I have seen far worse performance than that. To term it as a disaster shows your biasness and nothing else. Liek I said a season consist of 38 plus games so let us judge him at the end of it rather than coming to a conclusion that he is not good enough.
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Season Average Rating
- Appearances
- 47
- Clean sheets
- 19
- Goals
- 1
- Assists
- 1
- Yellow cards
- 6
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Which he did then the cross came back in and Lindelof and Rashford let the scorer have a free run at it.
he wasn't given a free run at it, the ball came in direclty to him and Lindelof was outjumped.
50 second mark.
De Gea could have come out for it but looking at it again, maybe i was being slightly harsh on him. it was a very good cross which should have been shut down quicker.
to blame that goal on Lindelof is an agenda-fueled joke.
Apparently shite for Sweden on international duty aswell.
This guy must be dropped.
This guy must be dropped.
he had a shocker for sweden, but he came out and apologized
He was not good but not shite. The whole team was poor. When Lindelof critized himself, it was mainly that he did not take more command to dominate Norway. From a defensive point of view he was ok.
Most definately. No one is trying to say Lindelof is great arially and the Palace game was a great example why. This one was just a band wagon hype. Vestegaard isnt exactly small and he had a run on him, plus it was a peach of a cross.
I'm saying he has a problem with the first half of each season. Not that he doesnt eventually come good and improve.
Last season he got better and was good enough to start in the 2nd half of last season and didnt have as many problems in the air as he is having now.
Your mistake is suggesting that the only way to defend the ball in the air is to outjump someone.
how else should he have defended the ball then?
Oh my god. You jump into them, you do stuff to throw off their timing. You don't need 92 speed and 95 jumping to be a top CB.
he wasn't man marking him. he wasn't even the closest player to him when the ball was about to come in. you're all assuming he just knew (somehow) that the ball would come directly to that particular player, and should have somehow put the player off. it's ridiculous.
Vestegaard was the obvious target for a cross and the closest Southampton player to Lindelof. It's not 'ridiculous' to expect a CB to mark a clear threat instead of just pointing in his direction and hoping another player does the defending for him.
Yes, when you watch a cross come in and dissect it that is what happened.
When you put context to it, things change.
The cross came in from a corner from one side of the pitch, the ball got pushed to the opposite side. You cannot expect a CB to think oh he must be the target, let me forget about positioning and mark him.
That's not how it works, the reason we got caught was because it was the second play from a corner.
Go back the last few pages, I've explained it several times
Daley Blind is 5'11 and had less problems in the air than Lindelof has. So no being 6'2 doesn't mean you're going to lose to someone taller than you else Blind would have conceded goals to everyone taller than him. Its not a binary thing where you either win a header or you don't. There's far more to defending the situation than that else it would be impossible for CBs who arent huge to defend balls in the air.
Rio Ferdinand explained it quite well after the game as well. Throw the attacking player off balance by physical play, making the chance less dangerous. Control the area of attack, forcing a physical challenge or even forcing the attacker to commit a foul. You don't have to win the challenge but make sure to make the header as difficult as possible for the attacker.
as i said before though, Lindelof isn't man marking Vestergaard, he's not even the closest player to him. prior to the ball coming in, he's taken a zone position and signalling to others. if he was tasked by management to man mark Vestergaard then fair enough that's on him, but clearly that wasn't the case.
see response above, as the point you've made it basically what Rio was saying.
as for Blind, if we're now just talking randomly and generally, then no, Blind had his fair share of defensive problems. here's a youtube of a bunch of them:
It isn't just about the goal against Southampton, we've seen Lindelof lose several 'key' challenges because he's too much a gentleman, not physical enough. He is a very clean and correct player. 2 yellow cards in 50 games as a CB tells you a lot.
Since he was signed I've seen him bullied on many occasions by lesser players. He does have a good read of the game and that's why he does well against 'ball playing' teams but when it gets physical he usually gets overwhelmed. All the better PL Center-backs have a little mean-streak in them, they pinch and pull, shove and push. Lindelof on the other hand tries to play by the book ending up getting destroyed by players like Mooy, Deeney etc. Sadly for us and him the PL is high paced and very physical.
He's not lacking in skills imo, but in toughness which I believe is hard to get by training, it's a mental aspect he doesn't possess.
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No, he was not as weak as Lindelof in the air. Did you not watch last season's champions league? He wasn't coming up short in the air 2 games in a row. But see you moved the goalposts from in the air, to just defensive problems because you have no argument for Blind being weaker in the air than Lindelof
And no I'm not saying what Rio is saying. If you care enough go back and read all the posts I made about other things you can do other than just try and win the header. If you don't care enough theres no point replying to you.
All I expect is basic defending like identifying danger and then reacting to it. It doesn't matter in the least that a cross came first from one side and then the other, that's a common situation that happens every game.
i'm only taking umbrage with this particular goal (and to a lesser extent the one prior) and the criticism he has received for it. personally i think he's a fine defender, was our best player last season, and one or two goals this year isn't going to change an entire season for me.
Ekeke said:
2 games is nothing. he was our best defender last year, after 38 games completed in the PL. and i didn't even bring Blind into this, you did, so i'm changing no goal posts.
people just don't like him and that's it. it's futile trying to debate it. but it's laughable the knives are out because of a couple of goals, neither of which were 100% his fault.
Imo Blind is poor in the air. Maybe he was ok in that aspect in CL where most teams play along the ground but in PL I think he looked weak.
Didn't Tottenham's last and winning goal come from Blind loosing a high ball?
No he wasnt. He was about as good as Smalling who himself wasnt in his best form unlike the previous season. He was weak in the first half of the season and looked like he was ready to play in the first team in the 2nd half of the season. Thats it.
Y'all overhyped him because he wasnt Jones and Smalling
Nobody is saying he will never make a mistake in the air. He obviously will. Smalling has. Maguire will.
But where is he losing 2 important headers in a row in 2 matches?
There he is getting to the champions league semi final as a starting CB while Lindelof and our other CBs are part of a disastrous defensive record
if he was only as good as Smalling last season, then Chris wouldn't be the one being loaned out overseas.
take your blinkers off.
I am not saying he is a poor player. But I don't agree he is better than Lindelof in the air.
And yes it is true Ajax reached one step further in he CL compared to United (quarter vs semi). If you look at defensive result in CL in was however not a big difference. United conceded 11 goals in 10 matches and Ajax 13 goals in 12 matches.
We had easier opponents
Fair enough, for me he wasn't our best player not even 2nd best but that's all about preference I guess. I personally only see Maguire as a given CB in our first 11 and wouldn't mind seeing him partner up with somone more physical, then again our squad is thin as paper.
Looks like you are an expert of defending so I won't argue. I guess we should never concede a goal because you can pick a defensive error in most goals.
He's actually right in this case. Smalling was better in the first half of the season, Lindelof was better in the second half. Overall they were fairly even.
Smalling doesn't suit the way that Ole wants the team to play in the future so dropped down the pecking order, and that's why he asked to go out on loan this season.
It is quite funny to see the posts saying Lindelof should be replaced by Tuanzebe.
If you go on the Tuanzebe thread and have a look at the posts over the summer, some Villa fans got involved and said he is suspect in the air. He wasn't even the better defender between him and Mings.
Lindelof has experience, Tuanzebe will get his chance in the cup competitions.
If you go on the Tuanzebe thread and have a look at the posts over the summer, some Villa fans got involved and said he is suspect in the air. He wasn't even the better defender between him and Mings.
Lindelof has experience, Tuanzebe will get his chance in the cup competitions.
Hi @Ekeke, are you still pretending with your 125 agenda driven pro-Smalling posts in here that you’re not actually a pro-Smalling agenda driven fanatic? Just wondering. Thanks doll.
Mings is probably better than Lindelof too tbh
Mings is probably better than Lindelof too tbh
Based on?
And that is why no other club bar Villa were after Mings but Barca were after Lindelof.Mings is probably better than Lindelof too tbh
Do Barca still want him? I can send the limo.
Only watched him against us with Zlatan and against Tottenham recently and each time I was impressed. Certainly has an imposing stature and is comfortable on the ball.
Lindelöf is a good player on the floor but his lack of physicality worries me.
What the flying feck?! Have you actually watched that video? Half of those clips are him actually trying to attempt to win the ball or just pointing out he was around the area of each play :/
The other half, yes there was mistakes and lacksidacal defending. However, Blind has done twice as more as a centre back in a United shirt than Lindelof has shown in his time.
Precisely. It's weird that people appear to want to pretend that his mistakes didn't happen. It's two games in a row now where his ability in the air has cost us. Needs to be more physically imposing. You can't get away with being just passable in this respect in the PL.
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