Is Lindelof good enough for United?

Nikelesh Reddy

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We"ve seen him throughout the season now and while he hasn't played loads of games,he's still played about 25 odd games this season,so based on what you"ve seen so far,what have you made of him?

Let's also remember the fact that Lindelof was supposed to be our "ball playing" CB....I think Jose saw him as a good partner for Bailly,and one of the main reasons why we signed him was apparently because of his excellent ball distribution skills.

My honest assessment so far is that he's neither shown the skill nor the self confidence to be a Man United centre back.He still doesn't seem to have the confidence to carry the ball forward and make that decisive pass to switch our play from defence to midfield.He always seems to chose the easy option and having him in the team hasn't really improved our ball distribution from the back.

If we sign another ball playing CB then that will probably end Lindelofs United career,just like the signing of Sanchez will probably push Martial out of the club.So all in all,should we give Lindelof another season or should we sign a new CB this summer.Do you think he's good enough for United?
 
He is good imo. Yesterday multiple times he brought the ball out from the back. Him and Toby alderweireld could be a good combo imo
 
He's good enough to contend for a place next to Smalling, but isnt an improvement on what we had before signing him. Another Evans
 
He played well yesterday and is growing into the role. Of course we give him another season, it would be silly not to.
 
All evidence of him in a United shirt points to no.

He is a ball-playing defender who is seemingly scared to play the ball longer than 5 yards.
 
I will fully judge him after the end of next season. I have my reservations on Bailly as well after 2 years.
 
All of our defenders have their weaknesses and none of them seem particularly indispensible. I suppose Smalling and Bailly are the best out of an average bunch, and the rest can play or not play and don't really make much of a difference.
 
Genuinely don’t see what he offers the squad that Daley Blind at CB could.
 
prath92 said:
He is good imo. Yesterday multiple times he brought the ball out from the back. Him and Toby alderweireld could be a good combo imo
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Toby (please sign him Jose!) should be paired with Bailly or Smalling imo. Lindelof is more like an inferior version of Toby. So there's no point in playing them both together.
 
DWelbz19 said:
Genuinely don’t see what he offers the squad that Daley Blind at CB could.
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Aerial ability and pace, he's no Smalling but far quicker than Daley, mind you that I liked Blind as a CB and didn't mind him at LB.

Lindelöf's 'shitness' has always been grossly exaggerated as per usual here. He'll do fine. Even if it's not being first choice.
 
Lets see at the end of next season, i know its the easy answer but its the truth. Everything works in his favour to be better next season he'll be a year older, more mature and experienced more settled in on and off the pitch etc etc
 
I still don't know what it is he's supposed to be good at.

Playing the ball out apparently, but he's not very good at that.

Yesterday at one point he ran about 50 yards with it for no reason and then stood still and nervously passed it sideways to the nearest Arsenal player...the reason this isn't good is because as soon as he did it you knew it was Lindelof, because it's the sort of thing you just expect hm to do.
 
He has improved since the start of the season but imo he is still a long way off from being our automatic choice. He looks a bit timid with his defending and I don't trust him at all in one on one situations as he gives way too much space to the attacker. His passing has also not been that impressive to compensate for what he is lacking in other departments. Blind passed better than him when he played CB.
 
His defensive game has improved significantly since he arrived, and I see no reason why it won’t continue to. I think he’ll be a consistently decent defender, which these days is pretty much as good as it gets. So yes, he’s “good enough”.

His ball playing is really nothing special though.

Blind might be slower, but other than that I fail to see how Lindelöf is in any regard a better player.
 
I think he has got better as the season has gone on, which is no surprise and shows he is settling in. It’s still too early to judge, plenty of past players have failed to impress from the start but gone on to have fruitful careers.

I certainly wouldn’t write him off. There’s definitely a player in there. He has played 28 games, so roughly half a season.

Maybe we haven’t seen enough of the ‘ball playing centre half’ that we all want to see and need. At times he has looked lightweight, but we can say that about most of our CB’s at one time or another.

I think we have more pressing concerns to address in the squad, then the CB’s.
 
His best game for us so far yesterday although he gave Miki too much time on the ball for their goal. Also there were glimpses of a forward pass. However far too seldom. Seems afraid of going forward. Both him and Smalling fanny about with the ball coming out of defence. It's painful to see. No he's still got a lot to do before he's where he should be wearing a utd shirt. However a glimmer of hope going on yesterday's game.
 
The player that played yesterday (and was voted MOTM on ManUtd.com) has clearly developed from the one I saw earlier in the season. He showed pace, good anticipation and spatial awareness, covered well for Smalling when he was in trouble and did drive from the back with the ball on more than one occasion.

He's got the ingredients to be a top CB and I'd really like to see him and Bailly partner up next season.
 
He is solid,steady but nothing spectacular just like all our centre backs bar Bailly. Bailly for me is above the rest of the defenders. His play has an arrogance that elevates the team but even he still has room for improvement. When he is at his best he is comfortably ahead of all the other centre backs. On Lindelof I'm hoping he can make it here but his still seems to be shaky and uncertain at times. Him and Smalling waste too much time with the ball at the back and although they are both fairly solid they don't fill me with the confidence that centre backs usually do. Lindelof needs to assert himself on games and show us the ball playing quality he has supposedly been brought in to do. I'll wait until next season to make a final judgement on him. It's his 1st year after all.
 
Think we have to remember he is young, signed with the intention of being coached and improving for years to come.

One of Europe's brightest CB's, he's come highly regarded and we're so quick to write him off.

He stared shaky, yes but he has shown improvement and will continue to do so.

Changing league's is always difficult and will come with a period of bedding in. I think Jose has used him well, rotating him throughout the season etc.

I see no reason to panic and slate him and demand he is sold. Completely OTT.

With the "ball playing CB" aspect, name a CB in the league that is exceptional at this. The "sideways" pass or simple pass to the DM is always likely to be taken to retain possession. This is the modern game. I think the ball playing aspect for a CB comes into play when you play without a DM.

With Matic sitting so deep and others coming so deep for the ball, there is no real need for any CB to carry the ball out at feet or look for long searching passes ala Carrick. The Cb role in Jose's set up is to keep it simple, give it in to Matic/Herrera/Whoever and they start the build up from there.

That being said, I'm still more confident with Lindelof with the ball than any of Jones, Smalling or Rojo.
 
We've condeded the least amount of goals in the PL. I'm sure we can win it with this current backline.
 
This is weird, thought he was our best player yesterday.

Also, that short passing he was doing yesterday was 100% by instruction.

Weirdddddddd
 
Yep he is a very talented defender but will obviously need time to settle in.

Also i would rather have him than the injury prone defenders like Bailly and Jones.
 
I was very negative to how he did early on, but reckon he'll have found his feet now and will be decent at the very least. I just hope he and or others can step up from decent to great, we desperately need a strong defence so our attackers have a better platform to work on.
 
Not really yet. Give him another season though.
 
He's getting better and was alright yesterday, no way man of the match.
 
I suspect he is not playing the ball out like he can yet due to confidence and limiting himself to the basics until he is fully confident in himself here.

I reckon a fully confident Lindelof becomes one of our best CB's
 
Don't see it yet. Just doesn't look like a CB to me, doesn't have any of the basic attributes I associate with a successful PL player in that position. Hopefully he proves me wrong.
 
I think he's developing nicely. He's gone from weak and indecisive to my MotM yesterday (versus some pretty limp opposition it must be said). I'm not seeing particularly good ball playing from the back but I think his defensive contribution has hugely improved. I'm excited to see more of him next season.
 
Very hard to assess young defenders as most of the competence of the position cones from mental aspects but being honest he hasn't shown much. With his defending in one-on-one situations being close to the worst in the team. Prone to getting skinned by just about any attacker that runs at him.

The hope is once he settles he starts showing flashes of whatever got him his nickname at his old club
 
He looked rubbish at first, then okay for a while, and yesterday he was good. So he's improving.

Also he won't be the one that gets pushed out if we sign a new CB. He is ahead of Rojo in the pecking order and Jones should also be shown the door ahead of him for fitness reasons alone.
 
He was good yesterday, maybe he can improve with time but at the moment - no.

Daley Blind was better at CB than Lindelof has been.
 
Always give a player from a different league a season to adjust then really judge him, although i thought he would have done a bit better so far, like how yesterday he came out dribbling with the ball even tho he played a rubbish pass on a few occasions, showed confidence and drive.
 
meamth said:
ffs. It's his first season.

Give him a break.
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Spot on. He plays well yesterday, MOTM by many and yet he can't even be allowed that without some negativity. What you want in any signing is progressive improvements and not a massive spike and then an almighty low like we've seen in the past, and I think we've seen improvement in him. The issue for me is the defence is the worst position for a new or young player at Utd to come in to. It's full of anomalies or uncertainties with more changes at CB then any other position in the team given someone's always injured. No easy when the position is reliant on partnerships.
 
Depends on where United want to go. If the answer is to the top, then not really. He can be a decent back up, but not first eleven material if you ask me.
 
He has had the same amount of shaky performances than many other young defenders from other top sides.. Stones, Laporte, Holding, Chambers, Christensen, Joe Gomez.. Basically only Spurs have played with the least amount of center backs and their signing - Davidson Sanchez has been the most consistent out of those age category.
 
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