For the same reason they signed Mickey, Welbeck and Mkhitaryan. They love our rubbish.
Stefan de Vrij - 2018
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For the same reason they signed Mickey, Welbeck and Mkhitaryan. They love our rubbish.
Because Smalling is better than anyone they have in defense, and by the looks of the comments on here, probably a better defender than de Vrij, proven in the PL.
To be honest, I've found all 3 CBs to be quite good at Lazio this season having watched them a lot. S.d.Vrij, Radu and Bastos/Wallace alongside Strakosha (the GK) & Lucas are key to their game plan. They are an excellent counter attacking side because the 5 of them are so composed at playing the ball out instead of hoofing it, giving great service to Savic, Alberto and Immobile to do their thing further forwards.
He wouldn't be my first choice but he'd be a fine signing.
He wouldn't be my first choice but he'd be a fine signing.
He is not a lot better than what we already have !!!....He is not a leader from what I have seen. He is better on the ball but not a better defender than any of our defenders. If we are open to selling rojo then I would prefer Tuanzebe to take his place rather than Stefan. Unless Smalling,Rojo and Blind is leaving this signing wont make much of a difference.
If both you and us are in for him, you are confident he will choose you over us, especially since you wont have Champions League next season as well?
Not that simple is it, you have Rojo, Smalling, Jones, Bailly, Lindelof on your books all of them young defenders. Arsenal have a clumsy Mustafi and an aging Koscielny, De Vrij can easily conclude that he's got a better chance of regular game time at arsenal. And even if you try to get rid of Smalling first that'll cost you valuable time when we can get the deal done. I was really replying to the poster who said that Utd will foist Smalling on us and buy De Vrij, that might not work if we're trying to get him ourselves and wouldn't want to clear squad spots up for you.
We need to replace Blind and maybe Lindelof (we shouldn't have signed him imo) with him not Smalling. I know Chris is the latest Caf scapegoat but I wonder how many times the ones who says "he's definetely better than Smalling", "he's a lot better than Smalling" etc. have really watched him? He is good on the ball with some good defending skills but he's hardly a top class defender or a leader in defence as we need one. That being said it's a no brainer to sign him on a free. Get de Vrij for free and offload Blind, Darmian, Lindelof etc.
I don’t see why we should sell Rojo. I still have hopes for him.
Darmian, Blind and Smalling should all go before him.
Darmian, Blind and Smalling should all go before him.
We simply need better.
We have no business selling Rojo. Jones, Smalling, Darmian and Blind should all be on the choping block
Think we'll sell Smalling and promote Tuanzebe in the summer. Could be worth bringing Evans back as well after West Brom get relegated to bolster the back line. Wouldn't cost much at all.
Darmien and Blind need to go for sure, i think we can all agree on that much. It was clear they reached their peak in the EL final for us last season, they should have been moved on in the summer I'm baffled as to why it wasn't. I don't think Darmien has ever been good enough while Blind is a good player and has had a good innings here i think its the right time for him to go.
We do need better but we can't afford to be that threadbare at the back. If we do sell Darmian, Blind, Smalling and Rojo in the summer we'd need some major recruitment and to be fair to Rojo, he's done a decent job when he's been called upon. I suspect we'll keep him around for backup in years to come.
But our back line could be Mitchel, Shaw, Tuanzebe, Jones, Fosu Mensa, Young and Valencia. That's a lot of inexperience and old legs, not the stuff titles are built upon. And with Mourinho looking to sign a midfielder or two in the summer you can expect our budget to be shot before we address the defence.
We should see what we can pick up on a free and see if we can get Evan's back from West Brom in the summer.
TBF Rojo is not very good either. Smalling > Rojo
A lot of silly posts here. De Vrij is quite an inferior defender compared to Smalling.
We always seem to overrate players that don't play for us while simultaneously shitting on ours.
We always seem to overrate players that don't play for us while simultaneously shitting on ours.
Agree with the above post. From what I have seen, there seems to be no suggestion this guy would improve our defence.
How is he a inferior defender to Smalling ?
How do you expect the question to be answered?
Any defender not playing for us is rated higher than the ones we have, who coincidentally have the best defensive record in the league.
You made a claim, so you should at the very least substantiate that claim.
Speculate to accumulate. So true buddy!
Because the transfer market revolves around Manchester United.
Apparently Rojo is wanted by PSG.Arsene loves Smalling. Sell Blind too even Darmian.
That should fetch 25+35+15+10 = 85 mill Euros.
Buy De Vrij for free and then invest in a top top CB, someone like Alderweireld and good RB.Think we can buy Alderweireld and Meunier for 50+40-50 mill so nearly 90 which is almost balanced out by the sales.
That leaves us with Bailly, Jones, Alderweireld, De Vrij, Lindelof and Tuanzebe as CBs, Meunier, Valencia as RBs and Shaw,Young as LBs.Young can step in as RB if needed and maybe buy a LB.
This would mean even if we buy Sandro for 60 mill, we would have transformed our defense into a near world class one with a net spend of about 70 million.
Shaw - Jones - Bailly - Valencia
TO
Sandro - Alderweireld - Bailly - Meunier
Buy two CMs (Jorginho and Kovacic) for 100 million and I think we are good to go
Edit : @Maradona10 , great minds think alike
This is ridiculous. You are living in a dream world if you think you get Alderweireld for 50m Euros and Jorginho and Kovacic for 100m Euros combined.
This isn’t FIFA pal.
You made this too, so you can give a blueprint at least.
So you ask for a blue print when I call you out on it...
Dr Vrij has already shown in his career thus far he's better than Smalling by playing in a world Cup semi final at the age of 22 in a back line next to the lumbering Ron Vlaar. His ball playing ability and spacial awareness against some of the best players in the world at the tournament was for all to see.
At Lazio he's improved further imo by becoming more dominant in aerial duels which was a question mark in the past. His concentration levels are also top notch and he reads the game superbly and has the ability to bring the ball out from defense comfortably even when under pressure to thread passes between the lines which would help us against teams like Liverpool, Spurs and City.
He would quite clearly be a upgrade on Smalling..
Why would we care about this guy when we have Fosu-Mensah and Tuanzebe waiting?
Mensah is playing as a RB currently on loan and Axel too...
Fixed.
The less Rojo plays, the more his reputation grows. People choosing Rojo over Smalling and Jones is comedy of the highest order. De Vrij is a decent enough ball playing defender, but he would get eaten alive in the Premier league with his slow pace.
Tuanzebe is definitely a CB though, and TFM has played as a CB on several occasions for Crystal Palace as well
Especially our CBs. I have no idea why people can think CBs are our problem.
He seems to be injured quite a lot.. missed loads of games for lur national team because of injury. We really want to add another injjury prone defender next to Jones, Smalling, currently Baily and even Rojo? We already basically have no reliable defender who can stay fit for (most) of the season
I have no idea why Arsenal would entertain the idea of buying Smalling...
TFM needs his role defining I feel but I do like him as potential player for the first team though..
Axel I would've kept and played him ahead of Lindelof but I hope we start seeing him play afew games for Villa at CB soon...
De Vrij is no where near as slow as you're making it sound. He doesn't have express pace but is quicker than Alderweireld who many consider the best CB in the league.
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TFM and Tuanzebe's best performance at senior level so far were at full back position. Tuanzebe is name dropped by Mourinho as CB eventually, but seem like he needs to gain experience before then aka Sergio Ramos the full back. TFM honestly doesn't look that good aerially even for a side CB when Crystal Palace employed 3 at the back. Playing as CB in back 4 even more demanding especially we don't have great in the air CB beside Smalling.
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Playing in a world cup semi-final which his team lost does not make him better than someone who's never had the chance to play on that stage. Vlaar played alongside De Vrij, but is he exactly better than Smalling?So you ask for a blue print when I call you out on it...
Dr Vrij has already shown in his career thus far he's better than Smalling by playing in a world Cup semi final at the age of 22 in a back line next to the lumbering Ron Vlaar. His ball playing ability and spacial awareness against some of the best players in the world at the tournament was for all to see.
At Lazio he's improved further imo by becoming more dominant in aerial duels which was a question mark in the past. His concentration levels are also top notch and he reads the game superbly and has the ability to bring the ball out from defense comfortably even when under pressure to thread passes between the lines which would help us against teams like Liverpool, Spurs and City.
He would quite clearly be a upgrade on Smalling..
It's pretty difficult to compare special awarenesses and concentration levels though. Smalling surely at times gets turned easily due to his large turning circle, but his awareness, concentration and reading of the game are top notch.
De Vrij gets more dominated by strikers, wins few headers and loses his man more often compared to Smalling who is one of the most dominant defenders in the world. Pace, skill, strenght and power, Smalling is comfortable dealing with them all - he's the complete old fashioned defender.
The only way I'd say De Vrij betters Smalling is on the ball. Even at that, Smalling looks awkward but hardly ever gives the ball away though. Say what you want, but Smalling would be considered as one of the best CBs in the world if he could pass the ball very well and if he doesn't play for Manchester United.
De Vrij is just a decent defender than can pass the ball, probably in the Lindelof, Hoedt class.
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They won 3-0 as far as I can remember?
They lost in Semi finals on penalties. Won 3rd placed match 3-0 against Brazil.
Netherlands lost to Argentine on penalty. The thing is their campaign was built on the solidity of the back. Downplaying the defenders because they lost semi final on penalty due to their GK's penalty saving inability is quite amusing.
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