De jong back to his best ?

[stonerblue]

Great too see him controlling the middle again. I think he lost a bit of confidence, and therefore his timing, but after a handfull of trademark tackles he seems to have regained faith in his own ability.

 

[salfordblues]

One thing I've noticed with De Jong is the speed of his passing.

He shifts it quicker than anyone on our team. It's not always forward, but it's always purposeful.

This is categorically false.

Watch him next time, he plays a lot of first time passes

 

[rogdogblue]

He's getting his timing back, guess it's match fitness. The range of his passes has increased as well. It would be a shame to lose Nige after this season.

 

[The Fat el Hombre]

One thing I've noticed with De Jong is the speed of his passing.

He shifts it quicker than anyone on our team. It's not always forward, but it's always purposeful.

This is categorically false.

Watch him next time, he plays a lot of first time passes

Which are all generally pointless because they will go one of three ways - sidewards, backwards or exactly where it came from (as long as it didn't come very far).

I just don't get it with Nige anymore. Last season he was pivotal to the way we played and one of my favourite players, but this season he's been nowhere near up to it, he's just way too negative. People like to think he's ten men but I think he's pretty weak and feeble. People say he allows people like Dave to do their thing more but I think the opposite - he puts them under more pressure because the opposition can have an extra man covering Dave because they know Nige won't do anything with the ball. Dave, Yaya and Nasri were having to take the ball under a lot of pressure in tiny spaces and when de Jong had space he had no intention of using it and taking the pressure off his teammates. He'd just stand back then pass it sideways when it came to him. It's a total lack of reesponsibility and it isn't good enough. He really might as well just put his hands on his hips at times when his teammates are struggling their bollocks off trying to play it out of tiny spaces.

Then he spends so much time in between Vinnie and Lescott. Either looking for options when he should be the one providing the option. Yaya sometimes dropd deep in the 2 man midfield formation but Yaya is a far superior footballer who can thread the ball through a midfield and get things going, then support the attack. With Nige it inevitably goes sidewards, unless it's played to Yaya or someone else who has to do something magical under intense pressure because Nige can't do something fairly simple whilst in space and under little pressure.

When we were attacking they'd have men back and we'd need an extra man forward, then they'd clear it and you see Nige holding hands with Vinnie and Lescott at the back. Then getting under their feet when they're quite capable of playing simple balls from the back themselves. It's a complete waste of a player

Yes we need a defensive midfielder in a lot of European games but if we're ever gonna make a mark on the champions league then Nige is gonna have to show a lot more or we'll need someone in who isn't effectively going to leave us with ten men when we've got the ball. Otherwise he's pretty useless

 

[Citizen Green]

Yep it seems so he has been very solid the last few weeks.

 

[Josh Blue]

He will be here for a while I think...