De Jong, it pains me

[tolmie's hairdoo]

To say this, I have remained steadfast in my belief that Nigel is integral to how we try to play.

His recent injuries aside, however, I saw for the first time last night that Nigel looked a little short of what was required on the night.

I love his determination and ability to keep things simple, but he did look lost and his inability to hold on to the ball for longer than a couple of seconds, gifting the ball for Napoli's second, summed up a dog shit performance in general.

He looked small and irrelevant in the wider spaces around him, meaning Yaya got far too many little touches in the wrong areas for him to affect the game in the final third.

Yaya was almost acting as safety net for Nige, which no team, certainly one with the talent we have, can afford to carry passengers on such a stage.

Nigel wins the ball, he gives it, we all know that.

But against top class opposition, when you are forced to play without the ball, I'm not so sure he gives the opponents anything to ponder.

It's been mentioned on here about the failings of the full-backs on the night, but we never had the midfield.

IMO Roberto did our midfield no favours by also picking Dzeko as an extra attacker, but thought the challenge was made for Barry last night.

He would have kept possession a lot better and longer, earning hbis fair share of free-kicks to take the pressure off?

Sorry Nige!

 

[ono]

To be honest, he's never going to look great against such a good counter attacking side. There's too much space to exploit around him...and they did that well. He still has his uses.

 

[cheddar404]

To say this, I have remained steadfast in my belief that Nigel is integral to how we try to play.

His recent injuries aside, however, I saw for the first time last night that Nigel looked a little short of what was required on the night.

I love his determination and ability to keep things simple, but he did look lost and his inability to hold on to the ball for longer than a couple of seconds, gifting the ball for Napoli's second, summed up a dog shit performance in general.

He looked small and irrelevant in the wider spaces around him, meaning Yaya got far too many little touches in the wrong areas for him to affect the game in the final third.

Yaya was almost acting as safety net for Nige, which no team, certainly one with the talent we have, can afford to carry passengers on such a stage.

Nigel wins the ball, he gives it, we all know that.

But against top class opposition, when you are forced to play without the ball, I'm not so sure he gives the opponents anything to ponder.

It's been mentioned on here about the failings of the full-backs on the night, but we never had the midfield.

IMO Roberto did our midfield no favours by also picking Dzeko as an extra attacker, but thought the challenge was made for Barry last night.

He would have kept possession a lot better and longer, earning hbis fair share of free-kicks to take the pressure off?

Sorry Nige!

Can't disagree with that. Also, I've never seen Yaya give the ball away as much as he did last night along with Lescott and Balotelli. Everyone has an off night and I'm a big fan of all of these players. Just an observation.

 

[welcometomanchester]

It was one bad night.

 

[Deleted member 14625]

He was absolutely what we desperately missed against Bayern away, but definitely not what we needed last night. de Jong will be the most important player on the pitch in many games. Even in the opening game against Swansea, a team you'd think we wouldn't need de Jong for, he was the best and most important player on the pitch for an hour as Swansea were knocking the ball around for fun and he alone was breaking their play up to set us up to have our own possesion and territory.

For me the "we play better without de Jong" posts are a huge over-gerneralisation.

 

[hgblue]

Ideal for up and at 'em type of games, but for Napoli away? Not for me. I'd like to see a Khedira or a Martinez brought in in preparation for next seasons Champs League campaign. Big mistake to leave Barry out. Big mistake to play Dzeko instead of Nasri. The full backs were just wrong. Not Mancini's finest hour.

 

[ytic04]

At this moment in time looks like the team have stepped up a notch without him also close to thinking this with Zab.

Probably stands out more now because we've changed from a defensive set up to an attacking one so they see less of the action.

 

[Gaylord du Bois]

Was he so bad that he warrants 2 threads ?

 

[bernabias home shirt]

Big thread on here when we lost to bayern saying we missed De jong....

Now a thread when we lose to napoli...we shouldnt of played De jong...


Unbelievable!!!

 

[DD]

If I remember rightly, I and a guy called Lucas North got absolutely murdered for sharing these sentiments eighteen months ago :)

We are significantly less quicker at shifting the ball around, and far less potent on attack with NDJ in the team.

Nothing has changed in that department.

The one thing that he was always good at was protecting the back four but that's gone out of the window now. Obviously the full backs didn't help matters but the back four were offered virtually no protection.

Maybe now people will listen when I say that Gareth Barry offers far more in that role. He might not look as hard but he is a more effective player in a team that wants to add attacking football to defensive solidity.