Phil Jones in midfield revisited

I thought his passing was poor at times but his sheer heart and desire was worth it's weight in gold. His passing isn't good enough to play there on a regular basis, I doubt he'll be playing in the second leg where we have to force the issue more.
 
He is excellent in marking oposition players, and isolating them. However, reading of the game isn't his best part of game, and positionally he is imature yet, and we are poor in keeping possesion when he plays in midfield. Yet, he had a good game IMO, fought like his life depends of this game.
 
I thought he was a bit of a monster tonight. It's strange seeing him played as a midfielder because he clearly isn't somebody who will fulfil that roll consistently, but what a job he did tonight breaking down Real's play. 20 years old...
 
He did a good job. There's no point looking at the things a player can't do. He gave us a bit of grit and determination. Someone who's not frightened to get stuck in. We got that from him and a lot of the players out there. At home we'd probably go with Cleverly or Anderson but we needed him out there and he did well. It's great experience for this kids anyway
 
He can do a job there, but commits far too many clumsy fouls against skilled players. At home I would like to see Carrick back in that deep role, with Cleverley and Giggs ahead of him.
 
I'd prefer us to play with 3 central midfielders if he is to play in midfield. Carrick gets too isolated on the ball without someone like Cleverley or Anderson looking for the ball.
 
did brilliant today,i was keeping a close eye on him 2nd half and every time real were coming down the wings he was busting a gut to get in front of the men coming through the middle. watch the game back without nerves and youll all be impressed by his defensive role tonight. rose to the occasion.

i do think cleverley will come in at ot.
 
Bale, Fellaini and Ronaldo. That's quite an impressive job he's done in the last month or two.
 
beergod said:
I'd prefer us to play with 3 central midfielders if he is to play in midfield. Carrick gets too isolated on the ball without someone like Cleverley or Anderson looking for the ball.
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Agree.
 
Hoofs the ball a bit more than I'd like, but such a solid performance on a big stage from such a young lad - still such a very promising player for us.
 
Oh, and to mention that Jones has now played in 7 straight games for us, the longest current streak, and behind only Rafael's 8 straight starts earlier in the season.
 
He was fantastic tonight. At 20 years old, not appearing to have the positional sense of Roy Keane when faced with Marouane Fellaini or Mesut Ozil is not exactly a surprise. Were he to be trusted there more often, he'd improve that. Fact is, he just came away from the Bernabeu getting the better result and the better of his opponent. So there is a reason why he was trusted in the first place.

He was clumsy and at times fortunate that the referee didn't mind some of his more robust challenges, but he broke up play fantastically and is great in one v one combat. Priceless for us to have.
 
I dub him super-O'Shea: a potentially world class utility player.
 
DFreshKing said:
I'd like to have seen a 20 yr old Carrick or Fletcher do that at the Bernabéu. Underrated.
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Fletcher bossed things at Highbury on his 21st birthday during the "I'll see you out there" game, in fairness. But I know what you mean.

Sometimes these players just need the opportunity. I'm glad Jones has been handed it, he's done superbly.
 
He played well tonight in his tracking duties, I still don't see him as a long term option in midfield as he's just too average on the ball, great maturity though.
 
So is he a long term solution for us in midfield? Maybe cover for Carrick? Or is he still going to take over from Rio next season at CB? The last two games he has been brilliant and I am happy Fergie went with him especially in Madrid.
 
No, he's not a long term solution in midfield. He doesn't really offer much offensively to ever be considered as a permanent option there and he's really a very good centre half. Those ideas that come once in a while about either Jones or Rooney being moved to midfield permanently are quite baffling - why move a world class forward and a potentially world class centre half to a position in which they may be decent at very best?
 
I think he's a long term option. He's certainly getting his most important games there. Been fantastic there in numerous games.

I don't see why so many people want to turn a potentially class CM into a CB.
 
RDCR07 said:
Maybe because he started off as a CB in the first place and has played almost his entire career at CB?
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Has he? He's now played central midfield for us, England and Blackburn. When he was sold to us, Sam Allardyce commented he wasn't sure where his best position was. Capello saw fit to use him as a CM. Ferguson has played him at CM a similar amount of times he's started as CB and has trusted him in CM in much more high profile games.
 
Thing is, as a centre midfield player does he offer much other than destructive qualities? He was brilliant tonight, my man of the match. But I still see his future as a centre back.
 
He reminds me of Luiz, in that (at the moment for Jones) it might be too much of a risk playing him at CB, but he's not a completely natural midfielder.

Unlike Luiz, Jones seems to be learning quickly.
 
Twigginater said:
I think he's a long term option. He's certainly getting his most important games there. Been fantastic there in numerous games.

I don't see why so many people want to turn a potentially class CM into a CB.
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Because he can't pass, not the kind of passing you need to have an effective midfield. He's useful in very defensive games where we need a destroyer, but most of the time United need to break the other side down.
 
Kid Cunto said:
Thing is, as a centre midfield player does he offer much other than destructive qualities? He was brilliant tonight, my man of the match. But I still see his future as a centre back.
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I think so. He's shown in his short career here his runs with the ball can be devastating.
 
Sojiro said:
Did a great job today - hope if he does play in the 2nd leg at OT it's at CB because we need goals and a carrick/cleverley midfield is played
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Really? If he plays you want to play at CB ahead of the four players who are better than him at the CB position currently?
 
Twigginater said:
I think so. He's shown in his short career here his runs with the ball can be devastating.
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He can certainly drive at players, completely agreed. But as a centre midfield player, particularly for a big team, does he have the vision or passing ability to play there long term?
Again, I'm not criticising, my man of the match tonight, just don't see his long term career being in midfield.
 
Kid Cunto said:
Thing is, as a centre midfield player does he offer much other than destructive qualities? He was brilliant tonight, my man of the match. But I still see his future as a centre back.
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I agree with you here. He's the sort of player who can be effective and play well in midfield sometimes, but there'll be plenty of games where he gets exposed in there too because he's poor on the ball compared to players like Scholes and Carrick who are much more comfortable. He has shown that he can play there sometimes which I was unsure of, and well done to Fergie for playing him tonight, but his long term future's definitely still as a defender in my opinion.
 
Actually reminding me of Phil Neville recently who, like Jones, was a limited player, but went through a phase with us of being dropped in midfield as a neutraliser in big games, and would turn in MotM performances. In particular, I can remember him rendering Zola completely anonymous.
 
I think at this point people need to accept that at this moment in time Fergie sees Jones more as a midfielder than anything else. I also reckon it's probably best if we don't try and presume the player he'll be when he's actually older than Ryan Giggs' career.
 
Phil Jones seems like a utility player, because his flaws prevent him from truly exceling in either role. His strengths however tend to mask those flaws and usually outweigh them as well, most significantly his ability to pull off last ditch tackles. He is a lot like Carragher imo.
 
He's got a long stride which means his acceleration is not great but he closes down with great speed. So even when his man beats him, he has exceptional recovery speed. His passing was not there but that's probably more down to the quality of the opposition
 
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