elnorte
Freaky fly day
- Joined
- Aug 10, 2009
- Messages
- 5,062
If anything your centrebacks should be rated lower. There is a reason mourinho kept wanting to upgrade central defence every summer. At the end of the day, you are relying on centrebacks who were 4th and 5th choice for you when you were good and neither are really any better now than they were back then.
Smalling reminds me a bit of Skrtel in the sense that he looked good when playing with better players than himself, had six months once upon a time where he was really good, but when the time came to step it up as one of the leaders in the first team, the ability for it just wasn't there.
Smalling has all the physical attributes of a good defender, but he's not tight enough on his man and just a bit sloppy too often. He gets rated higher than he should be because he was really good for six months once, doesn't make the kind of calamity errors someone like Lovren does and is somehow still your best defender.
He's part of the problem for you though, not the solution.
What's your assessment on Jones?