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2018-19 Performances


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5.0 Season Average Rating
Appearances
24
Clean sheets
6
Goals
0
Assists
1
Yellow cards
1
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To be fair how long he has been at the club is pretty irrelevant. He is still just 26 and if he can stay injury free; 26 is very young for a CB and he still has plenty of time to develop into what most people thought he would be. He is one year older than Maguire for fecks sake.
People have not given up on him because they believe he is too old. People who don’t like him believe he has underperformed most of the time the last eight years. And to give someone the chance for eight years in one of the worlds largest clubs, is not “to have already given up on him”. Would say it is the opposite.

So the eight years are very relevant.
 
He’s shit. Bottles it in every big game, he’s had enough time to prove himself at this point. Sell him
 
To be fair how long he has been at the club is pretty irrelevant. He is still just 26 and if he can stay injury free; 26 is very young for a CB and he still has plenty of time to develop into what most people thought he would be. He is one year older than Maguire for fecks sake.

I mean, no it isn't.

It's incredibly relevant.

You shouldn't be given 8 years at a top club when you're as injury prone and mediocre as Phil Jones is.

How many years do you think he should get before we can say he isn't good enough? Another 8 years?

Do we need to wait for him to cost us another cup final before we let him go?
 
100k a week is nothing in todays market.

This is factually untrue - £100k a week is still a huge salary for all but maybe 15 clubs on the planet. Spurs for example only have two players who're on this kind of salary in Kane and Lloris. Likewise it would make him one of the highest paid players at clubs like Dortmund or A.Madrid.

You dont have to use phones as examples when you can just look at the numbers for Jones himself to make my point:
Say that we give Jones a 100k a week contract and keep him for 2 years and then move him on. Anything over 10m in transfer fee will then be pure profit and we will have paid nothing for a completely OK squad player during two years and actually turned a profit on the deal

The point is in two years time and on £100k a week we'd struggle to get £10m for a 29 year old, injury prone Phil Jones. Simply because he'd be looking for at least a 4 year deal on at least the same salary. You'd have to be an absolute nutcase in this context to make Phil Jones one of your highest paid players... Not least because every other player would be knocking on your door asking for at least the same.

I estimated his transfer value to 30-40m and I still think thats more reasonable than 10m when you look at comparable English players in his age group. No way that Maguire, who is just one year younger is worth 70m and Jones not even half of that. IMO.

Jones transfer value is possibly £10-15m given his current salary, injury record and age. If you can give me an example of a defender of a similar ability and age to Phil Jones moving clubs at anything close to a £65m package then I'll cede the point. The truth is there is none. Similar players who're mid table quality but on a large salary like Jonny Evans moved to Leicester for a £3.5m.

Even 20m in two years would be a fecking awesome deal since it would mean making a 10m profit including two years of service.
Buying a new player to replace him and putting him on the same wage would be minus from the first day.
It should be easy to understand the financial incitament to keep Jones in the squad and spend that money that he would actually save us elsewhere.

It'd be an absolutely terrible deal at £20m as the package would be £45m which is a huge package for a mid table centre back (assuming you agree the top 6 wouldn't be interested).

In terms of buying a new player we could have bought Evans back for £3.5m in the Summer. But the argument in general is a complete straw man as we wouldn't be looking for a mediocre mid table centre back. We'd be looking for a world class centre back that would of course cost much more as they'd be much better.
 
He’s played well over 200 matches for us. Perhaps I haven’t seen them all, but certainly have seen at least 160-170 of those, so it’s quite enough to make judgement.

He is simply a weak defender. Not strong in the air, prone to conceding penalties or scoring an own goal, lacks positional sense, never scores and is made of glass more or less. There is no chance he will ever reach high enough level required of a Man Utd calibre player.

What he has is a will to play for the club, absolutely. But, unfortunately, this is not enough, and provided he is not a young player anymore (but rather in his prime years), there won’t be material improvement to his footballing skill in the future.
 
OBITUARY
for
Phil Jones,
Man United player 2011-2019

May his look turn.

He has had spells were he was undroppable, but injuries and injuries have had its cost on his overall level, seeing him far more often under par and sometimes being a major liability of the team. There were times he was loved and cherished, but every story has its end.

Next season, with a more stable duo a centreback, his place in the squad should be occupied by someone like Tuanzebe, or any other promising English defender. Pretty much the Phil Jones that was bought in 2011.

According to Wikipedia Jones has got twelve matches this season, where he has failed to convince anyone that he can play at the level United should expect of him, and a level he has reached before in his career. Someone like Tuanzebe should be given something like ten till twenty games and not the Phil Jones of today. Although one can argue the quality of Smalling, he is far more reliable than Jones, and should be the third option behind said desired centreback duo.

I have always been a fan of Phil Jones, and will always remember his potential, drive and energy, but this summer is the time he should move on and hope to rebuild somewhere else in a midlevel team in the Premier League.

Forever in our memories.
 
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If he'll stay, he's going to be one of reasons Liverpool will catch on with the titles as they cleared out their Charlie Adams, Downings and Shelveys some time ago while United's officials still sit on their arse in 2019 and there is not even a clarity if he really leaves or getting a shiny new contract like Fellaini.

It's just sad.
 
This is factually untrue - £100k a week is still a huge salary for all but maybe 15 clubs on the planet. Spurs for example only have two players who're on this kind of salary in Kane and Lloris. Likewise it would make him one of the highest paid players at clubs like Dortmund or A.Madrid.



The point is in two years time and on £100k a week we'd struggle to get £10m for a 29 year old, injury prone Phil Jones. Simply because he'd be looking for at least a 4 year deal on at least the same salary. You'd have to be an absolute nutcase in this context to make Phil Jones one of your highest paid players... Not least because every other player would be knocking on your door asking for at least the same.



Jones transfer value is possibly £10-15m given his current salary, injury record and age. If you can give me an example of a defender of a similar ability and age to Phil Jones moving clubs at anything close to a £65m package then I'll cede the point. The truth is there is none. Similar players who're mid table quality but on a large salary like Jonny Evans moved to Leicester for a £3.5m.



It'd be an absolutely terrible deal at £20m as the package would be £45m which is a huge package for a mid table centre back (assuming you agree the top 6 wouldn't be interested).

In terms of buying a new player we could have bought Evans back for £3.5m in the Summer. But the argument in general is a complete straw man as we wouldn't be looking for a mediocre mid table centre back. We'd be looking for a world class centre back that would of course cost much more as they'd be much better.
I hope and think we will sign Koulibaly in the summer. This is where we disagree though.
The question is not between Koulibaly and Jones.
The question is between Jones and another 4th-5th CB. I dont see a better and cheaper squad CB on the market. With the perks of being that experienced at a young age and homegrown as well.
I dont know if Jones will be a United player in two years. It was never my point that we should rely upon him as a starting CB for the next 5 years.
I am trying to argue the point that this summer - if not now - Darmian, Rojo and probably at least one of Young and/or Valencia will leave. If we bring Tuanzebe back and buy one top CB = Koulibaly its still at least one more squad place to fill in defense. I would hope that would be a new experinced FB.
Then we would have Dalot and Tuanzebe as young prospects in defense which IMO is plenty.
Just this squad makeover would cost us a lot of money in wages and we need to spend in midfield especially as well.
And this is without getting rid of Jones.
I just dont see the point to get rid of Jones as well this summer when it would actually cost us money, not the other way around. The money is better spent elsewhere.
You are reasoning without thinking about our squad and wage bill as a whole, as many other here.
 
This is factually untrue - £100k a week is still a huge salary for all but maybe 15 clubs on the planet. Spurs for example only have two players who're on this kind of salary in Kane and Lloris. Likewise it would make him one of the highest paid players at clubs like Dortmund or A.Madrid.



The point is in two years time and on £100k a week we'd struggle to get £10m for a 29 year old, injury prone Phil Jones. Simply because he'd be looking for at least a 4 year deal on at least the same salary. You'd have to be an absolute nutcase in this context to make Phil Jones one of your highest paid players... Not least because every other player would be knocking on your door asking for at least the same.



Jones transfer value is possibly £10-15m given his current salary, injury record and age. If you can give me an example of a defender of a similar ability and age to Phil Jones moving clubs at anything close to a £65m package then I'll cede the point. The truth is there is none. Similar players who're mid table quality but on a large salary like Jonny Evans moved to Leicester for a £3.5m.



It'd be an absolutely terrible deal at £20m as the package would be £45m which is a huge package for a mid table centre back (assuming you agree the top 6 wouldn't be interested).

In terms of buying a new player we could have bought Evans back for £3.5m in the Summer. But the argument in general is a complete straw man as we wouldn't be looking for a mediocre mid table centre back. We'd be looking for a world class centre back that would of course cost much more as they'd be much better.
It might have been two-three years ago. Not anymore. You cant compare the wages that Spurs players are on when those contracts were signed years ago. Watch Spurs losing Eriksen, Aldeweireld and maybe even Vertonghen this summer because of this; and still be forced to at least increase their wage bill with 50% to replace them. You cannot compare players on old contracts with todays market and 100k is not and will not be a big salary for a PL-club going forward because of the TV-money.
 
The pitch at OT isn't natural grass eh? A shame if that's the case. I know they use hybrids, but nothing matches real soil and grass.
 
To be fair how long he has been at the club is pretty irrelevant. He is still just 26 and if he can stay injury free; 26 is very young for a CB and he still has plenty of time to develop into what most people thought he would be. He is one year older than Maguire for fecks sake.
How many more times do we have to read "if he can stay injury free"?!? He can't stay injury free ffs
 
To be fair how long he has been at the club is pretty irrelevant. He is still just 26 and if he can stay injury free; 26 is very young for a CB and he still has plenty of time to develop into what most people thought he would be. He is one year older than Maguire for fecks sake.

Wish i had a £ for every time thats been written on the Caf about Jones since 2011.

He's been injury prone his whole career, thats unlikely to change.
 
How many more times do we have to read "if he can stay injury free"?!? He can't stay injury free ffs

I'll back you up here. His injury history is just mental.

hpfaasio916136uzg.jpg

Source

119 games or 662 days missed due to injury!
 
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Maybe those who take a punt on Rossi can do the same for him?
 
I hope and think we will sign Koulibaly in the summer. This is where we disagree though.
The question is not between Koulibaly and Jones.
The question is between Jones and another 4th-5th CB. I dont see a better and cheaper squad CB on the market. With the perks of being that experienced at a young age and homegrown as well.
I dont know if Jones will be a United player in two years. It was never my point that we should rely upon him as a starting CB for the next 5 years.
I am trying to argue the point that this summer - if not now - Darmian, Rojo and probably at least one of Young and/or Valencia will leave. If we bring Tuanzebe back and buy one top CB = Koulibaly its still at least one more squad place to fill in defense. I would hope that would be a new experinced FB.
Then we would have Dalot and Tuanzebe as young prospects in defense which IMO is plenty.
Just this squad makeover would cost us a lot of money in wages and we need to spend in midfield especially as well.
And this is without getting rid of Jones.
I just dont see the point to get rid of Jones as well this summer when it would actually cost us money, not the other way around. The money is better spent elsewhere.
You are reasoning without thinking about our squad and wage bill as a whole, as many other here.

Jones isn't reliable enough to be 4th or 5th choice. If we had say Koulibaly, Lindelof & Smalling as our first choices... If two of those were injured the chances are Jones would be out at the same time so he absolutely could never be a backup option. Therefore any cost incurred by having Jones on the books is a dead cost.

For backup players we should be looking at players similar to Dalot. No history of being injury prone. Low salary and transfer fee due to age. Huge upside if they perform well, little downside if they don't as they're a backup only. The likes of Tuanzebe, TFM, Dalot etc fit this bill perfectly. Rojo/Jones absolutely do not.

It might have been two-three years ago. Not anymore. You cant compare the wages that Spurs players are on when those contracts were signed years ago. Watch Spurs losing Eriksen, Aldeweireld and maybe even Vertonghen this summer because of this; and still be forced to at least increase their wage bill with 50% to replace them. You cannot compare players on old contracts with todays market and 100k is not and will not be a big salary for a PL-club going forward because of the TV-money.

The closest player to Jones I've seen these last few years in Jonny Evans literally left this Summer for £3.5m. The market has changed dramatically for top end players like Erikson and Alderweireld but it hasn't changed drastically at the bottom end where Jones would be marketing himself. Huddersfield, Newcastle, Cardiff, Brighton, Watford etc aren't paying anyone £100k a week and if they were they'd be looking for a player they would see as an absolute game changer (see Palace and Benteke).

Happy for you to let me know who these mediocre, injury prone, mid-table centre backs are that are not only earning £100k a week... But have also been transferred for anything like £40m as I've certainly seen none. Hell I'd accept an example of someone on that salary alone, let alone the ridiculous fee on top.
 
Jones isn't reliable enough to be 4th or 5th choice. If we had say Koulibaly, Lindelof & Smalling as our first choices... If two of those were injured the chances are Jones would be out at the same time so he absolutely could never be a backup option. Therefore any cost incurred by having Jones on the books is a dead cost.

For backup players we should be looking at players similar to Dalot. No history of being injury prone. Low salary and transfer fee due to age. Huge upside if they perform well, little downside if they don't as they're a backup only. The likes of Tuanzebe, TFM, Dalot etc fit this bill perfectly. Rojo/Jones absolutely do not.



The closest player to Jones I've seen these last few years in Jonny Evans literally left this Summer for £3.5m. The market has changed dramatically for top end players like Erikson and Alderweireld but it hasn't changed drastically at the bottom end where Jones would be marketing himself. Huddersfield, Newcastle, Cardiff, Brighton, Watford etc aren't paying anyone £100k a week and if they were they'd be looking for a player they would see as an absolute game changer (see Palace and Benteke).

Happy for you to let me know who these mediocre, injury prone, mid-table centre backs are that are not only earning £100k a week... But have also been transferred for anything like £40m as I've certainly seen none. Hell I'd accept an example of someone on that salary alone, let alone the ridiculous fee on top.
Terrible comparison. Evans hade a release clause when West Brom got relegated. His estimated market value was around 15m according to Transfermarkt. Which kind of proves my point since he is 4 years older than Jones as well.
I feel I am starting to repeat myself one too many times in this thread but I ill say it again: I dont want us to switch out half of the defensive squad this summer.
It will be expensive as feck and we will have major adaptation issues..
And we wont either.
There is no way that all of Darmian, Valencia, Rojo, Jones and Young leaves in one summer. Neither should they.
One also has to factor in that a player like Bailly maybe wants to leave.
The money needs to be spent elsewhere.
Jones is the obvious candidate to keep around because of his age, homegrown-status, upside if he can stay injury free and relatively cheap wages. For this summer mind you.
I said 100k just for arguments sake btw, I would not be surprised if he signs for a ltb less.
He also seems to want to stay at United which in itself is another argument for giving him a new contract and keeping around for at least a year more.
Also: I would be more negative towards Jones if his injuries were recurring ones. They are not though. Dude has been quite unlucky and you could easily make the argument that he is due some luck now as well.
Im staying out of this thread for a while now.
 
I'll back you up here. His injury history is just mental.

hpfaasio916136uzg.jpg

Source

119 games or 662 days missed due to injury!
Its mental mostly because of the fact that he has never had a real long-term injury and still missed that amount of games in total.
His high-score is 59 days. Thats not much at all.
Aldeweireld missed 129 days with a hamstring injury last year for example. More than double Phils high-score.
An ACL-tear will keep you out even longer than 129 days
That his three latest injuries are hamstrings is worrysome though even if they all three together has kept him out less than Toby´s one hamstring tear.
 
Also: I would be more negative towards Jones if his injuries were recurring ones. They are not though. Dude has been quite unlucky and you could easily make the argument that he is due some luck now as well.
Im staying out of this thread for a while now.

Its not about luck. If a player constantly injures himself, he is either built weakly, has trained in a poor way or plays very recklessly.
 
There we have it, people who argue even against his injury record are out now.

He is really the new Anderson. To be fair Anderson being the funny one in the dressing room is still better argument than any we've heard about Jones, I am not sure his teammates like him that much either.
 
There is no way that all of Darmian, Valencia, Rojo, Jones and Young leaves in one summer. Neither should they.
One also has to factor in that a player like Bailly maybe wants to leave.

Via keeping mediocre players, you could only get mediocre results at best. Perhaps based on performance Young could stay as cover for one more season (unless we sign a new full back), but the likes of Valencia, Rojo and Jones should most certainly leave or be sold. Then, especially if some others like Fellaini and McTominay are also off, there will be room for new and better players, as well as for best academy talent.

It is wrong strategy to keep players only because they have been here for several years, showing nothing. Much more efficient is to dispose of and look for other options
 
There we have it, people who argue even against his injury record are out now.

He is really the new Anderson. To be fair Anderson being the funny one in the dressing room is still better argument than any we've heard about Jones, I am not sure his teammates like him that much either.
He has missed 18 games this season and the last one.
Aldeweireld missed 29 games in the same period.
Go back one season more its 41 - 38 in Jones deficit. So he missed three games more than Aldeweireld for the last two and a half seasons.
EDIT
Kompany also missed 41 games during this period so he ties Philip.
 
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He has missed 18 games this season and the last one.
Aldeweireld missed 29 games in the same period.
Go back one season more its 41 - 38 to Jones deficit. So he missed three games more than Aldeweireld for the last two and a half seasons.

Yeah, it's a shame Alderweireld isn't playing yet for us, otherwise those stats wouldn't be completely pointless since this is Phil Jones thread.
 
Yeah, it's a shame Alderweireld isn't playing yet for us, otherwise those stats wouldn't be completely pointless since this is Phil Jones thread.
Since he is one of the most hyped to "replace" Jones its quite relevant I think. No one is calling him injury prone. But we love to beat on our own players with a stick.
 
There is no way that all of Darmian, Valencia, Rojo, Jones and Young leaves in one summer. Neither should they.
One also has to factor in that a player like Bailly maybe wants to leave.

We could easily lose 4 of those without too much disruption, i'd keep Young and shift the other 4. Rojo and Jones basically only count as one player anyway seeing as they both keep getting themselves injured. So we'd really only be losing 3 players, Darmian has barely played the last 2 seasons so he will be no great loss to squad depth. Same with Valencia he's barely played this season and is pretty much done at the top level. Our defence could look something like this.

Dalot-Smalling- New CB-Shaw
Young-Bailly-Lindelof-New LB

With Tuanzebe and Mensah to fill in here and there when needed.

We should get £8-10m for Darmian, £8-10m for Rojo and hopefully find a PL club willing to pay £10-15m for Jones. Raising £26-35m and probably saving the club about £260-300k per week in wages. The stockpiling of average and/or injury prone defenders needs to be stopped. The squad should be leaner in terms of senior pros on mid level wages, with academy players getting more games as back-up.
 
The pitch at OT isn't natural grass eh? A shame if that's the case. I know they use hybrids, but nothing matches real soil and grass.

Hybrid turf is the most advanced pitch system in world at the moment. The artificial fibers only covers 3% of the whole pitch. The use of the AF is to solidify the grass to the ground which makes it harder to deteriorate.
 
For me it's a close call, but the call should be to offload Jones in the summer, provided we can find a club willing to take him.

Without any doubt whatsoever, he can't be relied to play an entire season without suffering a serious injury. He's a decent fourth or fifth option and I'll give him credit for solid performances recently, but we can do better with Tuanzebe and Fosu-Mensah coming through the pipeline to replace Jones.

Still need a proper CB to partner with Lindelof, who's been very impressive this season.
 
Any idea how much a title winning CB who's willing to play back up would cost us? Jones can* also play RB or DM in a pinch. We should invest in a world class CB and not worry about the Jones situation for another couple of years.

David May is a title winning centre back, he's actually won more than Jones. So i'm not sure what relevance that has, especially as Jones only started 14 league games the season he won the League. Not far above the bare minimum number of games to qualify for a medal.

As for how much he would cost, given his injury record, his ability and how little time is left on his contract. If he were at another club then either free or £10-15m if his current club triggered a one year extension. Jonny Evans has won 3 titles, he'd be a decent back up and we could have got him for a decent price £10-25m at any point in the last 2-3 years.
 
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David May is a title winning centre back, he's actually won more than Jones. So i'm not sure what relevance that has, especially as Jones only started 14 league games the season he won the League. Not far above the bare minimum number of games to qualify for a medal.

As for how much he would cost, given his injury record, his ability and how little time is left on his contract. If he were at another club then either free or £10-15m if his current club triggered a one year extension. Jonny Evans has won 3 titles, he'd be a decent back up and we could have got him for a decent price £10-20m at any point in the last 2-3 years.
Some criminal underrating of Jones on this forum. The current market is stupid and we've had more hits than misses, you can only really say that Lindelof has been our only successful acquisition, and he's only just started repaying his transfer fee but yeah, whatever, lets start playing football manager and getting rid of players who are still at a good age and generally play their best football (in said position) around their 30's and replace them with completely unknown quantities in an inflated market.
 
Some criminal underrating of Jones on this forum. The current market is stupid and we've had more hits than misses, you can only really say that Lindelof has been our only successful acquisition, and he's only just started repaying his transfer fee but yeah, whatever, lets start playing football manager and getting rid of players who are still at a good age and generally play their best football (in said position) around their 30's and replace them with completely unknown quantities in an inflated market.

I don't think i'm underrating him at all, i've not said he isn't a good defender at times when fit. But even if i rated him more highly than i do, i still think he should be be moved on due to his complete inability to stay fit for more than 6-12 weeks at a time. In that regard Jones is a known quantity, we know that he's unreliable.

Being that he's unreliable, what use is a back-up who is very likely to be injured when you need him to fill in?
 
You must have a very short memory because Jones has always done a job for us, no matter where he's been asked to play.

What does this have to do with my last post in reply to you? What do i have a short memory about?

I said he's unreliable in that he's frequently injured, we can't rely on him to be fit when we need him. I don't remember making a comment on his ability to play different positions.

He has been injured frequently over seasons but I don't think there was a single season in the last 10 years where we haven't had some sort of injury crisis. It's hardly Jones' fault.

Most teams have an injury crisis of some sort most seasons. But over the last 8 years United seem to have an almost annual defensive injury crisis. This isn't all Jones fault of course, but if we happen to have 2-3 or other defenders injured or suspended at any given time. Then you can almost guarantee Phil will be injured at the same time often forcing us to play midfielders in defence. He's a horrible back-up who can't stay fit for any stretch of time, thats the reality of this situation.
 
Are our injuries due to our training ways in the past? I know Moyes over trained RVP and got him injured. With Jones even during the time of SAF he has been injured a lot. It could be the way he flies into tackles without thinking of any injuries to him?
 
Are our injuries due to our training ways in the past? I know Moyes over trained RVP and got him injured. With Jones even during the time of SAF he has been injured a lot. It could be the way he flies into tackles without thinking of any injuries to him?

Could be that or he just has an injury prone body or he's not as thorough as he should be with his stretching/warm up setc. Or it could be a combination of all of those things.
 
Some criminal underrating of Jones on this forum.

But we have seen Jones for eight years, and we have also seen other defenders. He is far off the level required to be a Man Utd player, unfortunately. The problem of the team in recent years was an abundance of average players - perhaps it explains in part lack of results too. With Jones, he is not just average, but also extremely injury prone. Why should we want him to stay? Even in inflated market, it is better to acquire expensive but better players - especially for a position that is by far the most critical for the club currently.
 
SAF had played him in midfield too when we needed a bit of muscle in there. He is strong and quick too. I still think he has a part to play at United but not as in the starting line up everyday. The same way I think Fellaini has a part to play coming off the bench if needed.
 
Man Utd 2:1 Brighton
Absolute liability, can't wait to see the back of him. Hopefully this summer.
 
Initially thought their goal looked tidy enough until I watched the replay.

I'm sure some will be on the scene soon to defend him but he's fecking awful to me. Also noticed he has the cheek to be the one barking orders back there at set pieces. Reminds me of Rooney barking at people as captain while being comfortably the worst player on the pitch.

Sick of the sight of him.
 
Initially thought their goal looked tidy enough until I watched the replay.

I'm sure some will be on the scene soon to defend him but he's fecking awful to me. Also noticed he has the cheek to be the one barking orders back there at set pieces. Reminds me of Rooney barking at people as captain while being comfortably the worst player on the pitch.

Sick of the sight of him.
Yea so awful he made Dalot stand the wrong side and Lindelof get mugged off so hard he stood and watched a conpletely unpressured ball be put into the box.

Not to mention the audacity of the best player in the air to take the responsibility of organizing on set piece. feck me this place is ridiculous.

Sick of the sight of such shit posts.
 
Lindelof slipped. Dalot should have done a bit better.
 
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