Smalling: Our High Tempo Will Hurt Teams

Chris Smalling believes opposition teams will not be able to live with Manchester United if the Reds can reproduce the same tempo shown in Saturday's 4-1 win over Premier League champions Leicester City.


Smalling opened the scoring against the Foxes with a towering header after just 22 minutes, before further goals from Juan Mata, Marcus Rashford and a first senior goal from Paul Pogba effectively put the game to bed before the break.

The 26-year-old defender feels the impressive first period is something his side should try to repeat as the quest for consistency continues.

"If we can start games with that tempo there won’t be many teams that can live with us," Smalling told reporters after the match.

"I think when we start the game like that, you can see everyone is on the front foot and you can see the urgency. We could have had more goals I think in that first half and playing on the front foot benefits us all.

"By winning games and dominating games like that, I think everyone gets their confidence back and you could see we really put that game to bed in the first half and hopefully there is more of that to come because everyone really enjoyed that.

"It's now about finding that consistency so we stay at the top end of the table. We don’t want any more blips, hopefully we have had our last blip for quite a while now."

Smalling suggested pre-match words from United manager Jose Mourinho had the desired effect by inspiring the players.

"The boss really wanted to get the enjoyment factor across," Smalling continued. "He stressed how there is 70-odd thousand people in the stands who want to be in our shoes and in his shoes. It's a case of realising how lucky we are and how we should go out there and enjoy it. You can see that everyone did enjoy it and the message clearly did get across."

The win over the Foxes was even more crucial following Premier League defeats to Manchester City and Watford and a Europa League loss to Feyenoord and the central defender believes the Reds have moved on from those disappointments and can now look to build on the win with two further home games fast approaching.

"There was a lot of talk about us needing to turn the situation around because we obviously had a bad week with the three results," Smalling added. "We could only show we have moved on by doing it on the pitch and I thought that first half was a great performance and really gave us a marker.

"You try and shut out the negatives, but we all know as players that we are a lot better than we showed in those defeats. We have tried to improve each day and hopefully we can now take this into the two big games coming up, both at home, and hopefully put on a show."

Smalling skippered the side in the absence of Wayne Rooney, who started the game on the substitutes' bench, and the stand-in had some specific praise for the club captain.

"He is our captain, he is one of our main players and there is no doubt that he has got a big part to play," Smalling commented.

"He is often the most vocal in the dressing room and he was the same today. Regardless of the situation, whether he is on the bench or playing, he is always the same character and that is why he is England’s main man and our main man.

"I think he is a very experienced guy and he has played that many games it is only a matter of time before he is back in there and firing again because he is quality."