If the offer is Ozil + £30m then Mike is theirs
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In the latest episode of the United Hour Podcast, Nik and Imran are here to talk about a frustrating 2 points dropped at Crystal Palace. They then discuss the regeneration of Old Trafford. Finally, Nik is joined by special guest Michael Statham from the Football Oranje podcast - who gives us a more in depth look at our EL opposition FC Twente, and then runs through the (many) Dutch connections currently at United.
Why so little?
I don't understand why people are happy about this, he is a great player to have in the squad.
I think he is our CB and can't see Mourinho wanting to let him go anytime soon, especially not in January.
I think he is our CB and can't see Mourinho wanting to let him go anytime soon, especially not in January.
Personally wouldn't mind Smalling leaving, but not to a top 6 rival.
We need more of a Vidic or Aldeweireld type of defender.
We need more of a Vidic or Aldeweireld type of defender.
'our best defender'
give yourself a shake!
https://www.redcafe.net/threads/chris-smalling-2017-18-performances.430555/page-35#post-21934756
Get your eyes checked before the next time you watch our defenders play.
I don't know, and he's only started once for the first-team with two brief sub appearances despite all our injuries in the back-four, how him not playing helps with his development is a mystery.
Only an idiot will believe United will actually sell Smalling to Arsenal with 7 days to go in the transfer window. The source is BS too. Haters will latch onto anything linking our best defender away
Jose did say he might go out on loan before the end of the month, if everyone else is fit and Bailly on track. But him not even playing u23 games (assuming he's been fit), I just don't get it..
no chance he is going. seems to be in the transfer news every window yet he never leaves.
plus he is starting alongside jones now so no way jose will offload him with bailly still out, lindelof adapting, rojo still on his way back to full form.
plus he is starting alongside jones now so no way jose will offload him with bailly still out, lindelof adapting, rojo still on his way back to full form.
Now that we've got the hang of this swap lark how about swapping Smalling and David Luiz ?
I'm only half joking.
I'm only half joking.
Not now... But replacing him in the summer with a defender with some more technique and I'd be fine with him leaving.
Pure defensive skills and he's really good. But it always annoys the hell out of me when I see him running up the pitch, sees the white line in the middle, panics and passes it sideways to Shaw/Valencia or backwards to Matic/Jones which he passed a couple of seconds earlier
Pure defensive skills and he's really good. But it always annoys the hell out of me when I see him running up the pitch, sees the white line in the middle, panics and passes it sideways to Shaw/Valencia or backwards to Matic/Jones which he passed a couple of seconds earlier
Like who for instance? Also, what role? A starter or a backup?
I'd prefer it, and i'm sure he would, if he got a Premier League loan, but 6 months working with Steve Bruce at Villa might do him the world of good.
Don't recall him being injured, he nearly always has been in and around the 18 man squad for the first-team this season.
Starter... As much as I love Jones and rate him. My love doesn't keep him fit, which is really sad cause I really rate him.
So Jones/Bailly/Rojo and a new starter
Who do you have in mind?
I barely watch other leagues and I'm no scout. But I doubt there's no better option out there somewhere
Why not selling one of those 3? Smalling at least is more reliable to stay healthy (which is what you need from a squad player), a reliable defender, and can offer something different to the plate.
I actually rate Jones and Bailly above Smalling. And I thought Bailly and Rojo actually was quite good together... Imo Smalling does more errors than those three
Third best central defender we have after Jobes and Baily. The other 2 are quite often injured, and Lindelof seems to need at least till the end of the season to get well acquainted with british football. Still, I would only entertain selling him if Jones stays fit till the end of the season and Axel becomes a squad player
Arsenal have been after Smalling for years. This (if true) will be the 3rd or 4th time they've tried to get him. It won't be happening though. Even if everyone is fit he's probably first choice, and even if not he's basically first choice by proxy since nobody else can stay fit.
Jones is the best defender in the club. Bailly and Smalling can rival themselves to partner Jones.
I don't want him to leave because there is no other better English defender in the world at the moment.
He is easily the 2nd/3rd best center back in England's pecking order.
I don't want him to leave because there is no other better English defender in the world at the moment.
He is easily the 2nd/3rd best center back in England's pecking order.
They can have him in the summer. Lindeloff is coming around good, and we might need to get another defender with Jones/Bailly consistently getting hurt.
If I had the option of deciding who we sell, I'd sell Rojo & Blind.
Jones - Bailly first choice by far.
Lindelöf - Smalling second pairing
When Tuanzebe is ready, sell off Smalling and give him that place in the team.
Rojo is a good CB, but he's not significantly better than Smalling in the sense that it makes up for Smalling being English. Blind just lacks pace for left-back & power and pace for CB despite being able to put in a shift due to being a smart fecker.
If Lindelöf doesn't settle & Jones doesn't become iron-man, sell Lindelöf & bring in another first-choice quality CB to pair with Bailly and put Jones in the second choice tier along with Smalling/Tuanzebe.
Still think a new left-back & right-back will be more important for now though, unless Shaw can stay injury-free, in which case we'll need a backup for him & a future replacement for Valencia.
No clue who we should buy in those scenarios though.
Jones - Bailly first choice by far.
Lindelöf - Smalling second pairing
When Tuanzebe is ready, sell off Smalling and give him that place in the team.
Rojo is a good CB, but he's not significantly better than Smalling in the sense that it makes up for Smalling being English. Blind just lacks pace for left-back & power and pace for CB despite being able to put in a shift due to being a smart fecker.
If Lindelöf doesn't settle & Jones doesn't become iron-man, sell Lindelöf & bring in another first-choice quality CB to pair with Bailly and put Jones in the second choice tier along with Smalling/Tuanzebe.
Still think a new left-back & right-back will be more important for now though, unless Shaw can stay injury-free, in which case we'll need a backup for him & a future replacement for Valencia.
No clue who we should buy in those scenarios though.
How many foreigners do you want in Manchester United? Although I'm a Malaysian, it's nice to see English players starting for United.
There is not enough top English defender in the market. Selling Smalling would be a loss for us.
Our second best defender after Jones and the best header of the ball in the team. And yes, he is currently better than the very talented but massively overrated Bailly. Lindeolof and Rojo don't the find mention on the same page as him.
He shouldn't be going anywhere.
He shouldn't be going anywhere.
We need better. He can go and he’s not a player you’d worry about going to a top 6 side either. Sell in the summer.
Smalling stays. He is our best defender bar none. Bailly is so over-rated around here! He is terribly error-prone (Bailly is) even when fit, and needs someone like Smalling alongside him to set right his mistakes.
I'd keep him because he's our only aerially dominant CB and fairly solid defensively, Rojo and Blind are more expendable.
He and the current defence setup is playing well at the moment. Wouldn't want to break that up, as Bailly is injured and Lindelof is still in the bedding in period. Tuanzebe is going on loan as well, and Rojo is still finding his form and fitness.
Perhaps in the summer, after the preseason to see if Bailly is fit again, Lindelof is finally ready and perhaps Tuanzebe ready to make that step up as a regular.
Perhaps in the summer, after the preseason to see if Bailly is fit again, Lindelof is finally ready and perhaps Tuanzebe ready to make that step up as a regular.
Really? Is he even in the England squad? Telling.
The last roster for England is an experimental call up from Southgate, he admitted it himself.
I'm sure he is going to Russia.
We weren’t once troubled by any of the Europa League teams we faced especially Ajax and that had nothing to do with Smalling’s prowess because even the best chance of the game they had was when he was turned and left ball watching. The teams in the whole competition were Championship level at best and we still conceded. You conviniently forgot the loss to Real Madrid for the SuperCup at the start of the season where our defence was literally torn apart and the scoreline flattered us because we could have easily conceded another 3 or 4.All the big games he played in, Arsenal, Spurs, Chelsea we lost. This season already lost to Chelsea, Man City and were saved by De Gea vs Arsenal. This is the problem with you Smalling fanboys, when faced with statistcs you come up with random crap about how he wasn’t to blame because xyz but the fact remains we keep losing big games with him in the team and whether or not you can judge if he’s directly to blame or not we are weaker as a defensive unit especially against tough opposition. The sooner we stop relying on mediocre players like Smalling the sooner we’ll move to the next level of domination as a club.
That’s a very simple way of analysing our defence to be honest - yes I’d agree that DDG makes great saves, but that doesn’t mean our defence stands by idle.
Smalling was putting out fires by himself while Lindelof was adjusting to the league, and while Rojo was conceding penalties and losing his man.
He’s been our only consistent and reliable defender all season, and with Jones back they will form our first choice CB partnership for the rest of the season, imo.
Also I’d be keen to see what players you think we could get that’s better.
It’s easy to think the grass is greener on the other side, because you watch our players week in, week out. But other defenders make far more mistakes than ours do.
It’s not that simple though, otherwise surely every defender would have the footwork of maldini if all it took was extra time on the training pitch?
Like I said - Smalling isn’t bad on the ball, he’s awkward. But he retains possession, doesn’t give the ball away, passing accuracy is among the highest in the squad, and he passes the ball forward more often than jones for example.
And he has been taking more risks in bringing the ball out from the back, as recently as the Stoke game where he drove forward with the ball a few times before laying it off to the midfield - so these are skills he is working on.
Bailly has been very inconsistent in his time with us so far. He started off brilliantly for the first few months last season, but since then his form has bounced around all over the place and he's as likely to be extremely shaky (far more than Smalling has been) as he is extremely good. Part of that I'm sure has been down to injuries and him going to the ACON, but even during periods where he has had a run of games he's been very inconsistent.
He certainly has potential and on his day is brilliant, but going purely on their form over the last 13-14 months Smalling has definitely been better. Whether it continues, we'll wait and see.
Smalling is a very good defender and has a lot of other attributes like height, speed, etc. I think he should be a starter for us. No way should we even think of selling him. Don't understand why He never receives much credit from fans.
If you actually read the discussion I was having with another poster you'll find I never discussed selling smalling. The discussion was whether I would swap him for ozil, which I would.
I never mentioned selling him. I said I'd swap him for ozil.
Well thats very dramatic. Go on who scored and you'll see Jones is the defender who has played most minutes for us this season. Bailly has been injured which is why he's had less minutes and he's obviously a better player than smalling.
Smalling has played more than both of them since Jose took over! No drama just replying to yet another of the I know bests on here!