Smalling is the best defender in the league. Watch what he does under Solskjaer.
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It's not really where he plays, it's how he plays. He likes to sit back and wait for the play to develop before reacting to his striker, he doesn't read movement especially well. It results in lots of clearances and tackles but it can leave our defence out of shape, plus the need for a DM to sit back with them. It's ok if we set up that way but I don't think we will under Solksjaer.
You still drunk?
He is an important player at our club. He never shirks the responsibility of the United shirt, is reliable, and always serves the club. Consider Lindelholf and Jones.
Smalling is not a Ramos, Vidic, etc.. but it doesn't matter. He does a job for us (remember, we had a very good defensive record last year, and the team was rather average from an attacking perspective...)
Smalling has won Premiership title at OT. Not many current players can make that statement. Too many ask him to be the player which he clearly is not.
yes, we need another top centre half, and we need Bailly to get back to that consistent level of performance we first witnessed on his arrival... but Smalling, I want him at OT. Sometimes you need to reward and recognise loyalty. He was dismissed by Mourinho on a number of occasions, but still digs in.
And scores the odd important goal.
Smalling is not a Ramos, Vidic, etc.. but it doesn't matter. He does a job for us (remember, we had a very good defensive record last year, and the team was rather average from an attacking perspective...)
Smalling has won Premiership title at OT. Not many current players can make that statement. Too many ask him to be the player which he clearly is not.
yes, we need another top centre half, and we need Bailly to get back to that consistent level of performance we first witnessed on his arrival... but Smalling, I want him at OT. Sometimes you need to reward and recognise loyalty. He was dismissed by Mourinho on a number of occasions, but still digs in.
And scores the odd important goal.
You'll see.
First of I am interested in your opinion as I know you aren't just a Smalling hater. But what games are you basing this opinion on, just under Mourinho? Because where he plays affect how he plays as much as the others of the team, no? How is he going to sit back and wait for the play to develop in front if he has positioned himself higher up the pitch and is instructed to be aggressive? Are you saying he won't be able to follow those instructions and play on the front foot?
He is our best defender at reading movement. This was a weakness he had when he were younger, but he has improved a lot in that area with age. He is extremely good at making the right decision as to know when to react and when to keep his position. It is a big reason our defence hasn't looked half bad since SAF left. If you are too rash you leave your teammates exposed, and if you are too reserved you get left behind. He is very consistent in this area of defending and I find it perplexing that you think our DM's has been good. It is a cheap excuse for not appreciating or noticing his quality, as mostly until Matic arrived we sucked in the DM department.
If you are going to have two aggressive CB's who move forward into space as well as fullbacks flying forward, then you need to have a DM there or someone able to fill in for them when they do.
You also have to consider our other defenders weaknesses when assessing how Smalling has played these last few months. I feel i've seen a bit of a shift from his assertive performances under Van Gaal to more of a laid back style, like Rio after he lost his pace. He has played the role of the last man under Mourinho. But none of our other CB's have the defensive nous to be trusted to do that. Mourinho were too defensive in his set up but I think you'll find a new perspective of what Smalling can bring if you watch back his performances under Van Gaal. The man played like the Van Djik we see today.
We need Smalling back for the Spurs game, I don't want to see Jones playing against any top sides / games with high importance again
This more often than not he has had them in his pocket..
Remeber this?
https://www.thenational.ae/sport/ho...olving-harry-kane-and-chris-smalling-1.724318
Yeah i don't think we will keep a clean sheet till he is back, by far the best defender we have.
If he doesnt read movement very well can you explain how he was one of the CBs with the most interceptions last season? And shot blocks? Both of those things require you to read the play well enough to be in a position to cut out the opposition move. He's also the most likely CB to be found covering his fullback at the club, once again because he's especially good at reading whats going on so he will take over when our fullbacks are out of position. Now that does sometimes mean a player beats him but that wasnt because of not reading play well.
Says it all about our quality at the back if he is our best defender
The real reason was froze out of the England team
I fear Rondon too will bully our CB's against Newcastle as he can be a handful. Rondon is not a fantastic player by any means it's important to have a physical CB and someone that can stay very tight to him. He can cause some trouble if you aren't close to him. Lets hope he has an off day and that Jones can muscle in, but we probably need to outscore Newcastle if we are to win. Too bad we miss him for this as Smalling drives Rondon mad, it is a bit funny to see him get so angry. Same with Morata, very mad.
I like him and he is good, but at the same time, United have played the best football of the season without him. Against relatively weak teams, I should add. And it may not have anything to do with Smalling’s absence. But it should be mentioned when everybody is complaining about the players who were part of playing the last three matches.
What the other guy said, he is most comfortable defending within and just outside the penalty area. Will be interesting to see how he handles having to press high and get a bit exposed. I don't doubt that he can do it, but it's hard not to think about this:
Took one for the team there, Palace were in. 1-1 with 10 men is better than 11 vs 11 and 2-1 down - as it proved in the end.
Since he started with us. He's a good defender but he will never be a great one, that much was clear after a few years in.
By reactive I mean he waits for a ball to be played or the striker to make his move, then he reacts to it. The best defenders dictate how the striker plays. It's not being aggressive or bullying them, its more subtle things like forcing them into uncomfortable positions and cutting out passes before they become an option. Smalling is great when he has a single man to defend against but he's never been able to do that.
To be fair to him there aren't many defenders right now who are at that level, but we need to find one to get back to where we were when Rio and Vidic were around.
"My pass is also amazing without pressure"-Jose Mourinho.. that's what i am thinking whenever anyone post him pulling Hollywood pass. He shite his pants under pressure , bad at weighing his pass and directing the ball which end up putting other player under pressure. Our midfielder must drop deep to collect the ball because anyone seems to think twice before passing it to him.
He pushed up high, got turned and then fouled him. He only 'took one for the team' because of his own mistake.
Just like how Herrera got yellow on the last game?
Do you really pay that much attention to such details of our defence when watching games? That is very good if so. I mean what you're saying is pretty subtle yet specific and I'm not able to recall any specific moments of Smalling or Rio/Vida on this. Do you have a reference clip or something that show what you mean, in action? It is so specific but so subtle and vague I want to take your word for it, but I can't.
Hard to find clips as it's not something that is highlighted much. The clip upthread is kind of illustrative. Smalling follows his man forward and then tries to react by tackling, which is exactly what the striker wanted him to do. A Paolo Maldini sits off that far up the pitch and forces him to take him on.
Closest i can think of is a clip Gary Neville did on Michael Carrick a few years ago and how he positioned himself in defence. No tackles, very few interceptions, but where he put himself meant the opposition couldn't play the dangerous ball in the first place. The strikers had to go wide or drop to get the ball as he prevented them playing as they wanted to.
Smalling actually makes less attempts at tackles than the rest of our CBs. He's the closest thing in our backline to what you're going with here (the Carrick example).
Any update on when he will be back?
Who cares?? It's been really great not seeing him or Fellaini anywhere near the starting XI. The sooner we get proper centre backs in the better. No way will he fit into the pressing style we've adopted recently.
What the other guy said, he is most comfortable defending within and just outside the penalty area. Will be interesting to see how he handles having to press high and get a bit exposed. I don't doubt that he can do it, but it's hard not to think about this:
Just to clear this up, Smalling was actually injured at that point. He had heavy cramp I believe and was limping quite badly at this point.
He made a mistake still thinking his legs were OK, but once he realised he couldn't turn he dragged him down. This isn't a usual Smalling error.
He'll be fine with the pressing and winning the ball back quickly. The problem is that he might slow down our transitions from defence to attack.
All that shows is he makes less tackles. It doesn't explain why. He likes to have a battle with a single centre forward, and he's well covered by two sitting midfielders, which mean he doesn't need to tackle much. Van Dijk, John Stones and Smalling all make few tackles per game, but all for different reasons.
Besides, who is saying any of our others are any better? Bailly could be and Lindelof is a different style, but i wouldn't hold any of them up as players to aim for.
This is where we would see him doing more of the pulling and shirt grabbing as attackers find it easy to get past him. Rojo is more suited to the pressing game but he is so rash. Smalling's only strength is in the box. Outside of that he is useless. Yeah and as for playing out from the back, his stats are artificially inflated by the safe sideways and backwards passing to other defenders and DDG. He would need some miraculous transformation to make it work.
We sat deep a lot of times under Mourinho and did a lot of defending inside the box, so I have noticed that some have found it quite easy to create the false impression that Smalling is some sort of 'penalty box defender' that is not good at defending high up the pitch because he is and has proven to be very good at defending in the box for long spells. I have also noticed that for the defenders that proved to be incapable of defending in the box for long spells though, the narrative was and is twisted the other way to favour them, and they are made out as defenders that are better at defending high up the pitch.
The thing is, going back from LVG's tenure(even Fergie) to the end of Mourinho's tenure, Smalling has proven to be very good at consistently winning the ball high up the pitch - on the air and on the ground, shutting out and dominating even the best and fastests forwards in the league - inside and outside the box, moreso than the so called 'high-line defenders' has ever shown here.
I don't know if it has anything to do with the general negative perception on Smalling or that some just prefer to ignore every good game he's had for us in years, how we played under LVG and how he performed in arguably his best season with us. It seems that whenever it comes to Smalling, there is a lot and usually a trending false impression that is immediately and permanently etched on everyone's mind, and perpetually used as a stick to beat him. In the three years under Mourinho, he always proved to be quite capable of consistently defending both in the box and high up the pitch.
I think some people have already made up their minds on some things though - true on not, so I doubt I'd be able to do anything to change that. Until we see him play under Ole, I guess we will just keep going with the impression that he is incapable of defending outside the box.
Smalling may have had a few decent performances but he is playing for Man United. I just don't think he is of the calibre that we should be starting with. When we address the CB problem in the summer, and I'm sure we will, he will be a backup option at best. I can pretty much guarantee you that no other top 6 club would be in for him amd he probably wouldn't even fetch £25m.....and that's supposed to be our best centre back? We could get Manolas and Alderweireld for £60m and flog two of Smalling, Jones and Rojo. That would definitely make us more solid at the back.
"Really great" is pushing it. His replacement got sent off for doing something stupid. He could and should have been sent off about 15 minutes earlier for doing something equally stupid. I want to see centre back upgrades this month, but I'd rather Smalling played over Bailly every day of the week.
The issue mate, is that if no other club would buy Smalling for £25m, then just imagine how little Bailly, Lindeloff, Rojo and Jones would for, all of whom are worse. Smalling is our best defender.
No he isn't. Lindelof's come along great recently and there's been talk about Sevilla looking at Bailly. Bailly's been injured and yeah so he got sent off. He just needs a good run of games. If Smalling got sent off or conceded a penalty or something, I'm sure loads of people on here would just make excuses for him and harp on about his Player's Player of the season award from 1988. No decent big club would go in for Smalling. He'd probably end up at Cardiff or Fulham, possibly Everton or Bournemouth. Those clubs are his level.
That’ll be the Dutchman at Liverpool, but if not for him, I wouldn’t dismiss your claim. I think he’s brilliant, but his stock has suffered massively in the last few years when everyone decided they want their centre halves to play like #10s. Other than that, in the air or on the deck I’d back him against any forward 9/10.
Lindelof hasn't done anything yet to show us he could be good enough to be a nailed on starter at a club as big as ours. Rojo has had longer stretches of good form during his time here and he's still not good enough. Smalling has already proved himself at United, he's the most experienced CB we have and the only one who has featured in all our title winning matches in the post Fergie era.
If anyone seriously want to buy Bailly, then great, he's a walking liability. Bye bye. Lindelof has big deficiencies in his game, he's improved, definitely, which is great to see - but Smalling is consistently good. He's not great clearly, but he's easily been our best defender over the past 3/4 years.
Useless on the ball and will be finished once VAR is introduced. Needs selling this summer.
Personally I'm looking forward to seeing him back, I don't trust Jones at all, Smalling has issues and this playing out from the back we are doing will be hampered a bit by only having one option to do so, but overall I think we will be more stable with him and Lindelof back there and he's still the best CB we have in the air.
Ole said he could be back for Spurs in either his first of second presser, but since then hasn't said anything other than he's still out for now.
Ole said he could be back for Spurs in either his first of second presser, but since then hasn't said anything other than he's still out for now.
This is a very good point and I would agree that Smalling would be our best CB defensively even when playing a high line. His pace is crucial for that.
The problem with Smalling if he is good enough in possession to cement his place or not. Offensively that is.
With a high line and more frequent pressing also comes higher possession.
He did very well under LvG when paired with Blind. Not so well when paired with Jones for example. Offensively.
So it will be interesting to see
There is no way that we should be even close to selling him though. Thats for sure.
Is he going to learn how to head the ball in that run of games? That would be miraculous, because he is dogshit in the air.
Would mean Lindelof is back on the left again. This is why we need someone who is most comfortable on the left.
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