This thread is hilarious. Any criticism of Smalling and Ekeke is on it like a rash for the full 76 pages. Must be Smalling's mum.
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And one of the few times he got close to defenders that aren't Smalling, he created the winner.I'm sure you can see the funny side of that statement. This is Messi we are talking about.
Aside from the head incident Messi actually only went near Smalling twice all game, and both times he got his pass away. He plays much deeper these days, we had Fred, McTominay and occasionally Shaw doubling up on him in midfield. Him being quiet had nothing to do with Smalling, they were rarely in the same area of the pitch.
Smalling on the ball with players in front of him is much better than he gets credit for. His problem is distribution when he gets put under pressure. Same applies to Victor btw. There is a big difference between those two and a player like Ramos for example who "always" is able to play himself out of defensive situations and opponents press.
Ah, that explains everything now.
Also we clearly need to sign a metal fan or two to keep De Gea happy.
Aside from the head incident Messi actually only went near Smalling twice all game, and both times he got his pass away. He plays much deeper these days, we had Fred, McTominay and occasionally Shaw doubling up on him in midfield. Him being quiet had nothing to do with Smalling, they were rarely in the same area of the pitch.
Deeper? He played as one of two forwards and running in behind our defense. Thats what caused problems for us. But he didnt run off Smalling's shoulder
He was literally right up with Suarez, with Coutinho coming inside from the left
Here's Messi's latest matches showing his current form. Theres a match that stands out there.
Barely got a kick.
Deeper? He played as one of two forwards and running in behind our defense. Thats what caused problems for us. But he didnt run off Smalling's shoulder
He was literally right up with Suarez, with Coutinho coming inside from the left
Here's Messi's latest matches showing his current form. Theres a match that stands out there.
That shows why you shouldn't rely on these stats websites so much.
He created the goal but because it nicked Shaw's arm it looks like he did nothing all game. Error #1.
Error #2 - he hasn't played as an advanced forward in years. He sits 30-40 yards out threading balls through for others. He literally ran in behind our defence once all game, when they scored. Watch his highlights below if you don't believe me. It looks like he's the most advanced on that heatmap simply because he doesn't move around much anymore.
Well that’s very interesting...
From a stats pov Messi had a really poor night. But still, McTominay was the only outfield player in United with better stats. The second best in United was Lindelof who had as much as 0.5 lower than Messi. So even on a bad day Messi was decent compared to United players stats.Here's Messi's latest matches showing his current form. Theres a match that stands out there.
Well he's the best player of all time. That's about as much you can hope for really
Barcelona 3:0 Man Utd
Gave Coutinho all the freedom in the world to cut inside and shoot.
Also not sure why we insist on playing out the back with Smalling. Any hint of a press and it's straight back to De Gea who hoofs it and gifts it to the other team.
Also not sure why we insist on playing out the back with Smalling. Any hint of a press and it's straight back to De Gea who hoofs it and gifts it to the other team.
I thought he played quite well. Which is weird to say when you concede 3 goals.
Played alright bar that one moment of indecisiveness on Coutinho, which given that is his specialty was disappointing.
He was decent enough... But Jesus, you have to close Coutinho down when he's about to shoot, that's just basic
I was going to say he had a reasonably good game all things considered, until he decided it was a good idea to let Coutinho line himself up perfectly for a shot. By that time we'd given up.
Still, he and Lindelof didn't embarrass themselves, unlike their two companions on the left.
Still, he and Lindelof didn't embarrass themselves, unlike their two companions on the left.
Another excellent performance as usual. I wonder when will some people realise he is quite good. Easily biggest contented for our player for the season.
Just like Jones did with Messi twice, right? And you named Jones MOTM by mile.
It was a ridiculous shot, and he had acres of space, if he closed him he would turn him easily. He risked and Coutinho scored his special that he does around 4 times in a season. It happens.
Just like Jones did with Messi twice, right? And you named Jones MOTM by mile.
It was a ridiculous shot, and he had acres of space, if he closed him he would turn him easily. He risked and Coutinho scored his special that he does around 4 times in a season. It happens.
Yes exactly like Jones did, it's obviously a lot easier to shoot when you have time and space then it is when you don't.
Good thing that Messi didn't score twice from the same situation then. Also, Coutinho had far more space than Messi did for both goals.
Messi scored twice because a) he's Messi and b) DDG should have saved one anyway.
If anything Jones didn't close down Messi quick enough for the first goal.
He was ok but could have done better for two of the goals and also in the last chance in first half when DDG did his face save. He first missed his tackle and then jogged back too casually.
I don't want to repeat myself, but I am not sure you understood me. You are criticising Smalling for not closing down Coutinho when Coutinho had acres of space and could easily embarass Smalling when there was no one to cover soace nehind him, but are saying Jones was MOTM and not even mentioning that he had even tighter situations with Messi after which Messi scored two goals when he could have closed him down earlier, and actually had teammates around him to cover him.
Our best player tonight by a mile.
Probably our best player but shouldn't have left Coutinho come onto his right foot. Other than that solid. Feel sorry for him at times with how shit our overall defence is.
Or his plant protein powder supplier
I think he is part of the problem too, we end up retreating so often when he gets the ball under a bit of pressure or turning the ball over when he has a semi difficult ball to control. As the game gets less physical and more press orientated we have play out from the back.
Jones attempted to close Messi down the second time? It was his pressure that made Messi put in a relatively poor shot?
First one I don't know what anyone was doing. Young hits a shit ball, Fred puts in a crap challenge and Jones should close down.
It was a shit attempt I'll tell you that.
Does he look a little heavy legged? He barely beat Suarez in a foot race early in the first half. That would normally be mince meat for him. I noticed it against Wolves as well. He didn't move well, or like he normally does. Tired?
Oh god. Scapegoat number one. It is beyond unfair at this point. Just stop having weird ass agendas to excuse losses and other weird fetishes for players. Your could name literally 9 to 10 players not up to the standard of ball-playing ability needed to compete with Barca team, yet some of you choose to scapegoat the one player who played very well. I don't think Smalling lost the ball more than a couple times in pressured situations and we played out from the back a lot this game without being able to turn it into anything. However I think we defended decently if we consider the amount of space awarded to let our midfield and attack have more space. Smalling were outstanding and stopping us from losing 6-0 if we're being honest. Would have been a different game if our attackers took their chances and our midfield were capable of taking charge when things were going against them.
Nearly 30 and playing every match probably explains it. That one against Suarez, think Lindelof played a poor ball and Smalling just didn't find his usual acceleration, just ended up toeing it back to Dave?
A few times tonight you could see it quite clearly.
Barcelona playing out were lined up like:
Roberto - Pique - Lenglet - Alba
Martial - Rashford - Lingard
Rakitic - Busquets - Arthur
McTominay - Fred - Pogba
Messi - Suarez - Coutinho
Young - Jones - Smalling - Lindelof
We were lined up like this:
Lindelof - Smalling - Jones - Young
McTominay - Fred - Pogba
Coutinho - Suarez - Messi
Arthur - Busquets - Rakitic
Lingard - Rashford - Martial
Alba - Lenglet - Pique - Roberto
It would be much easier to show on a formation builder but even there it's quite obvious why we look so disjointed. Smalling is not the only reason but he is a big part of it.
Well, once Smalling starts to retreat it ends up with De Gea which equals a turnover 7 times out of 10.
You see with Barca tonight when we put the high press on, Ter Stegan can hit long passes to feet to bypass it.
Probably tired, but he is definately not as fast as he was, lost that extra yard of pace. It was already visible last year.
Poor on the Coutinho goal but apart from that he was ok.
Smalling is just one of seven players there. Obviously he is a big part of it, but so are the other seven players including the guys that are actually responsible for setting up the team.
I think that is harsh. He had a very very good game but didn't have a perfect match, and a couple of other instances I think he maybe could have done a bit more, but that goal I don't have a problem with at all. If he had tried to close him down there he could very well be turned easily and sold himself short and you just know Coutinho could have went past him or played a through ball to Messi or Suarez to take advantage of it. All through the game the right decision would have been to stand by to anticipate, but luckily for Barca that specific shot happened to be just perfect at the right moment for him to get the space.
I knew either you are Ekeke would jump on me, I disagree with the bolded, the fact that type of performance is actually considered good, when him and Jones were average at best, both too error prone and both too poor on the ball, with the Coutinho goal he needs to get closer and bank on himself to stop him going past him, all he did was just allow him to get a shot off from the type of position we all know he's lethal from.
That is very clever, and I appreciate that as I didn't mean to jump on you. If you consider my evaluations then I'm sure you'll see sense in what I said. If you think Jones and Smalling were comparable this match I don't have any further replies coming to you.
I don't even know what you mean with the first line mate, you and Ekeke defend Smalling from every piece of criticism he gets, that's just a fact. I read what you said and no, I think you are wrong, he should have done more to stop Coutinho, a top CB would have IMO. If you thought Jones was worse than him tonight then fair enough, don't reply, my main point is neither are good enough and we'll continue to be nothing but a top 4 scrambling team that makes up the numbers in the CL, if we actually qualify to be in the competition.
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