Smalling holds Ferdinand fort

Chris Smalling will again deputise for Rio Ferdinand on Tuesday as United travel to Stamford Bridge to face Chelsea. But where once the loss of the most experienced Reds defender at a ground where United are without a league win in nine visits might have been seen as disastrous, the landscape has changed somewhat.

That is a result of the excellent recent form and rapidly maturing performances Smalling has delivered. Whether in his first Manchester derby or a Champions League last 16 away tie, Smalling has risen to the challenges set in front of him.

That’s not to say that, against Chelsea’s Didier Drogba and Fernando Torres, this isn't arguably his toughest test yet. Nevertheless, Sir Alex Ferguson is delighted with the 21-year-old's timely progress.

“We are very pleased with his performances,” the boss tells Inside United magazine, on sale from 2 March. “It’s an outstanding contribution he has made. But, do you know, I expected him to do well. I had no doubts about him.

“He’s done really well for us and he is improving all the time. He is developing all aspects of his game because he wants to learn and improve. He likes defending, he enjoys it. So he’s a real bonus.

“We started him against City with Rio being out and it’s not easy coming in for your first derby at 21 years of age, having only been with us nine months. But I thought he would do well.”

The experience Smalling is gaining now will be invaluable to his future. And there is little doubting that there will be many more big matches to come in years to come. On Tuesday Smalling will be paired with Nemanja Vidic at the heart of United’sefence, but his future sidekick will be Jonny Evans, another young defender in whom Sir Alex holds great faith.

Together they will become the new Ferdinand-Vidic axis. “That’s the way I look upon it,” says the boss. “They’re young, but Evans for example has already played a lot of games for us. He played almost three quarters of the matches last season. He is well grounded in terms of what’s needed here. His time will come.”

The defensive partnership is a bedrock of teams built by Sir Alex. Although the formula isn’t always easy to find, the United boss is now adept at combining classy ball-playing defender with uncompromising, no-nonsense centre-half – the classic silk-and-steel combination.

“One of the first things I said to Martin Edwards when I first came to United was, ‘you don’t have very good partnerships at the centre of defence’, and the goalkeeping situation was never a regular thing either. When we got Schmeichel, Bruce and Pallister it was an incredible turnaround in consistency. The knowledge they gathered together, particularly with Bruce and Pallister, gave them that understanding. And they seldom missed games. That’s something you build over time.

That just shows that partnerships are vitally important. We’ve seen that with Nemanja and Rio, and hopefully Jonny and Chris can develop that too.”