‘Mike’ is happy to be recognised
CHRIS SMALLING is still trying to live down being called Mike by his manager Louis van Gaal at a press conference during the summer.
But there has been no reason to play down his contribution at the heart of Manchester United’s defence in the opening weeks of the season.
Smalling has established himself as first pick at centre-half, as well as being named third captain by van Gaal.
So it’s obvious his boss rates him, even if he can’t always get his name right!
“It’s not stopped,” he laughs, referring to all the attention from van Gaal’s slip of the tongue.
“The crowd were singing it as well. It seems to be my new name and it’s stuck.
“This year I have definitely got more consistency. It was something I needed to add to my game rather than having a good performance then an OK one.
“It’s nice to be recognised, but it’s a case of only being as good as your last game, so I’ll be looking to build on that against Arsenal.”
“Being third captain is significant, especially when you’re one of the leaders in the team. People look to you to gee them up when things aren’t going so well and I quite like that responsibility.
That match is at the Emirates this afternoon, where a United win will see them head into the international break top of the League. “This is a crucial game,” he says. “We remember going into the last international break when we had Swansea and it’s a long two weeks when you don’t get that win.
“Obviously last year, we didn’t start well but knew if we started well this year, we’d be there or thereabouts.
“If we keep this form going, we’ll stick at the top end of the table.
“We’ll keep on improving. We are getting better and controlling games for larger periods, so hopefully we can keep progressing and going forward.
“There is certainly more to come. There has not been a complete performance yet. There are periods of games when we could have done better and we are striving for that.”