The guy has been superb, plays like he has a sixth sense. He knowe what to do before things actually develop. He won me over.
17
Season Average Rating
- Appearances
- 39
- Clean sheets
- 19
- Goals
- 1
- Assists
- 2
- Yellow cards
- 4
- Status
When he grows a couple of inches and puts on about 20 pounds of muscle?
For some people, that's the only way they'd recognise a CB.
Well, it kinda goes like this.
England - Wow, that guy has got a lot of pace and a lot of strength, sign him up!
Everyone else - Wow, that guy is technical and smart, his positioning skills are great too! We should sign him up!
Does he sit in on the oppositions team meetings or something? He is always in the right place, never giving strikers an inch.
He won pretty much every dual, typically the taller and stronger player wins, but he reads the flight of the ball exceptionally and will somehow get a leg to everything.
Really hard to place actually how good he is, I'm starting to think a lot more hype will be attached to him soon, performances like he keeps making can't go unnoticed in the media for too long.
He won pretty much every dual, typically the taller and stronger player wins, but he reads the flight of the ball exceptionally and will somehow get a leg to everything.
Really hard to place actually how good he is, I'm starting to think a lot more hype will be attached to him soon, performances like he keeps making can't go unnoticed in the media for too long.
What a class act. Haven't seen a defender in our team defend like that since Rio left.
Barca don't have to 50 mil to offer for a CB.
Louis, is that you?
I wonder if noodlehair still thinks he's really shit and useless.
I would like to see him play in midfield with Pogba with Blind being in a Carrick role while Pogba is allowed to bomb forward. Then we have Bailly-Smalling as our cb partnership. Is worth a try but maybe not against City.
Guardiola would suck his dick to have him in his team. It's like we have a bonus midfielder playing him at the back.
And it's even funnier that he bought a Daley Blind pretender for 50m
Good player to have against weaker opposition as he's a decent defender and got excellent ball playing abilities. However, against the top teams his lack of athleticism will put us into trouble. Redmond was already showing how you can exploit the gap between Shaw and Blind due to the latter's lack of pace. I hope Mourinho pairs Smalling with Bailly or else Aguero will have a field day.
Aguero is more likely to have a field day with Smalling than Blind, Blind is much better at reading the movements of the player and where he wants to go than Smalling who has pace and strength and just goes in the straight line in for Aguero. Smalling is also going to get exploited every time he gets the ball against Peps high pressure because he is not very good on the ball, contrary to Blind who will calmly bring the ball out of tough situations. Besides if that is the problem then you just put Bailly to manmark Aguero, if that is what you're worried about.
Good point on the press. But I'm not worried about Aguero dribbling past two players and scoring. Let's be honest that's not how he scores. He scores with his great off the ball movement. Smalling is by far better at reacting to those due to his height and athleticism.
Furthermore our entire back line is based on zonal marking, so I doubt Mourinho would change a system that has been working well before a huge game.
It's just a toss up between what Mourinho fears more, Smalling inability to pass around the press, or Blind's lack of pace against Aguero and Sterling. Might be Phil Jones time as he wouldn't be great, but would provide the most balance between defense and ball playing.
Blind deserves to keep his place just now on merit, to say the least.
He played against those top teams last season, and did a fine job. Infact, his worst game was probably against Swansea away. Last season it was predicted he was going to fall apart against a strong, quick striker, but it never really happened. How long are we going to keep it lingering over him?
If he was two or three inches taller he would be perfect.
He exploits between Blind and Shaw? One of the fastest fullbacks in the premiership? Kind of tells it wasn't really a lack of athleticism that allowed Redmond to exploit, even though he didn't really exploit anything.
Occasionally attackers will get the better of him, otherwise he'll be history's best defender.
So height deals with off the ball movement now does it? Incredible how important you seem height will be against the shortest starting XI in the premiership.
Forgetting completely about the run last season where blind put lukaku in his pocket followed by aguero the next week? People overrate physicality and height so much on here.
Top 10 CB in the world for me ATM.
It almost seems like they've written him off and are desperate to find reasons not to rate him.
They will point to every single mistake he makes (they are few and far between) as a justification of how he isn't good enough, whilst ignoring the fact every defenders makes mistakes.
I know, its just lazy. The judgements for daley become extremely strong if he does one tiny thing wrong. In reality he is superb in the position and he offers us so much that no other defender could on top of his commanding defensive displays. The same thing happens with tony v, he is not a proper right back apparently and they would rather have a 'natural' rb in there. I love watching blind defend and for my money he is superior to smalling in the position and in great form, has to play.
Carles Pujol is shorter than Daley Blind. Food for thought 
A star on and off the pitch
Who's better looking, Blind or his girlfriend?
Sell Blind. Sign Mertesacker.
If blind had a shave he could pass as a beautiful woman.
Shaw was marking their wide midfielder, which leaves Blind 1v1 to defend against a pacy Redmond. Redmond created most of Southampton's chances exploiting that. Blind is a decent player, but don't mistake solid team defending for his individual defensive prowess. We'll be cut apart against top attacking sides.
Ever heard of crosses? Off the ball movement isn't always vertical. Incredible how you'd forget that. Smalling is the one who carried us in defense last year sliding all over blocking shots & crosses. Also your suggestion that height is a weakness against short teams is dumb because not only is Smalling taller and stronger, but he's also much faster. As a defender he is light years ahead of Blind. The only negative being that he will struggle against the press due to his woeful ball playing skills.
What does that even mean? Jumping isn't considered off the ball movement in football mate, just a heads up. Ultimately, Blinds vastly superior positioning negates any lack in physical deficiency, which is ridiculous over emphasised by the way. Redmond didn't create most of their chances anyway, that's just nonsense. You're making yourself look foolish now. The chance you're actually referring to (27 seconds in the video) was actually Bailly and not Blind that lost Redmond, have a rewatch and then you can admit you were wrong. Just to help, here's the match highlights, care you point out all the chances Blind conceded?
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As a former doubter,it takes a lot for people to change their opinion on a player .
They will look for evidence to confirm whatever bias they have against a certain player.
But Blind has been very good and is such a calming on our defense. You can't underestimate that effect on how calm the whole team is under pressure because of that .Especially for those of us who remember the hoof it out at all costs defending of the past.
Delighted to see he's finally winning the majority over. Smalling was good last season don't get me wrong but for me, this guy is the rock of the defence as he's mentally ahead of everyone in front of him with a bonus of passing technique to kill.
Still would like to see him play in front of the back four as a midfielder for a couple games to see how that works, given his excellent distribution.
Also the 'when he plays against *insert tall powerful striker* he'll be tested properly' is practically a meme, stop using it you clowns.
Still would like to see him play in front of the back four as a midfielder for a couple games to see how that works, given his excellent distribution.
Also the 'when he plays against *insert tall powerful striker* he'll be tested properly' is practically a meme, stop using it you clowns.
He has been good, i think Smalling who was arguably our best defender last year is out of contention currently for starting line-up. Blind does play well with Bailly, big test against city of course. I still doubt whether he is the best CB solution or he should be used as a DM/CM (current Fellaini role) and i still favor the later one more. But he is doing much better at CB that i would have thought and he does look the part. Maybe given how it tough to find a left footed central defender we should stick with him in that role. Of course if he can replicate the same level against top teams, i imagine we will be playing counter-attack football against them.
Did you watch the Southampton game? Blind sailed through Southampton with a 100% record. No just not conceding but headers, take ons, tackles. Actually even after yesterdays game(3rd game of the season) against Hull, Blind has a 100% record for headers, take ons, tackles and duels. Add 7 interceptions, 17 clearances to that list.
We saw last season in the second half of the season that he was almost faultless and attackers like Lukaku and other bigger, faster, stronger attackers just couldn't get past him. Also, please remember that last season was his first at the senior level playing as a CB. Before that he had either played midfield or LB at senior level. Smalling has played CB for a lot longer and yet Blind seems much more at ease(to me at least) than Smalling did last season in the second half of the season.
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Everything you say I agree with, except for Smalling reacting better for the off the ball movement. Due to Blind's intelligence he should easily intercept any of those passes, if he doesn't there should be Bailly running up behind him to cover him and hopefully catch Aguero. Think that Blind should definately start over Smalling because overall he has much more to offer IMO. As for Jones I don't think he should start, seems insecure and again think that Blind's positioning sense and intelligence without the ball and his midfield attributes will help much more than Smalling.
You only talk about ball that Blind anticipated. Around 60th mark, Blind was caught out near post for a cross that Southampton player knock on (Mata then blocked Nathan Redmond) Around 75th mark again, Long knocked a ball at near post and Blind had to play catch up.
The half chance Clasie widely blasted to the stand. Blind was caught out of position to press. The press didn't work then he went chasing Van Dijk trying to block the cross but failed. Had Clasie decided to cross over the Blind's unoccupied position for unmarked Long, then that would be free shot toward goal since Long was inside with Blind and Van Dijk down near the touch line.
Why is the red text?
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People still making up shits without actually watching matches after every game though.
It is like some of us are from the future posting back in 2015 that blind has done alrite against so called 'better team and players' while some people keep bringing up that shit that he is only good due to the other team being bad.
Funny then they go on and talk about smalling who was utterly humiliated against some no named striker in FA cup final then got sent off.
It is like some of us are from the future posting back in 2015 that blind has done alrite against so called 'better team and players' while some people keep bringing up that shit that he is only good due to the other team being bad.
Funny then they go on and talk about smalling who was utterly humiliated against some no named striker in FA cup final then got sent off.
so 2 examples where most defenders would be in same position as blind.
Sometimes, you know the other team attacking play could be so good that our defenders get caught a bit. I mean otherwise there will be a team who never conceded any kind of chance at all let alone goals.
And smalling never got caught out in any situations since you said he is better at off ball movement?
That's not my original point, was it? Point was Blind would be more suited in his line with an aggressive DM and a ball player CB partner like Hull game when he was flawless. Nobody is perfect but my last post is to refute the claim that all stats are reliable and insightful in football match. That 100% duel won was misleading that Blind couldn't anticipate in 2 near post knock from Southampton, meaning he didn't contest while in fact he should have contested for that as a CB.
Sometimes these kind of small detail can decide the big game. There is no secret that teams often tries to exploit near post (Blind's side) with that kind of play. Of course it's the best to play in front foot into Blind's preferred style like vs Hull and Bournemouth. But there would be some teams that is too good in possession that we need to drop back in defend deep. In that case, Blind will be more tested and teams will target his few weaknesses.
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I fixed the red text already.
Regarding the 60th minute. Watch again, No CB, even a 2m CB would have been able to block that ball that was crossed over. Looks like it was about 3.5m high. Regarding the Long header at 75th, come on he didn't even get on target and though Long got to the ball in front of Blind it doesn't show Blind in a bad light.
There is no secret? Ok so tell me what other team did it?
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