I really wish people wouldn’t post that a player or team had bottled it when they lose. It’s such a poor use of the term, really lazy, and just an attempt at a dig.
A close match between two even teams. No need to analyse too much.
Toby Alderweireld
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I really wish people wouldn’t post that a player or team had bottled it when they lose. It’s such a poor use of the term, really lazy, and just an attempt at a dig.
A close match between two even teams. No need to analyse too much.
Fecking hell
It's because we're linked with him. If he was off to City people would be foaming at the mouth over him
Fecking hell
Do elaborate please.
He blocked more shots than any other Belgium defender
He made more interceptions than any other Belgium defender
He attempted more passes than any other Belgium defender (over twice as many as Vertonghen)
Yet apparently he was Belgium's worst defender
And also lost his man for the goal which resulted in them losing the match. Could you provide me with the link to the statistics though? Would love to see how others have performed.
Exactly. He misplaced himself against France too, leaving a lot of space and time for things to happen.
Oh please, France easily could have scored more goals that would have had nothing to do with Alderweireld
But they didn't now did they?
Any chance for the link by the way? Not that I'm lazy, checked myself but the most I can find are teams stats.
Ah, that's too easy of an argument. Surely Alderweireld is not to fault that France wasn't great at finishing.
Oh it is... apparently
I thought he played well last night.
Sure, I'm not talking about what ifs here though, they've lost by one goal for which he was responsible. Yesterday he was just poor imo and I do rate him. Kompany, for instance, was shit too but I don't rate him.
Most on the caf don't watch players from other clubs regularly enough. So, they tend to make judgement based on the little they have seen on said player, especially from major tournaments. Same thing happened with Milinkovic-Savic. Many on here were raving about him after being impressed by a few YouTube clips and then after watching him live for the first time at the world cup, they did a 180 and most didn't want him anymore.
On Alderweireld, he's a solid CB and if he were to come here, he'd be our best CB. However, some have reservations at whether he's perhaps on the decline following an injury filled season. Also, at the price that Levy will sell him for given his age.
Smelling is as good as him defensively. He’s just not good on the ball. That’s why I say he wouldn’t significantly change us and I’d prefer to spend on a young cb with higher potential / more suitability for us like those mentioned previously"The Spurs Fella"?!
His price might be steep but it also tells you something about how he's rated and that Spurs would like to keep him. Imagine Smalling being talked about as a 60-65m defender.
I feel there's a lot of downtalk of Smalling in these forums, but he's been great the last 6 months - except he's not good with his feet (really comes to show against big opponents who press). We might not agree, but to me Alderweireld has both physique, leadership, presence and can play the ball under high pressure (Smalling / Jones were terrible at this against Liverpool, City, Spurs).
Only minus is Alderweireld's expensive and getting old - But then again I think what we need the most is stability and experience. We lost ground in challenging against mid- and lower teams - which is a signal that we need stable performers who is not day and night like Martial. Seasoned pros / signings like going for Kroos, Alderweireld, etc makes sense to me.
Alderweireld probably still has 3 good years in him. We have enough youngsters/talents with Lingard, Rashford, Martial.
I would much prefer Maguire. Younger, English, etc.
Alderweild would be a good buy if at a reasonable price.
I’d rather wait for his clause to kick in.
Alderweild would be a good buy if at a reasonable price.
I’d rather wait for his clause to kick in.
A year on he'll be even closer to the dreaded 30 and besides why would anyone want to wait a season when he could make all the difference this year?
He was the one to blame in France goal more than any other defender
Keep up, that argument has already been made and dismissed appropriately
Has there been any talk about getting him from reliable sources? I thinking about how realistic it is. Mourinho has bought two CBS himself, Bailly and Lindelof. He seems happy enough with Smalling to let him play more or less every match. Then there is Jones and if I am not mistaken Rojo just got a new contract. IMO there is already a problem with having too many CBs, which results in no CB except Smalling playing more than a match here and one there. I think money are better spent elsewhere, especially considering the low amount of conceded goals last season. Midfield, fullbacks, forward. More or less any other position.
Smalling is a fantastic defender. 1v1 and in the box there isn't many better IMO, he just looks awkward and gangly on the ball and his passing is poor.
Not even in Smalling's dreams is he better
Smalling's good when it's a physical battle, not sure he has many other outstanding qualities beyond that though. He's fine for finishing where we did last season but not good enough to take us to another level defensively
For Mourinho's style he's fine, but if we want to be more expansive then yes we need to get a player that's more versatile.
What do you mean by 'for Mourinho style'?
Have you given a thought about Jose's center backs over the years? Carvalho, Terry, Verane, Pepe, Ramos, Lucio, etc. These are all leaders, generals, decent ball players (for CB level) and goal scoring contributors. How does Smalling fit into that group? If Bailly had stayed fit throughout and Lindelof got off to a good start, no way Smalling would have had as much game time as he did last season.
Jose's football starts from defence. That, and the fact that Bailly has proven to be very injury prone, explains why he might still be looking at signing another CB.
In the sense that he likes penalty box defenders also.
We clearly sit with a deep lying defence that soak up pressure in the box, Smalling is perfect for that.
All of those you listed are great at that also, they're just better on the ball than Smalling which is why he won't be world class.
I guess this will only get going if someone wants one of our CBs, or else there really isn't any room for another.
His form season before last was better than anything our CBs have ever shown imo.
His form season before last was better than anything our CBs have ever shown imo.
Judging from his performances in the world cup - Yeah there is.
Give up watching football you know feck all
What the hell have you been watching
Why on Earth would Varane leave Madrid ? Lenglet signed for Barca.
He is obviously the perfect player for us. But what is the max you think we should spend on him?
Why would anyone leave Madrid? A new manager or whatever. Stranger things have happened
Yep, we missed a trick with lenglet
55m is fair for a player who's worth less than half of that in 12 months time
Levy will bend over on this one eventually
Think the stars would have to perfectly align for Varane to become available to us, he's been outstanding this world cup and I think he's got a ridiculous buy-out clause.
Levy is such a C**T to deal with! Suppose 55 million in this market is fair, he gives us three good years and then hopefully one of Lindelof, Tuanzabe or even Ro Shaun is ready to step in.
Fully agree. He brings qualities our CBs are lacking such as good ball passing and leadership. In addition to that he has experience and aside of 3-4 good years for us, can be a teacher for both Bailey and Lindelof.
So I don't agree with you, and that makes me clueless ? I never said Alderweireld is a bad defender - he is a very good defender, he might even be better than what we have. That was never the issue. I just said that I feel that his contract-issue might not be the only reason why he wasn't a regular at Spurs. And I stand by that. In my opinion, both Vertonghen and Sanchez (who was brilliant for Columbia) looked at least equally good, or better.
Was the reason his limited game-time at Spurs, or was the reason something else ? I don't know. But I watched Alderweirld closely on several occations, and he made small mistakes that he wouldn't have made 2 years ago. Against France there was one incident when he was too slow in tracking his runner towards the corner flag. Ok fine - Alderweireld was never lightning quick, but the real mistake was that he even allowed that player to get a cross in. It was little incidents like that.
So no - I am not quite as clueless as you think
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