the case for smalling

Originally Posted by Semantic Lisp

Love the way he passed ings on to no-one so that he could get across the front stick at home to burnley - ok so ings scored with a free header, but smalling could easily have saved a goal if there'd been a burnley player making the run he decided to cover

yesterday he did well with the physical stuff and most of his positional play was ok. but spurs offered no threat in behind whatsoever so he was rarely tested covering off-the-ball movement, and his abysmal distribution was highlighted by the fact the rest of the team played at such a high level

Smallingbauer's performances must be killing you as much as Mata's are killing Dunk.

Originally Posted by Semantic Lisp

Evans is the best defender of the 3.

has anybody caught up with that piece they did on sky last night?

saw it a bit ago; just watch smalling, he's almost completely on auto pilot on that high line. watched him a fair bit on sunday, including a bit in one of those clips where he goes back to cover right-back and then back into line, and for all that time he doesn't once look at anything other than the ball and says nothing to anyone

it's a massive tribute to the manager that he has found a way to get the current centre back pairing playing on rails imo, not far off removing any necessity for them to make a decision

we need a leader back there with a real genuine touch of class, nqat.

in the meantime smalling's comedy chest bumps will remain a feature

Originally Posted by puressence

brought straight back in after a win ..quality

them's the rules. you don't lose your place in LVG's regime just for being ill one time

Originally Posted by Semantic Lisp

has anybody caught up with that piece they did on sky last night?

saw it a bit ago; just watch smalling, he's almost completely on auto pilot on that high line. watched him a fair bit on sunday, including a bit in one of those clips where he goes back to cover right-back and then back into line, and for all that time he doesn't once look at anything other than the ball and says nothing to anyone

it's a massive tribute to the manager that he has found a way to get the current centre back pairing playing on rails imo, not far off removing any necessity for them to make a decision

we need a leader back there with a real genuine touch of class, nqat.

in the meantime smalling's comedy chest bumps will remain a feature



them's the rules. you don't lose your place in LVG's regime just for being ill one time

What the £#%&! were you watching

Carragher made a point of showing Smalling taking charge of that back line and encouraging everyone to push up when City passed it backwards

Originally Posted by ZiggyStardust

What the £#%&! were you watching

Carragher made a point of showing Smalling taking charge of that back line and encouraging everyone to push up when City passed it backwards

Carragher must be £#%&!ing tripping

Carrick is the organiser if anybody is, but mostly it's nearly automatic

Don't forget we're only talking about keeping a high line here btw

Must admit Smalling is showing big improvement, but still not convinced with the centre backs tbh - the last 4 goals we've conceded have all been from players gifted time and space right in front of our goal

Biggie has been excellent of late but he's still prone to grabbing opponents' shirts in dangerous positions. He's been lucky to get away with it for the most part.