing. Jose said that. It is not me. One or two good passes in one game can't hide that. Under pressure he will kick the ball out of danger, he will not try to keep it with some pass.
In matches when we attacked and when he was left in open space, he was bad. Last two games in PL with Spurs for example. He can play good when he has protection in numbers. But when he doesn't, he is all over the place. And i will not name all situations where he lost his player in penalty box because of bad positioning.

I am hugely misquoted here. I like him. Really i do. More than any our defender. And i have faith in him far more than in any other our defender. But i think that big club like United need to have top top complete central defenders. Who are good in everything. My opinion is that everything goes from defence. If your central defenders are world class than midfield have more freedom, whole squad has more confidence and opposition players play with fear. I think that every player hated to play against Vidic and Rio or against Terry and Carvalho.
To sum it up. He is good but only for backup.

 

[MikeKing]

The problem is people watch our games - with Smalling's bad reputation etched into their minds and they, try to find faults that are not really there. Just watch other games that involves the apparent top defenders in the world, and for the whole 90mins, try to focus on finding faults. You'd see that they are no better than Smalling. Smalling is one of the best defenders out there and he is just unlucky to be playing for us during our lowest ebb. He makes defending look so easy.

He really does. Think its also the reason why many of his actions goes unnoticed, regardless of the actual value of it. I think he shares that trait with Van Djik, although he isn't as natural as Smalling imo. He switches off too often but again his other strengths make up for it, and gives him an edge reputation wise. Pulling off a fancy pass that gets shared on twitter is valued as a sign of a true class defender these days, I don't share that sentiment.

I'd like to think Smalling is way better than his reputation says but he hasn't had the privilege of playing with a settled team with great players around him, so it is hard to know for sure. Those conditions often expose if you belong there or not. Playing with dross and standing out is a good sign but in some instances it might be flattering too. He has saved our asses so many times these last years and I would love to see us finally trust his qualities going into a season and target a perfect partner for him to work with instead of fecking around too much with different pipe dreams.

I wonder how good he would look in a competent setup.

 

[11101]

Mistake is maybe a strong word. Lack of quality would be better. Better defender would clear that ball. Smalling is average defender but in situation where others are shit, people see him like some class defender. Which he is not and never will be. I hope that we will not do the same mistake with him as we did with Jones and offer him a new contract.
To be clear here, again i repeat; he is the best defender in the club but in general he is not good enough for Man Utd.

I think Smalling is very overrated by some here but that was not his fault in any way. Young gets away with murder defensively, he's done it with Bailly a few times and this time he's made it look like Smalling lost the header, when he should have been the one defending that. Smalling had Giroud and only realised late that Young had let Luiz run in.

Put it another way, if we had a Gary Neville in the team Luiz wouldn't have got near that ball.

 

[WR10]

This eternal debate about smalling is mind boggling. He’s a solid defender, has an average or even below average amount of ‘mistakes’ in his defensive game and an insanely below average amount of ball playing skills. That total equates to an average football player. Unfortunately, an average footballer should not have a place in a team that aspires to play proper football. Main reason why he didn’t get called up to the England squad. Mourinho only picks him because he is consistently our best defender but I’m sure he wishes he also had a footballer there too. Sometimes defenders like him exist in a top team because they have a proper ball playing defender next to them that can actually reliably pass the ball around. Smalling doesn’t have that luxury and his ‘flaws’ get even more amplified.

 

[Ashley R1+O]

Wow, Young is clueless defensively

Wtf is young doing there? Get your body in the way and impede luizs jump

Yeah but Young is not a defender. I agree if he just steps in there, Luiz clatters him and all the pressure lets off and we get a free kick. But he's not a defender so we need to sit here and just shrug our shoulders and say "yeah but he's not a defender...?".

 

[MikeKing]

Sorry Ashley, I mixed up your name

 

[Ashley R1+O]

You still think its Smallings fault tho, after you rewatched it?

No..? I never thought it was his fault at all in the first place so relax your fingers, lad.

I was just pointing out the wider problem in our backline that expecting wingers to be able to make nuanced defensive plays in this manner is pointless. (Ditto with TonyV)

 

[POF]

I think that some of you have the same problem like i have with Lukaku or Alexis. I like them and i am trying to see something which is not there and refuse to see some real facts.
Lets go from beginning. Nobody is saying that Mike is bad defender. But why Jose wants to replace him? Why Southgate does not rate him? Why he did not establish himself in these 7 years as first 11 player?
Because he has flaws. Flaws which are costly in big games.
He is not good in ball playing. Jose said that. It is not me. One or two good passes in one game can't hide that. Under pressure he will kick the ball out of danger, he will not try to keep it with some pass.
In matches when we attacked and when he was left in open space, he was bad. Last two games in PL with Spurs for example. He can play good when he has protection in numbers. But when he doesn't, he is all over the place. And i will not name all situations where he lost his player in penalty box because of bad positioning.

I am hugely misquoted here. I like him. Really i do. More than any our defender. And i have faith in him far more than in any other our defender. But i think that big club like United need to have top top complete central defenders. Who are good in everything. My opinion is that everything goes from defence. If your central defenders are world class than midfield have more freedom, whole squad has more confidence and opposition players play with fear. I think that every player hated to play against Vidic and Rio or against Terry and Carvalho.
To sum it up. He is good but only for backup.

It would be fantastic if the club had a defender as good as Smalling as back up but when they can't manage to sign a quality centre back to play next to him, what are the chances they will now suddenly sign 2 that are better?

 

[MikeKing]

No..? I never thought it was his fault at all in the first place so relax your fingers, lad.

I was just pointing out the wider problem in our backline that expecting wingers to be able to make nuanced defensive plays in this manner is pointless. (Ditto with TonyV)

Sorry, thought you were someone else there. Agree with what you're saying tho regarding the fullbacks. It is kinda obvious what you get when you don't have real fullbacks. It is tiresome and they make small mistakes like this all the time, because they don't have the basics down from a young age. Think Young did alright when using his pace to annoy Hazard, but thats about it. Makes defending as a team that much more difficult with so many players with suspect defensive orientation. With Mourinho in charge too it is a paradox and the whole defending thing feels unnatural.

 

[Ashley R1+O]

Sorry, thought you were someone else there. Agree with what you're saying tho regarding the fullbacks. It is kinda obvious what you get when you don't have real fullbacks. It is tiresome and they make small mistakes like this all the time, because they don't have the basics down from a young age. Think Young did alright when using his pace to annoy Hazard, but thats about it. Makes defending as a team that much more difficult with so many players with suspect defensive orientation. With Mourinho in charge too it is a paradox and the whole defending thing feels unnatural.

No drama's my man, shit gets heated in here sometimes I understand that.

This has been my argument for a long time now:
Trying to judge every player in our back line individually is pointless. Okay you can lump all of them in as a group, but people need to analyze it as a group. The defensive unit is clearly Smalling + somebody and then even both sides at fullback have their issues. Shaw for the kind of status he has in the team at the moment is commanding something of a veteran spot and he's still very very raw for a 23 year old with obvious mentality gaps that he needs to build on. That is completely fine as an individual but when you put them into a lineup you can't just berate him for these kind of mistakes. Have to take the good with the bad. The right fullback position has been a total trainwreck for three years now.

That Smalling position you would think would be the 'C', the leader, the heart of the defense. But it bizarrely for some reason, is not (it is what it is). Smalling just doesn't have it, for all his cello-taping of the defense together over the last five years, he still doesn't have that leadership quality and the trust in the manager. Fair enough, isolate that issue and build on/from it and I understand where some of the arguments stem from and that is fine as well.

But the whole defensive issue is a total mess. It isn't something you can fix quickly as well, there is no core to it. No guts, no meat. It isn't really an ideal testing ground to bring through Bailly/Lindelof who obviously have to settle into this team and need time. Plus you have basically no fullbacks and your most senior actual fullback is Luke Shaw who still has problems and by all accounts doesn't look like a natural leader.

It is a blow it all up or fix what you can type scenario. The obvious move would be to bring in a leader to play with Smalling and a few fullbacks to bolster the numbers and mix with Shaw and Dalot who are still developing. Keep Bailly and Lindelof and cook them for a couple more years. Or just blow the entire thing up and buy an entire new back-line, or something.

VeteranRB-Smalling-Leader-VeteranLB
Dalot-Bailly-Lindelof-Shaw

This should be the basis of our defense in theory. But in practice it is far from that.

I'm just so tired of everyone micro-analyzing in all different directions. It has lead us down a path of these weird one liner cliche's, over-diagnosing minor issues in the defensive unit and then just relentlessly blaming individuals for things the entire unit should be capable of working to mitigate.

As I said above, I am more surprised this team has had one of the better defenses. Since SAF left it has been an absolute mess of a back four/three.

 

[stevoc]

[QUOTE="Andycoleno9, post: 23206068, member: 107623" Why he did not establish himself in these 7 years as first 11 player?
.[/QUOTE]

Eh he has repeatedly. Over the last 3 seasons he might be left out at times but come the end of the season he's been the 1st choice central defender.

 

[criticalanalysis]

Have criticised Smalling a lot but for that their equaliser pretty much every Utd playert in box is to blame but him and DDG.

Smalling did his best to affect and challenge for that first ball but it was criminal nobody anticipated the second ball.

Young, Lindelof, Matic, Pogba, Shaw and even Herrera should have been busting a gut to track back into the box when a looping high ball gets crossed into the box like that.

 

[MikeKing]

No drama's my man, shit gets heated in here sometimes I understand that.

This has been my argument for a long time now:
Trying to judge every player in our back line individually is pointless. Okay you can lump all of them in as a group, but people need to analyze it as a group. The defensive unit is clearly Smalling + somebody and then even both sides at fullback have their issues. Shaw for the kind of status he has in the team at the moment is commanding something of a veteran spot and he's still very very raw for a 23 year old with obvious mentality gaps that he needs to build on. That is completely fine as an individual but when you put them into a lineup you can't just berate him for these kind of mistakes. Have to take the good with the bad. The right fullback position has been a total trainwreck for three years now.

That Smalling position you would think would be the 'C', the leader, the heart of the defense. But it bizarrely for some reason, is not (it is what it is). Smalling just doesn't have it, for all his cello-taping of the defense together over the last five years, he still doesn't have that leadership quality and the trust in the manager. Fair enough, isolate that issue and build on/from it and I understand where some of the arguments stem from and that is fine as well.

But the whole defensive issue is a total mess. It isn't something you can fix quickly as well, there is no core to it. No guts, no meat. It isn't really an ideal testing ground to bring through Bailly/Lindelof who obviously have to settle into this team and need time. Plus you have basically no fullbacks and your most senior actual fullback is Luke Shaw who still has problems and by all accounts doesn't look like a natural leader.

It is a blow it all up or fix what you can type scenario. The obvious move would be to bring in a leader to play with Smalling and a few fullbacks to bolster the numbers and mix with Shaw and Dalot who are still developing. Keep Bailly and Lindelof and cook them for a couple more years. Or just blow the entire thing up and buy an entire new back-line, or something.

VeteranRB-Smalling-Leader-VeteranLB
Dalot-Bailly-Lindelof-Shaw

This should be the basis of our defense in theory. But in practice it is far from that.

I'm just so tired of everyone micro-analyzing in all different directions. It has lead us down a path of these weird one liner cliche's, over-diagnosing minor issues in the defensive unit and then just relentlessly blaming individuals for things the entire unit should be capable of working to mitigate.

As I said above, I am more surprised this team has had one of the better defenses. Since SAF left it has been an absolute mess of a back four/three.

I think you make some excellent points, and I'm not just saying that because I attacked you for no reason I share all these views and the bolded part is very well explained as well. I can understand why we have performed well defensively earlier because Valencia was playing rather well along with Smalling and both managers has tried to soften the problem with tactics. Not to mention all our defenders have had their patches of form at different times, which isn't inherently a bad thing but it has papered over the cracks a bit. It certainly hasn't brought any stability, and probably fooled Woodward into thinking we had what we needed. I think its rather dumb to ignore the obvious pros of having experienced players just because of some principle of making sure Mourinho does it the "United-way" with young players. Bailly seemed a clever transfer at the time, as did Dalot, but Lindelof made no sense at all and it was a crucial one for Mourinho me thinks. Why buy another player at that time for potential, just ludicrous.

 

[KiD MoYeS]

Was good yesterday, game suited him as Chelsea went direct which is his bread and butter.

 

[devips]

Smalling haters are a frustrated lot these days. He hardly makes any mistake so they need to toil to invent some.
Smalling is among the top 3 players in our team

 

[Isotope]

The problem is people watch our games - with Smalling's bad reputation etched into their minds and they, try to find faults that are not really there. Just watch other games that involves the apparent top defenders in the world, and for the whole 90mins, try to focus on finding faults. You'd see that they are no better than Smalling. Smalling is one of the best defenders out there and he is just unlucky to be playing for us during our lowest ebb. He makes defending look so easy.

Yeh. Just watched the Madrid game. Varane was closer to Lindelof than Smalling, in terms of defending.

 

[MadDogg]

@Mcking , @Ekeke , @villain . Lets put that second goal aside and the fact that he is better than all other our defenders. I will ask you only one simple question. Do you think that Smalling is quality for Man Utd?

Could he potentially be improved on? Yes. As good as he is defensively (where he is certainly good enough) his lack of ability on the ball could definitely be improved on.

However, he is low down on the order of 'things that could be improved'. We obviously need a partner for him and a rightback outside of him (perhaps Dalot will ultimately take over the latter), and then we could judge him when he's in an actual defensive unit. The midfield and attack in front of him also don't generally function as a unit, and all of that could be improved as well. Whether that is different players or different coaching/tactics (likely a combo of both). Once all of that is done perhaps we would look to improve on Smalling as well.

 

[ivaldo]

Absolutely.

He has a reputation for being a bad defender, so people are often looking to blame him for things, and put a higher standard of expectation on him than what's reasonable.
Just so that when he does make a mistake they can point to that to confirm their preceding thought about him being a bad defender.
That's just confirmation bias, and he's one of the biggest victims of it in our squad.

When you watch other teams regularly, you can see that in comparison he's actually a very good defender, who looks awkward as feck on the ball.
It's just easier to say Smalling is shite because everyone else says it.

Look at the goals that other teams concede, and analyse the mistakes that their defenders make and you'll see that Smalling isn't the bumbling buffoon he's made out to be.

For example, imagine Smalling did this;
https://streamja.com/VWpQ

Or this;
https://streamja.com/G45e

Or this;
https://streamja.com/bkQo

I mean you're talking about some of the best defenders in the world, players who we'd all love at this club - and these are just the casual mistakes that they have in them.

You only have to look at yesterdays fixtures in the PL to see other top class defenders making some pretty horrendous mistakes. Without doubt, Kompany should have been sent off for a really poor challenge early on against Burnley. Liverpool should have conceded after Van Dijk made a complete hash of a clearance from a cross and put it at the feet of a Huddersfield player in the 6 yard box.

As pure defending goes, Smalling is one of the best in the league.

 

[BazzaBear]

The past few games, we have repeatedly given away clear chances to the opposition by having our defenders simply not mark the opposition, and having a massive gap between our CBs.

I haven't found a replay to check it, but from memory Alonso's massive chance that he thankfully miscontrolled was caused when Smalling suddenly, unaccountably, decided to sprint away from the man he was already marking towards another Chelsea player who was already marked anyway. That's a mistake I don't expect to see at schoolboy level. But correct me if I have misremembered it. The defensive unit as a whole for Chelsea's goal was completely absent again, although Smalling takes no blame on that occasion given his attempt to challenge the header. Where the hell was everyone else though when DDG was surrounded by 3 Chelsea players while our lot stood and watched them?

I think I agree that Smalling is probably our best CB. But I think I've also lost faith in the lot of them. Our defenders inability to defend in an organised way hamstrings the entire team (and is probably not unrelated to the extra defensive duties for everyone else). I suspect that any one of Lindelof, Bailly, Jones or Smalling could be pretty good with the right partner - but none of them seem to be the right partner for any of the others. Probably mostly because none of them shows any kind of leadership, or any deal of footballing intelligence.

 

[Mcking]

Yeh. Just watched the Madrid game. Varane was closer to Lindelof than Smalling, in terms of defending.

And Varane is actually much better at defending than the man that usually starts next to him - one regarded by some as the best defender in the world. For defenders and other footballers in general - at times, I would say reputation is key.

 

[Andersons Dietician]

Yeah but Young is not a defender. I agree if he just steps in there, Luiz clatters him and all the pressure lets off and we get a free kick. But he's not a defender so we need to sit here and just shrug our shoulders and say "yeah but he's not a defender...?".

To be fair, he has now been a defender for 4 years? And we’ve seen he knows how to do it but like Valencia just little losses of concentration however I’ve no idea what he was doing there and even on the Alonso chance he just watched him go.
I just find it weird that these guys are all playing at this level and don’t seem to do the basics of defending and act as individuals instead of the unit it should be. Jose is renounced for being good at setting up a back 4 but LVG’s defensive unit looks miles ahead of what we currently see. Smalling is constantly putting out fires and I would say Shaw is also playing well and for me doing a great job defensively. RB is an issue and that 2nd CB partner although I think Lindelof was alright yesterday but again they act as individuals instead of a unit not getting the basics right.

Smalling in some games acting as superman and I don’t really see any leaders as many like to call it we could just sign.

 

[Cassidy]

And Varane is actually much better at defending than the man that usually starts next to him - one regarded by some as the best defender in the world. For defenders and other footballers in general - at times, I would say reputation is key.

He isn't

 

[Mcking]

He isn't

I won't debate that here.