[Opinion Post] Centre-Backs

Syphite · 5日前

Feels crazy seeing Axel on here now, grew up round the corner from him.

Hopefully Smalling can continue to improve or at least play as well as he did last season, Bailly looks solid so far not seen much of him though will have to see how he does week in week out during the season to judge.

Jones has a sort of make or break season in my opinion I hope he can do well though, same goes for Rojo.

Blind on the other hand should be a deep-lying playmaker not a CB, he reads the game well enough just lacks physicality.

fakeplasticairbag · 5日前

We could really use a reliable experienced centre back like Miranda or Howedes to protect us from the very real possibility that Bailly has the stereotypically difficult first season, Jones is injured all year and Rojo and Blind aren't good enough for a team with title aspirations.

Someone who'll give us 2 good seasons while we wait to see how the younger guys develop or for a world class option to come on the market which isn't the case right now

A lot like Demichellis at City, Dante at Bayern, Lucio at Inter, Carvalho at Real or other examples

cristiano10s · 5日前

We are crying out for an experienced, commanding center back. We clearly still have a problem from set pieces, and I'm willing to bet that at least half our goals conceded last season came off of set pieces.

The only question is who to buy? I'd be shocked if Mourinho went in with Smalling and Bailly as his pairing given who his center backs were at other teams (Terry, Lucio, etc.)

Center backs I've seen linked are:

Mustafi- Relatively cheap, although not that experienced. Would still be a steal at 25m
Fonte- Cheap and Premier League proven. I don't think he would be a starter though.
Miranda- Another experienced center back, arguably one of the more quality ones on here
Manolas- My personal favorite, although he would be expensive as hell
Williams- Again, Premier League proven. Not sure he'd want to leave Swansea though. Rio says he is one of the best CBs in the world or something like that
Howedes- My personal pick. Experienced, a leader, commanding in the air. He is quality and you can never go wrong with a German. Not sure if he is available though.

So who would you take? I think Howedes would be perfect, and that we should also move on Rojo or Jones. Neither has shown anything too promising for the past year and a half. I say we sell at least one and give Tuanzebe a role as back up CB

Perksofthesewalls · 5日前

Smalling & Bailly for the win. I know a lot of people want to bring in a top CB, like Manolas, but I would prefer to see what Smalling & Bailly can do together. I still have faith in Jones and think he can be a solid depth option. Rojo can stay around as well for another year as a 4th cb, 3rd lb. I'd like to see Blind get more of chance at CDM. Tuanzabe's future depends on what Mou wants to do with TFM/Blind. If he sees them as CB options then I think U-21/Loan for him.

I_EAT_KIPPERS · 5日前

I think our defensive players are definitely good enough to challenge for the title...

FatGuyInALittleMoat · 4日前

Rojo should be gone, give Jones until January to make his mark. Smalling needs to become that commander at the back, we've missed that since Rio/Vidic. I think him becoming more vocal and confident and having Bailey beside him would make a great partnership.

Giordano_5 · 5日前

Tuanzebe should be loaned or u-21. You can only develop by playing so coming off the bench won't do.

DangoManUtd · 5日前

Ashley Williams could be a low cost add on

Phosbum · 4日前

Bailly and Smalling as starters. Jones on the bench. Idk what to think about Rocko anymore.

StampedByGerrard · 4日前

If Mou wants to get a solid CB to pair up with Smalling or to be a backup, i'd be fine with it. No need to spend £30-40 million however.

SonnyisKing · 4日前

We deffo need a top quality CB, I have no faith in Jones to keep fit the season but then again Smalling managed 55 games last season.

I would have liked Bonnuci but that won't happen after they are already selling us Pobga. Maybe Godin or Miranda would be a good addition but I doubt Godin will even think about leaving Ateltico right now.

Arth_ · 4日前

Smalling is nailed on, but he hasn't performed that well towards the end of last season. With what we have at the moment, battle for the second spot should be between Bailly and Blind. After pre-season I'm really excited for Bailly. He looked really solid, but also immature for a defender - reckless on the ball and dived into tackles easily. Blind proved many wrong last season under van Gaal. Still, football intelligence won't fully cover up lack of physical presence. I don't like Rojo. Not exactly rock-solid and too aggresive (in a bad way). I think he could be sold. Jones is another player who could end up in a different club. Still only 24, but my faith in him is long gone. Can't weigh up pass and, again, not good defensively. I really hope the likes of Tuanzebe and Ro-Shaun Williams get some match expierience, because they surely deserve so.

We could use another centre-back. I don't know who, but I'd rather get someone experienced and oldish to not block our youth development. I think CB is the strongest position we have potential-wise.

uniy64 · 4日前

We need to buy a backup CB next summer.

TheFanboyDreams · 4日前

Mustafi would be a great signing or Howedes, in my opinion.

lukasden1 · 3日前

Paddy Mcnair?

jsmhe · 3日前

Experience isn't the main issue here. Most of them are still young but they are good enough. However what we lack is character. Someone who can shout and act as a leader on the pitch. Someone like Bruce, Vidic, and Rio. Bailly and Rojo don't speak English, Jones is an injury prone, Smalling and Blind don't have that kind of character. We lack character and mentality in defense.

Launch_a_poo · 4日前

From my post yesterday, I'm offering maybe a slightly different opinion:

Think we should only go for a CB if we can get a close to world class level player (Bonucci/Varane), otherwise I'd happily stick with Smalling, Bailly, Blind, Jones, TFM

I think it's unlikely that Bailly would be brought in for £30m only to be used as a backup. We know from Terry/Cahill how little Mourinho rotates his CB's.

I wouldn't say any of Mustafi, Fonte, Miranda, Manolas, Williams or Howedes would be big enough names to justify relegating Bailly.

Varane/Smalling and Bonucci/Smalling sound class but Fonte/Smalling and Mustafi/Smalling don't sound much better than what we have already so I'd rather wait until next Summer before buying a CB. Last Summer we were linked with Ramos so maybe we can get someone of that calibre next year

The fact that we haven't been properly linked with any CB's suggests to me the most likely scenario is that we go into the season with what we have. The market for CB's is pretty stale this window

If we do stick with what we have our back line will look like this

                     De Gea/Romero

           Bailly/Jones/TFM  Smalling/Blind
Valencia/Darmian                          Shaw/Rojo

CBJ and Tuanzebe could also be used as further backups and I'm satisfied with that

BUfels · 4日前

I feel like, along with right back, this is our weakest position by a decent stretch.

We're one injury or suspension away from a fairly dodgy partnership. I do like Blind in this position a little more than most fans seem to, though.

legojs · 4日前

I know Smalling is a good player, but it seems like LvG's tactics helped him look better than he is. He's big, good at tracking back (pace), and isnt scared of being hit by the ball, but He scored several own goals and is rash in the box (pulling shirts and pinning peeps down) giving us potential dangers of ten men and or a pen - and he actually did give a pen for that, and picked up a red card in the fa cup final with his silly challenge.

I don't think he's one of the top 3 defenders in the league - maybe 4 th or 5th best defender due to his physicality, but he's not a top notch defender if you look around Europe.

Although I like him and rate him pretty high, I still have some doubts that hopefully gets disproved this season!

danmaher · 5日前

Sell Rojo undoubtedly. See what Jose has in store for Jones but I'm hoping for Smalling and Bailly to build a good partnership.

rossco9 · 5日前

Our first-choice partnership is far and away likely to be Smalling & Bailly, and I think it'll be a good partnership. The coverage beyond that is, however, a bit worrying - we know about Jones' injury problems, Rojo simply isn't good enough, and Blind probably shouldn't be a week-in/week-out starter for a team with title hopes. All of that without the decent possibility of the odd suspensions and/or injuries for Bailly & Smalling, plus perhaps some settling-in bumps for the former.

I'd love for us to add an experienced, slightly older name to round out the position and help cover the situations mentioned above. I'm not sure they'd be willing to sell, but would be interested to see where a bid for Shawcross would go.

ibaRRaVzLa · 5日前

Blind and Rojo should be sold. Yeah, Blind was solid as a CB last season but nowhere near good enough, and he also lacks both strenght and height which his "awareness" or whatever the fuck won't compensate for. We should always be aiming to get players that will REALLY improve us. Rojo isn't utter garbage as some say but he's really fucking mediocre. Jones' injuries never helped but he's a good backup for Bailly and Smalling. We should sell both Blind and Rojo and purchase one more CB.

aaamine · 4日前

Think our defense will get found out :

Smalling : Good player nothing more nothing less, still has a mistake in him. Bailly : Looks like a very good prospect but will need at least 6 months to adapt. Blind : Good alternative against teams sitting deep but definitely not a long term solution. Rojo : The less said the better. Jones : Was a good prospect 5 years ago.

We should sell Rojo and get a player who can defend : Mustafi, Howedes.

Pos	Team	Pld	GD	Pts
9	Liverpool	0	0	0
10	Manchester City	0	0	0
11	Manchester Utd	0	0	0
12	Middlesbrough	0	0	0
13	Southampton	0	0	0

Comp	Date	Opponent	Result
PS	3rd Aug	Everton	0-0 D
PS	30th Jul	Galatasaray(n)	2-5 W
PS	22nd Jul	Dortmund (n)	4-1 L
PS	16th Jul	Wigan (a)	0-2 W

Player	Age	Joined	Contract Expiry	Appearances	Clean Sheets	Goals	Assists	Points Per Game	Clean Sheets Per Game
Chris Smalling	26	2010	2019	145	58	8	0	1.92	0.41
Phil Jones	24	2011	2019	74	24	1	2	1.85	0.32
Marcos Rojo	26	2014	2019	20	4	0	0	2.00	0.20
Daley Blind	26	2014	2018 (+1)	52	22	2	3	1.83	0.42
Eric Bailly	22	2016	2020	0	0	0	0	0	0
Axel Tuanzebe	18	YA	-	0	0	0	0	0	0

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