Phil Jones

Love the energy and athleticism he brings into the midfield. Big reason why we kept bale so quiet today.

A shame he didn't get help from the cavalry though (Valencia and Rooney).
 
Thought he had a good first half and was good defensively inthe second half, think though we would have been better using him as the deepest midfielder and bring in another midfielder inthe second half though. We needed to keep the ball better and I don't think he was great in that aspect today. That said it wa encouraging from him, we've not seen him play that role for us really, usually he plays an odd role in midfield, but just sitting next to carrick gave us a lot more steel than usual.
 
Was superb today totally nulified dembele and helped Rafael do a job on Bale who never kicked a ball all day. Hopefully this leads to the he can't play midfield debate. He's no Scholes granted but he is a very good young player.
 
Thought he did really well today.

Showed some nice ability with the ball as well.
 
Lawman said:
Was superb today totally nulified dembele and helped Rafael do a job on Bale who never kicked a ball all day. Hopefully this leads to the he can't play midfield debate. He's no Scholes granted but he is a very good young player.
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He can't play a 2 man midfield but certainly has a utility in the diamond or in a 3 man one.

Is good in workhorse role.
 
Surprising stat of the day:

Phil Jones made as many successful passes in the attacking third as Kagawa did
 
He's great at breaking forward from midfield and overlapping out wide, he does it every time he plays in midfield for us. Never played anything like a Makelele role. It was Carrick mopping up everything in the middle while Jones provided the energy. Did very well.
 
Very good performance. Gave plenty of evidence of his strong mentality and maturity. Still, another young lad and loads of time left to improve his football to a higher level.
 
His energy levels are brilliant, and in my opinion the only time that his lack of technical ability as a midfielder is really evident is when we're being harassed and really pressured. Definitely wouldn't mind seeing him play again in a midfield 3 as the energy man.
 
Brwned said:
He's great at breaking forward from midfield and overlapping out wide, he does it every time he plays in midfield for us. Never played anything like a Makelele role. It was Carrick mopping up everything in the middle while Jones provided the energy. Did very well.
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Cleverley and Jones both were providing energy. He works in this formation and a normal 4-3-3 the best.

It's a problem when he has to play in a midfield 2 though.
 
KM said:
Surprising stat of the day:

Phil Jones made as many successful passes in the attacking third as Kagawa did
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Source ?

Tbf, Kagawa went off in the 62nd minute or something.
 
Lawman said:
Was superb today totally nulified dembele and helped Rafael do a job on Bale who never kicked a ball all day. Hopefully this leads to the he can't play midfield debate. He's no Scholes granted but he is a very good young player.
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I still don't think he'll ever be a top midfielder and I think him being in there was one of the reasons we lost more control as the game went on.

He is a very very good young player who in my opinion is definitely a CB but is talented enough to play in a few positions.
 
Cevno said:
He can't play a 2 man midfield but certainly has a utility in the diamond or in a 3 man one.

Is good in workhorse role.
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He can't play in a two against a good team yet, but he's 20 years old. Give him a few more years to develop the technical side of his game and he'll be perfect there IMO.
 
I'm always right said:
I still don't think he'll ever be a top midfielder and I think him being in there was one of the reasons we lost more control as the game went on.

He is a very very good young player who in my opinion is definitely a CB but is talented enough to play in a few positions.
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I agree with this. Don't think he's going to develop the kind of awareness required to be a quality CM, it's not something you just pick up with a bit of practice. He was very good today and did his job perfectly, but I would be disappointed if he's seen as a long term answer in midfield.
 
Steven Seagull said:
I agree with this. Don't think he's going to develop the kind of awareness required to be a quality CM, it's not something you just pick up with a bit of practice. He was very good today and did his job perfectly, but I would be disappointed if he's seen as a long term answer in midfield.
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Awareness, vision, passing, dribbling in tight spaces. I just can't see that coming.

Can he be a Scott Parker? yeah no doubt but I think we should be aiming a little higher than that.
 
Jones 78% Passing Accuracy, Cleverley 74 %............

5 clearances for Jones. More than Any other player.

Attempted the most number of passes in our team today.

2 Dribbles. Only second to Welbeck in our team.
 
He can be a Hargreaves sort of player for us in midfield. Not sure which position he'd eventually settle at though.
 
I'm always right said:
What's funny about that?

I think the best Phil Jones can hope for as a midfielder would similar to Scott Parker, as a CB I think the World's his oyster.

But please do tell what you find so laughable?
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That the best he could become is Scott Parker level. fecking absurd given his talent.
 
I'm always right said:
Actually one of the things I didn't like about him in there today, too often he cleared as though he was a CB, no composure whatsoever on occasions where he could've taken the ball down and kept it.
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Most of the time when he had to come deep to clear, he had too hoof it as the team was not settled in front of him.

It was the same with Cleverley, when he tracked back runners.
 
Jones was evidently a CM, Cleverley and Welbeck seemed to switch between RM and LM
 
I'm always right said:
That wasn't my point. A wide man's stats are nearly always lower. Check out Clev in any game where he plays CM, he's PA is always extremely high.

And yes, Jones was playing CM.
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Joemo said:
Jones was evidently a CM, Cleverley and Welbeck seemed to switch between RM and LM
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Cleverley was playing as a CM till they switched later more permanently.

We were playing the Diamond for the most part where Jones and Cleverley were playing in front of Carrick with kagawa at the tip.

Welbeck till the second half was playing as one of the 2 upfront and drifting towards the left, as he likes to do when we play this formation.
 
I thought it was a 4411, with clev and welbeck swapping wings, def wouldn't say clev played as a cm.
 
------------Carrick----------
------------------Jones-----
Welbeck---------------------------Cleverley
----------------Kagawa----------

Jones was everywhere so was hard to place him in a certain position, although he was more offensively positioned than Carrick. Cleverley certainly wasn't a CM today though.
 
Joemo said:
------------Carrick----------
------------------Jones-----
Welbeck---------------------------Cleverley
----------------Kagawa----------

Jones was everywhere so was hard to place him in a certain position, although he was more offensively positioned than Carrick. Cleverley certainly wasn't a CM today though.
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Aye.

But obviously Danny & Tom switched wings pretty early.
 
It was the diamond for the first half. Jones made some runs towards the center right for the first 15 to 20 minutes.

Then Cleverley started to make those runs. The other CM who plays towards the left didn't have to make those runs because Welbeck drifts anyway more than RVP.

We shifted permanently in the second half before Cleverley went off. Maybe thats sticking in your mind.

Just see where they were when Spurs attacked actually.
 
I really don't think it was a diamond at all, jones was clearly closer to carrick than further away and whenever we have played the diamond the distinction between the roles of both the two central midfielders is very clear. Also considering clev and welbeck were both clearly wider players, would have been very weird to play with jones at the tip of a diamond.
 
Cevno said:
It was the diamond for the first half. Jones made some runs towards the center right for the first 15 to 20 minutes.

Then Cleverley started to make those runs. The other CM who plays towards the left didn't have to make those runs because Welbeck drifts anyway more than RVP.

We shifted permanently in the second half before Cleverley went off. Maybe thats sticking in your mind.

Just see where they were when Spurs attacked actually.
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Hmmm... who to believe? My own eyes and the popular opinion? or one man out on his own saying Cleverley played CM :confused:


Ash_G said:
I thought it was a 4411, with clev and welbeck swapping wings, def wouldn't say clev played as a cm.
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Joemo said:
------------Carrick----------
------------------Jones-----
Welbeck---------------------------Cleverley
----------------Kagawa----------

Jones was everywhere so was hard to place him in a certain position, although he was more offensively positioned than Carrick. Cleverley certainly wasn't a CM today though.
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I'm always right said:
Aye.

But obviously Danny & Tom switched wings pretty early.
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Ash_G said:
I really don't think it was a diamond at all, jones was clearly closer to carrick than further away and whenever we have played the diamond the distinction between the roles of both the two central midfielders is very clear. Also considering clev and welbeck were both clearly wider players, would have been very weird to play with jones at the tip of a diamond.
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I have no idea where he's coming up with this. As you say Clev and Welbeck were quite clearly wide players today.

In fact, just check the highlights and look at the position Jones is in in every sequence (CM) and Cleverley (RM).
 
Ash_G said:
I really don't think it was a diamond at all, jones was clearly closer to carrick than further away and whenever we have played the diamond the distinction between the roles of both the two central midfielders is very clear. Also considering clev and welbeck were both clearly wider players, would have been very weird to play with jones at the tip of a diamond.
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Huh ? Kagawa was playing on the tip. Cleverley and Jones in the middle with Carrick at the back.

We switched in the 2nd half before Cleverley went off. Maybe that's sticking in your mind.

Jones tracked Bale many times too. And Jones himself ran the Channel many times, like Cleverley. In a 4-4-2 a CM doesn't do that.
 
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