Cliched at it may sound, a lot of Evans' problems are in his head. To be a consistently good performer at the highest level you need to have incredible mental fortitude and a personality to handle and overcome adversities because even the greatest can go through some rough patches. He was a more than able deputy with Ferdinand or Vidic or Evra because they took command of the backline and that sense of confidence seeped into Jonny's game. Some of his relative defensive deficiencies were masked when they were around to mop up the slack.
But now, the roles have been reversed and Evans is expected to lead the likes of Smalling, Rojo, Jones, Shaw, Rafael, McNair as the senior-most and experienced member of our defense. Whether he has the were withal to accomplish that in the near future has to be seen. But right now, he doesn't seem to be showing any promise in that regard and it might prove to be a case of too little too late if this form continues through the season because Van Gaal has shown a ruthless streak in terms of disposing players who can't perform upto expectations. Infact I feel more secure with a central defensive partnership or Smalling or Rojo or Jones or even McNair in that order which is a rather poor reflection of Evan's current standard in all honesty.
Will he get bogged down with the Cleverley syndrome and fail to live up to his potential because of an innate inability to man up and work out the bulk of his flaws, be it technical or tactical ? Or will he overcome a barrage or criticism and take his game to another level ala the once maligned Fletcher or to a certain extent De Gea. The next few months are quite possibly make of break time for him.
I miss SAF... But Evans still hasnt woken up!