02 Mar 2015 14:05:52
Coming away from the usual chat for a second i'm interested to see what are peoples opinion of Smallings improvements since his red card on derby day.
02 Mar 2015 14:18:44
I just mentioned that funny enough.
He has always been a very good defender; but he lacked composure. Now, it looks like he is becoming more composed and has better positional understanding.
02 Mar 2015 15:03:46
I think the problem with our defenders for a while has been a lack of confidence and they haven't had a run of games, now that Smallings had a few games without any major disruption he has improved a lot and looks more confident too, think smalling and rojo has to be our best pairing
02 Mar 2015 15:09:08
I kept my eye on him more than usual on Saturday and I loved the fact he always attempts to bring the ball down and play it forward rather than just clearing it. I also admired his desire when he stormed forward and stuck himself in the area like he was the striker haha sometimes its easy to forget he's only 25 and he is improving every game. He gets the nod over Jones for me every time.
02 Mar 2015 16:22:37
I agree in the sense he's improved his game a lot by adding composure when on the ball. He's always been quick, strong and well timed in the tackle and makes far less mistakes than Jones. It would be nice for him and us if he continued to progress but it still doesn't change the fact we need an experienced leader to partner Rojo and organise the defence like Vidic did.
02 Mar 2015 16:54:17
yea 100% but its nice to have depth in quality in that area because for me barring the odd few months i never felt Evans was good enough
02 Mar 2015 20:48:56
I was at the game at the weekend and Smalling's distribution and ability on the ball are as good as any of our CBs at the moment, if not better.
In fact, I would go as far as to say that if he keeps this up he might end up being the a top CB. Long way to go mind.