[Lou-is Red]

He clearly showed us he is a stand in left back and when he played quite well at cb. Considering it was his first season in a new country he did well, although his spell in russia would of helped, even england is warmer than russia

 

[TheCorkman]

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.

People here just get notions and refuse to budge(see Roone worshipers and the other extreme who think he's worthless, Carrick, Kagawa, Nani and so forth). Rojo has lots of tattoo's,bad hair and is an aggressive defender so therefore is rash and makes mistakes. People don't seem to realise that there are more was to defend than sitting deep and backing off. When I was being coached we were often told to get touch-tight and don't allow the striker to turn, whilst the other CB covered. Here, Jones or Rojo usuall press higher and Smalling covers a lot but people don't notice at all. Rojo had bad games and made mistakes, but overall was solid. At the least he'll make a good backup for LB/CB in future seasons.

 

[Insanity]

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 do not agree with that statement at all. From what I saw, he struggled with those aspects in each and every game he started in the position.

About his aerial weakness, I don't believe that is due to him not coming to terms with the physicality of the league. In fact, that is one aspect that I believe he doesn't have any problems in dealing. I find both him and Blackett as extremely poor headers of the ball.

I hardly ever saw him for Sporting, so cannot comment on that.

He didn't have to switch back and forth from LB to CB, he mainly played as a CB before he got injured. Don't think it had anything to do with how he came across as a defender.

I hope you are right and he adjusts to the league, as no one likes 20m duds. Though, I doubt it is going to happen. Jones superseded him as the "L"CB towards the tail end of last season, and as things point, we are looking to sign another player to play the position.