He's never looked like that to be fair.
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In the latest episode of the United Hour Podcast, Nik (@Rood) is joined by CEO Duncan Drasdo and Financial Director Andy Green from the Manchester United Supporters Trust for a special episode on all things behind the scenes at Old Trafford including a brief history of MUST and their aims today, views on INEOS and Sir Jim Ratcliffe so far, and the Old Trafford regeneration.
Which is mostly what you get on a forum.
My opinion happens also to be that he is a very average defender.
Agreed. It's crazy how many seem to think he's our best defender though.
When Vidic got sat on by that Basel player, Evans came in and was top class.
Not saying he doesn't have his moments.
Evans, Smalling, Jones - they've all had periods that make you say they are excellent centerhalves or will be. It's all about taking the next step and doing that permanently, which none of them has so far. Injuries haven't helped, of course...
Yawn
Cups hand behind ear.
You should get that checked out.
Hope we can sell this guy as early as January if we get in some reinforcements.
It was basically a whole season.
He's been a big dissapointment tbh. Not entirely his fault with all his injuries but really should have stepped it up as of yet. Early signs were there.
Don't think he will ever be top class now.
Don't think he will ever be top class now.
He sure did.
I agree. He'll be 27 in a few and will soon be entering that phase of a career where players naturally get more injuries and take longer to recover from them. Let's sell now and get what we can. Probably less than 10M
You are a moron if you believe that. Look at him play when he was younger, he was good and looked like he could push on and become a very good (not world class) player. If you can't see that you are delusional.
There are lots of games for United, Sunderland and Northern Ireland that he showed his true class in. Unfortunately he has scummed to too many injuries and lacks the ability to get back inform quickly.
Criticise the post not the poster?
He's an average defender, always has been, always will be. If you weren't from Ulster, you might see it too.
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So you never believe that he once showed potential to be a very good top 4 side Centre Back?
Not since his very early days have I thought he would be good enough to be a starter week in week out for us.
Too injured too often though and when that's the case it doesn't matter how good you may or may not be anyway.
Too injured too often though and when that's the case it doesn't matter how good you may or may not be anyway.
Got it in one.
So that run of games he had beside Rio the season before last wasn't convincing?
Has he reproduced it since?
And there lies the problem.
Patches of good form mean nothing if its between long periods of absense or poor form. He's not a young player anymore.
Yes he has, the problem isn't his talent it's his injuries. Some seem to be incapable of separating the two.
I don't think anyone is incapable of separating the 2. What use is all of this talent if he's never able to show it?
Fact is he's nearly 27 and still hasn't nailed down a place in the side.
And honestly, the talent he has, some make out he's an a fecking world beater. He isn't. He's a good defender and nothing more. Certainly not good enough to justify the risk involved in continuing to rely on him.
Some fail to recognise that he has talent, when challenged, they type the same old tired shite about his injuries, or he is always at fault for us conceding goals, sometimes when he's not even playing, so yes, there are some who can't separate the two.
His injuries have let him down, it's not exactly a secret that he hasn't managed to play a consistent run of games for some time now. It's hardly his fault that he's injured is it, his recent one was after a bad challenge during the Leicester game, a game when our defence crumbled after he went off.
Of course he hasn't nailed down a place, name me a CB in the Club that has over the last few seasons? All our defenders seem to suffer from injuries, how can any player build a relationship in that scenario? Again, the problem isn't his talent it's his injury record, however some just refuse to accept that.
I'm not really interested what the cause is of his latest injury. Fact is he's injured though. Again. He has proven over time that he isn't capable of being relied upon.
So let me ask you, do you think it's wise to keep 3 CBs at the club who are so regularly injured? Presuming this answer is no (which it really should be, we can't go on like this) the do you think Evans is worth saving over Smalling and/or Jones?
For me Jones is the one with the greatest potential from those 3. I'd move on the other 2. They're both good players who may get better but we simply can't have so many injury prone players that play in the same position. It's madness.
I haven't mentioned his injuries once.
Mate last year he is the only our player who selected in UEFA starting 11 for Group stage. So it not some recognize it.
Its his injuries that let him down, if he sort out his injuries problem (which I doubt he could be) he can become great defender.
It is not like he don't have talent, problem is his injuries which let him down.
Of course the type of injury comes into it, it's not the usual type he suffers from, this time he got a kick after a decent challenge which resulted in his injury. That could happen any player.
I agree that overtime it has been proven beyond doubt that he is injury prone, unfortunately for us and him this has had a negative influence on his career, what's makes it worse is his fellow CBs suffer from the same curse. However, I'm not debating that, what I am debating is people using his injury record as a reason for labelling him a shit player.
As for keeping 3 injury prone CBs, no it's not the best idea, however at the moment we have no other option but to keep them. As good as McNair has been, any one or even two of Evans, Jones or Smalling will walk into the starting 11. If I had to get rid of one my personal choice would be Smalling, but in all honesty I wouldn't get rid of any until we have an established back four.
I would have no ill feelings if we sold Evans, however I feel he gets a very raw deal on here which he doesn't deserve. If we somehow managed to keep him injury free then we would have a fantastic player on our hands.
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Promised to be more and has had very good spells but he has now become the New Wes Brown in more than one ways.
"great defender"? That's the sort of over rating of our own players we suffer from. Are you telling me he could be in the class of the likes of Stam, Vidic and Ferdinand? No chance. He's a good defender and no more than that.
No it doesn't come into it. This one was unfortunate, so what? It's just 1 of many.
Oh and it goes without saying that I would bring replacements in before I binned them off. I would have thought something so obvious didn't need pointing out. Crickey.
If we can get money for him in January or the summer, get rid and buy some actual quality. We could keep him but he's nearly 27, and having been shite for a while, I'd rather give that spot to a young player that's not injured 24/7. God knows we're stacked in that department.
You'd be surprised
Evans will never be world class, even without the injuries. He's a solid player at best, in the class of Gary Cahill.
Ofcouse not. He will never became like vidic, Stam or Ferdinand. But that doesn't means he is waste of time.
There are not much defenders same class as vidic, stam or rio.
However one would describe Cahill for Chelsea - that's how I'd describe Evans. Similar level of player.
Do people believe Cahill's a 'great' defender? If not, then it's stretching it to say Evans is one/capable of being one.
Do people believe Cahill's a 'great' defender? If not, then it's stretching it to say Evans is one/capable of being one.
Smalling and Jones have the excuse of being played out of position a lot since they arrived at the club.
Evans doesn't have that excuse and sadly I believe he is running out of time at the club.
I can't see LVG being impressed with Evans so far, and once another CB is bought into the team, along with Rojo and the reserve lads doing well, I can see Evan being shown the exit door.
Evans doesn't have that excuse and sadly I believe he is running out of time at the club.
I can't see LVG being impressed with Evans so far, and once another CB is bought into the team, along with Rojo and the reserve lads doing well, I can see Evan being shown the exit door.
If he was the only injury prone defender in a group of 4 then I'd agree he would be worth persevering with but fact is we have 3 (three!) pernanently injured CBs and we can't go on like that. As such I believe 1 or 2 need moving on. Out of the 3 I believe Jones has the most potential so the 2 for the chop would be Evans and Smalling.
The big difference is Cahill spends more time on the pitch than in the treatment room. The same can't be said for Evans.
EDIT: According to transfermarkt Cahill has had just 1 injury in the last 4 years.