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2016-17 Performances

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6.0 Season Average Rating
Appearances
41
Clean sheets
16
Goals
1
Assists
2
Yellow cards
6
Status
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I love the logic used by Jaybomb that Smalling is your stereotypical, overrated English player aswell it's so flawed. Yes, we like to hype up our own but if you can't recognise that Smalling was one of the better centre backs in the league last season then you simply don't understand football.

We don't apply this logic towards players of other nationalities. 'Ah, he plays for this country so therefore we massively overrate him and in fact he's shite'. Funny that. feck their nationality, judge the player for what you see when he's actually on the pitch.
 
Jaybomb said:
Smalling is your typical average English player. He's a mid table player. Rojo has got something special about him. He's a bit like David Luiz in a sense, you either love him or hate him. But the fact is, these types of defenders are always more successful than the likes of Smalling and Jones and Shawcross and the like. The media hypes these guys up as "REAL proper defenders" but the truth is, they never accomplish anything. The best teams in the world always have a defender who takes risks, passes it out from the back and isn't afraid to try something. The media paint these guys as donkeys but its funny cause their accomplishments speak for themselves. Real have Ramos, Barca have Pique and PSG have Luiz. You ask a Paul Merson or a Jamie Redknapp and he will try and convince HIMSELF that somebody like Gary Cahill could do a better job.

Rojo has starred in 3 finals for Argentina in the past 2 years including a World Cup where he managed to get into the Team of the Tournament. Smalling will never ever accomplish that. He's not talented enough.
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Or... England aren't talented enough? I maen that's a notion we can all get behind.
 
Glanville95 said:
I love the logic used by Jaybomb that Smalling is your stereotypical, overrated English player aswell it's so flawed. Yes, we like to hype up our own but if you can't recognise that Smalling was one of the better centre backs in the league last season then you simply don't understand football.

We don't apply this logic towards players of other nationalities. 'Ah, he plays for this country so therefore we massively overrate him and in fact he's shite'. Funny that. feck their nationality, judge the player for what you see when he's actually on the pitch.
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Alderweireld, Vertonghen, Van Dijk, Morgan, Huth to name a few were all better than Smalling last season.

Like I said in my previous post... Smalling and Blind worked well as a partnership... under LVG.

But that's gonna change under Mourinho. Mourinho will see Blind as too small, slow and weak to be a CB. And I don't think he's gonna rate Smalling, especially when he can attract better players to the club like Varane, Zouma and the like.

I've been watching Smalling for years. Last season, he was better than he usually is, I'll give him that. But he still doesn't strike me as the type of CB we want to be starting every game if we're striving to win Champions Leagues and league titles. He's just not that good. His lack of intelligence shows with his decision making and marking. And it's strange to me that so many people think he's captain material. He's got no leadership qualities whatsoever.

I think it's purely because LVG gave him the armband a few times and everyone bought into it. I don't think any of our players are proper leaders. Zlatan to my knowledge has never been a club captain. Schweinsteiger is always injured so what's the point? Carrick doesn't seem outspoken enough. And Rooney couldn't even motivate his country to beat Iceland.
 
Jaybomb said:
Blind made Smalling look good. He's not a proper CB but his reading of the game is up there with the best. Smalling switches off and makes stupid decisions sometimes. Blind covered that.

If Smalling was beside Jones, he would become the Smalling of old again. The only reason LVG didn't play Blind and Rojo was because they were both left footed and in LVG's mind, this is a big issue. For the record, Smalling was terrible in the Champions League for us.
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:lol:

Our best spell of form under van Gaal came towards the end of the 14/15 season in the run where we beat Spurs, Liverpool and Man City. Smalling was one of our best players during that period and was partnered with Jones at the time, long before the Blind experiment even begun. You should probably stop with your baseless claims before you embarrass yourself any further.
 
CM10 said:
:lol:

Our best spell of form under van Gaal came towards the end of the 14/15 season in the run where we beat Spurs, Liverpool and Man City. Smalling was one of our best players during that period and was partnered with Jones at the time, long before the Blind experiment even begun. You should probably stop with your baseless claims before you embarrass yourself any further.
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And who was at LB in those games? Oh yeah... Blind.
 
Jaybomb said:
Alderweireld, Vertonghen, Van Dijk, Morgan, Huth to name a few were all better than Smalling last season.

Like I said in my previous post... Smalling and Blind worked well as a partnership... under LVG.

But that's gonna change under Mourinho. Mourinho will see Blind as too small, slow and weak to be a CB. And I don't think he's gonna rate Smalling, especially when he can attract better players to the club like Varane, Zouma and the like.

I've been watching Smalling for years. Last season, he was better than he usually is, I'll give him that. But he still doesn't strike me as the type of CB we want to be starting every game if we're striving to win Champions Leagues and league titles. He's just not that good. His lack of intelligence shows with his decision making and marking. And it's strange to me that so many people think he's captain material. He's got no leadership qualities whatsoever.

I think it's purely because LVG gave him the armband a few times and everyone bought into it. I don't think any of our players are proper leaders. Zlatan to my knowledge has never been a club captain. Schweinsteiger is always injured so what's the point? Carrick doesn't seem outspoken enough. And Rooney couldn't even motivate his country to beat Iceland.
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How would anyone who doesn't know him personally even know that?
 
OnlyTwoDaSilvas said:
How would anyone who doesn't know him personally even know that?
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You only have to watch him. He couldn't motivate a dead duck.

Besides, I can easily turn that argument around and say "How could anyone who doesn't know him personally possibly know he would make a good captain?" - We're all judging it by what we see on TV/in person.
 
Jaybomb said:
And who was at LB in those games? Oh yeah... Blind.
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Irrelevant. You said Smalling would be exposed playing alongside Jones when it actually coincided with our best spell under van Gaal.

It's obvious from your posts that you have some form of agenda. Rojo was absolutely rotten for us last season and was even among our worst players in the friendly against Dortmund. He lacks composure on the ball, he's woeful positionally and overcommits far too often - even van Gaal realised how much of a hindrance he was in central defence so predominantly used him at left back last season.
 
Jaybomb said:
Alderweireld, Vertonghen, Van Dijk, Morgan, Huth to name a few were all better than Smalling last season.

Like I said in my previous post... Smalling and Blind worked well as a partnership... under LVG.

But that's gonna change under Mourinho. Mourinho will see Blind as too small, slow and weak to be a CB. And I don't think he's gonna rate Smalling, especially when he can attract better players to the club like Varane, Zouma and the like.

I've been watching Smalling for years. Last season, he was better than he usually is, I'll give him that. But he still doesn't strike me as the type of CB we want to be starting every game if we're striving to win Champions Leagues and league titles. He's just not that good. His lack of intelligence shows with his decision making and marking. And it's strange to me that so many people think he's captain material. He's got no leadership qualities whatsoever.

I think it's purely because LVG gave him the armband a few times and everyone bought into it. I don't think any of our players are proper leaders. Zlatan to my knowledge has never been a club captain. Schweinsteiger is always injured so what's the point? Carrick doesn't seem outspoken enough. And Rooney couldn't even motivate his country to beat Iceland.
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He already won leage titles dude
 
I've not said he would make a good captain either. But to say he has no leadership qualities whatsoever is madness, you don't know him. You can't base it soley on what he shouts and points at on the pitch.

How do you know those around him aren't motivated by him? You have no idea how they're responding to him. A number of our players have spoken highly of him last season, Blind stated he was loving playing next to him, Vardy said he was the toughest defender he's faced. The manager saw something in him to make him one of the vice captains.

There's more of a clear argument in favour of him being captain, given that he was reliable, played almost every game, was part of the joint best defence in the league, and he was one of our best outfield players. The argument against it is that he has no leadership skills, which is based on nothing.

I agree that Smalling and Blind is a good partnership, but I largely disagree that Blind was propping him up. They complimented each other very well. But let's not pretend this was the first time Smalling has performed. He has looked a solid talent since we signed him, it was only niggly injuries and those appearances at right back that held him back. He had very few bad games when played in the middle, which we were all crying out to see more of long before we even signed Blind.
 
Jaybomb said:
Alderweireld, Vertonghen, Van Dijk, Morgan, Huth to name a few were all better than Smalling last season.

Like I said in my previous post... Smalling and Blind worked well as a partnership... under LVG.

But that's gonna change under Mourinho. Mourinho will see Blind as too small, slow and weak to be a CB. And I don't think he's gonna rate Smalling, especially when he can attract better players to the club like Varane, Zouma and the like.

I've been watching Smalling for years. Last season, he was better than he usually is, I'll give him that. But he still doesn't strike me as the type of CB we want to be starting every game if we're striving to win Champions Leagues and league titles. He's just not that good. His lack of intelligence shows with his decision making and marking. And it's strange to me that so many people think he's captain material. He's got no leadership qualities whatsoever.

I think it's purely because LVG gave him the armband a few times and everyone bought into it. I don't think any of our players are proper leaders. Zlatan to my knowledge has never been a club captain. Schweinsteiger is always injured so what's the point? Carrick doesn't seem outspoken enough. And Rooney couldn't even motivate his country to beat Iceland.
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I agree. He's been our best CB for the past 2 seasons, but I still don't find him a reassuring presence. His pace and strength helps him out a lot, but his positioning isn't great and he always has the potential for a brain fart. I don't think he's overly special in the air either. He can be lost far too easily by his opponent from crosses and the less said about his distribution the better.

I'd like us to buy a CB to partner Smalling until Bailly has shown he is ready to take his place in the team. Smalling is by no means the weakest link in our defence - quite the opposite - but there are plenty of weaknesses in his game for us to be looking at upgrades.

That goes for most of our defence actually. Our impressive record last season was helped a lot by a combination of De Gea, luck, poor finishing and our tactical set-up (we weren't very adventurous so our defence wasn't tested as much as it could have been, but when it was it never looked as solid as we'd want - plus once teams took the lead against us they were often happy to sit back because we were that impotent in attack).

I know it's not entirely fair to be comparing our current defence to Evra-Vidic-Rio-VDS, but that was a defence we could really put our faith in. We could be confident of them soaking up all kinds of pressure. None of our current defence inspire the same kind of confidence, despite last season's stats.
 
Regardless of what one might think of Smalling there's no fecking way Rojo is even close to SMalling's talent or ability. Utterly laughable.

And i wouldn't swap Smalling for any of the CB's mentioned. Smalling is the best defender out of those lot and by some distance.
 
Jaybomb said:
Blind made Smalling look good. He's not a proper CB but his reading of the game is up there with the best. Smalling switches off and makes stupid decisions sometimes. Blind covered that.

If Smalling was beside Jones, he would become the Smalling of old again. The only reason LVG didn't play Blind and Rojo was because they were both left footed and in LVG's mind, this is a big issue. For the record, Smalling was terrible in the Champions League for us.
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What? Smelling covered a stupid amount of ground making up for Blind who was all over the place defending. I like Rojo, but he hasn't shown himself good enough at United. Let's hope he turns it around, but that still doesn't explain why your posts make no sense at all.
 
reddevilzZ said:
He already won leage titles dude
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He wasn't an established starter back then. We had Rio and Vidic. Evans was ahead of him back then too.

CM10 said:
Irrelevant. You said Smalling would be exposed playing alongside Jones when it actually coincided with our best spell under van Gaal.

It's obvious from your posts that you have some form of agenda. Rojo was absolutely rotten for us last season and was even among our worst players in the friendly against Dortmund. He lacks composure on the ball, he's woeful positionally and overcommits far too often - even van Gaal realised how much of a hindrance he was in central defence so predominantly used him at left back last season.
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How is it irrelevant? :lol: Blind was still beside him.

You're talking mad. LVG used him as a LB cause Shaw was injured. Who else had he got? Blind and Smalling were decent enough at the back together. So he wasn't gonna break up that chemistry.

Rossa said:
What? Smelling covered a stupid amount of ground making up for Blind who was all over the place defending. I like Rojo, but he hasn't shown himself good enough at United. Let's hope he turns it around, but that still doesn't explain why your posts make no sense at all.
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How was Blind all over the place? He had tall strong physical strikers like Lukaku in his pocket when the media were making it out as if he had no chance against them at all. He's proved people wrong at CB but having said all that, I still don't think he's a Mourinho CB.
 
We haven't had a weak CB like him since Silvestre
 
Bojan11 said:
Nonsense.

Silvestre during the 2002/2003 season was brilliant. He was a very good fullback.

Just wasn't a centre back.
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Im referring to Silvestre as CB not as fullback
 
Jaybomb said:
Alderweireld, Vertonghen, Van Dijk, Morgan, Huth to name a few were all better than Smalling last season.

Like I said in my previous post... Smalling and Blind worked well as a partnership... under LVG.

But that's gonna change under Mourinho. Mourinho will see Blind as too small, slow and weak to be a CB. And I don't think he's gonna rate Smalling, especially when he can attract better players to the club like Varane, Zouma and the like.

I've been watching Smalling for years. Last season, he was better than he usually is, I'll give him that. But he still doesn't strike me as the type of CB we want to be starting every game if we're striving to win Champions Leagues and league titles. He's just not that good. His lack of intelligence shows with his decision making and marking. And it's strange to me that so many people think he's captain material. He's got no leadership qualities whatsoever.

I think it's purely because LVG gave him the armband a few times and everyone bought into it. I don't think any of our players are proper leaders. Zlatan to my knowledge has never been a club captain. Schweinsteiger is always injured so what's the point? Carrick doesn't seem outspoken enough. And Rooney couldn't even motivate his country to beat Iceland.
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What a shitload of shit. Smalling was the best centerback in the league in first part of the season despite playing alone there, covering for had to cover and play with liabilities like Darmian, Valencia, Varela, Blind. It's very hard to maintain that level of performances over whole season, with all the changes despite that he was still very good until the end.

And people will claim that Blind was better with all those positional, marking mistakes which Smalling had to make up for. :lol: People saw Bailly in a couple of preseason games and all of a sudden he's better than Smalling and will displace him soon, the boy is average in the air/whereas Smalling is absolute monster. Bailly is yet to prove how goo he is 1vs1 whereas Smalling proved he's one of the best in it as well as top tackler..

it's just insane some comments here. Van dijk was better in what world? :-D the only one who edged him could be alderweireld who had truly great season, but Spurs played all season with the same players at the back and with proper defensive midfielder and overall as a compact unit.

Morgan and Huth had both great seasons but they were a bit weaker in the first part as well and massively benefited form the system Ranieri applied, they deliberately let players go into wide areas and let them cross and both players are good in the air and also the whole team worked well as a unit with Kante the monster and Drinkwater sitting there as well..

Smalling just had a breakthrough season as a CB and was definitely our best defender and maybe the third best player after Martial and DDG and people want to replace him... he will come even better under Mourinho who likes no-nonsense defenders
 
devilish said:
Im referring to Silvestre as CB not as fullback
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Silvestre was quality alongside Rio in the 2003-04 season before Rio got suspended. Also our best player during the injury crisis in the 02-03 season when Fergie moved O'Shea to lb and Silvestre to cb.

Silvestre must be one of the most under rated players in the caf history.
 
Man-United said:
Silvestre was quality alongside Rio in the 2003-04 season before Rio got suspended. Also our best player during the injury crisis in the 02-03 season when Fergie moved O'Shea to lb and Silvestre to cb.

Silvestre must be one of the most under rated players in the caf history.
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Even rojo would do well with prime Rio. He was the best cb of his generation. However let's focus on Rojo rather then mickey
 
Is that THE Scholesy of the Norwood and Brandy fame who was convinced that kid from Aston Villa was going to be world class?
 
C'est Moi Cantona said:
Is he heck, and to think we paid £16 m, and Nani's wages for a year to get him.
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Not that bad a price because he was fairly young and a proven, international defender.

pseudo_canadian said:
That's being extremely generous.

He is a bang average defender and decent going forward, and I don't want him anywhere near the starting 11.

Always has a disastrous mistake in him.
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Can you tell me what mistakes he has made?

Tom Van Persie said:
He's a mediocre player. Shouldn't be anywhere near our starting 11 this season.
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I think he is a better defender than Blind. He should be backup to the Bailly, Smalling partnership.

Devil may care said:
Is that THE Scholesy of the Norwood and Brandy fame who was convinced that kid from Aston Villa was going to be world class?
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Norwood is a quality player. Delfouneso never given a chance.
 
I remain convinced that Jose will know exactly what to do with him. May even be one of the best players in the team this season. No one is going to "walk" into those two starting CB spots.
 
At CB he's decent, just very rash. The problem last season was a lot of our attacking play relied on the end product of the LB, and when Rojo played there it was so frustrating watching him mess up attack after attack with his shite end product.
 
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