Not just a pen, he also gave the ball away without any pressure to Torino that led them to counter in the first goal. Typical Smalling's mistakes for years but he's our best defender some people think.
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The fact the Smalling scored goals for us in my opinion tells you all you need to know about his defensive ability.
The fact that Lindelof & Maguire don't score goals from corners doesn't mean they are rubbish - but it tells you something about their ability to get physical, read aerial projection and also how to command the defensive power that we currently lack.
When you look at our attacking corners - Maguire more than Lindelof gets on the end of the crosses but lacks a power that Smalling would normally have to finish and score a goal. Lindelof is usually no where to be seen and is far away from the cross as possible.
This can be seen in the defensive side too. It's okay for one defender not be the physical one & give you a technical balance to your defensive play - but you usually need that physical prowess to balance it out & Lindelof with Maguire are too similar in their strengths and weaknesses to ever accomplish anything here.
Smalling & Maguire will work the same reason Smalling Blind worked & the same reason Smalling Lindelof did decent - because one defenders weaknesses is covered by the other whilst the others strengthen the partnership.
It's the same way that playing 2 target men won't work upfront. Or playing two support strikers won't work either - it's better to play a target man in front of of a support striker or next to one to accommodate a players weaknesses & strengthen their balance.
What we saw with players like Martial playing centrally to accommodate Rashford & Greenwood out wide is the same type of balance that balances a partnership like Smalling & Maguire -
It's a Players tactical Ying & Yang.
On current form, I wouldn't disagree with you. But we've had Maguire for half a season, we had Smalling for about 10 years. Maguire may yet settle in, but Smalling has had more than enough opportunities here. This is Man Utd, we're supposed to be challenging for the Premier League, but haven't come anywhere close in the last 6-7 years with him in the team. I'm not putting the blame solely on him for the teams failures, but the solution is not to bring him back. It's time to move on.
The only thing questionable about this call is why did it even have to go to VAR. It was right in front of the ref. As clear a handball as you will see. The ref should have to donate his wages for this game to charity for not calling it in the first place...
Two players protested as soon as it happened. Doesn't matter if it's on purpose or not. 99.99999999999% of handballs aren't on purpose. That was as blatant a handball as it gets...
I get that even if we might disagree on Smalling's level. The thing is getting rid of Smalling before Jones, Lindelof, Rojo and Bailly is not a "Man Utd" move. We aren't going to spend another 100m on new defenders, so we might as well use our best options while we strengthen in other more urgent areas. Even if we spend money on Koulibaly or similar it is no guarantee he'll do better than Smalling for us.
I don't think there'd be anything like guaranteed starter. It's just the pecking order. And any pecking order can change depending on the recent form of the players.
It was Smalling who wanted to leave for more 1st team football if my memory serves me right.
Dumb penalty to give away, it was intentional and easy penalty decision. Ref should ce demoted for missing that.
A bit harsh. Lindelof actually gets on the end of our attacking corners quite often, he's just terrible at directing them and they normally end up going anywhere but the goal.
Thats my point how many on here repeated the same bullshit over and over that he would give away penalties every game for shirt pulling. And yet he's only conceded two and you say one was harsh with neither for shirt pulling.
if you believed he would give away a penalty every game for shirt pulling, then you didnt realise most were exaggerating. Most just simply didnt like him and used that argument to beat him with. He still remains a clumsy player at times
That was before spending £150 million on extra defenders this summer. Since he became a starter he's never had that kind of quality around him. He had an over the hill Vidic and the likes of Young, Valencia and Jones around him...
That said, I feel like Ole is stubborn and wont bring him back. So the best idea in that scenario is to use the fact Roma need him and want to keep him to get negotiations going for a player + cash swap for one of their other players. Smalling + money for Pellegrini, or Smalling + less money for Under, Zaniolo or Kluivert
1 player, Belotti. And after a hopeful appeal he gave up after 1 second
Pretty sure He didn't even know where the ball was but He's so fecking strong He punched the ball without even knowing it.
Next time he should try to catch it, boxing it outside the box is for amateurs.A brain fart from Smalling? Well I never.
Maguire scored a decent amount for Leicester and England, so I'd say it's more on our lack of quality delivery, with no other threats In the box meaning that everyone knows where every corner is going.
4? Of the top of my head, this one obviously. Two red cards. One in the F.A cup and the one against City where he went to ground early. Him falling over when trying to head the ball back to the goal keeper. Simulating a foul when Shelvey retracted his leg.
He probably has more than the average defender? It is hard to remember other defenders brainfarts, like for instance was Cahill more prone to brainfarts for instance? By reputation you wouldn't think so, but go through their catalog and I'm not sure.
Countless that go unpunished. Holding in the box, stupid passes, Benteke making him look like Bambi on ice wearing stilletos.
You're talking about that one time when Benteke shoulder barged him took him out for strength? He was punished for that one though right? Things like that happens to some players almost every game. It has been happening to a player like John Stones for years, and yet people don't seem to go on about every single incident to the point it is perceived as an inherent flaw. Repetition does that though, and some things get repeated but I'm not sure it is factually correct even if you are convinced a player like Smalling makes more mistakes than the the average defender. Even like Dendoncocker the other day, does something silly and it barely get mentioned, even the ref wouldn't blow his whistle. If that was Smalling or Jones it would be a penalty immediately because of their reputation.
Not too long ago Jones got shoulder barged with way too much force and we conceded a goal from it. If his reputation was different, it would be a different outcome. I'm saying this to say that even the refs are prone to bias from repeated opinions, perception of narrative etc. Things like this also effect fans opinions. So my original post, I questioned what we'd find out if we did sort of a comparison with another defender in how often mistakes are made..how it actually stacks up, side by side. I'm not sure you'd have a case that Smalling is more error prone than the average defender, even if you count the little things like misplaced passes that doesn't get punished etc.
I was being sarcastic mate, i realized they were exaggerating or talking out of their arse.
With Maguire out for a while and Tuanzebe nowhere to be seen, it's time to bring him back into the team. Bring him back from Roma and he will help the defence
Could we call him back and send them Lingard as compensation. My heart can't take two months of Jones 
extremely unlikely that we can recall him. He’s a first team player, and Roma would have been mad to allow such a clause.
Thing is I'm sure in exchange for a cancellation fee we can get him back. Maybe we can send them Phil Jones as a gesture of good will from us!! Winner winner chicken dinner!!
I did suggest something like this a couple months ago, but that one Roma fan here wouldn't have any of it
In football manager, I could always recall loaned out players in Jan.
No you can't always. There's a section in the loan deal that states whether you can.
I do agree with this.
Give money to roma and bring him back.
Yeah, It has been one of our weaknesses since the start of this season with Lindelof and Maguire. We played a pressing style in midfield but when we're not able to dominate a lone striker or push up field with our defenders it is a big problem. We have let teams just come at us, constantly running back to defend deep ourselves, so even if we win the ball it usually doesn't matter. We also take forever building up play so there is never any moment of surprise. Essentially we're flawed because we lack a player with his abilities. This season we recycle the ball when we should be attacking, and defending deep when we should be recycling.
Don't think Smalling would have saved our season. Our biggest problem is in attack. Although he would have done a better job than our current defenders particular on set pieces and stopping counter attacks against us.
He could have saved us 80m to splash on attackers and midfielders, I think that's the argument. Even if Maguire is the better overall defender, and thats a big if based on current form, he's not 80m better, or even half of that.
Agree with that. It is criminal that we didn't try to improve our attack, attacking midfield much. James was all we got. He has done alright, but is mainly a squad player.
We put all our attack on Rashford being brilliant and Martial doing well up top. It has been enough to get us 5th now, but without Rashford we could see a big decline.
We missed out on Haaland now and not sure we are even going to get a striker. Maybe Fernandez, but not sure we will get that through.
Better overall in what? Smalling dominates in the air and on the ground and is much quicker. Second to none for interceptions. He can also be relied upon for attacking and defending set pieces.
Blowing almost our entire transfer kitty on Maguire while obviously needing to strengthen elsewhere is an absolute farce and something Ole should also be made accountable for.
Maguire isnt a better overall defender
Very few are.
Smalling actually understands that it is his first priority to defend rather than fanny about on the ball hoping that if he takes enough touches he might look "cultured".
I remember the days when we talked about Smalling as the best defender in the league. It was during LVGs second season when we had a great start at least in terms of results. Morgan or Huth might deserve the title for getting a league win for Leicester though.
Although the Spurs defenders and Smalling probably performed at the highest level that year. Kompany too when healthy should be said.
Kompany was basically a perfect defender. Strong, quick and excellent at defending while also better on the ball than a lot of midfielders. Like a combination of Smalling and Maguire while also being better at everything than the two of them combined.
I would have liked to see a Smalling/Maguire combo... atleast try it. Smalling has the speed and agility to make up for Maguire his lack of that and Maguire can make up for some of the bad parts of Smalling his game. I guess Ole likes Lindelof or the only defender that was actually wanted by another club was Smalling?
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