What is United's best centre back partnership?

Sideshow Bob

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I'd like to see Smalling and Lindelof given an extended run. Or should we go back to Smalling and Jones?

What say you?
 
Despite what everyone says I think smalling and Jones are still our best bet but it should definitely be smalling and one other.
 
I think they’re all bad to be honest but I think it’s vital we pick one and stick with it including full backs.

Why did he change the back 4 today? Really what was the point if Darmian is staying then play him he did nothing wrong vs Leicester.

It was change for the sake of change.

The only change needed today was Lukaku in for Sanchez.
 
I don't think Darmian would have made much difference to that game.

Me neither but why change a back 4 that played well in the last game?

There was no point the only reason he did it was he’s going to drop Shaw as soon as his right backs are fit to get Young in the team.
 
Unfortunately I think we have to persist with this partnership. They’re young and will improve but only with game time and coaching. We already know Jones and Smalling aren’t good enough. Rojo I think is just disabled now.
 
I can't see much point in continuing with that partnership. Whatever we do unless we get rid of them all and start again smalling has to start. I don't think I have ever seen smalling and Jones that bad.
 
We all knew in the summer our CB options aren’t good enough. In fact we’ve known it for 3 seasons.
 
I think he signed those 2 hoping one of the senior CBs at the club would step up and be good enough to lead they haven’t hence why he wanted to go for a 3rd. I think Rojo and Bailly formed a good partnership in the first season but Rojo hasn’t recovered from that ACL injury and why did he get a new deal?

Smalling seemed to be his favourite towards end of last season now he’s out of favour again.
 
Smalling was the favoured centre back for most of last season. I wouldn’t be surprised if Mourinho has tried to send a message to the board by starting with Lindelof and Bailly.
 
Last season we started with Jones & Bailly not sure who got injured first but don’t think it lasted more than a few weeks.

I think since he didn’t get what he wanted playing his 2 guys makes sense as it’s clear he doesn’t rate the other 3 which seems strange that Rojo got a new deal on improved wages last season.
 
I seem to recall that Smalling suffered an injury during pre-season in 2017 or may be that was the season before. He was ever present once he got back in the team in late September.
 
I think Smalling has been our most consistent defender post Fergie but I still don’t think he’s good enough to start for a team that can win the title he’s a good 3rd/4th choice to have in the squad.

I know he was playing a lot but Bailly was out for months as was Rojo so hard to tell if he was first choice or is he was playing because others weren’t available.

We just don’t seem to have 2 who compliment and bring the best from each other.
 
Unpopular opinion but I’d actually stick with that defence, even though it was very poor today. Are they the best currently? probably not but I think they’re our most talented CBs and had poor games as did the others, they need a run in the team, they need to learn and improve. That midfield today should have passed Brighton off the park. Front 3 non-existent. We invited pressure on to the defence and they crumbled. This isn’t new for any of the 4/5 CBs we have. We cannot continue to keep changing the 2 centre backs. We change it enough due to injuries, we’ve picked 2 to start the season and we should stick with it. Smalling or Jones won’t change it. The only way we can change it is to play better all over the park so that we don’t put the defence under that pressure.
 
I couldn’t agree more. They have to stay at CB. We know the rest aren’t good enough. Let’s give these two a run.
 
Gosh yesterday reminded me of the days when we had Blanc at the back, no-one had any confidence in him and that made the entire back four nervous and we were shipping goals like there was no tomorrow. I think Bailly made the rest of the back four nervous which caused mistakes. Was just an awful awful performance.

I know Smalling gets slated on here a fair bit but to be honest I think he is better than Bailly and Lindelof right now. He shouldn’t be a United starter but he’s probably the best we have right now. I would be willing to give Bailly and Lindelof another shot if they look like they could improve as a partnership but they both look so nervous. I think it should be Smalling and one other.
 
Bailly shouldn't start the next game. If Brighton was a one off then fair enough, but he's had a poor pre-season and a poor start to the season. He has made mistake after mistake, lacks football intelligence and he has shown minimal progress since his first few months.

Smalling should be a definite starter. He's criminally underrated and underappreciated.
 
I think we have to go with these two again it might not be the right thing to do but I think it has to be done we need to build a partnership if we change it after 1 bad game then we'll just be back into the merry go round situation where he changes it every game pick two and stick with them.

I do agree Smalling is being harshly done by as a result of that because despite his limitations he's probably our best defender in terms of consistency I think we need to give it one more go if it fails again change it after the international break.
 
Well if they have the same disaster against Spurs we really will be in trouble, Spurs have far more going forward than Brighton do. They are be going into the game with those performances in their heads, the pair of them, and one mistake could see them bath cave in. I think Smalling needs to come in for one of them.
 
I wouldn’t go near smalling. I think we just need to stick to the same 2, or go 3 and add jones
 
Smalling and Lindelof would complement each other's weaknesses, however I do worry about Lindelof lack of physical attributes to be a centre back in the Premier League. Is he strong enough? Is he quick enough? Plus his heading ability is a weakness.
 
Until we can bring in something better I still think smalling and Jones. Though I wouldn't be against 3 at the back.
 
Given that he doesn't trust any centre back other than smalling in all honesty I think I would play matic there. A footballing centre half and it would release a midfield place for someone with a bit more speed.
 
Smalling and Lindelof seems to be the one he doesn’t seem to trust Bailly who’s getting worse rather than better at the moment but then Lindelof has sat out a few it’s clearly Smalling plus 1 and you can’t really argue with it.
 
Smalling and Lindelof seems to be the one he doesn’t seem to trust Bailly who’s getting worse rather than better at the moment but then Lindelof has sat out a few it’s clearly Smalling plus 1 and you can’t really argue with it.

I think Bailly needs to be given time though. And not stopped for one mistake. He needs confidence and playing time.
 
I’m not sure we can call it ‘one mistake’ pretty sure someone on here labelled his performance against Brighton ‘the worst individual performance I’ve seen by a player in a United shirt’
 
I’m not sure we can call it ‘one mistake’ pretty sure someone on here labelled his performance against Brighton ‘the worst individual performance I’ve seen by a player in a United shirt’

What is your assessment of the fact that Jose bought him in the first place?
 

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