MOTM for me personally. Him and Jones were rock solid.
12
Season Average Rating
- Appearances
- 34
- Clean sheets
- 8
- Goals
- 1
- Assists
- 0
- Yellow cards
- 2
- Status
He is a great defender to have when we are pinned back.
Good game, won of plenty of headers, a couple of big ones on set pieces.
He and Jones did well.
He and Jones did well.
Players like Deeney make having a defender like Smalling very important. Deeney is fantastic at what he does, a bit like Kevin Davies of old, brilliant at backing in, winning headers, getting position, using his backside to hold people off, strong and aggressive, 30 years ago most teams had a CF like that. You need someone who can battle him, never going to win every ball against him but limiting his impact is the key.
We were pinned back because of him, and Jones. Neither of them have the ability to push us out when we're under pressure, they just retreat further towards our own goal and invite more pressure.
Gave the ball away more than usual, but considering we were basically playing without a midfield that wasn't too surprising. Otherwise he dealt with Deeney, and the rest of them, quite well.
Would be one hell of a defender if he was good on the ball.
While it would be great to have the luxury of a ball playing CB with the vision of a Scholes/Carrick, I seriously doubt he and Jones were the reason our midfield didn't show up today.
Part of the reason the midfield didn't show up was because they were covering twice as much ground with our defence sat so deep.
Matic barely moved and Ander was a couple of yards in front of him. 2 DMs who never got forward.
Another good game from smalling but thought Jones was even better today (such a shame about his injury proneness).
Not quite sure how so many are finding space for the digs. He and Jones were excellent, Jones the superior today.
Badly need a proper right back and a couple of quality midfielders.
Hererra has a handful of outstanding games, Matic has done well but is past his peak and Pogba is one of the best players in the world... When he feels like it.
Badly need a proper right back and a couple of quality midfielders.
Hererra has a handful of outstanding games, Matic has done well but is past his peak and Pogba is one of the best players in the world... When he feels like it.
The centre backs dictate the positioning of the full backs and the DMs. If they're defending high and bringing the ball out, the others can move forward too.
Brilliant today yet getting slated from all directions as always. We really have some shit supporters.
Par for the course every season for Mike.Had a misplaced long pass and a short pass after making a run out but looked like he was fouled by Troy Deeney as he made the last pass. Didn't do much else on the ball positive or negative. Was exposed all game because of poor defensive organisation in the team and terrible cover from the midfield but he defended very well and kept us in the game really. Young, Matic and Herrera were terrible and so he practically had to play 2-3 positions at the same time defensively.
Man of the match by a mile today, commanded the back line, showed leadership, won every header. One long ball towards the end was poor but the rest was excellent, he’s our best defender. Can’t believe any one is slating him after today
This. Jones is also the same. If we tried to pass out from the back with this pair it will be panic stations. As long as they keep the fundamentals of their defending solid there's arguably no-one better suited to stopping the brute strikers of the league like Deeney, Mitrovic, Rondon.. etc
Smalling has always been like this. One great game..then a few ordinary games and then he will have couple of bad games and the cycle restarts.
More like multiple good games that don't get noticed, slightest mistake magnified beyond what they should be.
I agree with this, was about to reply him with this same post.
You're describing Jones there. Smalling is far more consistent and rarely has actual bad games.
He's a great defender, I like him
I liked the way he had a go at Matic for losing possession in our box.
He's a very basic defender. Can defend decently and that's about it. Modern football asks for much more from a CB for a top club. What other elite club has a defender that lacks ability on the ball as much as Smalling? None.
A decent defender doesn't mark MBappe out of a match
Alexander Buttner once marked prime Arjen Robben out of a match and he was far from decent.
A decent defender is capable of very good games as well as stinkers which Smalling has shown time and time again
Has Buttner put tons of PL RW into his pocket though? Smalling did it with PL strikers.
So what you're saying is Buttner has never marked MBappe out of a game. I didnt think he did, but thanks for clarifying
How many times has Smalling kept players like Kane, Salah and Hazard silent?
The only people he cant keep silent are the failed footballers who post on here complaining about him.
This is true. They are the real experts on here as well
As opposed to the experts who think Chris Smalling is good enough to challenge for the league/CL
If he was to leave us no other top club would be in for him, that's all you need to know
As opposed to the experts who think Chris Smalling is good enough to challenge for the league/CL
If he was to leave us no other top club would be in for him, that's all you need to know
Yes. All we need to know is something you just made up
Ok then which top club do you think would be in for Chris Smalling if he were to leave?
It depends on your definition of top club. But I would consider the top 6 in the Premier League among them and Arsenal are always linked with him
The "can't challenge for the league or CL with *insert not great player*" is a bit silly. Ignoring that we've won leagues with Smalling here anyway! Liverpool may win the league with Jordan Henderson playing every week and Matip or Lovren at the back are hardly amazing. City may win the league with Delph or Zinchenko at LB. Stones/Otamendi/past it Kompany is hardly an amazing selection to partner Laporte either. It's hardly like winning a league requires world class players in every position.
When the ball is knocked high into our box, there's no other player you'd want under it above Smalling.
A centre back combo without him just has real aerial weakness, and until we have something to remedy that, he has to start.
A centre back combo without him just has real aerial weakness, and until we have something to remedy that, he has to start.
As opposed to the experts who think Chris Smalling is good enough to challenge for the league/CL
If he was to leave us no other top club would be in for him, that's all you need to know
You only have to look at Liverpool's midfield, or Matip/Lovren to see that you don't need 11 players of the level of Pele.
I consider a top team to be a team that expects to challenge for the league and do a deep run in the CL so I wouldn't include Arsenal in there.
I think the fact that the best 'top team' you could come up with that would take Smalling being Arsenal says all that needs to be said. If we want to consistently challenge for the league and do well in the CL we need an upgrade.
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