Will Smallbone

[S-Clarke]

1 minute ago, FarehamSaintJames said:

What the fuck is an 8?

 

More of a progressive attacking midfielder, covering the ground, box to box, not having to worry too much about what's going on behind him as he has cover.

The problem is that he wasn't worrying too much at times tonight, and there wasn't any cover so we were just picked off. It's like he's trying to default to the way he knows in a more advanced role, but forgets that he's vacated his central role. And no one else is there.

[Harry_SFC]

Don't rate this guy at all. 

Looked good Vs Sheff Weds because we had the ball all the time and they had no runners from midfield.

As soon as a team attacks us he looks useless (Norwich, Sunderland and now Leicester). 

[OttawaSaint]

He's rubbish. Let's face it.

[SaintNewForest]

7 hours ago, FarehamSaintJames said:

What the fuck is an 8?

 

Annoys me. Why can't people just say a central Midfielder? That's effectively what they are. 

[Ed Rooney]

He is and always has been fuckin shit, gets decent praise simply because a lot of fans want him to be good because he came through the academy but in truth he is slower, weaker and more negative than JWP was. If we had signed him from another club the daggers would have been out years ago 

[Turkish]

24 minutes ago, SaintNewForest said:

Annoys me. Why can't people just say a central Midfielder? That's effectively what they are. 

You clearly have no understanding of modern soccerball

[Chewy]

I have to say I find the singling out of Smallbone unfair. He was clearly playing - as asked by his manager- as an inside right and one of our five forwards. He wasn’t meant to be protecting the defence, he was meant to be attacking.

The issue here is the absolute insanity of having five forwards with no defensive responsibilities leaving gaping f*cking holes everywhere, not the individuals. May as well blame ArmA or Adams for the lack of a midfield if you’re blaming Smallbone. Nothing last night was on the players IMHO, all was on the manager.

To be fair to Smallbone, we actually looked better when he replaced the injured Downes in the deeper role. Put him in the right spot on the pitch and he might do ok. Of course, that’s with the caveat of having others around him. Ask him to defend a 1 v 4 break and he might f it up.

[Fan The Flames]

36 minutes ago, Chewy said:

I have to say I find the singling out of Smallbone unfair. He was clearly playing - as asked by his manager- as an inside right and one of our five forwards. He wasn’t meant to be protecting the defence, he was meant to be attacking.

The issue here is the absolute insanity of having five forwards with no defensive responsibilities leaving gaping f*cking holes everywhere, not the individuals. May as well blame ArmA or Adams for the lack of a midfield if you’re blaming Smallbone. Nothing last night was on the players IMHO, all was on the manager.

To be fair to Smallbone, we actually looked better when he replaced the injured Downes in the deeper role. Put him in the right spot on the pitch and he might do ok. Of course, that’s with the caveat of having others around him. Ask him to defend a 1 v 4 break and he might f it up.

But he was still shit last night.

[gordonToo]

A lightweight like one or two others. I'm starting to think RM must live in his own dream world.

[FarehamSaintJames]

Will Smallbone is a CM. He is ok holding between defence and midfield when he has to excellent midfielders either side of him as we saw when we played Sheffield Wednesday at the start with JWP and Alcaraz (I think) either side of him.

Tonight he has been massively exposed.

He doesn’t provide an awful lot. He doesn’t score. He can’t defend without strong teammates around him. And he doesn’t tackle.

He had a poor game tonight but he does get an easier ride than some because he’s from the academy.

Hopefully he’ll pick up but on tonight performance I’m not convinced.

[egg]

12 minutes ago, Fan The Flames said:

But he was still shit last night.

Who wasn't? We didn't lose because Smallbone was played in a front 5 and did as bad as everyone else. Bizarre that this lad is being singled out. 

[Toadhall Saint]

Thought he looked terrible in the first half (as did most tbh) but when dropped deeper in the second he looked a bit better.

[Fan The Flames]

26 minutes ago, egg said:

Who wasn't? We didn't lose because Smallbone was played in a front 5 and did as bad as everyone else. Bizarre that this lad is being singled out. 

If there were other player threads I would post that they were shit as well.

[Lord Duckhunter]

3 hours ago, SaintNewForest said:

Annoys me. Why can't people just say a central Midfielder? That's effectively what they are. 

Fucking hipsters. It’s a load of old pony.

8,6, pivot. Fuck me. What happened to midfielders who could do it all. Defend, get forward & more importantly knock a few in. What was Bryan Robson, an 8,6,4,pivot, ACM, ABC or a midfield player. FFS. 

Edited 16 September, 2023 by Lord Duckhunter

[Lee On Solent Saint]

1 minute ago, Lord Duckhunter said:

Fucking hipsters. It’s a load of old pony.

8,6, pivot. Fuck me. What happened to midfielders who could do it all. Defend, get forward & more importantly knock a few in. What was Bryan Robson, an 8,6,4,pivot, ACM, ABC or a midfield player. FFS. 

Is Smallbone your new son in law, Duck?! Still plenty to choose from this season though. 

[Lord Duckhunter]

1 minute ago, Lee On Solent Saint said:

Is Smallbone your new son in law, Duck?! Still plenty to choose from this season though. 

Unfortunately, the Son in law vacancy will soon be filled in the Duck household. However, if it were still vacant Smallbone would be in the frame. He looks a nice quiet boy who wouldn’t deliberately cheat or hurt anyone. ideal characteristics for a son in law & a modern Saints midfield enforcer.  
 

 

[egg]

8 minutes ago, Lord Duckhunter said:

Fucking hipsters. It’s a load of old pony.

8,6, pivot. Fuck me. What happened to midfielders who could do it all. Defend, get forward & more importantly knock a few in. What was Bryan Robson, an 8,6,4,pivot, ACM, ABC or a midfield player. FFS. 

Danny Murphy did an article a few weeks back where he called the defensive midfielder a 5. In the olden days that player usually wore a 4. Now he's called a 6. Murphy calls him a 5. I'm not sure where the obsession of using numbers to describe a position came from. We'll be calling right backs a 2 before too long. Weird. 

[Fan The Flames]

17 minutes ago, Lord Duckhunter said:

Fucking hipsters. It’s a load of old pony.

8,6, pivot. Fuck me. What happened to midfielders who could do it all. Defend, get forward & more importantly knock a few in. What was Bryan Robson, an 8,6,4,pivot, ACM, ABC or a midfield player. FFS. 

Like the twats that say 'in nets' for goalkeepers.

[Lord Duckhunter]

7 minutes ago, egg said:

Danny Murphy did an article a few weeks back where he called the defensive midfielder a 5. In the olden days that player usually wore a 4. Now he's called a 6. Murphy calls him a 5. I'm not sure where the obsession of using numbers to describe a position came from. We'll be calling right backs a 2 before too long. Weird. 

In the past there wasn’t defensive midfielders or attacking midfielders, but midfielders. Souness defended & created, even Butch Wilkins who is probably the nearest thing to the modern ball recycling merchants we have nowadays , did both roles. Some were better going forward, some better defensively, but they did both roles. You talk about a 2. It’ll probably end up with a 2, being defensive full back & a 3 being an attacking full back. We’ll run out of numbers soon. 

[The Cat]

There were plenty of midfielders back then who couldn't do it all. There's also plenty of modern midfielders who can.

You're just hand picking some of the best players of that era and comparing them to Will Smallbone which is ridiculous.

[egg]

1 minute ago, Lord Duckhunter said:

In the past there wasn’t defensive midfielders or attacking midfielders, but midfielders. Souness defended & created, even Butch Wilkins who is probably the nearest thing to the modern ball recycling merchants we have nowadays , did both roles. Some were better going forward, some better defensively, but they did both roles. You talk about a 2. It’ll probably end up with a 2, being defensive full back & a 3 being an attacking full back. We’ll run out of numbers soon. 

I sort of agree with that. Most teams had a midfielder who sat and one who went. Same as the 2 strikers, one went long and the other came short. Back to midfielders though, take Case and Cockerill. Case sat, Cockerill got forward. Sure, he got back, but that wasn't his main job. In modern terms I guess they'd be a 6 and 8 respectively. The titles are nonsense though, they were just central midfielders who worked well as a pair doing slightly different jobs. 

[Fan The Flames]

It all started when the tories renamed secondary year 1 as year 7 and A became 9s, the kids picked up on this and since then the world's gone crazy.

[The Kraken]

Smallbone strikes me as a player we used to call a “number 12”.

[Whitey Grandad]

1 hour ago, The Kraken said:

Smallbone strikes me as a player we used to call a “number 12”.

The one who was always last to be picked at school when the captains took turns to choose their sides.

[Bad Wolf]

I've said it once, I'll say it again, how can ANYONE think Smallbone is good? Dreadful player that'll get away with it week after week after week for the next few years because he's from the academy.

[Fan The Flames]

3 minutes ago, Bad Wolf said:

I've said it once, I'll say it again, how can ANYONE think Smallbone is good? Dreadful player that'll get away with it week after week after week for the next few years because he's from the academy.

He looked good at the beginning of the season.

[Bad Wolf]

7 minutes ago, Fan The Flames said:

He looked good at the beginning of the season.

One good game. That's all he's ever had for us. He looked poor whenever he played in the PL and even in cup games against lower league opposition. Stoke fans consider him average.

[Fan The Flames]

7 minutes ago, Bad Wolf said:

One good game. That's all he's ever had for us. He looked poor whenever he played in the PL and even in cup games against lower league opposition. Stoke fans consider him average.

I thought he grew into the role at Stoke and was regarded well in the end.

[Wade Garrett]

6 hours ago, Lord Duckhunter said:

Fucking hipsters. It’s a load of old pony.

8,6, pivot. Fuck me. What happened to midfielders who could do it all. Defend, get forward & more importantly knock a few in. What was Bryan Robson, an 8,6,4,pivot, ACM, ABC or a midfield player. FFS. 

I like the cut of your jib young man.

[Wade Garrett]

6 hours ago, egg said:

Danny Murphy did an article a few weeks back where he called the defensive midfielder a 5. In the olden days that player usually wore a 4. Now he's called a 6. Murphy calls him a 5. I'm not sure where the obsession of using numbers to describe a position came from. We'll be calling right backs a 2 before too long. Weird. 

Danny Murphy is a tax-dodging cunt.  Fucking winds me up, thinks he’s the cleverest person in the world.  Wanker.

[Saint Fan CaM]

Smallbone is at best just average…he’s grown into that level. And the trouble is that when we face 50% of the opposition in this league, he’s going to be worse than average as is the nature of average!  Always expected him to be plying his trade elsewhere in L1 or below frankly, but clearly he’s an Academy product and so represents a small opportunity to get some money into the coffers when he’s sold when we’re relegated to L1. 😉

[Smirking_Saint]

11 hours ago, SaintNewForest said:

Annoys me. Why can't people just say a central Midfielder? That's effectively what they are. 

Because there’s more too it than that

Declan Rice, Odegaard, Mason Mount and Jude Bellingham are all CMs but play in very different ways

[Smirking_Saint]

Im not writing off Smallbone, I think he is a clever player but his attributes really are just passing the ball and offering passing options, unfortunately he wasn’t much good last night at offering enough options, infact he basically ran from SC for the first goal (being hyper critical)

He just isn’t good at being combative at all, Ive never seen him be able to effectively play in any defensive way, which is why I don’t see him being an effective 6 at all

When we’re in possession and things are going well he’s great, when they aren’t and we need to get stuck in then he isn’t.. and thats the problem 

My ideal midfield would be Charles and Downes with probably Alcaraz in front of him because those three are IMO more adaptable 

[Sarisbury Saint]

Sadly he’s just not aggressive enough or competitive enough. 
You either have that or you don’t, it’s hard to force that into a player.

[Killers Knee]

Too lightweight and pedestrian, will be OK in league1 but will not rip up trees

[SNSUN]

He was decent against Wednesday but he has regressed in a very short space of time and that is why he should be nothing more than a back up. Charly showed he was the better player when he came on and even Stu was a big improvement. Keep Will for back up or games when we are expected to have a lot of the ball (eg. Wednesday) and play the likes of Downes, Charles, Charly and Stu over him. Hell after that performance last night I'd rather even see what Aribo could do instead! And then there's Kamari Doyle... 

The midfield is still new and it was always going to be the issue for us in the early part of the season as we lost JWP, Lavia and even Diallo but they need to get their shit together quickly. As does Martin.

[disconnect]

I’m hoping that it comes out that he was playing through injury on Friday only because his running pace makes JWP look like Sulemana

[Sergei Gotsmanov]

Why can people not just say that we have a half decent player here. I think he looks classy with some flaws. He will only get better. 

[Charlie Mealings]

Will Smallbone has had a rough week, for reasons beyond his control. Excited to have him in back, wrote a little bit about what he does for us in quiet. If you have five min:

https://www.statemarys.com/p/an-ode-to-will-smallbone

[Dusic]

Whether he starts or is on the bench I hope thw travelling fans sing his name all game rather than drivel about Pompey.

When seemingly everyone wanted to leave this summer hebwas very outspoken that he really wanted to play for this club, and has largely been very good this season, hence why he has played so much.

For a club like Saints, these are the kind of players and people we need more of, not less.

 

[S-Clarke]

Some of the crap sent to him on social media was a disgrace, ''i hope you get cancer, so you don't have to pass the ball anymore for us'' was a significant low point. Although we all know they're not fans. Sadly that's twitter for you, the cesspit of society with weirdos looking for a reaction to 'extreme' opinions or posts.

He's better coming off of it.

Edited March 2 by S-Clarke

[LGTL]

8 minutes ago, S-Clarke said:

Some of the crap sent to him on social media was a disgrace, ''i hope you get cancer, so you don't have to pass the ball anymore for us'' was a significant low point. Although we all know they're not fans. Sadly that's twitter for you, the cesspit of society with weirdos looking for a reaction to 'extreme' opinions or posts.

He's better coming off of it.

It was especially galling seeing as one of our players has recently recovered from the disease. 

[revolution saint]

2 hours ago, S-Clarke said:

Some of the crap sent to him on social media was a disgrace, ''i hope you get cancer, so you don't have to pass the ball anymore for us'' was a significant low point. Although we all know they're not fans. Sadly that's twitter for you, the cesspit of society with weirdos looking for a reaction to 'extreme' opinions or posts.

He's better coming off of it.

Jeez, really?  That's mental.  I saw the press conference but obviously they didn't go into detail.  Can understand him coming off social media but what sort of sick twat writes stuff like that?  Even if they're on a wind up it's well beyond the realms of normal behaviour.  Anyone writing that kind of thing needs help.

I actually like Smallbone - I don't think he's suited to a more defensive role but further forward I think he's pretty good.  Keeps the ball moving, decent passer, good vision and weighs in with a few goals.

 

[davefizzy14]

5 minutes ago, revolution saint said:

Jeez, really?  That's mental.  I saw the press conference but obviously they didn't go into detail.  Can understand him coming off social media but what sort of sick twat writes stuff like that?  Even if they're on a wind up it's well beyond the realms of normal behaviour.  Anyone writing that kind of thing needs help.

I actually like Smallbone - I don't think he's suited to a more defensive role but further forward I think he's pretty good.  Keeps the ball moving, decent passer, good vision and weighs in with a few goals.

 

There are some horrible individuals on social media. Those sorts of people are just sad and pathetic and have never played football before. 

Will is one of our own and loves the club 🙂 he's had a difficult patch but he's shown his quality numerous times this season (chipped in with some vital goals) and I'm hoping for one that he gets back to that level today.

[Holmes_and_Watson]

On the one hand you’ve a guy who has worked hard since he was a kid to fulfil his dream of playing football to the highest level he can. He’s committed to his club. Where there have been low points, he’s continued to work as hard as he can.

The result is that he’s been a key part of Martin’s system all season, and the manager probably couldn’t believe his luck to have the likes of Will, AA and Baz already at the club, to fit his system.

On the other hand, you’ve an emotionally stunted irrelevance typing any old uninformed rubbish. That’ll show those professional footballers! Well done, there.

 

There have been games where Smallbone has been absolutely everywhere. Available for the pass out from the CBs, helping to build up our attack, covering for our inverted full backs, being available at the edge of the box for cutbacks. He’s been asked to learn Martin’s systems for a number of positions. While, he’s going to be better in some than others, you can see his improvement across them all throughout this season. It’s been lovely to watch.

He, and we as a team, struggle without a strong enough midfield. Smallbone is asked to pick up different duties when we don’t have a JWP or a Downes, and that’s when he looked weakest.

He’s also had to adapt when Stephens has come into the team, and looks to push past Smallbone’s usual positions.

Martin is well aware of this, and really values the contribution Will makes under those circumstances, knowing those games don’t suit his strengths.

Would he be as good in other systems? Perhaps not. Is he a really good fit for Martin’s? Yes he is.

It’s a shame that the worst of social media has had an impact. If you stand out in your chosen field, there will never be a shortage of people, with so few positives in their own lives, with nothing to offer but hate. Hopefully our, and all other players, are trained and supported in this area.  

[Poggs]

There are some on this site that sail pretty close to the wind.

[Sergei Gotsmanov]

He has come through the youth system, showed us loyalty and I have enjoyed watching him progress as a footballer. He is far better than people give him credit for. It is players like him that make me proud to support our club.

[Fabrice Fernandes no.1 fan]

Really liked his runs in behind at the weekend, seemed to work well that he moved the ball forward then bombed on past it. Particularly clear for Brooks' goal when he runs past, drags the defender with him and leaves a big space for Brooks to work into. More of that please.

[Give it to Ron]

5 minutes ago, Fabrice Fernandes no.1 fan said:

Really liked his runs in behind at the weekend, seemed to work well that he moved the ball forward then bombed on past it. Particularly clear for Brooks' goal when he runs past, drags the defender with him and leaves a big space for Brooks to work into. More of that please.

Was good interception and cross for Che’s goal too . Looks better in that role with Flyn besides him

Edited March 5 by Give it to Ron

[coalman]

There are some real positives in there as a player. He takes up great positions to receive the ball and is tidy in possession. Rarely misplaces a pass. Makes space for other players in the attacking third. Can receive the ball and move it quickly which is a prerequisite for Martin's system. In contrast Rothwell feels like a liability when he's receiving the ball in his own half.

There are times where it feels like he's not as committed to the out of possession work as, say, Downes. So when we don't have a natural defensive midfielder it can feel like he's not involved. That's something he can add to his game though. There were times on Saturday where some of his tracking back felt a bit half hearted. But then there were also a couple of really committed challenges in there too. I'm hoping this is something that comes with more consistent game time because he'll be some player if he can really take the game by the scruff of the neck.

Whatever your feelings on a player, no one deserves that degree of abuse. The Internet really does bring out the worst in humans.