Chris Smalling vows to justify praise of Louis van Gaal and Wayne Rooney

Smalling has been rock solid in defence for Manchester United so far this season

Manchester United defender Chris Smalling is buoyed by the praise which has been heaped upon him, especially from Wayne Rooney and Louis Van Gaal, ESPN reports.

United skipper Wayne Rooney told Manchester United’s official website on Monday that he considers Smalling as one of the top three centre-halves in the world.

Wazza, as he is called by his team-mates, stated, “He is in the top three centre-halves in the world – I think he is that good! He is a great player and he is developing to become more of a leader of the back four. It is great to see for both United and England, and hopefully that can continue for him and he can help us to be successful.”

On the other hand, Louis Van Gaal endorsed Smalling as the club’s future captain on Sunday.

The England centre-back has had a great opening to this season. He has started all the ten league games and the three Champions League games United have played thus far.

Prior to this season, the ex-Fulham player had an indifferent United career. He was consistently in and out of the team before LVG's arrival at Old Trafford. The defender's career with United reached new lows when he was sent off in the first half of the Manchester derby in 2014 after he picked up two unnecessary yellow cards, at the Etihad. A game which United lost 1-0.

But from the time he has been reinstated back in the team by Van Gaal last season, he has upped his game and is now one of the first names on the team sheet. He was also rewarded with a new long-term contract earlier this year.

When asked about how he feels about the appreciation from Rooney and LVG, he said, "When you hear such good praise, especially from Wazza and the manager, you just want to show them that it's not just words that are meaningless. He is a very experienced manager.”

“He says a lot of things that I try to take on board and I think he wants you to express yourself and when he shows a trust in you I just want to repay it and do as well as I can. But, yeah, he has given me massive credit.”

I want to build on my current form: Smalling

He also talked about his consistent run of form, "I do think it is clicking. I knew when I did get a consistent run and I could build on something that I could go from height to height and at the moment I am getting confident and I am just looking forward to the next game, to putting down a marker and keep building.”

"When I first joined, in that first year I had a good run and my form was good but then obviously being shifted around different positions, and having the injuries didn't help, but in the last year or 18 months I have felt like that position is mine and hopefully I can make sure that the manager keeps picking me."

Smalling also talked about the legacy left behind by Rio Ferdinand and Nemanja Vidic, who are considered as one of the best centre-half pairs to have played the beautiful game.

He told Manutd.com, "When they left, there was a big void and someone had to step up, I tried to do my best to make an impact because they were big losses to our team as two of the most experienced players."

"When you play with great defenders like Rio and Vida, train with them and see how they go about their day to day business, you learn a lot from them," he added.

Hopefully for the Red Devils, Smalling can reproduce the level of defending which his predecessors displayed over the years at Old Trafford.