But the thing is would Smalling after spending his entire career with us would agree for such move.
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So I just mentioned it, but I really should go a little deeper into why Roma who played a 3 at the back had no problem whatsoever with Smalling keeping his passing simple and yet the team won 5 matches out of 7, drawing 1 and losing 1.
The first thing is... Shock, horror, you dont need your CB being a creative hub. Roma had no problem whatsoever creating from their midfield and attacking players. Kolarov did come forward from LCB and he has some quality on the ball so that helped. But for the most part their midfield and attack worked together, had most of the ball when playing at home, including 70% against Fiorentina for example and it was absolutely fine.
I dont think Diawara, Veretout, Miki, Pelegrini and Dzeko are better than our midfield and attack. Maybe they were organized better than our midfield and attack last season however.
The first thing is... Shock, horror, you dont need your CB being a creative hub. Roma had no problem whatsoever creating from their midfield and attacking players. Kolarov did come forward from LCB and he has some quality on the ball so that helped. But for the most part their midfield and attack worked together, had most of the ball when playing at home, including 70% against Fiorentina for example and it was absolutely fine.
I dont think Diawara, Veretout, Miki, Pelegrini and Dzeko are better than our midfield and attack. Maybe they were organized better than our midfield and attack last season however.
He has a low error rate and has worked very hard to cover his limitations. But he is undoubtedly very bad on the ball. Playing 5 yard passes and putting a premium on not messing up does not make you competent especially in the context of a possession based team. He is very very limited. Bizaarely limited for a professional footballer. But that does not mean I don't rate him as a player especially his defensive play and I would welcome him back to the club to give us more depth.
I don't mind keeping him, nor selling for an ok fee considering his worth. Roma don't want to pay. Smalling has 2 options at the moment, come back into the squad or go back on loan. Right now there is no top club in for him.
Again I'm not denying that he kept it simple. He made high percentage passes to Kolarov and Mancini 15 yards wider than him and 6 yards in front.
Roma scored 26 goals in the 12 games Roma played since the corona restart.
That was starting with a back 4 and then turned into a back 3 with wingbacks/wide midfielders. Only 3 of those matches Roma failed to score 2 or more goals.
So having a CB keeping it simple clearly doesn't determine whether your team can play attacking football, keep the ball and score goals. You might not like it, it might personally annoy you, but it doesn't translate to real life results. Sorry
Welcome back Chris
I was actually being unkind to Bournemouth.
I don't think anything has changed to make Solskjaer rate Smalling any higher than before. Young and Lukaku have had just as big an impact in Italy as Smalling but there would be no clamour to have them back. Time for Smalling to move on. I wouldn't pay £20m for him but hopefully we find a buyer.
Perhaps he could go back to Fulham if they go up. That would be perfect for all parties concerned.
It doesn't annoy me nor do I mind one way or another. Just happens to be a fact that individually he is poor on the ball. Whether or not it is material to the style of play or results of a team is a matter for debate far beyond this. Pep ditched Hart primarily for this reason. Ole ditched Smalling. Was it unnecessary? Perhaps, perhaps not. This stuff is above my pay grade. But as I have said before Smalling is very limited on the ball and this is a fact and some managers don't want him in the team because of it. Can Smalling play in a possession based side? Yes because he did so with LVG. But I suppose there is more to it than that.
It is not the only factor that decides if you can score goals, but it helps. I believe it is much more important in the PL than in Serie A because there is so intense press in PL.
In general Roma has not had problem to score goals this season. It is more the high amount of conceded goals that has been the problem.
Pep had a blank cheque and do we really think he has achieved as much as he could have with all the money spent? Especially on defenders and the keeper. I would say certainly not. In fact if you had a poll on Pep's biggest blunders with City transfers, Defends/Keeper would be right up there.
Yes Smalling is simple with the ball. Its fine, it could be improved on when we're ready to win the league like City were and everything else is rock solid. We arent at that stage yet, still several things to improve on before hyper optimisation beyond having a team that wins enough points, scores enough goals and doesnt conceed too many.
Questioning Pep's decision to ditch Hart is unwise, considering Burnley just released him and no PL team wants him. What does that tell you? And he's not very old too.
Ah well now we are talking. Yes I agree its about optimization and there is a element of timing here. For that reason I would welcome Smalling back in the interim with our lack of CB cover, and personally I have been a fan in the past and have some trust in him.
Ole may have put the cart before the horse but the guy is ambitious. I have no issue with that and ultimately that is the type of boldness we need. You think a player like Smalling would not prevent a team from winning the league. Ole felt differently and is looking to improve many areas and change the culture of the team hence jettisoning Sanches, Lukaku, Young and Smalling. I personally would have kept Smalling but I don't criticise Ole at all for taking these decisions. All 4 of these players have performed well in Serie A. Doesn't change the merit of the decision in the same way that Depay now playing well for Lyon doesn't change that it was most likely the right decision.
That his form suffered after leaving City. While he was there he was well thought of and pushed as the first choice keeper, with Kasper sold on even though he had his run in the team first. He was a good keeper once
Exactly. I would like to see them score a few goals at corners. I would like to see the fullbacks attack when they have a chance to do so. I would want the midfielder at the base of the midfield to be the start of building an attack, I'm fine with center backs doing their job which is to defend.
Is he registered to play Europa for us?
He's not that bad at passing that he's going to mess up passing to Matic / De Gea / Macguire who'll be 10 feet away from him max.
That's 95% of all the passing Lindelof does anyway.
That's 95% of all the passing Lindelof does anyway.
Seems Roma signed Vertonghen on a free rather than pay for Smalling.
Should try to use Smalling as make weight in a Grealish deal.
Should try to use Smalling as make weight in a Grealish deal.
It's not that simple, would Smalling agree to join relegation struggers?
He’s not wanted here. Why not? He’ll be 31 in November, if Villa gave him a 3 year deal he’d surely consider it.
Doubt it. There will be plenty of mid table clubs who will be interested to sign him, doubt he would sign for villa.
No he wouldn't, there will be midtable teams after him if we made him available and who knows Arsenal could still be interested in him.
Arteta won’t go near him. They are trying to build a ball playing defence too.
Hes still one of our best centre backs. Don't get the hate.
I trust Smalling more than Jones, Rojo, Tuanzebe n even Bailly who seems to be massively overrated on here. I don't actually think he's any worse than Lindelof either.
I trust Smalling more than Jones, Rojo, Tuanzebe n even Bailly who seems to be massively overrated on here. I don't actually think he's any worse than Lindelof either.
Weird. Returning to us then ?
If I had a £1 for every time that line has come up in any Smalling thread...
We are going to have lot of games compressed into a short period of time, rather we had him. We got away with Maguire playing almost every game this season, we won't get away with that next season.
I think Roma might still try to sign him this summer.
We are playing the hard ball because Roma is in Europa League with us. After Europa League end, we might not play the hard ball and accept their initial offer.
That's mainly true
, but Lindelof is much more comfortable on the ball me thinks so not all straightforward. If he is willing to stay and fight for a place, I'd rather we keep him that give him for peanuts.Having him back will strengthen our squad, and I don't see that many experienced alternatives out there. We'll be in the intensive Champions League and Premier League race next season, and he is a solid player.
As opposed to Jones or Rojo who will either make stupid mistakes or have a good game and then be injured for 3 months!
No brainer.
As opposed to Jones or Rojo who will either make stupid mistakes or have a good game and then be injured for 3 months!
No brainer.
Roma being dipshits.
I’m not sure I understand this, could you explain? What does it mean?
Basically, Roma tried to lower the fee when they realised Smalling's preference was to stay.
Smalling's one of those that served us long enough that I feel we could help him out. Not my favourite player by any stretch and I'm kind of glad to see him go, but he's clearly happy there.
Given the idiocy and cost to us of Jones' contract, Sanchez, Di Maria etc, like 5m Euros or whatever feels like we could have done right by him imo.
Aren't Roma in huge financial trouble?
Given the idiocy and cost to us of Jones' contract, Sanchez, Di Maria etc, like 5m Euros or whatever feels like we could have done right by him imo.
Aren't Roma in huge financial trouble?
Yeah, some players should be helped with the clubs blessing, Smalling feels like one of them. I can see why Roma may have tried to haggle though, world is a very different place to when that deal was agreed.
Business is business. Smalling's stock is quite high at the moment, they'll be other clubs in Europe who will take him based on his Roma form
Made the serie A team of year.
Rather spending money on another squad level centre back would rather we used Smalling until we got the right man.
He's very good at sweeping up and playing last man, would be a good partner for Maguire
Rather spending money on another squad level centre back would rather we used Smalling until we got the right man.
He's very good at sweeping up and playing last man, would be a good partner for Maguire
The England manager doesnt think they can play together. Two transit vans trying to turn in a crowded space at the back.
What did he ever do? Well aside from missing a penalty
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