I thought he played well but he did have a few more bad moments today. One where he missed a header by miles up the pitch and Pool had a good attack.
4
Season Average Rating
- Appearances
- 26
- Clean sheets
- 10
- Goals
- 1
- Assists
- 0
- Yellow cards
- 3
- Status
He made a mistake before the corner, but this is reminiscent of Evra being blamed for our defense not being able to handle any cross or free kick or corner from his side. It's ridiculous. It's not exactly Jones' fault that Pogba suffered a major brainfart. For the majority of the match, he handled himself quite well, but it was no more than an average performance, it I think the Liverpool players would imagine they could get something from him if they pressed him or ran at him. His first average match of the season.
He was the one who went down like a deck of cards under little pressure when Giroud headed in the equalizer at Old trafford
That had nothing to with Arsenal equalising, though. It was already over his head. I honestly think that he tried to con the ref and win the foul.
A game when his good being cancelled by his bad. My main gripe with our team as a whole is the lack of communication which we saw previously game with this same group of players. Weird since L'pool was not all that good this game and for some reason our players being both nervous and slow at the same time.
With regards to the mistake, yes it was a mistake, but Rojo bailed him out for it. We got back into good position to defend a set piece. The handball happened however. Dont think it goes down on him. (even if people want to say indirectly its his fault). Its not even the same phase of play.
Biggest frustration. I understand when hes running backwards and needs to use the keeper, but hes facing up field, does a 180 turn, passes it to DDG then waits for the keeper to deal with it (and doesnt really move into space).
Agreed. One mistake aside, hes been really good defending.
I like Jones and hope he makes it here, but it still feels like Rojo is the one holding the defence together. When Bailly gets back I expect Jones to move to the bench.
Jones is 25 soon, in the next few years we should see the final article as a player. His peak years are still ahead of him.
He just has a tendancy to do really dumb shit... It's as if he decided to steal the attribute from Rojo, which means Rojo now has to be the sensible one.
Let's ignore the criticism about his defending yesterday, but you seriously disagree he doesn't pass the ball back too much and often puts our other players to pressure because of his shit passes?
I think he's been excellent this season with almost none of the flaws that seem to be bothering you but had a difficult game yesterday, which wasn't helped by most of his usual passing options in midfield playing really poorly. Which is why you haven't been able to complain about all these "shit passes" until his last 90 minutes of football. Unless you can show me some quotes where you've brought this up as an issue before now?Let's ignore the criticism about his defending yesterday, but you seriously disagree he doesn't pass the ball back too much and often puts our other players to pressure because of his shit passes?
This place is incredible. One small mistake and not only is the conclusion that he had a shit game (Which is a big steaming pile of rubbish) but that he's always shit in big games (lol), lacks intelligence, always passes backwards, is shit in the air etc..
Weird how @Amar__ is so angry at a few back passes from Phil Jones but made a thread yesterday hailing Herrera as our best player. Herrera's long passing was brutal yesterday only 2 of 11 long passes found their target. They were not percentage Rojo style hoofs either, he was mostly trying to pass directly to players. That is 9 times that Herrera turned over needless possession, that isn't counting failed short passes or dispossession's either.
Jones had an average to good game yesterday for me. He did have a few too many errors but also got through a lot of good work, just like the vaunted Herrera.
Jones had an average to good game yesterday for me. He did have a few too many errors but also got through a lot of good work, just like the vaunted Herrera.
I would also wonder whether Jones was looking for De Gea more and more as the game went on under instructions from the manager. With our midfield struggling we clearly decided to bypass them and it's always easier for a keeper to launch one towards Ibra/Fellaini that it is for a central defender. Big Dave's distribution from the back was top class all afternoon.
Because Herrera was never praised for his long passing and was pretty much our best player anyway, while people spent entire last week saying how they expect Smalling to play against Liverpool and make big mistakes, and saying how shit Smalling's distribution is in comparision with Jones' and Rojo's despite those two making worse distribution yesterday than Smalling probably did in any game this season.
It was because I was mostly talking about yesterday's performance. I hardly mentioned it before because it was never that much annoying as yesterday, even though he probably does it more than our any other defender in general. Many people obviously thought the same, you can see many here complaining about his backpasses yesterday.
And looks like I am right anyway:
http://www.squawka.com/comparison-m...y/728/728/16605/38/p#total_backward_passes#90
I don't overly rate him, don't see a future for him here.
He was shaky and unnerving, there's no two ways about it.
His positioning was all over the place at times, didn't look confident on the ball, kept passing it to DDG and often slowing down play - it wasn't just one mistake.
If that was Smalling out there, pitch forks would be out for him to be dropped and sold to West Ham.
His positioning was all over the place at times, didn't look confident on the ball, kept passing it to DDG and often slowing down play - it wasn't just one mistake.
If that was Smalling out there, pitch forks would be out for him to be dropped and sold to West Ham.
I would keep him as back up with Smalling.
Rojo and Bailly first choice
Rojo and Bailly first choice
What kind of response is that?
I actually praised him few times for this season, I think he's been our best defender for two or three months now, I have no idea what your stats have to do with the discussion about his backpasses. Stats I showed clearly puts him well above our any other defender when it comes to backpasses.
Not really. He makes 10 more passes than Smalling per game, in total, so the 7 additional back passes isn't that big a deal. That's what I mean by context.
Bailly and Rojo do both make a smaller % of backward passes but lose out to Jones in other areas.
Maybe but that doesn't make your criticism of Jones any less over the top.
The Jones/Smalling thing is one of those standard redcafe splits, with two camps on either side of the split. If/when one of them has a bad game (or makes a mistake) they get it in the neck from people who think their favourite has been harshly treated in the past. Which is what I suspect you're doing here. If Smalling had put in an identical peformance to Jones I think the general rating would be that he had an average game but could do better. Along with a few Jones fans saying he was diabolical.
I don't think it's that clear cut.
Jones has been playing very well this season and I've always said that I hope it continues because it's been needed for us as a club defensively, but also him because I quite like him.
However yesterday he played quite a few levels below the average he's been playing this season. He was shaky, and unnerving at times luckily Liverpool didn't pose much of a threat and often times when they did, Rojo was there to provide cover. I don't think that's over the top at all.
He did pass the ball to DDG far too often too, this is also a criticism that Smalling has faced recently, I personally don't mind a defender who would rather pass back to the keeper, especially since DDG is so comfortable with his feet. But since the game has evolved and ball-playing defenders are sought-after, this is another area where he wasn't as good as he has been this season. Again, I don't think that's over the top.
I didn't say it was a terrible performance, average seems about quite right. But we have 4 defenders competing for 2 spots therefore criticism is going to be more common.
That's still not small difference. He also makes far less passes per game than Bailly and Rojo and is still far ahead of them when it comes to back passes. Again, showing the bigger picture didn't save him much. So it's a big deal. Just to be clear, 36% of his passes are back passes, that is obviously too much. Smalling is on 25%, Rojo is on 21%, and Bailly is on 17%.
Also, yesterday's game was great example without just looking at stats(we should stop using these stats, I hate them, altough they can be helpful) that he should stop doing that because he put lot of pressure on de Gea and other players(couple of times on rojo and Valencia too). He quite clearly is the worst in the team when it comes to back passes, so if people really want to blame Smalling for his passing they shouldn't really praise Jones at all for it because he looks to be even worse than him at that, that's the only point I wanted to make.
Stoke 1:1 Man Utd
He was alright but looks more comfortable with Rojo.
Thought he didn't take enough responsibility with the ball. Didn't follow the match day thread but what are other's opinions on this?
Rojo and Bailly are our best central defenders in terms of all-out defence and passing ability. Two most important aspects for our team and style.
Rojo and Bailly are our best central defenders in terms of all-out defence and passing ability. Two most important aspects for our team and style.
Hull City 2:1 Man Utd
I thought he was pretty fecking shite today.
Meh he didn't look particularly good but either did Smalling.
Definitely. Contender for worst player today, along with Darmian.
Smalling looked worse with the ball but he was nowhere near bad defensively as Jones. Jones made a mess out of everything he touched today.
Should have used tonight to get the Jones-Rojo partnership a 90 minutes in my opinion. Changing CB pairings most weeks can't help
I didn't think either looked comfortable whatsoever, to be honest. I couldn't call either performance anything more than below par.
I agree. Jones doesn't exactly bring calmness. He's all over the place at times. Uses the ball slightly better than Smalling but that isn't saying much.
Not sure stats would agree that he uses the ball better though.
Today was Jones' worst game of the season. He's been very good for the rest of the season, so hopefully it's just a blip. I'm not convinced about him aerially inside the box though.
Stats probably don't. But in reality he attempted and completed passes Smalling is incapable of. Only 1 or 2 mind. And Smalling was better defensively imo.
Was poor. Jones Rojo is our best combo. We need that back.
The weird thing though is that Smalling has proven that he can actually pass the ball pretty well at times and that he can drive with the ball well. However this season he has looked bereft of those qualities. I think it has something to do with him, obviously, but also our midfield and the way we are set up. Sometimes Hull looked to have two players more than we did. They manage to press us high up the field without us being able to outnumber them in the middle of the park or have numbers up front to counter. It truly was a terrible display.
Thought he was the best of a bad bunch in the back line tonight. Still poor though.
That's true. He was the best but feck me thst's not saying much.
I thought he was awful tonight, spent most of the game spooning the ball out of play under no pressure.
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