Centre backs against West Ham?

[Sideshow Bob]

Phil Jones has apparently had an impressive pre-season, whilst the consensus is that Lindelof will need time to bed in. Who should start at centre back against West Ham?

 

[maxt7]

For me it has to be bailly and Lindelof. I've watched the matches and Lindelof had looked shakey no doubt. While jones has looked better.

But at some point in the future Jones and Smalling both need to leave the club. so we need to give Lindelof time to settle in. It is only Pre season and everyone is still finding their feet.

We know what we are getting from Jones and it's not good enough. I'd rather watch and give Lindelof time to develop something with Bailly then watch Jones get minutes. He's only good enough to be a back up at the very best despite his form.

 

[jsp]

Bailly & Lindelof if they're both fully fit and ready to go they're clearly the first choice partnership so lets bed them in straight away might be a bit shakey to start with but hopefully they get the understanding working and we can push on with a solid reliable pairing. We shouldn't need to change CB pairings every game unless you get injury or suspensions it's not the most physically grueling position so I'd hope that we can play our first choice in most games.

 

[maxt7]

Think it's worth pointing out as well, how much better a defensive partnership is when there's a holding midfielder in front of them. We haven't got someone shielding and protecting in our midfield. Someone who will pick up a number 10 so one of the centre backs doesn't have to.

Last night against Barca so many attacks come through that position and Carrick just couldn't keep up with the rotation of MSN. If Jose wants Matic he needs to go out and get him now. Bailly, Lindelof and Matic all need to be playing and getting an understanding of each other as soon as possible.

 

[gav81]

Based on performances in pre-season, Jones/Bailly are the two that haven't put a foot wrong and Smalling/Lindelof have looked a little shaky.

 

[Red Warrior]

Smalling always looks shakey. Why is he even still in the squad? I'm actually very surprised Jose didn't clear out the dead wood early on.
It's a no brainer to me, give the players who have performed well in the tour first shout. Jones/Bailly are looking good. Clearly Lindelof needs time to adjust to Utd and the Premiership, which he hasn't even played a game in yet. We need to ease him in, a few shockers early on could ruin him in a big way. Hopefully Lindelof gets on his feet by the time Jones gets injured, probably about game 3 of the league lol.

 

[jsp]

I think clearing out the "deadwood" especially the English lads isn't easy as they're on great money and they're not motivated to move as they're not going to be getting offers from top clubs we were very lucky that Everton wanted Rooney otherwise he'd still be knocking around. Utd seem to act with a bit of class when it comes to guys who've been there a while and haven't kicked up much of a fuss they won't force guys out. Those who say they want to leave might get frozen out like Depay & Schniederlin did for 6 months which is fair enough, Schweni was forced out but something clearly happened there in the dressing room in his first season that we don't know about. Reading between the lines senior players didn't think he was putting his body on the line for the team when they needed him as he didn't want to risk injury before the world cup.

Smalling, Jones & Young (who is injured) aren't exactly going to be top of teams lists to buy they're all on very good wages and they're probably all happy being squad players at Utd rather than starting for Southampton, West Brom, West Ham etc. I think generally all the top clubs are struggling to offload deadwood City got a load of guys out because contracts expired but Arsenal have guys like Gibbs, Debuchy, Jenkinson, Chambers, Wilshere, Joel Campbell etc still floating about.

I think one of Smalling or Jones will probably go before the end of the window but they can't both go until we know when Rojo is back as there's no way Mourinho will want to risk having to play Tuenzebe for a long period of time. I think the big team "deadwood" guys might find themselves either sold or loaned out very late in the transfer windows as teams start to panic as most of these players will only want to sign for other prem sides they're unlikely to go abroad and they're not going to drop down a league.

I don't think the form in pre season games will do anything to sway the managers decision making I'd be baffled if Lindelof didn't start the first game of the season assuming he's fit.

 

[JSNFRMN]

Still got 3 games before the West Ham game. If Lindelof still looks shaky then we should give him more time just as we gave Mkhi time at start of last season.

 

[jsp]

If Rojo was fit I'd consider maybe not chucking him in straight away but when you're a £30m new signing at centre back it's sink or swim time from the start if he doesn't play he won't learn how to cope in the PL. If he makes a mistake we should be capable of scoring enough goals at home vs West Ham that if we do let one in it doesn't matter. We really need to get back in the habit of knocking in 3,4 or even 5 at home against the mid table sides so if we do make a defensive mistake it doesn't really matter as it's a consolation.

Bailly didn't look that steady straight away but he grew into it as the season went on I think Lindelof needs to be given the same chance to bed it, the big concern is without Rojo who is the leader in that defence and language may be a problem as far as I'm aware Bailly & Valencia speak very llittle English so unless Lindelof gets a crash course in Spanish he might not have a clue what's going on. Haha.

 

[SuperRash]

Smalling always looks shakey. Why is he even still in the squad? I'm actually very surprised Jose didn't clear out the dead wood early on.
It's a no brainer to me, give the players who have performed well in the tour first shout. Jones/Bailly are looking good. Clearly Lindelof needs time to adjust to Utd and the Premiership, which he hasn't even played a game in yet. We need to ease him in, a few shockers early on could ruin him in a big way. Hopefully Lindelof gets on his feet by the time Jones gets injured, probably about game 3 of the league lol.

It's easy to say clear out the deadwood but we saw last season that if you are fighting in three competitions then you need your entire squad. Getting rid of three or four players may put the side at a disadvantage later in the season. You get lots of injuries which he did last season towards the end. While I agree players like Smalling, Jones and Young should probably go, I can see why Jose would keep them on.

Anyway for the centre back pairing against WH, then I think Bailly and Lindelof also. They have the potential to be a fine partnership so got to get them playing together from the start. Lindelof has had some shaky moments but so did Vidic and Rio when they first arrived, nothing to worry about.

 

[Red Warrior]

OMG is this the season we start scoring goals for fun but then start shipping them at the other end lol