The irony of that is Rojo's athleticism is where he excels.
16
Season Average Rating
- Appearances
- 26
- Clean sheets
- 8
- Goals
- 1
- Assists
- 0
- Yellow cards
- 6
I don't really think van Gaal cares for nationality a great deal. If that's the case, we might have signed Clyne instead of the impending arrival of Darmian.
Truth is LVG probably rates Jones higher than Rojo. I personally prefer Rojo, but it's nothing to do with whether a player is English or not.
In terms of how comfortable he looks on the ball and his general passing competency I would rate him above all of our other cb's (not a massive amount of competition there).
He's a worse player than Jones, never mind Smalling who's quite comfortably our best CB. He's rash, gets caught out of position an awful lot and not as good with the ball as he seems to think he is. Seems to regularly feck up easy passes in his own half, a trait he shares with Evans. Gives me flashbacks of Buttner.
I'd argue he is better then Jones, In fact he is considerably better IMO. Buttner? That comparison doesn't even make sense in the slightest, Yes he wasn't too good for us last season at LB in the few games he played there but at CB he was pretty good, Hoping he will improve more this coming season to.
Flashbacks of Buttner? Where did you get that from..The tattoos and the hairstyle?
Rojo's our best centre back? When did this happen?
He scares the hell out of me when he's defending. Like Jones, eveything will be fine and he'll be having a a good game, but there's that moment of madness in him that could cause problems. The amount of times he recklessly goes to ground needs to stop.
Who said this?
Previous page.
Jones is younger and the better player. He reminds me of Buttner because they both tend to look completely clueless when they defend while really fancying themselves with the ball at their feet. Rojo was lucky Evans turned to shite for reasons unknown or he would have been 4th choice.
He scares the feck out of me when he plays.
If he doesn't have the basics of defending right, then I wonder why I'm not a footballer...
Yeah, at left back, you may have a case with his more rash style and more flat-footed defending, but in the middle, he hasn't demonstrated issues with his defending at all. The only flaws I've noticed on him in the middle is his weakness in the air and his mistakes on the ball. Otherwise, most thought that he and Smalling was our best central defensive partnership for much of last season.
I wonder too, you do have a penchant for writing essays on them.
I disagree, I see too many flaws in his defending and positioning. He wilts under any kind of pressure and is behind the play most of the times. You need to watch the first half of City games to realize what I am talking about. He is very weak aerially and his tackling is erratic. Even his much touted passing hasn't impressed me at all; has a tendency to leave the ball short or pass it to the opposition in dangerous areas.
If we are handing out the best defensive partnership award for last season, which we really shouldn't as none of them were very good, then it has to go to Smalling and Jones.
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He'll be offloaded next summer.
He gets beaten by pace many a time and his only solution for this is pulling the player back which is pointless as it will be called for sure.
He's the new Silvestre ie a fast and reasonably technically gifted player with zero positioning. We should use him as cover/competition for Shaw as LB were his lack of positioning wont bother us so much
I still think he will kick on from here. For a foreign players first season in the Premier League, I though he handled it very well. Will only improve on this season.
Some incredibly harsh and forgetful posts in this thread of late. Rojo had plenty of good games last season. He didn't convince everybody all of the time, but a brief look through the thread marks make for much better reading than some of these past few posts.
It's easy to forget that he was bought into a chaotic defence. We were switching between three and four at the back, his playing partner would change every week, Wayne Rooney was his defensive midfielder and he could barely speak a word of English.
Rojo was an understated, fairly reliable constant for much of the past season and it's likely he'll look even better next season given we'll most likely be playing with a settled defence in a better team shape.
I'm a stickler for positioning, too, and it was generally good at centre half. It would tend to go awry at full back if anything.
It's easy to forget that he was bought into a chaotic defence. We were switching between three and four at the back, his playing partner would change every week, Wayne Rooney was his defensive midfielder and he could barely speak a word of English.
Rojo was an understated, fairly reliable constant for much of the past season and it's likely he'll look even better next season given we'll most likely be playing with a settled defence in a better team shape.
I'm a stickler for positioning, too, and it was generally good at centre half. It would tend to go awry at full back if anything.
overall I agree, but this did not last even a full game
No, it's actually utter bollocks that's being spouted here. Rojo was fine for us, at times doing as good job as Smalling who was our best defender last season.
It seems some posters had a opinion on him when we bought him or based that opinion on his first couple of games and are still stuck with that opinion and wont changed it. That and they repeat same old cliches we've been hearing since last year.
Glad there are at least some people who saw what I did last season. Rojo had a decent first season and was our best centre back after Smalling.
It's not a cliché if it's true. Rojo is an undeniably rash defender who tends to get caught out of position a worrying number of times. Jones does the same, except he has more games where he looks completely imperious in defense.
He might improve or he might not. No harm in pointing out his blatant flaws in the meantime.
He might improve or he might not. No harm in pointing out his blatant flaws in the meantime.
All this stick because you want a shiny new toy......Evans is shite, have a go at him but why Rojo....McNair and Blackett ain't going to make it here, we have 3 defenders there that can/should be replaced or play out of position and Rojo ain't 1 of them.
I would be very content with our defence if consisted of Smalling, Rojo, Jones + Either an experienced defender like Ramos/Hummels/Otamendi or a young and talented defender like Stones/Rekik/?.
I would be very content with our defence if consisted of Smalling, Rojo, Jones + Either an experienced defender like Ramos/Hummels/Otamendi or a young and talented defender like Stones/Rekik/?.
I see that we agree on certain things about Rojo's defending as a central defender. However, I disagree that he has fundamental defensive flaws or poor positioning. His positioning, awareness, and reading of the game is very good as a central defender, but we don't see that often when he's a left back as he seems to play that role more like a wing back than a proper defensive full back. Yes, he's aerially weak, but I put that down to him adjusting to the league in the first season. Surely, he hasn't faced that many aerial challenges in Portugal as he's faced here, particularly as he's often played as an attacking left back during his younger years as well. His mistakes due to wilting under pressure as well as sloppiness on the ball are two things that I believe he can grow out of if, and only if, he plays more often as a central defender. If he keeps switching between left back and centre back, then he won't cut out those mistakes or sloppy passes.
I'd worry if we play him at left back more often. Rojo at left back leaves our left side quite weak and open, and whilst Rojo is decent going forward, defensively, he's inconsistent and unreliable as a left back. He's too rash and flat-footed as a left back, and his decision-making is also worse than it is when he's a central defender.
Quite often, what I've noticed of him at left back whenever he's partnered with an aggressive central defender like Otamendi is that he's unsure about whether to cover up a gap in the middle when Otamendi starts to push out wide or stay out wide and cover up the left channel. Also, you will notice that he frequently pushes up to quickly close down the left winger/wing back without even considering the risk of doing so. Finally, he's a very flat-footed defender as a left back. When marking wide players, you have to be on your toe as a full back, but Rojo seeks to win the ball immediately rather than close down the wide player's avenues before winning the ball.
I don't know who coached him to play like that as a left back, but regardless of that, he cannot be trusted to play that role reliably. I'd much rather see him as a central defender where he is more familiar and has a better understanding of how to play that role.
Lets say Rojo is caught out of position as LB. The winger will have two options ie either to cross/pass the ball or to challenge the two CBs and try to score. Having said that if he is a CB than such mistake would probably free the striker to go one to one against the keeper.
No wonder why so many young CBs are first given a chance as full backs . Its a much easier role to cover.
People need to give him a break. It was his first season in a new league. He can only improve this season and hopefully build on the glimpses of quality he has shown.
Well, yes, that's a given. However, unlike you, I believe that he's a different player as a central defender. Also, I can tell you several instances where Rojo's defensive errors at left back has caused us many problems, even more than during his stint as a central defender.
The one error as a left that sticks most in my mind is Vardy's first goal against us at the King Power Stadium. Rojo went in too early at Vardy and completely failed to win the ball. He tried to chase back, but Vardy was already past him, and his cross (yes, the ball crossed the line, but that doesn't matter) was met by Ulloa, which put the pressure back on this. Rojo diving in too early gave Leceister a break, and Rojo's mistake allowed Leceister to get the goal back. I also remember several instances as a left back in that match where he'd press on Vardy but Vardy would often beat him.
As a central defender, though, the only times I remember him causing us problems are his sloppiness on the ball, him flustering under pressure, and him losing aerial battles. I've rarely, if ever, seen him overcommit and leave a gaping hole at our back line. I've rarely seen him make mistakes that he'd make as a left back.
Wow we must have such an amazing team that a starter for Argentina who had reached two big finals within a year is just nowhere close to being good enough for us.
He'll do far less damage settling down as a LB than a CB. His mistakes would be less felt. He's a far better LB than we think and that was clearly shown with Argentina
He doesn't look comfortable at all at LB and hasn't he specifically said he sees himself as a centre back?
His worst game by far last season was when he played left back away at Leicester.
His worst game by far last season was when he played left back away at Leicester.
I just looked through the thread marks. There are very few games where he does not get slated for making a mistake or being reckless or for his poor passing or just not being able to defend.
He didn't get "slated" regularly. He's made mistakes and they have been discussed in here, but that's generally the norm in these player threads. Fellaini has had a good year yet there's a plenty of stick throughout his thread.
There was a lot of positivity around the New Year up until he got injured again. He was in solid form.
There was plenty of justified criticism even before that point which generally got shot down because he was a new toy and because crapping on Phil Jones was the trend until it became obvious that Rojo was even worse.
I don't really think that's obvious. It's just you beating that particular drum. Both of them share similar strengths and weaknesses and are around about the same level.
If you look at the match day ratings then Rojo has a season average of 6.0 and Jones has 5.9. Those seem about right to me, Rojo was slightly better than him throughout the season and he had the burden of being in a new team in a new league without any pre-season with us. Plus he had to play a few games at left back where he struggled badly. His lowest rating of the season was the 3.5 he got at left back in the Leicester game I mentioned earlier.
Your being too sensible/rational the caf don't like that
Thought he did okay myself.
Definitely a good way of comparing their performances, and you would expect Rojo to improve a lot as he settles more in his second season. My rating averages for the two players are apparently 7.0 for Rojo, 6.1 for Jones, so I consistently rated Rojo a lot higher than most people on here it seems!