De Jong, it pains me

[kinkysleftfoot]

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!

Good post.........I thought the same<br /><br />-- Wed Nov 23, 2011 11:03 am --<br /><br />

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!

Yaya was almost acting as safety net for Nige

I thought YAYA was shite..all night..

see above for why!!

 

[oakiecokie]

Bloody hell Mods,3 pissing threads on the same subject !
Please merge !!

 

[Alex DK]

He had a bad game yes.. but so did yaya, dzeko, kolarov etc. only think silva played a good game.
he fell with the team.

He played a good match against newcastle, im confident that he will become an important 1 team player again.

 

[Blue>Red]

is it me or is nije not tackling like he did before his injury?

There were several points last night where i was expecting a crunching slide, i noticed it against newcastle too (maybe with all the ben arfa hype).

Come on nije, your absolutely class, get smashing them attacks again

 

[Longsight-memories]

Nigel was bad, but was it not a wrong selection by mancini. Horses for courses. We all knew the way Napoli play, so he was never going to be as effective in this game. He will be needed Sunday to battle against a pool midfield more so than last night.

Think he got everything wrong last night

team selection & tactics + if we had gone for a draw it would still be in our hands but at home... put it down to a learning curve but next time can you please try out daft ideas on the training pitch .

 

[Lucky Toma]

He's a liability

A liability eh? Congratulations Nils on winning the Most Stupid Comment on BlueMoon for this season. A consecutive winner too after your remark from a few months about Mancini -

'I'd sack him straight after we lose on saturday. I've got absolutely no faith that he can turn it around'

I wish I had your football knowledge.

 

[the blue panther]

I thought Roberto set the team out all wrong last night

Hart

Richards Kompany Lescott Clichy

Milner Yaya Barry

Balo Aguero Silva

Better balanced - more attacking options and better defensive cover.

Plus how much football has De Jong played this season - not really been part of the success and he looked out of it last night - not really surprising.

I'm a big Roberto fan but he screwed up last night.

IMHO of course !

I agree 100%. That's just about our best/strongest 11 , and, in our most important game of the season so far, imho, that's what should have been on the pitch until the game was safe. Then the pressure would have been off for the Bayern Munich match, when he could have rotated to his heart's content.

Rotation's all well and good but, the manager should be putting out his strongest 11 in these big, show piece games. Back to De Jong - he gave us very little last night. Neither did Yaya, who looked fucked! Why Yaya isn't rotated is beyond me - he needs it more than anyone. Barry should have been in for either of them - he's played well all season but has now missed 2 games running while the other 3 midfielders have played.

It was a very avoidable defeat. Napoli are a good side, but, they're not THAT good.

 

[leighton]

To be honest the whole midfield needed to work both defensive and attacking wise yesterday. To leave it to De Jong to do it on his own is a huge ask. Yaya , Milner and De Jong should of when Napoli had the ball they should of been pressing the ball getting tighter than what they were at times.

He wasnt poor last night he just couldnt do the job of closing down there attacks on his own. Put it this way I would rather have De Jong in the midfield for the European games than Barry or Milner. Barry has been found out in the European games this season. We attack as a team week in week out. But the whole team doesnt defend as a team in the bigger games.

 

[Lucky Toma]

To be honest the whole midfield needed to work both defensive and attacking wise yesterday. To leave it to De Jong to do it on his own is a huge ask. Yaya , Milner and De Jong should of when Napoli had the ball they should of been pressing the ball getting tighter than what they were at times.

He wasnt poor last night he just couldnt do the job of closing down there attacks on his own. Put it this way I would rather have De Jong in the midfield for the European games than Barry or Milner. Barry has been found out in the European games this season. We attack as a team week in week out. But the whole team doesnt defend as a team in the bigger games.

That pretty much sums it up for me.
Last season we defended as a unit but didnt attack as one.
This season we attack together but don't defend together.

Is it possible for a team to do both to an exceptionally high standard? No, because the pace and constant ebb and flow of the game means you cannot just magic a player from an advanced position back to a defensive role in an instant.
Playing as we are is working ten-fold in the Premier League. In Europe however I'd like us to revert back to last year's solidity.

 

[Sabster]

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.

I have been saying this for ages and been routinely dismissed.

Against a counter attacking team, he simply does not have the athleticism to keep up.