Phil Jones image 4

Phil Jones England flag

2019-20 Performances

View full 2019-20 profile

4.3 Season Average Rating
Appearances
8
Clean sheets
4
Goals
1
Assists
0
Yellow cards
2
Status
Not open for further replies.
This guy literally has an aura of confusion and destruction about him. Whenever he plays the team look scared and nervous.

I’d genuinely be happy to never see him again. Why the club stuck with him instead of Smalling just shows how stupid our management is.
 
This was a totally expectable performance in Phil Jones world. 10/10.
It's EXACTLY the sort of performance he's been putting in since day one.

The epitome of haphazard.
 
Is he injured now. Would be a joke if he is again. Why does always our central defenders get injured like crazy? Yet Van Dijk can play every game for Pool without injuries for 2 years.
 
Adam-Utd said:
This guy literally has an aura of confusion and destruction about him. Whenever he plays the team look scared and nervous.

I’d genuinely be happy to never see him again. Why the club stuck with him instead of Smalling just shows how stupid our management is.
Click to expand...
Presumably because no one wanted to take Jones off our hands for the reasons you mention and Ole couldn't offer minutes to everyone with Maguire coming in.
 
He's just hapless, and emblematic of the shambles the club has let itself fall into. To be fair he was no worse than Lindelof last night but it's just a joke he's still around the club taking a not insignificant weekly wage.
 
Foxbatt said:
Actually not. Jones in midfield would be a better option than Jones as a CB. If we play Matic, Jones, Fred and Pereira and drop James our side would be more solid in midfield and more solid in defence with Maguire and Lindelof. Jones a player is not a bad player. He just makes mistakes in defence. He can tackle. is decently quick, can head the ball and can dribble a bit. He does not have to create in midfield but take the burden of Fred and Pereira in ball recovery and let them concentrate a bit more on creating chances.
Click to expand...

Phil Jones in midfield is a fecking ludicrous idea.
 
Sied said:
Presumably because no one wanted to take Jones off our hands for the reasons you mention and Ole couldn't offer minutes to everyone with Maguire coming in.
Click to expand...
He was out of contract we should have let him walk for free but instead we give him 5 more years. The idea is to have resale value, but who the hell will buy jones?
 
Adam-Utd said:
He was out of contract we should have let him walk for free but instead we give him 5 more years. The idea is to have resale value, but who the hell will buy jones?
Click to expand...

Giving Jones that new contract is quite possibly the worst and stupidest decision Utd have made post Fergie.

And think of what ground that covers.
 
Djemba-Djemba said:
Phil Jones in midfield is a fecking ludicrous idea.
Click to expand...

He has done well in that role before. Although it was a long time ago.
He is obviously not creative, but he can defend very well in that role and his passing is pretty good even if simple.

His mobility is probably worse now though and I don't think he has got any smarter with age to put it kindly.
Matic and Fred should play now, but against Pool we could play them and Jones with a parked bus. We are probably going to get destroyed anyway though, but could hope for some counter attacks.

Ideally though we would actually bloody buy a midfielder before that game, but I personally doubt it.

Ole doesn't have much creativity to find solutions to problems though. He will just keep playing Lingard and hope he turns good at some point. We have played with 3 man defenders before though so could try that again. Although it invites pressure a lot more.
 
Paul_Scholes18 said:
He has done well in that role before. Although it was a long time ago.
He is obviously not creative, but he can defend very well in that role and his passing is pretty good even if simple.

His mobility is probably worse now though and I don't think he has got any smarter with age to put it kindly.
Matic and Fred should play now, but against Pool we could play them and Jones with a parked bus. We are probably going to get destroyed anyway though, but could hope for some counter attacks.

Ideally though we would actually bloody buy a midfielder before that game, but I personally doubt it.

Ole doesn't have much creativity to find solutions to problems though. He will just keep playing Lingard and hope he turns good at some point. We have played with 3 man defenders before though so could try that again. Although it invites pressure a lot more.
Click to expand...

He's not played in midfield for about 7 or 8 years.

He's a broken down, unfit bag of nerves these days. He brings disaster with him whenever he plays and he makes others around him nervous.

The idea of playing him in central midfield, the most important position on the pitch, is just mental to me. Just stop playing him!

I agree with you though, we need to buy a bloody midfielder. 2 or 3 actually.
 
Djemba-Djemba said:
He's not played in midfield for about 7 or 8 years.

He's a broken down, unfit bag of nerves these days. He brings disaster with him whenever he plays and he makes others around him nervous.

The idea of playing him in central midfield, the most important position on the pitch, is just mental to me. Just stop playing him!

I agree with you though, we need to buy a bloody midfielder. 2 or 3 actually.
Click to expand...

He has barely played so I think that is part of the problem. Under Mourinho he played much better so I think part of it can be management. Ole needs to tell him more how we should keep our shape and defend as a unit. Jones clearly don't read the games that well.

His confidence is probably down which makes him try to many crazy tackles to prove himself. Could be risky in midfield too, but if he injuries Salah or Mane and gets a red it is not all bad ;).

Although I don't think anything will fully work right now under Ole unless he change his ways. It just feels like a mess the way we play.
 
I actually felt sorry for him last night when he injured himself, absolutely baffling seeing him play in a Manchester United shirt.
 
Kostov said:
I actually felt sorry for him last night when he injured himself, absolutely baffling seeing him play in a Manchester United shirt.
Click to expand...
:lol: felt the same.

Maybe he can find himself a club in Italy to resurrect his career Smalling style, but at a lower level team i think.
 
The last good game he had was in 2013.. 7 years ago (for a while in 2015 he seemd OK, nothing more). It is crazy he is still here. Just loan him or release him. Our management has confused what a backup player actual is: a backup is someone who is available to play decently almost the whole year. Instead, our backups are the Yossarians of football, always hiding in the hospital and when called they try their best to be awful, almost doing it on purpose.
 
We decided to keep the ugly kid and sent his brother to italy. Life is hard sometimes.
 
Marcos Rojo is twice the player, he needs to be playing ahead.
 
Paul_Scholes18 said:
It was not a bad performance from him. Not great though and he sold himself far too easy against De Bruyne for the third goal. Although he won most duells and had lots of good blocks. Passing was also decent even if he faces the same problem that Maguire does with poor movement in front of him. Could maybe have tried to block the first goal, but it was a magical goal to be fair. 99% of those do not go in and then you don't blame the defenders for it.

The thing with Jones is that he takes far too many risks in his defending. If he gets beaten it often cost a lot more than if he would have played in midfield. He took some today that worked, but on another day he could have given a pen away or free kicks. Thus I do think we could test Jones in midfield if we want to give Fred or Matic a rest because he is great at winning the ball back.
Click to expand...
The only place we need to put Jones is out of the club
 
There was a moment in the first half where Williams was looking to get forward and Jones told him to stop and pass it back which he then gave back to De Gea which sort of summed up where his mentality was during the match, he was actually starting to annoy me a bit due to how much he was passing back to De Gea. When Matic came on the whole team settled a bit including Jones, although he did have that utterly bizzare moment where he chose not to head the ball and played himself into danger. Realistically, it's not his fault 4 of our CBs are out injured, he's porobably low in the pecking order but if players keep getting injured then he's inevitably going to have to play. I'd be tempted to recall Smalling if it were a possibility due to our CB crisis.
 
Is this the same Phil Jones who was going to be the next Duncan Edwards? It's not quite worked out for him has it. He shouldn't play for us ever again no matter who is injured or available.
 
DoomSlayer said:
Maguire out for 2 months probably, Phil Jones to the rescue. :(
Click to expand...
The thing though is people do not remember that Jones was key in us winning all those games under Ole last year. We won 6/7 with him before he got injured. It was mainly Pogba who carried us during those games and our decline without Jones was him and Rashford going down plus other injuries.
Although people thinking we are doomed with Jones need to go back and watch those games. He can do a good job still, but confidence might be low now and Ole has made him worse with time like the rest here.
His overall league record under Ole is still far better than Maguires. He should not be first choice of course and his injury problems often ruins his form, but against Norwich he should be able to do a job. The lack of a 10 to create without Pogba is the real issue for us right now.
 
Last edited:
The reason why I feel Jones in midfield is acceptable is that with Lindelof and Maguire as CB he knows he has protection behind and does not need to do crazy things. He is fairly quick and he can dribble and head the ball and tackle too. He will be like a one man kamikaze there and may just create enough space for Fred to go forward. Play Jones and Matic in midfield and play Fred instead of Lingard. I know CAF would scream but sometimes you have to think unconventional when there is no other choice.
 
His situation at the moment reminds me of Johnny Evans under Van Gaal. He needs to get a few decent performances to boost his confidence and we might yet see a player there. I am not a Jones or Lingard fan but as a United fan I want to see these players come right for the betterment of the team I support.
 
Come on guys, we have already shown more than enough patience to Jones. He is so injury prone that he is rarely fit to play, and whenever he plays he often lets us down. His decision is poor and always keeps himself in a wrong body position as well as starting position. He is weak and not dominant enough in the air. I don't see any attribute from him to become a regular starter for a club chasing for top 4.

Yes he might have some good times last season, but obviously Ole has already lost trust in him, as you see Ole rather plays Maguire who is carrying an injury. I see some compare Jones to Evans, but for me they are players of different levels.
 
He's like old yeller - needs to be put down.
 
I don't think He'll ever get rid of that panic face. You can teach this guy Yoga, Taichi and Zen meditation and They wouldn't improve his calmness. If I was playing with him and He put that face on I know the team is fecked.
 
He's always nervous you just know he's a second away from a major feck up. Still cant believe we renewed his contract, he's not even useful as a squad player because of his injury record and god damn the wages...seriously who the feck negotiates the player contracts?
 
Man Utd 0:2 Burnley
Thought he was pretty good tonight and that his rating is a bit harsh - defended diligently and was solid enough (average rating 3.6 astounds me); certainly the pick of our defenders. Maguire on the other hand was the fourth best CB on the pitch out of four.
 
luisnani86 said:
Thought he was pretty good tonight and that his rating is a bit harsh - defended diligently and was solid enough (average rating 3.6 astounds me); certainly the pick of our defenders. Maguire on the other hand was the fourth best CB on the pitch out of four.
Click to expand...

Yeah, Jones was probably our best player.
 
He makes ordinary interceptions look too complicated and too complex, no wonder people like him when he gets in some form, and somehow even ends up injuring himself in the process. Better than Lindelof anyway, but will end up injured soon, maybe even after tonight's game.
 
He'll be out for 2 months from when he landed on both arms funny at the same time somehow
 
He won most things in the air apart from giving away the freekick for the goal. That was what he had to do today since they never really attacked us on the ground. Thus he didn't need to make his risky tackles that can go totally wrong.
His passing was fine, but he doesn't do brilliant passes like Lindelöf does sometimes.
In the second half we could have needed that.

Pretty much a standard good performance against a team like Burnley. Had we not conceded those goals people would say it was a good performance. Anger will drag the ratings down and people hate Jones a lot here. Even if the problem was mostly in attack and our overall plan in the final third.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.