4
Season Average Rating
- Appearances
- 24
- Clean sheets
- 7
- Goals
- 0
- Assists
- 1
- Yellow cards
- 3
Carrick is rocking some nice sideburns.
wtf, is that just the picture or was he actually rocking sideburns today?I'd say probably his best game this season, some very good tackles, he still makes me antsy though.
Bar the first goal where he (and everyone else) was asleep, he was very, very good today. If he can develop his tactical awareness and calm the feck down, he will become a tremendous CB
Can't believe that some magazine didn't invite those two for a co-session to be fair.
Still can't believe how much stick he gets. He's definitely a bit of a headcase at times, but he's actually a good defender - you can see that he reads the game (hence the interceptions) and is very good 1 vs 1. He's only just turned 23, which when you consider that Mangala is older and cost £40m and doesn't understand what's even going on the football pitch, plus all the messing around with injuries and positions there is a serious player in there for us.
By all accounts a leader too and forming a good partnership with Smalling.
Played very well today, one of the best matches I can remember him having.
I thought the same. He just doesn't inspire any confidence in me whatsoever. He always looks like he's on the verge of making a horrendous mistake defensively, a horrific tackle, or hurting himself.
Yup. Good game. Really hope he's ok for Chelsea. Would be a big loss.
Its the same every match. He can play perfectly and people will just say he doesn't inspire confidence and is on the verge of a mistake because there is nothing to actually complain about so they'll complain about what looked like could have happened but didn't actually happen. He's been on the verge of getting sent off his whole career but magically has never actually been sent off. He is really good at being on the verge of stuff. May as well just call him The Verge.
He's been good lately and I hope that continues. I'm still not convinced or fully sold on him, far from it to be honest. Nevertheless he was good today after a pretty poor start.
Agree I have very little confidence in him.
I far less confidence in him than I do Smalling now. I wish he would cut out the stupid back passes, some of them are totally unnecessary and just put De Gea under pressure to clear.
Solid. Average rating in today's game really baffles me.
Very good. Our 2nd best CB. No more Rojo please. Smalling + Jones all the way.
Can't believe that some magazine didn't invite those two for a co-session to be fair.
Come on, Aguero is not even in the same league as Phil Jones here.
On the axis of the evolution of footballers since the game was invented, he is right there at the Neanderthaler era.
Turned out okay-ish today, but I do not trust him.
Turned out okay-ish today, but I do not trust him.
Awful first half, was getting torn a new one in the first 15 mins, decent second half.
So true.
Imagine applying the same logic on the other players. "Rooney was a 10/10 because he really looked like he'd score two or three times. I mean he didn't but I felt pretty certain he would."I think for the first time we are seeing the benefit of having Jones/Smalling play in central defense for the majority of the season.
Great post. Totally spot on.
He's far from great on the ball, sometimes awful. Don't think I've seen him play 'perfectly' more than a couple of times. Gets caught out of position, is slow to react on the ball, can't pass for shit. BUT when those things aren't glaringly obvious he does look reasonably solid-ish and only looks like he is on the verge of doing those things, rather than actually doing them. Like today.
Played pretty well today but I'm always nervous with him at the back. That said, I'm not totally convinced by any of our options as a long term partnership
Take out the first ten minutes, where the whole team were pretty bad and looked nervous, but after that untidy start, he was great.
You have aguero, we have jones Indeed. Loved some of his tackles today. And him venturing forward at times was great too.
You have aguero, we have jones Indeed. Loved some of his tackles today. And him venturing forward at times was great too.
I don't think he's LVG's ideal type of full back because of this. Smalling seems to have grown in confidence as the season has gone on, and as a result he regularly runs the ball out of defence beating a man and plays the ball off. Jones seems nervous to run the ball out and when he does, regularly panics, turns around and passes it back. I noticed a few chipped balls up field by him today which resulted in losing possession, where a more confident player who's more competent on the ball would have no doubt retained possession.
His lobbed balls are one of the worst parts of his game. I can't remember which game it was but I remember one in particular where we were attempting to counter multiple times with Jones being the key man involved and every time he way overhit the pass.
He also dilly dallys on the ball, as if he isn't paying attention to what is going on, then gets forced into a rushed pass, often to the keeper.
I don't even mind his wild challenges, as at least it puts the opposition on edge a bit
but most of his game isn't good enough for United and we need someone of genuine quality. I would like to see him stay as backup though.Seems the antithesis of what Louis wants from a centre-half. Seat of the pants stuff at times again today. You can see why he gets the crowd going in a way that a calm, composed, ball-playing replacement never could but in the long term, you can't see him being the answer. I'm rooting for him but I can't see it.
That's mad. Jones' use of the ball is clearly much better which is why he's the preferred choice when both are fit, and that was as evident today as it ever was. Smalling tried to dribble out with the ball once and got tackled in his own half, while Jones dribbled past players with ease in both halves. The one time he lost possession he won it back in their defensive third and started off another attack.
According to Opta the relevant stats are...
Dribbles
Smalling - 0
Jones - 2 (2nd only to Herrera)
Accurate long balls
Smalling - 1/6
Jones - 5/10
Stats can't tell you everything but if you compared their two performances side by side you'd see exactly what limerickcitykid is saying - people see what they want to see when it comes to Jones/Smalling, for some reason. It's like you're describing a performance of Jones' from 2 months ago, because Jones today was terrific against Aguero and used the ball well. It's only a couple of "dangerous" backpasses - that De Gea was in completely control of - that give the impression he somehow lacked composure.
There was nothing wrong with the back passes either. Some people are just a bit twitchy and like to blame it on Jones.
I thought him an Smalling were very nervy early in the game, especially Smalling, but they both improved and had decent games.
Jones and Smalling are starting to look very good together now.
Do people still feel unsafe with Jones in the side? I don't think he did much wrong in this match. The fact that van Gaal chose Jones to play over Rojo at the left central defensive spot (a right-footed player on the left side when a left-footed player was available?! 
) shows that Jones isn't some defensive mug that many make him out to be.
He was (surprisingly?) composed in his defensive game and handled the threat on our left side very well. In 1-on-1 situations, he bettered anyone he faced, and he never strayed too far out of position. He was also, as usual, good on the ball and was comfortable bringing it forward. My only gripe with him in this match was that he looked to play a long pass to the left side far too often when it wasn't always available, but other than that, I don't think he did much wrong.
Comparing this Jones to Jones when he first came here, you can really see how far he's developed, overall. He's more composed and calculated, and he reads situations better than he did back then when he was just basically playing purely on his instincts.
) shows that Jones isn't some defensive mug that many make him out to be.He was (surprisingly?) composed in his defensive game and handled the threat on our left side very well. In 1-on-1 situations, he bettered anyone he faced, and he never strayed too far out of position. He was also, as usual, good on the ball and was comfortable bringing it forward. My only gripe with him in this match was that he looked to play a long pass to the left side far too often when it wasn't always available, but other than that, I don't think he did much wrong.
Comparing this Jones to Jones when he first came here, you can really see how far he's developed, overall. He's more composed and calculated, and he reads situations better than he did back then when he was just basically playing purely on his instincts.
He had a good game today, but i thought his positioning for the first goal was poor.
slightly underhit pass to de gea before our goal but aart that and maybe first 10 minutes when all team looked shaky he was great. Very good defending for Aguero counter and other good tackles and used the ball well too.. I was little bit worried with citeh's counters as Aguero and Navas are speedy feckers but we did well and god that Valencia sprint to Aguero was brilliant it looked like certain goal if he had a better touch on it and passed the baal infront of goal.. but We did well to stop them overall even Aguero scored two goals in the end. It was crazy game and it happens..
He's better on the ball than Sol Campbell ever was, imo. Jones has all the potential to be a world class centreback. Smalling, too.
Phil Jones is the perfect example of how Redcafe reacts almost on a match by match basis.
If he isn't one of the weaker players (not literally, obviously with him being a bulldozer) in the team then I guess we don't need to bother with any transfers this summer. When you think about who should be improved upon, I don't think anyone is any worse than him, and yet most people want to see an improved squad?
If he isn't one of the weaker players (not literally, obviously with him being a bulldozer) in the team then I guess we don't need to bother with any transfers this summer. When you think about who should be improved upon, I don't think anyone is any worse than him, and yet most people want to see an improved squad?
Have to say I was nervous watching him today, we weren't troubled that much at the back yet he seemed to be stretching and lunging a lot of the time, the team as a whole looked composed for most of the game but he looked out of place with and without the ball.