{"id":513987,"date":"2019-08-29T07:15:15","date_gmt":"2019-08-29T11:15:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonfootball.com\/?p=513987"},"modified":"2019-08-29T07:15:15","modified_gmt":"2019-08-29T11:15:15","slug":"manchester-united-chris-smalling-roma","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/2019\/08\/29\/manchester-united-chris-smalling-roma\/","title":{"rendered":"REPORT: Manchester United Defender Chris Smalling Set For Move To Roma"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonfootball.com\/feeds\/manchesterunitedfootball-co\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Manchester United<\/a> defender <a href=\"https:\/\/fbref.com\/en\/players\/b6964eb6\/Chris-Smalling\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Chris Smalling<\/a> is set for a move to Serie A side Roma, according to Italian journalist <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/FabrizioRomano\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Fabrizio Romano<\/a>. The 29-year-old will join on a season-long loan.<\/p>\n<h2>Manchester United Defender Chris Smalling To Join Roma<\/h2>\n<h3>Fallen out of Favour<\/h3>\n<p>Chris Smalling has fallen down the pecking order at Old Trafford since the arrival of <a href=\"https:\/\/fbref.com\/en\/players\/d8931174\/Harry-Maguire\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Harry Maguire<\/a> in the summer. Ole Gunnar Solskjaer is well-stocked in the centre of defence, and Smalling does not fit into his plans.<\/p>\n<p>Last season the 29-year-old made 32 appearances in all competitions, including eight in United&#8217;s run to the Champions League quarter-finals. Only <a href=\"https:\/\/fbref.com\/en\/players\/f5deef4c\/Victor-Lindelof\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Victor Lindelof<\/a> made more appearances last season in central defence than Chris Smalling.<\/p>\n<p>However, Smalling&#8217;s first team chances are now under threat due to the arrival of Maguire. The world&#8217;s most expensive defender is now first choice alongside Lindelof, and Solskjaer has several other options to pick from. As a result, the former <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonfootball.com\/clubs\/fulham\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Fulham<\/a> youngster has chosen to leave Old Trafford.<\/p>\n<h3>A Move to Roma Offers Chris Smalling a Fresh Start<\/h3>\n<p>Roma will be Smalling&#8217;s third club as a professional, having moved to Manchester United from <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonfootball.com\/clubs\/fulham\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Fulham<\/a> in 2010. The opportunity to move to Roma offers the chance for a fresh start.<\/p>\n<p>The 29-year-old is likely to be first choice at centre-back this season for the Italian side. Roma began the season with a 3-3 draw at home to Genoa, and started with a pairing of <a href=\"https:\/\/fbref.com\/en\/players\/4e358a2d\/Federico-Fazio\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Federico Fazio<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/fbref.com\/en\/players\/79083382\/Juan-Jesus\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Juan Jesus<\/a>. However, Smalling&#8217;s Premier League experience will put him in good stead for a regular starting place.<\/p>\n<p>Roma manager Paulo Fonesca has already added two central defenders to his squad this summer. Chris Smalling joins <a href=\"https:\/\/fbref.com\/en\/players\/5aa53281\/Gianluca-Mancini\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Gianluca Mancini<\/a> as a fellow loan signing, while<a href=\"https:\/\/fbref.com\/en\/players\/c730da00\/Yildirim-Mert-Cetin\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> Mert Cetin<\/a> has arrived at the Stadio Olimpico on a permanent deal. As a result, Smalling faces tough competition for a place in the starting 11.<\/p>\n<p>Main Photo<\/p>\n<p><a id=\"BBLKUCdoQAdrVnYrfTJtzQ\" class=\"gie-single\" style=\"color: #a7a7a7; text-decoration: none; font-weight: normal !important; border: none; display: inline-block;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.co.uk\/detail\/1143771248\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Embed from Getty Images<\/a><script>window.gie=window.gie||function(c){(gie.q=gie.q||[]).push(c)};gie(function(){gie.widgets.load({id:'BBLKUCdoQAdrVnYrfTJtzQ',sig:'PKecwZUH5rHMeBinOKPgTr2vRrRhwqOmEZQ1KmUFmWk=',w:'594px',h:'530px',items:'1143771248',caption: true ,tld:'co.uk',is360: false })});<\/script><script src='\/\/embed-cdn.gettyimages.com\/widgets.js' charset='utf-8' async><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Manchester United defender Chris Smalling is set for a move to Serie A side Roma, according to Italian journalist Fabrizio Romano. The 29-year-old will join on a season-long loan. Manchester United Defender Chris Smalling To Join Roma Fallen out of Favour Chris Smalling has fallen down the pecking order at Old Trafford since the arrival [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2795,"featured_media":514035,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[30,18,3,28],"tags":[997,718,36,40,48,136],"class_list":["post-513987","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-manchester-united","category-premier-league","category-transfers","tag-as-roma","tag-chris-smalling","tag-manchester-united","tag-premier-league","tag-serie-a","tag-world-football"],"modified_by":"Nat Goodlad, Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/513987","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2795"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=513987"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/513987\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/514035"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=513987"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=513987"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=513987"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}