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2015-16 Performances

View full 2015-16 profile

5.9 Season Average Rating
Appearances
56
Clean sheets
22
Goals
2
Assists
4
Yellow cards
3
Status
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BD94 said:
I really like him. One of the smartest players in our squad. Played well tonight in my opinion.
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Yeah agree. Given he's not blessed physically he still does quite well at CB. Can only be his intelligence.

Him and Smalling have been a tidy partnership this season, good enough to be in the top four anyway.
 
Di Maria's angel said:
I'm surprised he and Carrick don't switch positions. I prefer Carrick at the back and Blind as a DM could work.
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Really? I think Blind is a much better CB. That mistake Carrick made in the first leg was just horrendous for a central defender. Blind has more bottle and gets stuck in too.
 
ZDwyr said:
Really? I think Blind is a much better CB. That mistake Carrick made in the first leg was just horrendous for a central defender. Blind has more bottle and gets stuck in too.
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I dont think Blind is bad at CB. Just prefer to see him a bit further forward.
 
Him and Smalling do not communicate at all. Its so much easier to see when youre at the game. They hardly talk, its like they are just told to go out and then end up doing their own thing. Its crazy.

And hes sooo relaxed when he gets the ball at the back. He had a mixed game.
 
BD94 said:
I really like him. One of the smartest players in our squad. Played well tonight in my opinion.
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Me too. I loved how he sensed danger after yet another Liverpool break where Smalling was covering the box, I think Origi it was who was running at Valencia and he squared the ball to Coutinho or Firmino and Blind brilliantly came across from virtually an LB position to win the ball. He did have some off moments though, with a couple of wayward passes, but I thought he was good overall. He was basically playing as a deep lying playmaker in the last 30 mins.

And yeah, I agree with whoever suggested that he is a much better CB than Carras.
 
Dobbs said:
Yeah agree. Given he's not blessed physically he still does quite well at CB. Can only be his intelligence.

Him and Smalling have been a tidy partnership this season, good enough to be in the top four anyway.
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Partnership? They spend quite a lot of our games defending completely independently to one another...

Might even contribute to the fact that often, when one of them is decent (Blind yesterday) the other is an erratic mess (Smalling yesterday)

Sylar said:
Him and Smalling do not communicate at all. Its so much easier to see when youre at the game. They hardly talk, its like they are just told to go out and then end up doing their own thing. Its crazy.
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Exactly this. Been saying it for ages.
 
Sylar said:
Him and Smalling do not communicate at all. Its so much easier to see when youre at the game. They hardly talk, its like they are just told to go out and then end up doing their own thing. Its crazy.

And hes sooo relaxed when he gets the ball at the back. He had a mixed game.
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When I've watched us a few times this season I've noticed this for sure. I almost get the feeling that Smalling see's Blind as a baby duckling that he has to babysit all the time. Obviously that is just my speculation from observing though, but the guy is out of position so much. So much so that I cringe sometimes waiting for something bad to happen. I can't imagine having to play next to someone when I don't have a clue what they are going to do and when they are going to do it and thinking that when they do it is going to be something a bit bat shit insane.

I honestly don't understand why he goes running off after the loose ball so much and anticipating play with his positioning. Van Gaal is such an obsessive for positional discipline and how that doesn't make his ass twitch is beyond me.
 
He's good at reading the game and excellent on the ball.

But he's also not able to defend well when put under pressure, because he isn't a cb. The West Brom goal being a prime example. It doesn't come natural to him because he isn't and never will be a cb, sadly. A shame LVG doesn't see this.
 
Hes been great for us this season but he looks absolutely nackered now. Desperately needs a couple of weeks off.
 
He's a good player, but a rubbish CB. On of the worst decisions LVG has made in the summer was not signing a new CB.

Also, it feels like LVG always finds a way to squeeze him into the team even when he doesn't deserve to play.
 
Annihilate Now! said:
Partnership? They spend quite a lot of our games defending completely independently to one another...

Might even contribute to the fact that often, when one of them is decent (Blind yesterday) the other is an erratic mess (Smalling yesterday).
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No doubt we're a quiet team but nonetheless they have been a partnership. A decent one at that.

Erratic mess is way over the top.
 
Dobbs said:
No doubt we're a quiet team but nonetheless they have been a partnership. A decent one at that.

Erratic mess is way over the top.
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Not really, Smalling was completely erratic yesterday, as he's been in a couple of games this season, and as Blind was against Watford and West Brom.
 


It's these passages of play where he stands around in the middle of nowhere (around the middle before setting off miles behind Emre Can) that make me cringe.
 
Looked knackered last night, give the lad a rest. Everything goes through him - if he's that good a playmaker then get him in midfield FFS.
 
Big fan of Blind, but at centre back he can often looks like one of our best and worst players in the same 90 minutes. Bizarrely, he looked vulnerable before the booking, and after it, all of his tackles were spot on. He went into a few challenges on a booking that made me wince, but he won all of them. Before the booking, he was chopping down anyone who came near him.

His passing is awesome, but sometimes he balloons it to nobody. His positioning and anticipation is often excellent as well, but some times it is a bit "WTF?! Where's Blind?"

Never change, Daley.
 
Perrick Dubois said:


It's these passages of play where he stands around in the middle of nowhere (around the middle before setting off miles behind Emre Can) that make me cringe.
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I would expect a defender when in a footrace to look towards the other side to see the state of play. When he's turned at no point does he have the big picture, he just runs with his man and he get's megged and they should score. Having said that smalling! For me should have done more for their goal. He defends an area but it's better to block off the threat. So he should have checked where he was and then recognized the threat. He should have attacked the target but he left the young full back exposed. So we can defend better in general. My own feeling is we've gotten away with it. Not that Blind is a poor player but I think he's not good enough for our midfield. He's not good for us as a full back and he's done ok centrally but we need to improve our back line. Our Full back could and maybe should have just dragged him down outside the box and took the booking but oh well.

In the first leg, Carrick should have done as a great defender would have done. Vidic would have just smashed the ball out of play and then regrouped. It's harder to be tidy at the tempo we play, especially as we've not played it all season but it's these little things that are punishing us.
 
@Striker10 I don't think blind is a poor player either. But it has been one of Van Gaal's huge mistakes to play him there because he has cost us points on a couple of occasions. I like Blind as a player but I think he should be a midfielder squaddie and fullback backup.
 
He's been consistent this season but to be fair the quality he's been showing are average for Manchester United centre back quality. He will be very good for a backup centre back but first choice I have to say meh. He's a weak link in my opinion because his physical isn't for centre back and Smalling has been covering him a lot and trying to win every single headers because he doesn't trust Blind to win it and both of them haven't been showing any good understanding as well. Another reason why Smalling has been caught off out of position a few times this season.
 
Mike09 said:
Another reason why Smalling has been caught off out of position a few times this season.
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Or you know Smalling's positioning is just a bit shit. But of course that can't be it, all of Smalling's deficiencies are because of Blind. Instead of Smalling needing a better partner, how about Blind get one. Blind gets bitched out for chasing the ball but Smalling does it just as much if not more. Smalling is apparently always bailing out Blind, but yesterday alone Blind bailed Smalling out after yet again running out trying to win balls he had absolutely no chance of winning. Also bailed out Fellaini and Carrick after giving the ball away. But heaven forbid something actually being one man backline Smalling's fault.
 
limerickcitykid said:
Blind was isolated at least 4 times yesterday after giveaways from Fellaini and Carrick and Smalling being dragged all over the place and he dealt with them every time.
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On two occasions he was left one on one because of Smalling errors and came up on top. Thought he had a pretty good game yesterday.
 
What are we actually gaining from playing him at CB? Our attack is absolutely non-existent, with our without a CB who can build up play.
 
limerickcitykid said:
Or you know Smalling's positioning is just a bit shit. But of course that can't be it, all of Smalling's deficiencies are because of Blind. Instead of Smalling needing a better partner, how about Blind get one. Blind gets bitched out for chasing the ball but Smalling does it just as much if not more. Smalling is apparently always bailing out Blind, but yesterday alone Blind bailed Smalling out after yet again running out trying to win balls he had absolutely no chance of winning. Also bailed out Fellaini and Carrick after giving the ball away. But heaven forbid something actually being one man backline Smalling's fault.
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I don't think so, Smalling's positioning had been good last season. The main reason why this season his positioning looked poor because he needs to cover all our back four job. He's doing everything by himself and it's not good when one man needs to do 4 men's job. Another example is when against Chelsea 1-1, he was covering Darmian place is the main reason he was caught off out of position. Even if Blind gets one better than Smalling, let's just say Thiago Silva and he will still need to cover blind's error, blind's physical ability and other defenders job so basically Thiago Silva is still going to do a 4 men's job.

Yesterday Blind had a poor first half, so many errors and he was one of the worst list player on the pitch. Smalling was covering him all the time at first half and I thought Smalling had a solid first half. Second half was the opposite, Smalling made mistakes and Blind did his job good but to be fair second half all the players already lost their spirit and seems like already game over and our players were all over the place like they didn't know what they need to do (headless chicken) so it's not like I expected Liverpool attackers to have many reason to go all out bombering our defense in second half.
 
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Giant Midget said:
What are we actually gaining from playing him at CB? Our attack is absolutely non-existent, with our without a CB who can build up play.
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I am not sure either, at various times this season when the game has had to be opened up to allow our attack to function he's been found wanting at CB without the extra protection and excessive possession. It in my opinion has been a massive mistake from Van Gaal really. I am not going to hack Blind because I think he's tried his best and his best has been decent enough all-round but some of his mistakes have genuinely cost us points and they were very "midfielder playing like a midfielder but the last line of defense.." type mistakes.
 
Not quite buying the idea that Smalling should feel like he's babysitting him. On average Blind looks the more assured and tidy centre-back despite the bad performances we've seen. I like Smalling but a lot of folks completely overlooks his shite passing (often hoofing) and plenty of erratic positioning (and badly timed pressing). Too much praise is given to Smalling just because he's quick and can easily outmuscle a lot of forwards (there's more to defending than that).

If it is true that they don't communicate (wouldn't surprise me if it included De Gea too), that is pretty damning on Van Gaal never mind the two players.
 
Blind is not a PL CB, ever. He is playing there because the manager wants a left footed player in there as a principle, if we had a 26 year old Rio Ferdinand at the club, Smalling would probably be on the bench to accommodate that principle.
 
Mike09 said:
I don't think so, Smalling's positioning had been good last season. The main reason why this season his positioning looked poor because he needs to cover all our back four job. He's doing everything by himself and it's not good when one man needs to do 4 men's job. Another example is when against Chelsea 1-1, he was covering Darmian place is the main reason he was caught off out of position. Even if Blind gets one better than Smalling, let's just say Thiago Silva and he will still need to cover blind's error, blind's physical ability and other defenders job so basically Thiago Silva is still going to do a 4 men's job.

Yesterday Blind had a poor first half, so many errors and he was one of the worst list player on the pitch. Smalling was covering him all the time at first half and I thought Smalling had a solid first half. Second half was the opposite, Smalling made mistakes and Blind did his job good but to be fair second half all the players already lost their spirit and seems like already game over and our players were all over the place like they didn't know what they need to do (headless chicken) so it's not like I expected Liverpool attackers to have many reason to go all out bombering our defense in second half.
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More 1 man backline Smaling. Frankly, this post is full of shite.
 
The amount of people who think think Blind is a competent defender in here is ridiculous. Wouldn't even start on any other PL team. He's a good passer some days when he feels like it. Gets manhandled and beaten with speed most days. Sure he makes some clearances and interceptions. It's kind of supposed to be his job. He's good at reading the game I'll give you that, but in general gives away too many chances to opponents due to his lack of athleticism.

Smalling covers so much ground defending, challenging aerially, blocking shots, and making last ditch tackles that i think its ridiculous anyone thinks he has a defensive CB partner. More like a midfielder who roams around next to him. If someone had all the time in the world, they could create a whole montage of chances given away due to Blind's poor play. Though i think LVG's crazy man marking defense is stupid and doesn't help Blind. Smalling was pressing all the way into the opposition half leaving a wide gap in the middle.
 
Man City 0:1 Man Utd
Is Daley Blind the worst corner taker in the history of football? I think a blind paraplegic could take a better corner...if he was purposely trying to feck it up.

He should be fined every time he takes a shit one
 
Thought he did well in the first half, it's really not easy to play next to Rojo.
 
Very great half from him, possibly best half defensively I've seen in sometime.
The Smalling and Blind partnership is really turning in to something.
 
He's been left one on one a few times today and against Liverpool and every time he's come up out on top.
 
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