Chris Smalling

comment by ManUtdDaredevil (U9612)
posted 17 minutes ago
Welbeck was interviewed. And he said the defender. In the team he hated playing against was Smalling.

Considering how much of a handful Welbeck is, that is a massive compliment
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Funny that, I'd imagine if you asked Smalling which forward he likes playing against the most I suspect he would say Welbeck.

Smalling is a decent CB, no more at the moment. Played regularly with a better CB alongside he could improve and be a very consistent performer. Look at Jagielka (as Moyes said to Rio). He has continually improved.

Smalling gets slated but i thought Cahill and Jagielka looked very dodgy against Peru...Wont get away with that against the top sides

Cahill is reliable. Turned out to be a very good CB to be fair.

Jagielka not so sure on. Still seems too slow and awkward under pressure to me. I think Suarez, Cavani, Balotelli etc could show him up badly.

Benched

comment by Best Fans - MOT (U2196)
posted 1 hour, 29 minutes ago
England defence was shambles tonight. Smalling was awful.

Don't see a top player in there at all. Done nothing in his career to warrant a place at a World Cup.
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You could say that about half the England squad though tbf.

He's pretty solid when he plays for United, so much so that the general consensus on ja is that we need to buy a centre back to partner him, not replace him.

I am surprised at how little faith people have in Evans, who IMO is currently the best CB at United. Whenever Vidic or Rio were out, Evans would be in CB rather than Smalling or Jones. And if Vidic and Rio were out, Evans would be partnering one of Smalling or Jones.

Personally, Smalling compliments either Evans and Jones, but Jones and Evans don't seem to comliment each other, even though SAF thought that would be the future CB pairing for United.

I also think that the fact Smalling and Jones have played out of position more than their natural position has hindered them and we will see that until they get a run in their natural positions.

I doubt LVG will bring in 2 CBs to be his first choice pairing. I think if he does, it will be an experienced CB who will partner Evans with Smalling and Jones as back up (as all three will pick up injuries along with Rafael).

Evans is the most composed out of the 3 cb's. However that's probably to be expected given his age and experience over the other two.

Personally, I don't think we own a single top class CB anymore, where fairly recently we had 2.

We won't go anywhere next season without a new commanding top notch CB coming in.

We don't have any World class CBs and the ones who just left, were no longer in the world class category (due to age and injury). Evans may not be world class, but he is very good. People seem to dismiss him entirely and go for Smalling and Jones, who IMO are not ready and we will not look good at the back with both of them against top sides. Evans has played along side Vidic and Rio, has had is rough patch, his learning curve and played against the best, has experienced it all. We should be lining up with:

Rafael --- Smalling --- Evans --- New LB

As our back 4. Exchange Smalling for new CB if we sign one.

Evans and Smalling will work. I have very little faith in Jones