I still think he can do a job at centre half against teams which lack pace and a physical presence to their game but the trouble is most teams in the league has at least one of those attributes. Now Jones has built up some minutes it's time to throw him into the starting eleven alongside Smalling.
17
Season Average Rating
- Appearances
- 56
- Clean sheets
- 22
- Goals
- 2
- Assists
- 4
- Yellow cards
- 3
- Status
Wasn't that the same for the other back 3 as well?
Watching that second goal I don't put much blame on Blind, the problem is the non-existant midfield allowing the through-ball to Walcott in the first place who will of course beat most defenders for pace. Blind at least keeps up with him and squares him up but no one was picking Ozil up so he can just lay it off to him. The midfield left him and Smalling exposed.
Needs to just put his foot through the ball and get it clear sometimes. He tried a clever pass which led to their first goal when he should've just smashed it upfield.
With young on the left we shouldn't be playing blind because we automatically become 3 at the back with 2 fullbacks instead of CB's. Blaming blind for being slow because darmian & young get done isn't right.
Even though every one of our defenders had an awful game; blind was only slow because he didnt capitalise on being in the right position at the right time. Thats where the blame for pace comes from.
Smalling, darmian & young were all out of play consistently by one through ball.
Even though every one of our defenders had an awful game; blind was only slow because he didnt capitalise on being in the right position at the right time. Thats where the blame for pace comes from.
Smalling, darmian & young were all out of play consistently by one through ball.
Get him back out at left back and linking up with Young like he did very well last season. Memphis needs to be dropped anyway.
Playing him is the easy out, he was far from great today but I feel the midfield should shoulder the majority of the blame, you expose any defense like these did today and they struggle.
I'd like to see a new LCB and let daley blind rotate between LCB and LB.
Even though i say that; i struggle to blame him for much so far this season. You look at the goal sanchez scored; blind was in the right position in the right time but didnt get his foot on the ball. The rest of the defenders were not anywhere where they should be.
Yeah, I agree with you. Blind has done well at times this season and van Gaal clearly likes that he can keep possession and deliver passes from the back but whenever we play a team with a centre forward who's good aerially or a team that's strong on the break as you say there's a glaring weakness that's there to be got at. Even though Jones doesn't fill me with confidence, Smalling is playing very well in general so hopefully he can provide some solidity whilst Jones gets up to speed.
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Yeah he has a habit of doing this and it can get annoying. Sometimes it's fine to just get it clear!
On balance, I don't like him in centre defence. There are just too many situations when his lack of pace/height/strength hurt us. A faster player would have cut out the cross for their first goal. A more careful pass, normally his strength, would have avoided the crucial second phase of their attack for their opening goal.
Right now we have scored 12 and conceded 8 in 8 games. That doesn't scream success to me. Nor has it been a disaster.
Right now we have scored 12 and conceded 8 in 8 games. That doesn't scream success to me. Nor has it been a disaster.
I don't think there's a debate or ever has been.
He's not a central defender. Playing him there against any team where good central defending is needed, will never be anything other than a terrible idea. This has been demonstrated multiple times now, and didn't really need to be as it was an obvious situation before the season started.
He's not a central defender. Playing him there against any team where good central defending is needed, will never be anything other than a terrible idea. This has been demonstrated multiple times now, and didn't really need to be as it was an obvious situation before the season started.
You can't just pick and choose one player to blame for a defensive collapse, and I can't understand why Blind is getting the blame while Smalling gets away with it. It's the latter that should be marking Ozil for the second goal and he's also the player that needlessly gives away possession with another aimless long ball to begin with.
Exactly. Even for the first goal; it was blind who was closest to ozil again showing that he knows how to be at the right place at the right time. Just because he didnt get a touch on the ball when he slide tackled doesn't excuse smalling who was no where to be seen.
Likewise for the 3rd goal (i think), Walcott had every defender beaten except blind who was the only one following him. Once again; his pace is blamed even though the other three defenders were no where to be seen.
In fact i think out of our 4 defenders; he was the only defender who was in the right place at the right time and all this blame on him is dus to him not capitalising on it.
Either way; we do need another LCB for such games where we wont so easily keep possesion.
For me, this gif sums up Blind as a CB.
He doesn't do anything wrong, but nor does he actually do any defending. He's closer to Walcott than Smalling was, and yet it was Smalling who runs further to take control of the situation and snuff out the danger. Blind all too often is happy to just stand there. We can't afford to carry him in central defence.
Seriously don't get why Blind get all blame for goals. whole defense was collapse in their goals.
For me, this gif sums up Blind as a CB.
He doesn't do anything wrong, but nor does he actually do any defending. He's closer to Walcott than Smalling was, and yet it was Smalling who runs further to take control of the situation and snuff out the danger. Blind all too often is happy to just stand there. We can't afford to carry him in central defence.
Nothing wrong at all with Blind in that clip. He's in the perfect position relative to Walcott and as the last defender the guys in front of him should be chasing Walcott out. If Walcott had managed to lay that ball off to the Arsenal player (Bellerin?) Smalling would have been taken completely out of the game.
Some people have been waiting all season to jump on Blind when the whole defence (and midfield) were at fault.
Defending is more than about not doing anything wrong. It's also about doing things right. Blind could have closed down Walcott himself, but let Smalling do it instead.
I'm rewatching the game as I type this. I could have posted 7 or 8 gifs of Blind standing off his man. The clip above is just the one I happened to capture. His positioning is generally great. His defending once he's there is non-existent.
Cause Caf * decided that he isn't a CB a few months ago and were waiting for him to have a bad game (which he undoubdtely had, but not worse than any of our other defenders including Smalling) to repeat it. Similarily how Mata will need a couple of bad performances and Caf will repeat that he isn't a winger, despite that he has been our best onfield player sice he started playing in that position.
* By Caf I mean some agenda-driven posters, not difficult to know who are them.
A central defender isn't supposed to always chase his man out though. You go a few yards then you drop off again. If you follow them out you risk getting turned and leaving a gaping hole, which is exactly what would have happened to Smalling had Walcott made that pass.
You think that's an example of bad defending by Smalling?
Thats a odd example there, do you think Ferdinand would've pressed the tackle like that? I think he wouldve done exactly what Blind did, think there are some more obvious weaknesses in his game than that. He's absolutely fine if the defensive midfielder(s) do their job, as soon as someone has the opportunity to run at him and he needs to back peddle he gets exposed.
For me, this gif sums up Blind as a CB.
He doesn't do anything wrong, but nor does he actually do any defending. He's closer to Walcott than Smalling was, and yet it was Smalling who runs further to take control of the situation and snuff out the danger. Blind all too often is happy to just stand there. We can't afford to carry him in central defence.
I don't think we can put a huge amount of blame on any of our defenders (Blind seems disproportionately blamed) aa they were left completely exposed far too regularly and it wasn't until we put 3 in the middle did they stop cutting us open so easily.
LVG is at a bit of a cross roads with Blind now, he can use him specifically against teams that will sit back against us and utilise his passing to pick holes, he can continue using him in a similar fashion as he is now but ensure there is always someone like Schneiderlin there who's chief job is to restrict the space between the midfield and defense or he can drop him completely, opt for a more traditional defender and sacrifice a bit of creativity.
It isn't it isn't an example of bad defending from Blind either.
I blame LvG more than Blind. He's not a defender. It's not his fault he's been played somewhere that he doesn't have the skillset to flourish.
Rio didn't lack aggression. He would have closed Walcott down as well.
Rio didn't lack aggression. He would have closed Walcott down as well.
It's an example of non-defending from Blind.
It's not that Blind is bad at it, it's just that he doesn't do it.
He most certainly wouldn't have done what Smalling did, that was very much the Vidic school of defending. You look at Rio's tackle stats and they are pretty low, there's a lot more to defending than just putting your foot in.
No that's still defending, what you're talking about is tackling. he doesn't commit himself unnecessarily, he ushers Walcott aware of a dangerous position and eventually has him running away from our goal, how is that not defending?
No, because he knew he had cover behind him.
You wanna see bad defending from Smalling and Blind? Here's bad defending from Smalling and Blind.
feck knows why Blind thinks its okay to jog back with Walcott behind our defensive line and play him onside and allow him to get 1 vs. 1 in the box in the process... after which point, why Smalling isn't deciding to pick up Ozil - who is literally their only player in the box - is beyond me.
People say Arsenal blew us a way and there's nothing we could have done about it... well, what we could have doen was at least defend a bit competantly for the goals we did concede (the first should never have come about as Blind should have cleared his lines when he had the chance, for example). Yes, they got no protection from midfield, but that doesn't excuse them from defending poorly.
feck knows why Blind thinks its okay to jog back with Walcott behind our defensive line and play him onside and allow him to get 1 vs. 1 in the box in the process... after which point, why Smalling isn't deciding to pick up Ozil - who is literally their only player in the box - is beyond me.
People say Arsenal blew us a way and there's nothing we could have done about it... well, what we could have doen was at least defend a bit competantly for the goals we did concede (the first should never have come about as Blind should have cleared his lines when he had the chance, for example). Yes, they got no protection from midfield, but that doesn't excuse them from defending poorly.
Yup good example. You could perhaps say Blind should've for a call from Smalling to step up as he could see across the lone whereas Blind had his back to it, then again he should've positioned himself so that he didn't need the call in the first place.
Look at Ozil in thr build up there though, absolutely no one is picking him up, who is Carrick and Schweinsteiger marking exactly?
Easy there, can't be criticizing Smalling around here. I find it amazing that I've actually read people saying Smalling was good and our second best player yesterday. He really was no better than the rest of the backline, a complete mess all around. Smalling on the Ozil goal was in the same position he is in for quite a few goals we've let in this season, the middle of the box marking no one and doing feck all. Its never his fault though, its always everyone else's fault for making Smalling do all the defending on his own. He'll charge out of the box to make a tackle or two though so he's the bestest CB to ever live.
He has been playing as a LB CDM and CB all his career. Not sure how can you say he is not a defender.
As for that clip you put, there is no point in both our defenders running trying to tackle him. I thought that was actually sensible that he didn't try to get in the way of smalling who was clear from the start and committed himself. I have seen Jones do that a couple of times with Evans or someone.
It's a shame that vid doesn't start about 10 seconds sooner because it shows how Smalling needlessly lost possession with an aimless long ball, which was mental in consideration that we had just gone a goal down and needed to steady the ship.
Agreed, I think he has vastly improved on the player he used to be but there's still a lot of deficiencies in his game. It was suicidal to just hoof the ball up the pitch after Arsenal had already ripped us to shreds once.
If Smalling's going to get criticised for that, Blind's clearance for the first goal was a complete disgrace. What the feck was he thinking? That is our ball playing centre half who's solely there for his ball playing ability, and he cleared the ball 15 yards in our half straight back to Arsenal.
Yep. It is Darren Fletcher syndrome. After being unfairly criticized and labelled as shit for a few years, he suddenly is on God-like position and the best human in multiverse's history.
This, I don't understand why defenders nowadays play like anemic little girls, they seem unable to clear properly the ball or clatter the opponents.
He's had a few bad games, it isn't just one. Conversely, I don't know why some people are so desperate to see him stay at CB. It isn't that he's been bad, there's just no reason to keep there now Jones is back.
Smalling had to play an aimless long ball as there was no other option available. He was on the ball for ages waiting for someone to show for it but the whole team was in disarray.
Maybe because some people will say that we are playing hoof ball whether or not fellaini is on the pitch or not.
It's because with jones and smallimg we get a really flat back line. With blind in there you are able to make up to all the deficiencies smalling has. Even if it was jones playing on the right; then it would be blind on the left.
If this was La Liga then we would have 2 ball playing defenders but we cant do that in the premiership. We need one strong defender & one ball playing one.
At the end of the day; id prefer blind in defence and his ability to unmarked assist numerous times this season than drop him only for a whole teams shitty performance.
Players don't give a feck about what we say.
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