How underrated was De Jong?

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avoidconfusion

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Off the back of the Yaya Toure thread, I could not help but think about how important De Jong was for us and how we, to this day, I would argue, never replaced him with a similar type of enforcer. Fernandinho came close but obviously had a lot of other things to offer as well.

I felt the "spine" of the Team was Kompany, De Jong, Toure, Silva, Aguero.
I think one of the defining "switch ups" in the Mancini era were the moments when Mancini would put De Jong on to allow Yaya to roam - you just knew something would happen.

De Jong to Aguero, Aguero to Balotelli, Balotelli to Aguero.... we know what happened next.

Maybe it is Nostalgia but I feel like De Jong is not talked about enough - he gave our midfield so much steel and players were terrified of him, which in turn enabled Yaya and Silva etc. to work their magic.

What do you think?
 
Very.

Loved him.

Always gave 100%

He never shirked or pulled out of a tackle.

He never took any sh*t off an opposing player either.

He loved City and City fans.

His chants were great.

Started a few off in 110.

My favourite City player.

 
Very. But I agree about Dinho.

What I wouldn't give ATM for real get stuck in players like NDJ, Dinho, Yaya, Zabbman and Vinnie. Merlin had a bit about him as well. What we are missing.....

Nobody of the enforcer passionate ilk type in the current team imo, although given the chance think Gvardiol and Khus could be.
 
Undoubtedly, NDJ was an excellent player, who was probably underrated in England because of who he played for ?
But, he quickly gained a reputation (from the Red Sky pundits, perhaps ?) for being portrayed as a "dirty" player.
He seemed to be booked regularly, but also early-on in the games he played.
Seem to remember, he was part of a Dutch team that took no prisoners...
 
He was a decent DM, but he was limited and was always going to be a back-up player for where we wanted to be.

He left because he wasn't a regular and wanted to be first choice, so he moved to Milan.

He did a job, did it well and always gave 100%.

Where we messed up was replacing him with Javi Garcia and then Fernando. He was better than the pair of them by a long way.

He could have played next to Yaya in 2012/13 when it was clear then Barry was starting to come to an end with us. Our central midfield was so poor in that season. I remember distinctly us getting the run around by Dortmund and Ajax both home and away in the group stage of the CL.
 
69FACUPfinal said:
Very. But I agree about Dinho.

What I wouldn't give ATM for real get stuck in players like NDJ, Dinho, Yaya, Zabbman and Vinnie. Merlin had a bit about him as well. What we are missing.....

Nobody of the enforcer passionate ilk type in the current team imo, although given the chance think Gvardiol and Khus could be.
Click to expand...
You make a really interesting point here... I always thought David Silva could be a really dirty menace on the pitch, but because of his elegance and magic he often got away with it. But if you look closely at some of the things he did, he was a bit of a dirty player at times haha
 
Barry played most games and De Jong was a bit part player in 2011/12 -so it was Barry who was in the spine of the team once Serg arrived.

When City moved up a level and started winning things he was left behind. He had been a key player in his first 2 years.
 
he was well suited to Mancini and was a a great player for us, but I do think. he needs a Barry type beside him to truly shine
 
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