[izec]

if we talk about deadwood and average players, who are not United standard, put him on that list if he wasnt already. Injury prone, cant defend, looks scared when someone runs at him, all over the place and makes costly mistakes. Reminds me of Vermaelen. Just a standard midtable premier league defender. The guy is 26, should massively step up after the patience we had with him, played yesterday like a U19 academy player. Jones and Smalling would now been further in their career if they got the playing time Evans got. If Jones had a game like yesterday, people would even slaughter him in 2 years for that. He is in the Cleverley, Fletcher and Hernandez category now. Just waiting for another game to prove that he is useless when Rio or Vidic arent around him, probably will be injured in 2 weeks. Maybe Barcelona will be interested after we bench him. Just the thought of Diego Costa running at him and bullying him will be hopefully enough for everybody to realise that our Jonny never was good enough and probably never will be. Fergie got decent performances out of him, now he really is a complete liability.

 

[Escobar]

Disappointing to watch him nowadays. A couple of years ago, in top form, you'd have thought he's going to be an absolute brilliant CB but seems like he has regressed. Too many half arsed performances lately

 

[mufcwarm92]

By far the worst game I've ever seen him play, but I still think he's our best centre half.

 

[Nytram Shakes]

he was appaling last night, but still feel he is our best center back, his performances over the period of vidic long injury showed a level of consistency and quality yet to be anyway near matched by smalling or jones

 

[OnlyTwoDaSilvas]

Disappointing to watch him nowadays. A couple of years ago, in top form, you'd have thought he's going to be an absolute brilliant CB but seems like he has regressed. Too many half arsed performances lately

I agree. His ability seems a bit inflated on here. When he first broke into the team in 08/09, and then in spells since then, he's looked colossal. Future captain material. He just hasn't kicked on though. His positioning hasn't improved, and he still gets caught playing everyone onside, or nowhere near his man. He's so easily overpowered as well. In terms of physical prowess, Smalling and Jones look so much more domineering in the challenge and in the air, than Evans does.

I think Smalling is currently better, if played in a back four (it seems impossible to judge anyone in the back 3, because they all look pretty awful).

 

[manusteve]

he was appaling last night, but still feel he is our best center back, his performances over the period of vidic long injury showed a level of consistency and quality yet to be anyway near matched by smalling or jones

He has yet to show the ability to be the leader of the defence. In that respect, it is hard to justify that he is the best centre back. For me, when Shaw is fit, I would like to see Jones partner Rojo. And, of course, ditching the back three formation.

 

[roseguy64]

You'd think he was as bad as Djemba-Djemba judging by the comments here. Evans has been good the vast majority of his games for us playing alongside both Vidic,Rio,Smalling,Jones and whoever else he was beside.Bit of rubbish here. Last season he was up/down but the season before that he was brilliant and people thought he had a shot at being in the team of the season. Cut him some slack.

 

[AngeloHenriquez]

You'd think he was as bad as Djemba-Djemba judging by the comments here. Evans has been good the vast majority of his games for us playing alongside both Vidic,Rio,Smalling,Jones and whoever else he was beside.Bit of rubbish here. Last season he was up/down but the season before that he was brilliant and people thought he had a shot at being in the team of the season. Cut him some slack.

Currently 26 years old, not had a good season other than one a few years back, you'd hope he would come into his prime about now

 

[Gannicus]

He has yet to show the ability to be the leader of the defence. In that respect, it is hard to justify that he is the best centre back. For me, when Shaw is fit, I would like to see Jones partner Rojo. And, of course, ditching the back three formation.

^ This.

 

[DanNistelrooy]

Disappointing to watch him nowadays. A couple of years ago, in top form, you'd have thought he's going to be an absolute brilliant CB but seems like he has regressed.

This could be a sentence about any one of Jones Evans or Smalling couldn't it? Shame really

 

[Nytram Shakes]

He has yet to show the ability to be the leader of the defence. In that respect, it is hard to justify that he is the best centre back. For me, when Shaw is fit, I would like to see Jones partner Rojo. And, of course, ditching the back three formation.

i dont think jones has shown that either.... and ive never seen jones perform to the level evans did when he was playing regualry a few seasons back, so would still pick evans. and i honestly dont no how good rojo is at left back as ive only seen him play left back.

it also very worring if where already talking about dropping a back three.... kind of says van gaal dosnt no what he's doing which i dont want to even consider yet.

 

[Nytram Shakes]

Disappointing to watch him nowadays. A couple of years ago, in top form, you'd have thought he's going to be an absolute brilliant CB but seems like he has regressed. Too many half arsed performances lately

i think has a lot to do with the fact he was playing reguarly, vidic came back and he was dropped and i just dont think his confidence has recovered

 

[Escobar]

This could be a sentence about any one of Jones Evans or Smalling couldn't it? Shame really

To be honest, I never found Smalling bad. I like him a lot actually but then I might just be biased

 

[Escobar]

i think has a lot to do with the fact he was playing reguarly, vidic came back and he was dropped and i just dont think his confidence has recovered

Might be true but I just find it hard to believe that a professional football player cant regain his confidence within 3 or more years

 

[Nytram Shakes]

Might be true but I just find it hard to believe that a professional football player cant regain his confidence within 3 or more years

its not 3 years its about 18 months, and last season with all the chopping and changing was hard for any player to get any level of consistancy

still think out of all the defenders we have evans should be first on team sheet, niether smalling or jones have come close to a level evans has demonstrated at his best, and ive never seen rojo play center back

 

[Yorkeontop]

By far our best CB on the ball. His return at least gives us the ability to play the ball out from the back consistantly.

 

[roseguy64]

Currently 26 years old, not had a good season other than one a few years back, you'd hope he would come into his prime about now

He's only had one good season? Okay then.

 

[Al-T]

if we talk about deadwood and average players, who are not United standard, put him on that list if he wasnt already. Injury prone, cant defend, looks scared when someone runs at him, all over the place and makes costly mistakes. Reminds me of Vermaelen. Just a standard midtable premier league defender. The guy is 26, should massively step up after the patience we had with him, played yesterday like a U19 academy player. Jones and Smalling would now been further in their career if they got the playing time Evans got. If Jones had a game like yesterday, people would even slaughter him in 2 years for that. He is in the Cleverley, Fletcher and Hernandez category now. Just waiting for another game to prove that he is useless when Rio or Vidic arent around him, probably will be injured in 2 weeks. Maybe Barcelona will be interested after we bench him. Just the thought of Diego Costa running at him and bullying him will be hopefully enough for everybody to realise that our Jonny never was good enough and probably never will be. Fergie got decent performances out of him, now he really is a complete liability.

Yup, Agree with all of this and, whilst Jones has time on his side, this commentary applies almost equally to Smalling.

If people think that's unfair on these two, ask yourselves this. If Smalling/Jones/Evans were not at United already, would you be thrilled if we were to sign any of them? Would you think wow, that's a statement of intent as he will definitely improve us?. Or would you be thinking injury prone squad player?

 

[Rooney in Paris]

i think has a lot to do with the fact he was playing reguarly, vidic came back and he was dropped and i just dont think his confidence has recovered

The back 3 is being used out of necessity, to accomodate other players, because we don't have the squad to play 433, and in a certain way to send a message to the board, imo. It's not his preferred formation (and wasn't for Holland until Strootman got injured), and it'll probably be ditched as soon as he has the resources to play something else. Van Gaal knows exactly what he's doing.

 

[jesperjaap]

He's only had one good season? Okay then.

He hasn't had one good season, his best spell was on loan at Sunderland. Why so many seem to have always rated him is beyond me, was he a great youth player or something? I could count on one hand the number of performances for us he has impressed me. Gets turned easily, isn't great in the box, is over rated on the ball. Im not saying he is a bad defender, he is an average one, a decent squad player and for me has never been anything more than a fourth choice centre back. Wes Brown for example was a promising young defender for us, had a couple of injuries and seemed to lose a bit of confidence and form and has been average ever since. Evans has never looked to me like a player that would be a first choice centre back, and the fact so many seem to be saying he is our best defender either means a) Im totally wrong b) Our defence is an utter shambles c) People are deludedly loyal to our own players. If Evans is our best centre back and a starter for us consistently throughout the season we will be ripped apart by the likes of Costa for example in bigger games.

 

[AngeloHenriquez]

He's only had one good season? Okay then.

He's had one season where has looked good enough for United in some respect, every other season is debatable due to his form, injuries or lower leagues

 

[Nytram Shakes]

Currently 26 years old, not had a good season other than one a few years back, you'd hope he would come into his prime about now

still one more then smalling or jones

 

[Nytram Shakes]

The back 3 is being used out of necessity, to accomodate other players, because we don't have the squad to play 433, and in a certain way to send a message to the board, imo. It's not his preferred formation (and wasn't for Holland until Strootman got injured), and it'll probably be ditched as soon as he has the resources to play something else. Van Gaal knows exactly what he's doing.

i dont think he would have spent all summer working on onw formation if he planned to abondon it as soon as he boight some diffrent players, seems bizzare to work for a month on a forthanion for just 3 perimer league games before the window shuts then change it as he changed personel.

 

[AngeloHenriquez]

still one more then smalling or jones

When you consider Smalling didn't play professional football until 3/4 years ago, and Jones season before last was his 2nd full season, and still only getting sub appearances. Jonny's been here nearly 9 years and is 27 in Jan, whereas
Smalling is 23 and jones turned 22 this year... completely different kettle of fish

 

[Pogue Mahone]

By far the worst game I've ever seen him play, but I still think he's our best centre half.

Aye, I'd be the same. Although Jones has started the season in great form and always looked to have more potential than Evans.

The criticism in this thread after one bad game is insanely over the top. People saying hes only had a handful of good games in his entire United career. FFS...

My god he was bad last night, though...

You have to wonder how many games he's played in a back five, even in training? If he's only just back from injury and missed most of pre-season he's probably had less opportunity than any other defender to get his head round the new formation. Certainly looks that way.

 

[Nytram Shakes]

When you consider Smalling didn't play professional football until 3/4 years ago, and Jones season before last was his 2nd full season, and still only getting sub appearances. Jonny's been here nearly 9 years and is 27 in Jan, whereas
Smalling is 23 and jones turned 22 this year... completely different kettle of fish

smalling is acually 25 in november... so no kid by any imagination....but i do get your point that these players are younger and have has less chance to turn in a decent season.
but the point remanins they havn't, say they have potential to is completely different to actually doing it.

and as for lack at opportunity look at evans he has consonantly played second fiddle to vidic and ferdinand, and only really had one season where he was first choice and that season was in the top 3 or 4 center backs in the country, and then they got fit again and he went back to been heavily rotated and lost all form. so if where talking about lack of opportunities id say evans has a fairly strong case in that department

the bottom line is still in his career evans has showed a level of performance neither smaling or jones has, and for me that puts him ahead of them

 

[AngeloHenriquez]

@Nytram Shakes

Good post, I'd suggest he is our best overall defender, my problem is the level he's at and the fact he's regarded as the best, if he was a squad player, lovely. Smalling & Jones breaking through, and Jones has about 4 seasons less experience than Evans, so he is a kid in comparison and Smalling, while being 24 wasn't playing proper footbll 5 years ago, so time at the top has been 2-3 years for them and 6-7 years for Jonny, ignoring the first 2/3 years of Jonny here.

I don't think we should sell him, but typically we have 2x top class CB's, 2x young emerging centre back and 1x squad player/utlity cover and currently, I'd use him as the 1 extra, Smalling Jones as upcoming and say we need 2 to CB's, but I feel with Evans here, that won't happen.

 

[Water Melon]

A horrible day in an awful office for him last night, total collapse. Hopefully, after a win or two, he will get his confidence back. Will highly ever reach the levels of Rio, Vida or Stam it seems.

 

[Nytram Shakes]

@Nytram Shakes

Good post, I'd suggest he is our best overall defender, my problem is the level he's at and the fact he's regarded as the best, if he was a squad player, lovely. Smalling & Jones breaking through, and Jones has about 4 seasons less experience than Evans, so he is a kid in comparison and Smalling, while being 24 wasn't playing proper footbll 5 years ago, so time at the top has been 2-3 years for them and 6-7 years for Jonny, ignoring the first 2/3 years of Jonny here.

I don't think we should sell him, but typically we have 2x top class CB's, 2x young emerging centre back and 1x squad player/utlity cover and currently, I'd use him as the 1 extra, Smalling Jones as upcoming and say we need 2 to CB's, but I feel with Evans here, that won't happen.

i still think he is regarded as the best becuase he is the only defender we have who has shown that he can perform consistently at the top level, now i agree with you we probably shouldnt be in a position that evans is the best center back we have when he has only really had one top quality season, we should have bought an established quality center back, but we didnt and it dosnt look like we will.

i also think the issue of having to up and coming center backs is at some point they have got to come throu, if jones and smalling don't come through this season will they ever? probably not. so if we did buy two new cb's following your model, you couldnt really count them as up and coming, they would be simply squad players.

if you tak the argument that we have a lot of center backs already and thats why we didnt buy, and we need to sell, i certainly don't think Evans should be the firs for the chop, hands down should be smalling, i no he hasnt had a long professional career, but at nearly 25, he simply hasn't shown enough to justify any long term faith in him.

i think the answer really is very basic, we needed to buy a top 1 top quality center back for, and let the rest of them scrap for a place alongside him, if thats evans because he regains his form of 18months ago then great, and if that jones or smalling finally for filling thier promise then equally great.

of course the forgotton man in all this is Rojo, is he the reliable quality CB where crying out for? i personally have no idea, he looked a decent enough left back at the world cup does that mean he will can add some steal to the middle of our defense... absolutely no idea. But whether he is or isnt i still think our best hope for sorting out our defensive issues is evans regaining his form of 18 months ago, if that dosn't happen and we dont buy further i think our chances of top four are pretty slim.

 

[MoneyMay]

Currently 26 years old, not had a good season other than one a few years back, you'd hope he would come into his prime about now

I disagree. The revisionism in this thread is a little bit ridiculous. Evans had two good seasons (08/09 and 12/13) and one world class season (11/12). You can even throw in last season (first half when he was fit) because there's definitely a case to be made for that, as we looked much better with him in the team. That doesn't excuse his awful performance. Someone with his experience should produce much better.

I do wonder where he'll play though. Jones' aggressiveness is perfect for pressing in midfield areas; Smalling is our best defender, but evidently needs more practice on his distribution; Evans had a good pre-season, but LCB requires more mobility than he has and Blackett has surprisingly done very well. He's best suited to the middle to sweep and to start off our attacks. Either way, he doesn't scare me. He's a good defender and has the potential to become better.

 

[Bwuk]

I don't rate Evans anywhere near as highly as others it would appear.

Good on the ball, but for someone who's 26 and he looks like he needs a more experienced partner all the time. Isn't vocal enough, injury prone and to be honest, if he was at another club say Everton, I doubt we'd be happy if we were rumoured to be after him. He gets over-rated because people want him to succeed as he came through the academy.

 

[Skills]

if you tak the argument that we have a lot of center backs already and thats why we didnt buy, and we need to sell, i certainly don't think Evans should be the firs for the chop, hands down should be smalling, i no he hasnt had a long professional career, but at nearly 25, he simply hasn't shown enough to justify any long term faith in him.
i

He's already a better defender than Evans can ever hope to be. Why don't we just play Carrick at CB if ball playing ability is all that matters?

What pure defensive characteristics/attributes is Evans better at than Smalling? Genuinely, I'm baffled. He's on a completely different planet aerially, he's much quicker and much cleaner tackler. He's never been sent off for us and doesn't get stupid yellows as well. His on ball ability is a problem, but your CBs need to be good defenders first and it should be something that can be fixed. Is is Evans' mystical ability to lead and organize the defence which is somehow only present when Rio Ferdinand or Nemanja Vidic happen to be his partners?

 

[MoskvaRed]

I see the future of our defence as a signing plus Jones. That signing might be Rojo but I have not seen enough of him to comment. Evans is a fine player but has a poor injury record and, being brutally honest, is not quite good enough to be United's senior defender if they want to climb back to the top. The standard should be Pallister, Stam, Rio or Vidic. Evans would be ok playing alongside someone of that ilk but, given his frequent absences, I am not sure he is reliable enough. I appreciate Jones is also a frequent sick note but I think that is more a result of immaturity and can hopefully be removed as he learns to judge challenges better.

 

[Nytram Shakes]

He's already a better defender than Evans can ever hope to be. Why don't we just play Carrick at CB if ball playing ability is all that matters?

What pure defensive characteristics/attributes is Evans better at than Smalling? Genuinely, I'm baffled. He's on a completely different planet aerially, he's much quicker and much cleaner tackler. He's never been sent off for us and doesn't get stupid yellows as well. His on ball ability is a problem, but your CBs need to be good defenders first and it should be something that can be fixed. Is is Evans' mystical ability to lead and organize the defence which is somehow only present when Rio Ferdinand or Nemanja Vidic happen to be his partners?

id say evans is positionaly better and more reliable and while he dosnt have great orgaistional abilities the light years ahead of smalling. smalling maybe a cleaner tackler and quicker, but hes hardly played a more then one good game at a time for us since he has been here.

all our defenders have been poor for the last 18 months, but at least evans has shown he can step up and deliver at the highest regualry in the past, smalling never has.

 

[Chesterlestreet]

He was terrible, sure. He's still our best CB, though. Jones and Smalling haven't proven themselves any better, far from it. Rojo? No idea, really. I've seen him at CB a total of...one and a half times, I think. Hopefully he can go in and add something right away. We need that.

 

[Loublaze]

I've never rated Evans. Never understood why Fergie had so much faith in him, he pretty much guaranteed his future and said he'd be captain one day. I couldn't see it and I still don't. The guy is now 26 and while that's still young for a defender, I think he's hit his ceiling at OT. He's not even half the player Vidic and Rio were to United. Im not saying he's terrible, the man has had some great games in a United shirt, but he's no more to us than say Varmaelen was to Arsenal, or Skyrtel to Liverpool. That's his level.

 

[Loublaze]

He was terrible, sure. He's still our best CB, though. Jones and Smalling haven't proven themselves any better, far from it. Rojo? No idea, really. I've seen him at CB a total of...one and a half times, I think. Hopefully he can go in and add something right away. We need that.

Arguably our best CB. Look who he has for competition though, Smalling and Jones, two players who haven't been developed the right way in their natural positions and still lack experience. He should be our best CB without a shadow of doubt but that's not the case.

 

[manusteve]

Regardless of the merits of Jones, Smalling, Evans, Rojo, I think the 3-5-2 is causing unnecessary problems when we have enough trying to construct a decent midfield. So first thing is to get rid...Mr. van Gaal?

 

[Striker10]

I think Evans and Keane were guilty of giving it away in dangerous positions. It's crazy football. Just smack it down field and get back in formation. We almost gave it away 2-3 times against Mk Dons. Not good enough. Needs to make sure of his pass. I don't understand why these lads don't just smack it up field. It's not pretty but it's effective and not half as problematic as if you give it away needlessly. If the midfield switch off and our dopey lot do, suddenly we find ourselves in 1 vs 1 situations and it's just a race then.

 

[Chesterlestreet]

Arguably our best CB. Look who he has for competition though, Smalling and Jones, two players who haven't been developed the right way in their natural positions and still lack experience. He should be our best CB without a shadow of doubt but that's not the case.

Yes. And I agree. I just think the whole thing (both your assessment and mine) could be paraphrased as: We should have better central defenders. But we don't.