I thought Leicester pulled our defence all over the place aside from their goal
2
Season Average Rating
- Appearances
- 40
- Clean sheets
- 8
- Goals
- 1
- Assists
- 1
- Yellow cards
- 3
- Status
Agree with that. But Lindelhof currently isn't physical enough. And it's hard to be assertive when you're not strong. He's also not playing in a settled team. That's why he needs to be given a chance. Him and Bailly or him and Smalling. The fact is none of our defenders is a VVD type, an Alderweireld, Kompany, Vidic, Ferdinand, Pallister, Bruce that really dominate and lead. They're all an accident waiting to happen. It's hard to walk into a new league and face that. And a manager where one mistake and you're out. That's why I think he needs time. Same with Bailly, although I think he's further along the process. To be honest when we have these young guys waiting in the wings, I really do not get the argument against getting an experienced defender in like Alderweireld. They could all have learned off him and by the time he's winding down they and TFM and Tuanzebe would be ready to take the mantle. Everything starts with defence. When you have a good defence you have the confidence to go forwards. You can take risks knowing that they got your back.
Last edited by a moderator:
I think he will be a first choice by years end. Re-Watching the game in the 84th minute you can see him yelling at Fellani to push the line up to play on side. Its little things like this that make me think he will come good. A few weeks ago he had a rough outing, but if he can take those lessons and learn from it; I think he will give us a consistent performer in the center of the defense.
Yes, especially Lindelof, I seem to remember Iheanacho managed to receive the ball, turn Lindelof and just miss out on goal. 7 ratting my ass, there were other alarming situation where he was out muscled by the Nigerian with ease.
That’s what they try to do, yet they didn’t create much even though we handed them the ball a whole lot. Lindelöf and Bailly played very well in that game.
We should have sent him out on loan to a PL club and let him have a full season. He needs games to grow and learn, he is still so naive. My biggest issue with him is he cant sense danger. He is not physical, nor does he read the game well. He isnt great on the ball either or intelligent. Blind at least was that, even if he wasnt a PL CB with his not so athletic body and lack of pace. He looks like someone that isnt used to defending and is now learning how to do it. But then again, he was probably leaving the defending part to Granqvist and whoever played with him at Benfica.
Very bad analysis. How would you expect to see intelligence in a CB performance?
Positioning. Positioning relative to teammates/opponents. Principles of marking, offside lines and sideways shifting. When and where to pass the ball in possesion. Having ideas about how the teammates should play, the team. Lindelöf has proved better at more or less all of this than the more eye catching Granquist, as well as all his CB partners at United. Blind was also very good at this stuff.
Knowing when to push, when to stand, when to tackle, is experience. Not being fooled by opponent’s tricks is also experience. Learning these, is helped by intelligence. Lindelöf to me makes errors in judgement, but seldom the same error many times (much unlike Jones, Rojo or Shaw). To me it’s obvious Lindelöf is as intelligent a player as Blind, as technical, yet faster, and potentially stronger.
Nerves and fear, just as overheating, will affect the frontal lobes in a match situation. I think we’ve seen that with Lindelöf, which equates to some stupid mistakes. But nervousness is not a rigid trait, it’s something that changes with how you relate to it, and Lindelöf to me clearly is a brave character, certain to overcome this. He can be anxious, make a blunder, yet he won’t hide, blame team mates, ruminate - he’ll ask for the ball, command his teammates, look for opportunities to improve, try to play his game.
He did. It does have to be mentioned though that the next time they played each other Lukaku gave him a lot more trouble and Blind had to be bailed out by his team-mates a few times.
That was generally the case with Blind. He used his positioning and intelligence well so that he wasn't 'bullied' anywhere near as much as we would have thought he would be, but it certainly did still happen at times. That seems to often be forgotten on here. Of course, despite that his partnership with Smalling is easily the best we've had since Rio-Vidic came to an end.
Still waiting for the day he gets to take a free kick and the CAF collectively fall in love with him and forget he is supposed to be a defender. Guy can strike a ball tho, surprised it hasn’t really been tried by us yet.
Far down the pecking order for those I imagine, but yes - he did score a great one for Benfica once.
You do wonder why he hasn't bulked up more a la De Gea yet.
It came at a time where we were playing possession football and therefore limiting the amount of work the central defenders did. I think there's a lot of revisionism with Blind, and there's a reason he went back to Ajax and didn't find a place in the big leagues.
But anyway, this is a Lindelof thread. Lindelof's shit, eh?
He needs to follow Bailly around in the gym like a fanboy stalker and do whatever he's doing.
I am not sure adding weight is the answer to everything. He already weighs more than Bailly and has more or less the same weight as Smalling, if the team stats are valid. If you look at world class CBs some of them are heavy but others like Varane and Ramos are not (around 80 kg).
So we’re all on the same page now in agreement that he’s a bit shit?
Despite the result against Turkey I think he showed great class yesterday. Handled the defence very well and played with poise and great confidence throughout the game. He has to start doing the same thing in a United shirt.
Last edited by a moderator:
Honestly I think the pace and physicality of the league are too much for him. Maybe not a poor player in general but don't think he's suited for this league.
Last edited:
I like lindelof or at least haven't given up on him but the way chris wood knocked him off the ball a couple of times was genuinely worrying. Ok you dont have to compare everybody to vidic but really how often did that ever happen vidic. It might sound a small detail but against certain teams the foward v defender battle is one of the true 1v1 scenarios on the pitch and if youre losing that youre in trouble. Glen murray and wood (who didnt do much but did overpower lindelof) are hardly top drawer. Theyre Kevin davies type players, the type vidic relished and usually just nullified completely
He did? I think he handled nothing. Sweden's defense looked a mess for the second and third goal, you can see Lindelof out of position for the second goal, and in no man's land for the third.
Lindelof is basically Jonny Evans. Except Evans was better in the air but slower on the floor.
Whether Lindelof will ever develop the aggression / toughness required i'm not sure. He's still young and seems quite timid, so maybe with time confidence will grow and he'll through himself about a bit more.
He doesn't look that heavy though, which is why the big old school target men can bully there way through matches. None of our CB's apart from Smalling are good at that.
Nah, Evans was no Vidic or Ferdinand, but he was much more useful than Lindelof.
I'm relating them in their performance vs target men. Evans used to get bullied by all those types. Funnily enough he was better against the Defoe's/Aguero's than the Drogba's/Crouch/Carew etc.
Was never in doubt. But the real question is if he can improve from here on and reach a respectable level. From the evidence so far, I don't think he'll ever be a definite starter for United.
He's not shit. He's your typical Swedish player with a week mentality, it's a nationwide problem. Had high hopes for him, now I'm not sure anymore, hope he proves me wrong.
I heard Steven Howsen on BBC Manchester when we signed Lindelof and he said that Wes Brown told him the surest way to get a measure on a centre back's quality is to see how they cope with their individual duels. Howsen said from what he saw of Lindelof at Benfica etc using this measure told him that Lindelof was substandard and wasn't going to make it at United.
Proven to have been right so far. It made me laugh at the time as the presenter was expecting the typical hype around a new signing and was taken aback.
Apart from the time he Kung-fu kicked Drogba and then owned him for the rest of the match. I’ve seen Evans have peak Torres in his pocket for NI. Evans had all the tools apart from injury luck and then playing with LVG Just seemed to destroy his confidence and he never recovered.
I don’t see from lindelof yet physical attributes, a willingness to go head the ball, or even the passing ability he’s supposedly known for. Time will tell
Evans had the mental toughness of a toddler. He was never getting anywhere.
I don't think that's the case, he needs to be given a run of games with a stable partner in defense, constant chopping and changing does anyone no good. He has not been at his best but certainly has been decent and not total crap either. The problem looks more complicated as we can't score much after we concede first but every defender makes some mistakes which he also does, its just that when we loose or concede the mistakes in Cb pairing looks magnified.
If that’s true then lindelof is a fetus
Evans was a useful squad player, who helped the club despite not being good enough to be a starter. So far Lindelöf has been diabolical. He doesn't even know what he should do most of the times. He joined the club over a year ago and looks like a deer in headlights most of the time.
He's an Arsenal defender
Not a bad comparison actually. Definitely the type of CB that Wenger would have liked, who made blunders but still kept playing. I like the bloke, he seems cool, but for me he's just not cut out for this league nor this team.
Disagree. His best level here seems to be "he didn't make disasters today" level rather than "he did great defensive job" level. He always looks a mistake waiting to happen and doesn't boost any kind of confidence for the viewer.
He always looks pretty decent for Sweden so may be it's the league he failed to adapt to.
Yes you are right, Evans had problems with target man, Kevin Davies and Carlton Cole would cause him nightmares, and not Drogba thought
Lindelof is hopeless though, the sooner we cut our loses the better.
Bruce and Pally always had a nightmare against Duncan Ferguson
Bailey's not bad at it, neither is Jones... both are a lot stronger then Lindelof at any rate.
Is this actually a thing in Sweden? Like is it a problem that people often refer to?
Yep.
Yes, according to former pro players it's the reason so many talents from here fail to make the step up. I can't for the life of me remember who talked about it though, could have been Bojan.
IMO the blame is on Jansson and Larsson for the second (even though Lindelof could've challenged more resolutely) and on Jansson for the third.
- Status