Should Jose Drop Daley Blind for Chris Smalling?

BY ADEDAYO AYODELE

The prospect of having a back four of Smalling-Bailly-Valencia-Shaw is really exciting. Not many strikers can trouble such a backline in terms of either pace or physical strength but what really matters is the balance.

See I'm all for assembling a very good squad but is the squad balanced? I think that was what affected LVG last season. The squad was never really balanced.

We have had Daley Blind at the back for over a year now and for someone who is not a natural CB, I think he has done very well in that position. At this moment, I would stick with Blind which is very unlike me. There's just something about the way Blind dictates play from the back. The way he handles the ball, his tackles, his confidence, come on. This man knows his stuff.

Smalling was imperious for the first half of last season no doubt, but he made a lot of costly individual errors in the second half. Notably the one that nearly cost us the FA Cup. He is also always a risk with the ball at his feet.

If it helps, I don't feel comfortable writing this as I've always been skeptical about Blind but I'm beginning to see the light.

Daley is the real deal guys. He has his flaws too but for me, it's Daley-Bailly or Daley-Smalling.

I look at Bailly and see a replacement for Smalling, he matches all the physical attributes but has much better positioning and technical ability. A big bonus is he doesn’t hold onto players in the box when marking. I look at Blind and I see a calm sweeper who complements Bailly (or Smalling) very well. I reckon we should have Blind nailed on as a central defender and we pick either Bailly or Smalling to partner him which basically means Smalling should be our back-up CB and we should get rid of either Jones or Rojo.