De Jong the Great?

[Blue Train]

He did nothing last night but run around, five paces behind the play, the entire game totally passing him by. He does it ALL THE TIME. Vieira may be much slower but he got stuck in and, when he had the ball, carried it into their half and tried to set up attacks.

De Jong was abysmal last night. The collective blind spot people have with him is amazing. But then again, he's been doing a very good impression of the Invisible Man most of this season.

 

[Bill Walker]

must admit Im not a fan.

His passing is so poor and his speed of thought seems slow as well, a decent Blackburnish type player IMO but not good enough if we want to be a world power, then again neither are most of the team..

I think Hughes wasted a helluva lot of money

 

[LongLang]

Be interesting to see how he copes with Gerard at the weekend.

easy, thats just a big boom early doors and he'll be off at the half. his hearts just not in it like it used to be, and to hit him hard early, will make him worry about his world cup. he'll go hiding soon after.

 

[The Fat el Hombre]

I'm a fan of him but he's been very poor of late and I feel sorry for Gareth Barry who's been trying to run our central midfield single handedly. As has been mentioned he's been way behind the play and chasing shadows mostly, whilst offering nothing on the ball either.

I'm gonna put it down to tiredness as it's his first full year in the prem and there hasn't really been anyone to take the workload of him and Barry

 

[BoyBlue_1985]

There's nothing that makes me feel more disgusted than ill educated opinions on De Jong, and that's what I have to put up with upon reading your vile comments. De Jong is a DM, pure and simple, his job is to win the ball and recycle possession and that's exactly what he does and he does it better than almost every DM on the planet. For us, he plays as a DM and if you have any questions about our lack of creativity I suggest you look towards the two CM players who have more of a responsiblity to create.

There is nothing more sickening than a DM who spends half his life in the opponents half resulting in him being out of position and not actually doing his job (see Alex Song for a perfect example.). It sounds like the lunatic that created this topic would rather our DM was like Song and offered something going forward as opposed to actually doing his job. In fact, I'd put money on this lad being a fan of Song and totally disregarding the masters of the role such as Mascherano and De Jong.

Alot of people say a DM is a midfielder that cant defend well enough or doesnt have the ability to attack so just does half defending, runs around alot and passes sideways.
Just want to add not my thoughts but i have heard pro's say it before

 

[Nils]

Until he's dropped we won't improve. end of. He's so strong in the tackle - well he lost most of the 50 50's i saw him go in for, just brushed aside, not that he goes in for many. As someone said, he's always just away from danger, marking space. Good at waving his arms around, talking a lot. reminds me of youth football, there's always the small kid who gets a lot of attention cos he shouts a lot, looks committed, urges his team on, gets noticed while those playing with him have to cover for his lack of influence on a game.

You know as a defensive, holding midfielder, whatever you want to call it, you ARE allowed to run with the ball, even walk with it. It's not a crime. When you do that you find one of their players has to come to you for the tackle , allowing your mates in midfield to receive the ball into space. NOT pass it first time as soon as you get it. it just puts your teammates under pressure.

Summed it up for me when we were attacking to their left in the first half. One of their excuses for a footballer makes a hash of it and it falls into space, 30 yards from goal towards de jong, who for once was actually moving towards into the final third....go on get it and have a shot i thought, surprise me.......what happened....he got it, it bounced off his shins and went straight to their player, who de jong immediately fouled, they had a break away advantage so the ref played on and didn't blow.

Everyone's entitled to an opinion and i can't stand it when one of you de jong supporters come on here and say you know nothing about football because you dare to question his worth as a footballer.

 

[uwe282828]

Be interesting to see how he copes with Gerard at the weekend.

this
personnaly id play ireland instead of dejong every time,and give some responsibility back to the defense.

 

[fathellensbellend]

do jong suffers because our whole midfield seems to be the same, so you end up looking at all of them and wondering if anyone can run, shoot, or just play a forward pass.

de jong would be fine if he was left to be holding mid on his own, win it and give it to someone who can play.

unfortunately our manager doenst think attacking has anything to do with football.

 

[Anonymous]

For a midfielder who has got a poor touch, can't pass and makes a 70-30 tackle a 30-70 tackle because he try and makes it a "Hollywood" tackle he sure is doing well for himself.

 

[Freestyler]

De Jong is class, having Barry next to him allowws him to get into the game alot more, but when you have barry AND vieira next to him he can't get into it as much, vieira constantly just gives free-kicks away where nige would of been there to win the ball instead of commiting fouls, you take vieira out this team and de jong is a complete different player.