Then Blind doesn't play. Play the best players in their best positions, although I do think Blind is the best choice for the Carrick role behind Herrera/Fellaini and Pogba
17
Season Average Rating
- Appearances
- 39
- Clean sheets
- 19
- Goals
- 1
- Assists
- 2
- Yellow cards
- 4
- Status
Then Blind doesn't play. Play the best players in their best positions, although I do think Blind is the best choice for the Carrick role behind Herrera/Fellaini and Pogba
Blind for the easy games.
Smalling for the hard games.
Simples
Smalling for the hard games.
Simples
Amazing how one game can completely change the consensus on a player on here.
Gone from one of the league's best CBs to not good enough.Couldn't agree more. Said this before the game and the Blind fans went ballistic.
I hope next season Jose would either bring some proper CBs or i don't know maybe he could fix Jones, i would not bet on it though. Anyway this Blind in CB position experiment needs to stop. We need a proper CB and Blind can cover there if there are suspensions&injuries. As for Blind we should use him as a swuad player, cover, since he can play in various positions and maybe in the middle.
It's not that game, it's his overall performance over the last two years. While i was praising him for the first three games, i said that the real test will come against City. And we can see then if he is good enough. And we saw worst performance on par with miserable Micki&Lingard.
I too questioned Blind as a centre back and was called out on it. My logic was simple. Smalling is taller, stronger and quicker than Blind, thus has an advantage over Blind in games in which we are pinned back. Basically i would play Smalling against the top six and everton and maybe a few other away games.
Granted hes not as good a passer than Blind, but I would feel more secure knowing Smalling was at the back than Blind in certain games.
I don't see the need to panic. His mistakes were down to lack of concentration not anything to do with his inherent limitations. He recovered quite well for the second half so as of now I'd register this more as a rare bad game than feel the need to bin him right away. Lets see how Smalling and Philistine cope in midweek before anointing him the replacement.
What easy games? Every premier league game is potentially hard. You don't want to be changing the centre back pairing more than necessary.
Yeah let's play Smalling in the next big match and then when we eventually lose we swap again every time
The last hard match Smalling was in for us he got sent off.
The last hard match Smalling was in for us he got sent off.
Baby and bath water.....
Been very good this season but annoyingly poor defending for their goals yesterday.
So how would Smallings physical superiority have prevented those goals exactly?
With the first one, I highly doubt that Smalling would have made the same positional error plus Blind tried to reach the ball with his leg but it wasn't long enough to reach, Smalling's is longer. Plus he would have reacted faster and potentially even caught up with KDB using his long strides.
With the second one, he would never have been offside, and would have tried to block KDB's shot- and is more likely to block it because he has a higher surface area.
Watching Rio defend is like watching Ronaldinho attack. The comparison is just unfair for pretty much any defender, especially one like Blind. Rio was extremely fast as well as being strong and a great tackler. He was also very technically gifted and had no glaring weaknesses. At his best, he is probably the best centre back I've seen.
For those criticising Blind, what should he have done differently for the goal that we conceded?
To me, the error should be traced back to Mkhitaryan's lackadaisical closing at the other end of the pitch which allowed their defender (can't remember who) to clear the ball up the field. Bailly should then have dealt better with that ball. But when the ball dropped to De Bruyne, I don't see what Blind was supposed to have done differently.
To me, the error should be traced back to Mkhitaryan's lackadaisical closing at the other end of the pitch which allowed their defender (can't remember who) to clear the ball up the field. Bailly should then have dealt better with that ball. But when the ball dropped to De Bruyne, I don't see what Blind was supposed to have done differently.
Once KDB got it he was clear through so you are correct saying the Blind could do nothing once the ball dropped to KDB. But Blind should have anticipated/positioned himself to deal with the situation if the ball clears Baillys head. Lack of awareness and anticipation that you would expect from a natural, top centre half.
Attacked the ball or backed off, he did neither. If he attacks the ball and stoops for a header we get a free kick for high foot. If he backs off kdb doesn't get in to space in behind. Smalling with his pace could have backed off more easily. Blind should have attacked the ball and to be far 99 percent of the time he does, he just misread it and got flat footed.
He was terrible yesterday but he's still a good player. Not as good as Smalling mind who has been criminally underrated due to his absence at the start of the season.
Smalling and Bailly are the future of our backline.
Smalling and Bailly are the future of our backline.
Aye, it always happens. Knee jerk being the one point and secondly, players like Blind, Lingard & Fellaini will always get much more stick than others - but for the mere fact of bias.
Some don't believe they're good enough to be starting for us, and hence every reason is picked on to prove that point, no matter how many good games they've had up to that point.
I think you'd still find the same with Valencia to be honest. One mistake, after how many motm performances, and there'll be plenty rushing in to say he's not a RB etc.
Didn't know where to post this or not sure if it's been mentioned already on the caf but I just read that Blind was getting abused badly on social media and he's disabled his comments on his Instagram page. One bad game...
What's positioning got to do with physical attributes? And how fast do you think Smalling is exactly? To turn and catch a moving DB from a standing start?
And bigger surface area and longer legs? Really? Maybe Blinds longer hair makes him less streamline too...
I wonder if they will have a 'surface area' score in the FM17.
Rooney would get a 20, right.
I wonder if they will have a 'surface area' score in the FM17.
Rooney would get a 20, right.
The teams 'wall rating' would be the best in the league.
The teams 'wall rating' would be the best in the league.
Zlatan, Fellani, Rooney and Smalling and Shaw. Surface area'd up to feck.
I thought he turned it around. I was proven wrong. At fault for both goals and if Smalling was in there we could've gotten a result. Atleast our lesson is learned.
I would play him against teams that are currently bottom 10 in the table. Anything else is too much of a risk.
Contrast him to Otamendi and they were worlds apart.
I would play him against teams that are currently bottom 10 in the table. Anything else is too much of a risk.
Contrast him to Otamendi and they were worlds apart.
Fans are fickle
Or maybe it's different people giving different views? The forum is not one giant hive mind, you know.
Not the point I made with the video. My point is Blind in the first conceded goal, for some unknown reason switched from a good defending posture to a wrong one that left him flat footd when KDB decided to dribble past him. The correct posture is demonstrated in the first few seconds of the video where Rio defended against Kalou.
I agree with you 100%
Said it already he is a football player,intelligent one and not a bus driver.
This would be the same Smalling who struggled to cope with the world class Connor wickham eh?
As a defender you always assume the CB partner is going to lose out of the ball and anticipate and position yourself accordingly for that scenario. Blind seems to be caught on his heels allowing De Bruyne to steal in. Maybe he was just shocked Baily didn't even jump..
Not a huge mistake and both the CB's are to blame and not sure how people can say with certainty that Smalling would have done better. The 2nd one was a bigger error though.
I'm more concerned about Baily than Blind.
His pass to release Rashford leading to the disallowed goal was lovely, not seen it mentioned. Think it's time for Smalling to come back in but would like to see Blind in midfield.
It must be said, the 'defending' he displayed for De Bruyne's goal was up there with the worst I've ever seen.
I second this.
He's been good as CB but defending for KDB's goal was comical. He just stood there, thought ref will call dangerous play or something, then let him pass and jogged while watching him scoring a goal. It was if he was too lazy to try to stop him.
Unacceptable.
Unacceptable.
Really could of done with him tonight.
None of the back four could pass the ball forward.
None of the back four could pass the ball forward.
Think he needs to play whether at CB or DM.
One of few players in our side (alongside Carrick) who can pass between the lines and change tempo of our play.
I hold hope he can become a revelation for us at DM and solve several issues we have.
It will probably change back after his absence today :P
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