I hope he'll be fine with being a bench option here. He's a good squad player and definitely much reliable than Jones, Bailly and stuff but no chance he starts ahead of Lindelof or Maguire, absolutely no chance.
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Still think he’s played his last game for us. Ole is doing what he did with Sánchez. He’s very good at talking our outgoing players up
Limited or substandard defenders don't win a spot in serie A team of the season.
Excellent accomplishment and deserves the chance to displace Lindelof.
Excellent accomplishment and deserves the chance to displace Lindelof.
And not burning his bridges. Unlike Sanchez, Smalling can still offer us at least a squad option because neither Bailly or Jones can stay fit.
I think Smalling is good enough to force his way into first team. Id be more than happy to have him back in the team: we need experience and reliability.
If Smalling passing isn't good enough for OleBall, then just play him in the big games when we park the pass and rely on counter attack, and Lindelof can start against weaker teams when we play out from the back.
Oh yeah. I think Ole is a fantastic man manager. I genuinely think it’s his best quality as a manager.
Id keep Smalling around as back up to Maguire (I’m not convinced they can play together, nor do I think he’s better than Lindelof) but I doubt that at 31 and coming off a decent loan, he’d be happy to be back up
The manager has decided he wants to play out of the back so not sure why a player who is incapable of doing that should be kept around. If you want to argue whether we should play out the back or not then that's a different story but we clearly want to so it doesn't make sense keeping Smalling around.
Back up players should be able to come into the team seamlessly and fit the system we want to play.
Back up players should be able to come into the team seamlessly and fit the system we want to play.
Didn't Ole say on mid-season that he talked to Smalling and wanted him back to the squad, but Smalling (understandably) rejected it?
Pretty sure that was whoscoreds Serie A team of the year.
Serie A hasn't announced their team of the season.
Hes been decent this season.
He is in my camp
I am ready
That alone is a reason for it not to happen.
This is why I don’t think he’ll stay. He is good enough, but I don’t think Ole wants to adjust the way we play.
Van Gaal was the only manager who was very rigid with his philosophy and everyone knows his philosophy is possession based, he played Smalling regularly and he was arguably our best CB in 2015-16.
I agree he isn't good with passing but the way people go on and on its like we are expecting him to play in peak Barca team.
Playing from the back is all about system and passing options for player in possession. You can sign Ramos, Pique but still will struggle if the whole team is not in sync.
It’s not easy, but I don’t think it’ll be easier with Smalling. I personally think Maguires passing and first touch is too slow, but Smalling’s is worse.
We need better CBs, one who are better on the ball and can defend.
If we’re going to play the way Ole wants, the whole team and definitely both CBs, need to be good on the ball. Today they can play out of almost any press and we have scored counter goals because of that. It should cost trying to press United. I would like to see more of that playing straight through the press, as well as more of Lindelof breaking through with the ball. Also the tempo must be much faster at the back.
There will always be some mistakes that could cost a goal or two when a back line try to play their way out of everything instead of hoofing it, but it’s worth it. It’ll improve over time. Example of that is Tuanzebes pass vs Arsenal. We must accept that kind of things imo.
I feel there is a huge disconnect in how Ole wants his team to play and how fans want Ole to set up his team. Ole don't care about possession, it's all about fast attacks, attack with pace and midfielders should look for forward pass quickly. We won't be possession dominant team under Ole and player who mirrors what Ole wants is Bruno. but he is the extreme level.
We won't build attacks from the back, it's just that instead of hoofing the ball, we try to find players in midfield who will play forward link breaking passes instead of trying to retain possession for the sake of it.
Coming to our CBs, I don't think Smalling is good with the ball but likewise I don't think Lindelof is so good to compensate his other weakness.
Maguire, Lindelof and Bailly are our 3 best defenders. I am not sold in this hype around Tuanzebe. He had only few games in PL so can't judge him yet and he is injury prone (as it seems). So best solution is to buy young(ish) left footed defender like Gabriel or that Monaco dude and let him fight with Bailly and Tuanzebe for minutes.
Smalling, Jones and Rojo should all go. Enough with half solutions. Is player good or not? For me, 8 years was more than enough to see that Smalling is not United quality. Not bad defender and he is much better than Rojo or Jones but still why to keep him as 5th choice?
Smalling, Jones and Rojo should all go. Enough with half solutions. Is player good or not? For me, 8 years was more than enough to see that Smalling is not United quality. Not bad defender and he is much better than Rojo or Jones but still why to keep him as 5th choice?
We have possession around 55% over the season which is low compared to the position in the table. City and Liverpool are around 69 and 65%, respectively. So it’s not a possession football.
The last season we could see how many teams played with very intense press and it is critical that the CBs can handle it and solve it without loosing possession. Maguire and Lindelof are good at it but can be even better, as the rest of them. I am however not sure Ole is competent enough to teach his team the next level. Maybe need to bring in someone to assist him on this.
About the weaknesses you mention. It’s not a problem. Few goals have been conceded this season where Lindelof’s weaknesses have been the main reason. He has lost 2-3 headers that have ended up as a goal, so has most CBs. The discussion that he is not fast enough, we have seen him being fast enough in sprints with Vardy and other speedy attackers, so let’s not transfer Maguire’s weakness on to Lindelof.
His biggest weakness is that he is not aggressive often enough, ie he can play aggressively but should do it in more situations.
Yes, like I said we don't play possession football. Ole's idea of attacking football is win the ball, play forward pass and play with tempo, which is good idea IMO.
Lindelof is not slow, he is passive and that's the reason I don't want him as first choice player. You can have passive player in any position but not as CBs.
I know you rate him very highly, I don't. So we won't be changing each other's opinion.
Liverpool doesn't play possession football at all either, their midfield is just more dominant than ours.
Why did he sign AWB then, who’s probably even worse than Smalling on the ball but at RB? Riddle me that, Batman.
I'd say bring it on mate!Smalling is fairly quick. Always been a good strength of his. Don't see any issues with any of his game apart from his passing though which has always been sketchy. He doesn't get beaten in the air and bullied like Lindelof does thats for sure.
best kind aswell. And put the money on other positions
I do like Ole's signings but when you look at how he wants to play, some of his signings are questionable. Signing a slow CB like Maguire to pair with Lindelof who isn't pacy to play a highline. Signing Awb who isn't good in attack when you want your full backs to push up. Signing a championship left winger only to make him your main right winger for the season.
Ole has said a number of times he likes his team to keep possession. There was an interview where the interviewer called us a counter attacking side and he corrected him that he also likes us to keep possession
In interview with Neville Ole said he don't like passing sideways for the sake of it, he wants his midfielders to look for forward pass as their first though, something that's not you do in possession team.
We average around 55% possession, that's not something you see for possession based teams. We are direct team, trying to play quick forward passes.
I get your point. The earlier post saying Ole doesn't care about possession Is abit extreme since Ole himself has said he does. But like you are implying, he doesn't care as much about like a Van Gaal or Guardiola
Agreed completely with this. We don't have possession footballers pretty much anywhere on the pitch, all our players look to play risky passes and so we have lots of turnovers.
In turn we need players that are good in one v one situations or have good recovery pace, which for me means Smalling makes much more sense than Lindelof. All he has to do is keep the ball, which he can do fine, he just isn't doing anything clever with it.
Smalling was a great defender for us. I hope he comes back and takes lindelofs place. Maguire and Smalling would be a good partnership.
Lindelof has been given time and chances but like others said I'd have Smalling there with Harry. He has his bad moments but who does not? Having him back may save us money to upgrade other positions too.
I mean, we only have 2 defenders who can last more than a couple of months without getting injured. I can't understand why anyone be against having him back if we don't get decent fee for him.
I honestly think that within the first few weeks of next season Smalling would cement that place next to Maguire. I get that some posters would prefer we just move onto younger and better players but Smalling is a solid defender, I've always said that and stand by it.
I'm not saying he would be a massive improvement over Lindelof, but I do think he would be good enough to put Lindelof on the bench.
I'm not saying he would be a massive improvement over Lindelof, but I do think he would be good enough to put Lindelof on the bench.
the only fight between these 2 and a new CB would be if he is as brittle as they are, fighting for time on the treatment table. Smalling can stay fit, which makes him the 3rd best CB on the team by default. I am in agreement that we have seen what he can do, and if we have the ability to move him and the rest of the backup CBs on the club should. It's time to bring in a a couple new CBs who can compete for a starting spot or provide the cover needed.
Him and Maguire would be ultimate disaster
Dramatic. No worse than Maguire and Lindelof at the very least.
Smalling is probably better than Lindelof in most departments and less error prone (marginally.)
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