In my opinion - he didnt get beaten aggresively all that much because he would normally always be one step in front of the attacker due to pure intelligence. However he did with pace; if someone beat smalling; Blind would be left alone against pace & would fail.
However, playing at 3 at the back thats not an issue in my opinion - you don't need 2 thiago silvas and one maldini - a standard 2 CB with Blind adding additional central cover in between the defenders would have given a quantity edge against most attacks; so the quality is not as important. Compare that to seeing Bailly & Lindelof now in a pairing; there is no quantity edge even if the quality is deemed to be there.
Smalling is our current best defender & blind played amazing next to him; if there was another defender next to those 2; that would have been ridiculously good; the same way that someone like azpilicueta plays for Chelsea.
Bailly & Rojo actually formed a good partnership too - but needed that edge and understanding of the defensive capacity that Blind would give alongside an attacking ability.
Either way its a shame; i remember Jose played Blind as a CB in couple games earlier on - didnt do anything bad, didnt get beaten - but was still dropped; purely because it is not his type of CB.
