Which makes the entire premise of equating all of this to 'how good of a defender are you?' absolutely ridiculous. People need to get it out of hteir head that how good on the ball you are complements how good of a defender you are, just blindly (geddit) yelling that you're good on the ball and trying to excuse the lack of defensive ability has to be one of the more bizarre modern discussion trajectories in football at the moment.
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Season Average Rating
- Appearances
- 40
- Clean sheets
- 8
- Goals
- 1
- Assists
- 1
- Yellow cards
- 3
- Status
I don’t think anybody has ever said that comfortable on the ball is the only important quality. Lindelof has been defending good this season so I don’t really understand what or who you’re aiming at.
Also wondering what some posters are expecting from the defence. That they will completely shut down Messi, Suarez and Coutinho? Well, United were close; Barcelona had very few chances and it took an own goal for them to score.
Lindelof is not the type that does spectacular things, no last ditch tackles, no yellow cards, no aggressive headers, but instead relying on anticipation and positioning and he’s being a clean defender. He is very boringly doing his job. Sometimes it would be good if he was more aggressive, but there are also advantages with his clean and boring way of playing.
He wasnt clean yesterday with that skewed clearance giving Barcelona a chance, or with his reaction to Shaw's mistake on the goal where he also ran about headless for a second
He was involved in one and a half chance against Barcelona, that is ok as a CB. He got ratings between 6-7 in all the papers I’ve seen, so I do t seem to be alone with that conclusion.
The goal was a bit unlucky, but it also came after really nice movements from Barca which I think puzzled the United defence a bit.
You've obviously never seen the various Daley Blind eulogy threads.
Anecdotal coincidences are fine, I think Lindelof is a decent enough defender and can improve as an individual. My point was that proclaiming that touch and passing ability are anything more than an additional added bonus to being a competent defender needs to stop. Defenders need to be judged on defending, when the level of defending drops below a certain point then it needs to be called out as not good enough, not fluffed up with whimsical overhyped comments like "well at least he can pass it a bit?.."
I agree that being good at passing or being comfortable on the ball can never be enough for a defender. Definitely. But the arguments I have seen are more like for a defender in a top club today it is not just a bonus: It is necessary to be both comfortable on the ball and being a good defender. Barcelona, Real Madrid, Juventus, Bayern Munchen, City, they all have defenders who are comfortable on the ball.
Being good on the ball, being comfortable under pressure, being able to play fast technical passes etc are good ways to ensure possession and possession is a very effective way of defending.
Barcelona 3:0 Man Utd
He was alright tonight in a slightly unfamiliar position. Need to get him back to the centre and get Jones sold.
I'm still waiting for this really good passing to happen.
Fairly quiet and uneventful game from him, which considering how much space we allowed Alba in the first half is a strange one. Unenviable position for him, to be so often in a 2 v 1 and picking the least worst option.
Got doubled up on a lot, did ok in a position he's rarely played.
Same here. His passing is average.
Well, if it ever does happen, it's not gonna be away against Barcelona while playing in the wrong position.
Needs a proper defensive partner to see his full potential much like Bonucci.
Everton 4:0 Man Utd
Just like against Barcelona he didn't do much positive or negative in an unfamiliar position. He should have been central and one of the chuckle brothers should have been out wide where they could do less damage.
Purple patch over.
He looked really good at CB for a while so it only made sense to move him to a RB to make space for Jones 
To be fair his performances in the centre had already dropped away significantly. Still not a good decision IMO.He looked really good at CB for a while so it only made sense to move him to a RB to make space for Jones
He looked really good at CB for a while so it only made sense to move him to a RB to make space for Jones
Who else we going to play at right back today? Why not play the lad who played right back quite frequently for his previous club who’s a good football player?
I don't think he's good enough tbh
Because he has not played RB in a while and more importantly by moving him there we had a weak player at CB as well as RB.
His poor performances were still better than Smalling or Jones at CB.
Jones and Smalling seasoned centre backs, that’s where they play neither of them can play any where else. If Lindelöf can’t fill in at full back a few games a season then we may as well sell him as well at the same time we are selling all the other crap who can’t put a shift in and play one game out their comfort zone. There’s no issue with putting Lindelöf at right back it’s the overall crap team effort that goes is the problem. We could have had prime Paul Parker or Gary Neville out there today the midfield and strikers would still stroll round like it’s a piss about in the park,
He was absolutely feckin woeful. At both RB and CB.
His form has dropped considerably.
His form has dropped considerably.
Didn't Jones use to play right back
?Him and Jones were doing quite well as a pairing. Both better passers of the ball and carry it forward unlike Smalling. Suddenly Smalling comes in, becomes undroppable and our build up play goes down the toilet.
I admitted a while back that may be I was too hasty in calling him mediocre. Now I feel like I was too hasty in my admission.
Has reverted to his old self. Strange how most players are finding their previous low level. Someone needs to do research on this "New manager bounce" thingy.
Has reverted to his old self. Strange how most players are finding their previous low level. Someone needs to do research on this "New manager bounce" thingy.
Didn't Jones use to play right back
Yeah over 6 years ago
His average passing is better than the likes of Jones/Smalling has ever produced.
I am not blaming him
I am not saying it's an issue playing him at RB. I am saying he should not be judged based on his performance at RB. I am also saying it didn't make sense to move him to RB when he is better at CB as compared to Smalling and Jones. Much rather play Dalot at RB and Rojo at LB.
Like you said, if the rest of the team had done what they should have, Lindelofs performance would not have mattered.
In my opinion Lindelöf will never be good enough for the level United should aspire to.
In the mid to late 2000's Liverpool had Daniel Agger who they insisted was great, and we had Rio Ferdinand.
These days we have Victor Lindelöf who we desperately want to be great, and Liverpool has van Dijk.
In the mid to late 2000's Liverpool had Daniel Agger who they insisted was great, and we had Rio Ferdinand.
These days we have Victor Lindelöf who we desperately want to be great, and Liverpool has van Dijk.
Lindelof to me is a back up CB that wouldn't be starting at any other elite club. Lacks physically and his supposed ability on the ball is way overblown on here by some posters.
It coincides with him being shafted to LCB with the return of Smalling though. And he is not nearly as good with the ball to the left.
Lindelof should start at RCB and then the other places in the back four should be filled accordingly. To always put Smalling at RCB when he is playing just because his right foot is marginally less bad than his left is stupid IMO. It just makes things worse. If Smalling cant play LCB he should not play at all.
We have been at our best with Lindelof at RCB and Jones at LCB (he can actually play there without being a Cruyff or even a Blind) since OGS arrived. Stop moving our best footballing players out of position to accomodate lesser players is a good start.
I agree. Victor should play at RB and if no one else can play at lb then Jones should play there.
That said why did Jose sell Blind?
That said why did Jose sell Blind?
He has shown that he is capable of playing PL football of a high level and did so for a fairly long stretch of matches. He has also shown signs of improvement, for example his game in the air. For me the question is if he can make the level of this patch of good matches to his standard and then further improve from that.
I don't fully agree that he must play to the right. He is better with his feet to the right and it is the preferred psotion, but he has had several good matches to the left as well. I also think that him and Jones were a good match.
I don't fully agree that he must play to the right. He is better with his feet to the right and it is the preferred psotion, but he has had several good matches to the left as well. I also think that him and Jones were a good match.
100%
Exactly. It frustrates me that we neuter a promising player to accommodate one we know isn't good enough. Instead of one strong and one weak player we end up with two weak players. We do it all over the pitch. You don't see Liverpool moving Van Dijk around to help Lovren and Matip out, and we didn't move Rio to the left because Brown was better on the right.
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Maybe because it’s too easy to imagine that a player’s quality is ‘in him’? He was bad in october 2017, he was good in October 2018, he was bad at RB against Everton. Is he good or bad?
Lindelöf has shown increasing and consistent quality at CB since the World Cup more so than any other of our players, yet he is still young and will vary, he will still vary with the quality of the team performance and the quality of the people around him and in front of him.
Does a player revert to a former self? Not really likely.
His issues are clear: his passing from the back seems to have been oversold and he isn't yet defending with authority, so for a team who have been crying out for ball playing and leadership at CB it's valid to wonder what Lindelof can bring to the table. I broadly that he's shown better consistency since the World Cup and I've been pleased with him this season overall, but we need to see more if he's to be anything other than a stopgap.
He's not the problem. Not saying he's the one, but for me he's good enough to play next to someone that is. The thing people forget is he's young for CB, new to the PL and more importantly showed improvement. They said he wasn't strong enough and shown that he is, said he wasn't dominant in the air and shown that statistically that's not true either. Passing, don't people remember his passing during Ole's winning run.
If people want to throw players under the bus, he shouldn't be one of them....
If people want to throw players under the bus, he shouldn't be one of them....
Lindelof is no Van Dijk.
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