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2019-20 Performances

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jackal&hyde said:
He was offered about 20 or more games a season and that was not enough for him so decided to leave. We did not want to get rid. He would have shared game time with Lindelof and Tuanzebe but apparently thinks he is better then that and probably hopes to get back in to the England squad if he plays more.
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In preseason he seemed to be behind Jones and Rojo as well. That was the particularly strange part.

It was understandable that Maguire-Lindelof was the combo we were hoping would cement itself as first choice. It was understandable that Tuanzebe coming back was going to be given a shot at cementing himself. But Jones and Rojo? We've been there, done that a number of times before and every single time Smalling ends up back ahead of them. He shouldn't really have to do it yet again.
 
MadDogg said:
In preseason he seemed to be behind Jones and Rojo as well. That was the particularly strange part.

It was understandable that Maguire-Lindelof was the combo we were hoping would cement itself as first choice. It was understandable that Tuanzebe coming back was going to be given a shot at cementing himself. But Jones and Rojo? We've been there, done that a number of times before and every single time Smalling ends up back ahead of them. He shouldn't really have to do it yet again.
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hmm yeah, it's a strange one. The fact that he was promised 15-25 games this season is a fact because it came from him in the Athletic interview, otherwise i would have thought it was PR by the club. I guess he was considered a known quantity while there were major question marks over Jones and Rojo so they were tested so to speak.
 
jackal&hyde said:
They know how to make him wanted don't they. Good for him, hope he gets his move and maybe even an England call up.
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Good that he is enjoying playing for Roma and also for the club where fans rate and love him. Must be a pleasant change after the toxic cnuts bitching about him for years.
 
jackal&hyde said:
They know how to make him wanted don't they. Good for him, hope he gets his move and maybe even an England call up.
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No chance he gets called up to England, Southgate stupidly made up his mind about him and now is stuck with calling up inferior defenders who are no better than Smalling or worse on the ball. He has rod in his back when it comes to Smalling.

England will easily get by the fodder but, if they actually want to win European Championship where they'll face any of the big teams Germany, Spain, France, Belgium that can possess the ball and attack frequently, like Croatia was able to do at the world cup, he'll actually need defenders that can defend, unfortunately they'll be with the likes of Stones and Walker in the back when it matters.
 
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Still statistically the top performing CB in the top leagues this season. If Roma can seal his transfer it'll be the business of the season. We'd be crazy to let him go without at least getting the money it would require to replace him, although on his current form at Roma that would take more than we paid for Maguire...

I think the best thing for Smalling to do is to wait till the end of the season because if he continues his current form, not only will Roma want to keep him but I think he'd get offers from several better clubs. I'm sure Inter feel like they missed a trick given all the business they did with us. I could see Leicester being interested too. Arsenal, like ourselves, are probably not better than Roma so I wouldnt consider that a better offer but I'm sure they'd be interested.

 
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I want rid and would have thought there's going to be several PL clubs who'd be interested in him that also might appeal to Smalling but then again he's just turned 30 but would someone like Arsenal pay £20m for a him given his age. I reckon we'll have to do with circa £15m and move on, if he was a few years younger I'm sure we'd be able to command over £25m but not now.
 
Alfie092 said:
How have Jones and Rojo lasted beyond Smalling? :lol:
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I don't know mate. Smalling is better than both of them. The idea of a ball-playing CB is given too much credit tbh. The most important thing of a defender is that he knows how to defend well, as simply as that.
 
DanClancy said:
I want rid and would have thought there's going to be several PL clubs who'd be interested in him that also might appeal to Smalling but then again he's just turned 30 but would someone like Arsenal pay £20m for a him given his age. I reckon we'll have to do with circa £15m and move on, if he was a few years younger I'm sure we'd be able to command over £25m but not now.
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A 30 year old CB isn't really that old. You'll get another three strong seasons out of them barring injuries.
 
Sure our scouts etc have been watching him, bring him back and partner him with Maguire and don't be stubborn. Otherwise better to wait till summer to sell
 
Selling him for £15m or whatever ridiculous price is being talked about would be up there with the worst decisions we've made on transfers post SAF.
 
I'm glad he's doing well but just because he is playing well there doesn't mean he'd have done the same here.
 
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I watched Roma vs Verona the other day and he was good. It's the first time I've watched Roma this season and you can easily tell he's already become a leader in the team (even without acknowledging him getting the captains armband after Dzeko went off in their previous game).
 
It also helps that Paulo Fonseca is a pretty good manager on accommodating players to his ideas. He's doing a good job despite Roma's poor transfer market this season.
 
Today Smalling vs Lukaku, should be good battle. Both are in good form but Inter team is much stronger than Roma.
 
Solid tonight. I don't know what's worse, us asking for £20m or Roma penny pinching. He's easily worth £30m in the current climate.
 
Too easy for him in Italy, the pace of the game is not stretching him. I thought there were times last season, especially if he was on the last of 3 games in quick succession that there were signs of physical decline in him, but he can cruise through games in Italy.
 
Kept the league leaders and best striking combination in Serie A quiet. Roma's best player and helped take them 4th in the league
 
van Hooijdonk said:
He looks fantastic in Seria A. Bossing it.
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He has often looked good for us too. Not with the ball, but his defending has been great for many years. Often doing well in the big games.
Last season he started poorly under Mourinho, but did well under Ole once back in the side. Then De Gea started giving away goals in almost every game so it got hard for the defenders in the end.
 
C'mon he hardly had work to do. Inter was awful today and left the ball to Roma for large portions of the game. Dreadful game.
 
Glad to see he's doing well. The pace of the game really suits him there.

Not sure having him back would be such a good idea though. He's deficiency would again be highlighted in a high pressing game and he won't at all be one for the future.

Hopefully these good performances will fetch us decent money for him and both parties can move forward.
 
zenith said:
Glad to see he's doing well. The pace of the game really suits him there.

Not sure having him back would be such a good idea though. He's deficiency would again be highlighted in a high pressing game and he won't at all be one for the future.

Hopefully these good performances will fetch us decent money for him and both parties can move forward.
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Even if it was true and he'd struggle. Who is actually pressing though? Against the top teams we've done well, but against the smaller teams which makes up the majority of our games in the league we have been struggling to keep a high line because of our tendency to defend in numbers to protect Lindelof and Maguire due to their lack of pace and ability in 1vs1 situations. We have also conceded piss poor goals against those teams and offered no aerial threat in attack despite us creating enough to get a bunch of corners. Smalling is great in a high line against those teams when he can isolate the striker and bully him, we haven't seen that once this season as the small teams just continues to build attacks from their long balls cause we can't get to them. Then we have to start over, and over. Just one of the things we miss after letting him go.

He has also done well against a lot of the top teams before, dominating the likes of Kane, so I don't see how letting him go was even a choice for us unless he was toxic or something. But he clearly is well liked within in the club, just also undervalued unfortunately.
 
Say what you will about Smalling but Rojo, Bailly and Jones are still at the club, while Lindelof starts for us.

The mind boggles that we are going to flog him for relative peanuts.

He has been one of our best players post-SAF.
 
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