Chris Smalling is having a remarkable season, although it is too soon to say for certain whether Wayne Rooney‘s assertion that the Manchester United defender is one of the top three in the world is correct.

Rooney made the claim in an interview with United Review—the Manchester United programme (h/t the club’s website).

Of course, the United captain’s status as a scout is called into question by the fact that, according to Morgan Schneiderlin, per Rob Dawson in Manchester Evening News, he had never heard of Anthony Martial before United were linked with him. 

However, assuming that the top three centre-backs in the world are better known than Martial was during his time at Monaco, though, does Smalling belong that high up in the pantheon?

On Tuesday night at Old Trafford, he gave a fine example of his worth to Louis van Gaal’s side. With the score at 0-0, Seydou Doumbia had come off the bench for CSKA Moscow and, during one of the Russian side’s rare forays into United’s half, had forced a save from David De Gea.

The stopper was unable to prevent the ball from falling back into Doumbia’s path. Ashley Young, desperate to cover the ground, fell victim to the damp conditions and slipped ingloriously, leaving the Ivorian with a certain goal.

Until, apparently out of nowhere, Smalling materialised between the ball and the goal. Doumbia could, and perhaps should, have done better, but nonetheless, Smalling’s heroics were a nice encapsulation of just how important he has been to United this season.

After all, while the Red Devils have infamously been struggling to score goals, they have had fewer problems at the other end of the pitch. They have conceded just eight in the Premier League—the joint-fewest total in the division. Three of those came in a dizzying 19-minute spell at the Emirates. Two came in a five-minute spell against Swansea City.

For most of the other 966 minutes of the league season so far, United have been defensively solid.

Smalling has been a big reason why. The current system might be set up in order to ensure United’s back four receives plenty of protection from the midfield, but the 25-year-old has been doing his job well when called upon.

Centre-backs are, of course, harder to compare than strikers and creative midfielders. While there is nuance required in comparing forward players, there are at least solid metrics for output and performance that can be objectively measured.

Form plays a part—it would be surprising if Jamie Vardy turned out to be one of the world’s best strikers in the long term—but even then, strikers’ form can be more easily measured than that of their defensive colleagues.

Metrics like number of tackles or interceptions per game depend heavily on a team’s style of play—teams under the cosh are likely to find their defensive players putting up big numbers in these areas. Two of the top five Premier League players in average numbers of both interceptions and tackles per game so far this season play for Aston Villa, the team at the bottom of the league, per WhoScored.com. 

Thus, statistical comparison from publicly available statistics is probably not the best measure.

Players like Sergio Ramos, Thiago Silva, Gerard Pique, Giorgio Chiellini, Diego Godin and Mats Hummels have such different styles and play in such different kinds of teams that direct comparison seems impossible.

There is a horses for courses aspect to central defence that means assessing a true, objective meritocracy among them is somewhat futile.

After all, Pep Guardiola’s Barcelona needed something very different from its centre-halves than, say, Jose Mourinho’s Inter Milan.

Wherever he ranks in the mythical pantheon of defenders in world football, Smalling is proving an excellent fit for Van Gaal’s United. He has emerged as a leader, attracting praise from his team-mates, his manager and fans alike. He is, in fact, along with Anthony Martial, probably this season’s only unqualified success in the United squad.

His form has been consistent since he returned from suspension after his red card against Manchester City. That sending-off happened just over a year ago—November 2, 2014. It is a long enough stretch of success to suggest that Smalling is now the real deal and that he belongs in the conversation as one of the best in the game.

To prove that, though, he will need to keep up this form for longer and help guide his team to success.

Whether he is one of the top three in the world, though, probably does not matter much to United fans. For now, they will settle for him being a crucial performer for their team, and he is most certainly that.

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