If Young, Schneiderlin (I think), Johnstone and possibly Rooney left, we might be short in that area.
Victor Lindelöf
- Thread starter FromTheBench
- Start date
- Status
You'd have to think Smalling is the favourite to leave atm given that Jones and Rojo seem to be in favour. In reality though any of them could be sold and it wouldn't be a massive shock.
We could. Afcon is every 2 years, right? We will be back in Europe, hopefully the CL and all those players (save Lindelof?) have reasonably extensive injury histories, are young enough to play international football with 4 being first choice when healthy (all but Jones) there and big teams are starting to add an extra CB or two like Bayern and Dortmund. Also Rojo can get some minutes at LB (especially if Darmian is sold) and Bailly at RB.
Also if Mourinho does rate Tuanzebe, it makes sense to delay the decision another year, let him get some loan or more training with the 1st team and then maybe in the summer of 2018, sell off a 28 year old Rojo (I think he'll age terribly as his athleticism is so much of his game) the last year we can get a good fee and have him replace him with little pressure or need to play a ton.
Isn't this a few days old.
Gonna be Smalling. I think Rojo may still get minutes at LB, Bailly at RB and Jones at DM, all in emergency cases and early stages of the cups.
Doesn't bode well for Tuanzebe though.
Especially looking at the fact that we are an injury away from fellaini being a regular, we need to be getting a midfielder
It was published this afternoon, so I don't think so.
Has to be. Just far too limited on the ball for Jose's liking. Rojo is the only natural left-sided CB in that quintet, so I imagine he'd stay as someone who could provide depth both there and at LB.
Rojo isn't a great ball playing centre back and he's no way near a quality left back.
He's been a good meat head in the the centre of defence, but often panics on the ball. Far more than Smalling has anyway.
Nah Rojo and Jones are far better on the ball imo
Jones I can't disagree on. Rojo has looked hapless many times, I recall Neville say he was throwing away posession and looked nervous on the ball in multiple matches.
I can only think of a very small number of times Smalling has done it for us, and he's been our number 1 CB for a couple seasons up till now.
Going to disagree on that. Smalling has a lot of qualities but he is shockingly poor on the ball.
He and Bakayoko will sign by monday and score hattricks against liverpool.
Tbh, I'm not completely comfortable with any combination which involves Smalling.
They just remind of the keystone cops.
It that even a debate? Both are miles better on the ball than Smalling.
Smalling on top top form can dominate a striker better than the other 2 though.
Fair enough. Smalling was once seen as the most dependable player on our team under LVG. I wonder the caf views towards him has changed purely as a result of the Chelsea game, or whether more people genuinely thought he wasn't that good even under LVG.
Yeah, Rojo can be dogshite on the ball and I've seen him scupper the ball away or hastily clear in annoying fashion more than Smalling has.
Wow. No doubt he's light years ahead of Smalling as a ball player for me.
Opinions eh? Polarising.
I really hope that the sum they recieve is somewhat close to the original agreement, as this is a precedent for other minnow clubs who have similar deals in place. It would sadden me to see the moneyed teams steamroll small clubs like this. VSK is a club that's bad some financial issues, and this could potentially make or break them as a club. (It's not due to negligent spending, more due to them being a very small club. Fans have raised a lot of money from their own pockets to bail them out.)
He had a good 6 months under LVG. The rest of the time he was ok, but only that IMO. He was never the world class CB that the Caf often thought he was. I'd argue that Rojo / Jones form thsi season was better then the form Smalling showed under that good 6 months to. He is a liability at times in the big games, that isn't just about the Chelsea game, Remember City etc.
I'd agree with that too, thought Smalling was superb from Aug to around xmas time & "meh" to crap after that.
Rojo / Jones need to keep this up for a few more months though.
Smalling clearly seems more uncomfortable with the ball. You can sense his feet trembling even before he receives the ball. I don't know if that's his natural gait on the ball or his lack of coaching as a kid, but he almost always looks nervous and unassured on the ball.
Rojo on the other hand doesn't look as pathetic as Smalling. Agreed he scuppers away posession, sometimes also in an effort to try his Hollywood-long balls forward, but it isn't half as scary as with Smalling on the ball.
Yeah, I remember Chelsea and City and thats about where it ended.
Smalling was on great form since the City red card up until the Chelsea game. That's way more than 6 months, and only two big games he's been poor win (I recall him being very good in most, if not all the rest).
Rojo has literally short passed the ball out to the opposition on numerous occassions. His passing accuracy is 86% compared to Smalling's 93% on Squaka.
It's pretty obvious just by watching the two why that is.
Perhaps, but as you said we both have polarising opinions.
Smalling has had 2 big games where he's performed poorly and its cost him. His pass completion of 93% suggests he's not as "uncomfortable" as some posters claim.
I think we do need a CB. I dont trust a combination of Smalling, Rojo, Jones and Blind to stay fit and error-free.
As for Tuanzebe, I don't trust him either - he's a teenager and shouldn't be thrown into the fire by starting games at a crucial period for us when every single point is vital and even the simplest of mistakes might shatter his confidence and cost us 3pts(and thus, top 4).
Axel should've been playing in the Europa League (1-2 games) and cup games against smaller teams, if he's gonna play at all. I wish Jose had given him some minutes there, but I don't wanna see the young lad forced into the team due to injuries and facing the likes of Diego Costa.
As for Tuanzebe, I don't trust him either - he's a teenager and shouldn't be thrown into the fire by starting games at a crucial period for us when every single point is vital and even the simplest of mistakes might shatter his confidence and cost us 3pts(and thus, top 4).
Axel should've been playing in the Europa League (1-2 games) and cup games against smaller teams, if he's gonna play at all. I wish Jose had given him some minutes there, but I don't wanna see the young lad forced into the team due to injuries and facing the likes of Diego Costa.
Passing % stats don't rightly show if a player is comfortable on the ball or not. Nor does it show the kind of passes either of them have attempted.
Point proven about him being overrated on here. Look, he is a good player. But nowhere near 'world class' and I don't think he ever will be now. With Rojo and Jones good form and with how good Bailly is, Smalling should be the 4th choice CB. If we get Lindelof that could easily be 5th, and then he is in trouble IMO.
I agree, but they help articulate my point that he's certianly no less comfortable than Rojo. The latter prematurely hoofs the ball or gives away the ball in short passes more often than Smalling has. That to me suggests a lack of composure and more nervousness.
FWIW the case is the same off ball too, as shown by his two blatant red card challenges. If the right calls had been made on those occassions the entire caf would be talking about how he should be sold with Fellaini. But he got away with them and here we are.
You don't need to be world class to be better than Rojo on the ball.
Who's off... that's the million dollar question. I personally hope nobody.
Hardly. Smalling can pass obviously but his passing ability is highly limited. Most of his passes are to other defenders around him or Carrick/Pogba when they drop deep.
Rojo for instance could play himself out of trouble by quick 1-2s with blind or Bailly or Jones. Smalling cannot pull it off and generally passes it to de gea or clears blindly (neither of which are a crime. It's just that that is his limitation)
Of course defensively I like him and think he is right now very underrated.
i've been trying to keep up with this transfer story. No clue wtf is going on. 
Rojo has hardly ever done the 1-2s, and I've seen him often fluff up square passes. He's also more error prone than Smalling is off the ball.
I'm very shocked if anyone is suggesting Rojo is a better CB than Smalling. He's on better form but that's all I can say for him at the moment.
Agreed. Rojo is technically slightly more gifted than Smalling on the ball (though neither are great at ball playing) and is a better passer of the ball. But, Smalling is better at bringing the ball out of defence and then passing, which opens up space for the team. Smalling is also better defensively than Rojo, so I think Smalling should be higher in the CB pecking order than Rojo. However, Smalling appears to be a lot more comfortable as a RCB and given that is both Bailly and Jones preferred position, it is understandable why Smalling has had little game time in recent months (injury excluded).
Even if he is better on the ball (which i'm not so sure about), Rojo is the inform defender.
I'm not disagreeing with that. Smalling has had a broken toe and never featured since the Chelsea game, so its not really hard to beat him on that account.
Simply put, we need someone with both the defensive qualities and set piece threat of Vidic AND the reading of the game and comfort on the ball / distribution of Rio
Does Lindelof fit the bill???
Does Lindelof fit the bill???
We're getting Lindy Love.i've been trying to keep up with this transfer story. No clue wtf is going on.
I wouldn't mind him also having the ball control of Messi and the tekkers of Neymar.
Mourinho is not really in favor of playing players out of position and he said this before his first game in charge when asked about Rooney's role. This is one thing he shares with LVG (except Blind of course who's conversion to CB was complete by the time Mou took over, same with Valencia who's been a RB for a while now).
When did Jose tell you this? He's never mentioned anything like this in a presser has he? Mourinho likes his defenders to defend first and foremost and im going by the players who have played under him over the years. Big, fast, athletic, powerful and strong in the air are Mourinho type centerbacks and Smalling fits this description more than any other defender we have. He's never shown a bias towards ball playing CBs
- Status