Inevitably, preseason is a time when footballers aren’t quite at their best.
Still shaking the last of their luxury holidays in Dubai and Miami out of their legs, it’s understandable that some of them are a little rusty and not quite performing at optimum level.
Thanks to Chris Smalling, anyone that stayed up to watch the first Manchester derby played on foreign soil during the small hours or Friday morning would have been reminded of this.
During the first half of the game in Houston, City attempted to play a ball forward towards Sergio Aguero. The ball was overhit, leaving Smalling to deal with it. It seemed all the England international had to do was nod it back to his goalkeeper…
To be fair to Smalling, he did try and head the ball towards David De Gea, but appeared to misjudge its flight. Having missed the ball, the defender quickly lost balance and, after a split second spent battling gravity, hit the deck.
With Aguero briefly sensing there might be an opportunity, Smalling inadvertently cushions the ball to De Gea,who has already left his goal line to deal with the situation, using his back.
Best moment of the first half came from Chris Smalling with an exquisitely deft back header to De Gea. Delightful pic.twitter.com/f8yEMNRO3f
— Nooruddean (@BeardedGenius) July 21, 2017
As you might have guessed, many watching the game were amused…
"Chris Smalling deserves another chance at Manchester United." pic.twitter.com/MapBzr0CZ3
— Adam (@AdamJoseph____) July 21, 2017
Smalling back to his old self pic.twitter.com/s2iyXaGKVU
— HipHopRelated (@HipHopReIated) July 21, 2017
https://twitter.com/TheManUtdWay/status/888266296097361921
Despite several nervy moments from the United defence, Jose Mourinho’s side managed to keep a clean sheet, with goals from Romelu Lukaku and Marcus Rashford at the other end giving them a 2-0 victory.
