I thought he did well tonight
Phil Jones
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I could understand his inclusion but this was like last season where he seemed to just be on the pitch rather than serve a tactical purpose. Amount of times Carrick was in the middle and Jones was nowhere to be seen was insane. Really didn't understand him staying on when we were chasing the game, if we needed his height he should have gone right back and then us bring on an attacker surely. Thing I don't get is when he's used like this why don't we get him to be the deeper midfielder and let carrick push up a bit.
I'd just like Fergie to stop playing him in CM. Unless he's got a specific task like not losing sight of an opposition player, and when we actually have to, you know, play football, he's useless. Why he stayed on for 90 minutes is beyond me, when Cleverley was on the bench.
Just didnt work tonight, partly because West Ham just flung the ball up skipping the midfield. But we really didnt feel the effect of having an extra defensive player in there. I guess it helped on set pieces.
Thought he showed some poise tonight, feck knows where he was supposed to be but it seemed to be our shape in general. Rafael, Rooney, Jones all were in some random positions. There was one dink over the top he played which surprised me.
Did well at what? Being invisible?
I like Jones, but I have no idea what his position and role was today. Nowhere to be found in either end.
Game after game, we keep dropping points due to illogical team selections and daft tactical approach. Have we actually won any game with the Phil Jones in the midfield experiment? 1-1 against Madrid, 1-1 against Spurs, 2-2 tonight. How can we have Tom Cleverley on the bench and play Jones ahead of him? 18 points potential lead over City 9 days ago has been cut down to shreds.
He wasn't bad really, but that's probably because he was completely invisible.
Because Cleverly has been piss poor of late so I have no problem with Jones starting over Cleverly.
"Phil Jones played the whole game in central midfield? Sorry, don't believe it."
It makes you think if United need to start a 20 year old defender in midfield. He is just not a midfielder and it showed badly
Was anonymous. Couldn't understand how he lasted 90 minutes.
Not a good game at all but of course he played way too high up the pitch most of time where he clearly isn't that strong.
Was poor today.
Positioning was all over the place. He was some sort of pseudo right back most of the time, which was quite funny considering we had Rafael playing there as well.
I agree, I don't mind about him starting, but when you realize he's being fecking transparent like he was, you surely have to take him off, he just wasn't working.
What's so crazy about it? Personally I've never seen him that far out of position, so it's not beyond the realms of possibility that he was given orders to occupy the space left by Rooney.....which just didn't seem to work.
Agree it was annoying me when he kept overlapping Valencia and shutting his space of when he was one on one. But Cleverly has been poor of late so Giggs in centre mid would have been my sub for Jones. Wish we had big Fellani in there he'd give us some much needed bite.
Cleverley hasn't been poor of late. He had a bad game at Chelsea where he was used out of position. I really hope Cleverley is used in cm on Monday.
There's a difference though. We might not have beat Real or Spurs but Jones had a job to do in those games and did them well. Today and like some of his other displays in the middle when there's no one he's man marking is the problem. For whatever reason, and you have to assume its tactical as we've seen it time and time again, when we don't need him for a specific job he's just allowed to play as an almost a/m with the likes of Rooney covering him and it just doesn't make sense. Like him in today for his strength is fair enough but he was always so advance of Carrick and even Rooney at times its just odd.
He didn't seem to give the ball away and retained possession.
When you consider how sloppy we were I don't think you can give Jones much stick.
Are we going to limit Jones by playing him out of position where he certainly doesn't suit like we did with Rooney?
He was very good in defense where he played in the last couple of games.
He was very good in defense where he played in the last couple of games.
That that can be in anyway considered the mark of a Manchester United central midfielder 'doing well' tells its own story.
Was certainly played to deal with West Ham's height. But I agree he was a bit piontless today in midfield.
I'm not going to be amazed by a central midfielder (assuming that was actually his position) that plays 26 passes in 90+ minutes. He was invisible today - his 100% passing accuracy doesn't save it.
Put Jones in your starting line up. He's started the last 12 matches he's been fit for, and has only sat out two games: his first one back and his third game back, the latter of which was sandwiched in a run of 3 games in 8 days. His 3 sub appearances all came in his first 7 games as well, since then all starts.
He's not a good CM at all for me. He left Carrick on his own in there. He was hiding in between Valencia and Rafael at times.
He's just not good enough on the ball. He's OK when hes got time and there is a simple pass on, but anywhere infield in tight areas he doesn't work hard enough to get on the ball and make an angle, probably due to a lack of confidence in his own-ability in those situations. He doesn't want to be the one to make the move brake down so prefers to drift wide where losing it isn't as costly. This leaves us a creative option short inside.
He's an excellent CH/RB, not a central midfielder. Please Fergie, stop playing him there!
He's just not good enough on the ball. He's OK when hes got time and there is a simple pass on, but anywhere infield in tight areas he doesn't work hard enough to get on the ball and make an angle, probably due to a lack of confidence in his own-ability in those situations. He doesn't want to be the one to make the move brake down so prefers to drift wide where losing it isn't as costly. This leaves us a creative option short inside.
He's an excellent CH/RB, not a central midfielder. Please Fergie, stop playing him there!
I think he was mainly in there to help the defenders deal with Diame, Nolan and Carroll but obviously did not do a good job of it and kinda missed a sitter at the beginning of the 2nd half with that RVP chance.
Yeah I agree but to fault Jones for not giving the ball away is stupid.
He plays where he is picked and to me his performance was fine tonight. As to if he should be playing that position, well that is a matter for the boss.
Another player played out of position that's all, ex wingers, strikers, right backs, defenders we have tried just about everyone in our midfield, I do hope we short this out this summer.
Not convinced with him being given a free role 
Who's faulting Jones for not giving the ball away? I'm just saying that 26 passes tells the story about his performance and the fact that he didn't misplace a single pass is far less significant, although obviously positive.
I don't think Jones fits in the central midfield at all either, but that doesn't mean I can't say he had a bad game. He might have played fine by his midfield-standards (although I'm not even sure that is true), but he was far below what I'd expect from a United player. It's obviously Fergie's fault for playing him there in the first place (and sticking with him for the entire game), but I thought Jones could've done more anyway.
The comments in this thread are aimed at Jones being poor.
He wasn't poor. That is my point.
For me it just seems that SAF rates him so highly that he wants to play him no matter what, even if it means doing so in a position where he's not particularly comfortable, a bit like he did with Rooney a few years ago.
Did he bring anything near what Carrick brought today in midfield? I wouldn't say so. I don't think he did particularly well. He might not have given the ball away but there were plenty of times were a little bit of momentum was killed by him playing a backwards pass, or by him being out of position or getting himself in positions where he couldn't offer much. I don't blame him as it's not his natural role but if you simply compare and contrast what he did to what Carrick was doing and you can see there's a world of difference. It wasn't all bad, he had 1 or 2 good runs and played a nice chipped pass but other then that he didn't offer much.
"Phil Jones played the whole game in central midfield? Sorry, don't believe it."
Actually it was Scully who never believed anything.
Yeah, it really is shocking how many times Ferguson plays people out of position and leaves on or brings on the likes of Jones or Giggs yet takes off Kagawa who had a good effect on the game. He's the man, a god, probably won us another title, yet some things he does seems bizarre at times.
I'd like to know how much of Jones's position on the pitch is down to instructions and how much down to his own enthusiasm/inexperience. I just find it impossible to believe that Fergie told him to consistently play as the most advanced player in a midfield three.
A much more likely explanation would be that when we play with two other CMs Jones thinks he can play with a bit more freedom and gets drawn towards the opposition goal, as that's where all the excitement is likely to be. He wasn't as awful as a lot of you are making out but he was all over the place, in every sense.
The same thing happened against Liverpool and was much more detrimental to the team performance. He seems to be able to disciplined when he has a specific task (e.g. man-marking Ronaldo) or playing in a position with a clearly defined role (central defence or full-back) but when he's allowed a bit more freedom he just gets completely carried away and ends up following the ball round the pitch.
Yong and lernin'.
A much more likely explanation would be that when we play with two other CMs Jones thinks he can play with a bit more freedom and gets drawn towards the opposition goal, as that's where all the excitement is likely to be. He wasn't as awful as a lot of you are making out but he was all over the place, in every sense.
The same thing happened against Liverpool and was much more detrimental to the team performance. He seems to be able to disciplined when he has a specific task (e.g. man-marking Ronaldo) or playing in a position with a clearly defined role (central defence or full-back) but when he's allowed a bit more freedom he just gets completely carried away and ends up following the ball round the pitch.
Yong and lernin'.
He should play as a CB or RB. Thats all
No surprise that he only played 26 passes. It's not even debatable, he and Rooney were carrying out tactics. It was decent up until we needed Rooney where Jones was in the move and vice versa. Saying that, he was quite composed with his passing when next to Carrick and moved it on quickly. The chip to Kagawa was a highlight and just overran RVP's knock-back.
How can people moan about the player when the manager and staff combine to give him that role? Based on what i can only assume was energy, when he would be ideal mopping up next to Carrick. Quite worrying considering the kind of midfielder we hope will be brought in.
How can people moan about the player when the manager and staff combine to give him that role? Based on what i can only assume was energy, when he would be ideal mopping up next to Carrick. Quite worrying considering the kind of midfielder we hope will be brought in.