Javi Garcia

[OB1]

On his displays so far he is nowhere near as good as De jong defensively. He is slower at moving across the pitch (side to side) which means he isnt as effective at protecting the back 4...this is the reason we look (and are more open) in midfield. His ball distribution is better than Nige's BUT his tackling isnt.

And yet NDJ's pass completion percentage was the best in the team over the past two seasons and way ahead of Garcia's to date; whilst Garcia has made more tackles than NDJ was averaging for us!

 

[FantasyIreland]

He was very good at the highest level (Champions League) last season so I'm quite sure he'll be good enough for us. The real question is whether it was two tall, technically able, and combative midfielders (Rodwell, Garcia) we really needed rather than at least one midfielder who offers something different such as a great passing range from midfield. We rarely see any creativity from that part of the pitch in our team. Just look at Alonso's performance against us, one of his passes seemed to go the entire length of the pitch and found it's target.

Like Cazorla maybe........

 

[Sir peace frog]

garcia is a high quality player,very classy,when he finds his feet he will show what a great player he will be for us,i would play him v villa with barry and milner in a 3 ,with tueart and barnes on the wings,need someone big and strong upfront,i would plump for david oldfield.get the overlapping full backs jensen has quality or tiatto,ranson can motor but kenny clements is more solid,

big dave watson and andy morrison at the back and keith mcrae in nets,should see villa off.



NURSE !

 

[chesterbells]

garcia is a high quality player,very classy,when he finds his feet he will show what a great player he will be for us,i would play him v villa with barry and milner in a 3 ,with tueart and barnes on the wings,need someone big and strong upfront,i would plump for david oldfield.get the overlapping full backs jensen has quality or tiatto,ranson can motor but kenny clements is more solid,

big dave watson and andy morrison at the back and keith mcrae in nets,should see villa off.



NURSE !

This could never happen.

Cos Milners injured ;)

 

[Shaelumstash]

On his displays so far he is nowhere near as good as De jong defensively. He is slower at moving across the pitch (side to side) which means he isnt as effective at protecting the back 4...this is the reason we look (and are more open) in midfield. His ball distribution is better than Nige's BUT his tackling isnt.

And yet NDJ's pass completion percentage was the best in the team over the past two seasons and way ahead of Garcia's to date; whilst Garcia has made more tackles than NDJ was averaging for us!

How many of them were forward passes? I could stand in the middle of the park and roll it back to the full back all day and get 100% pass completion, doesn't make me a good player!

 

[OB1]

On his displays so far he is nowhere near as good as De jong defensively. He is slower at moving across the pitch (side to side) which means he isnt as effective at protecting the back 4...this is the reason we look (and are more open) in midfield. His ball distribution is better than Nige's BUT his tackling isnt.

And yet NDJ's pass completion percentage was the best in the team over the past two seasons and way ahead of Garcia's to date; whilst Garcia has made more tackles than NDJ was averaging for us!

How many of them were forward passes? I could stand in the middle of the park and roll it back to the full back all day and get 100% pass completion, doesn't make me a good player!

232 last season.

 

[Shaelumstash]

And yet NDJ's pass completion percentage was the best in the team over the past two seasons and way ahead of Garcia's to date; whilst Garcia has made more tackles than NDJ was averaging for us!

How many of them were forward passes? I could stand in the middle of the park and roll it back to the full back all day and get 100% pass completion, doesn't make me a good player!

232 last season.

As I said, statistics only tell you half the story. We were so much more fluid with Barry, Yaya, Nasri and Silva in the team and De Jong on the bench. He slowed us down so much and was way too cautious for the way we played.

If you only judge players on statistics you might as well employ Damien Comoli as director of football and pay 35m for Carrol, 20 for Henderson, 20 for Downing and 10 for Charlie Adam.

 

[Freestyler]

I don't think him and Rodwell will pair together well, neither can dominate a centre midfield. We saw that on Sunday.

That is what worries me when Yaya goes advanced, we would normally have De Jong there. But we sold him which was a joke, just need Gaz Baz ASAP.

Arsenal had zilch width on Sunday untill Walcott come on, and up to then the midfield was getting absolutely ripped apart. That was with 2 holding, when De Jong and barry aren't in that role we don't look close to being solid at all.

 

[OB1]

How many of them were forward passes? I could stand in the middle of the park and roll it back to the full back all day and get 100% pass completion, doesn't make me a good player!

232 last season.

As I said, statistics only tell you half the story. We were so much more fluid with Barry, Yaya, Nasri and Silva in the team and De Jong on the bench. He slowed us down so much and was way too cautious for the way we played.

If you only judge players on statistics you might as well employ Damien Comoli as director of football and pay 35m for Carrol, 20 for Henderson, 20 for Downing and 10 for Charlie Adam.

You are absolutely right that statistics are only part of the story but they are usually more objective and comprhensive than what supporters' eyes see. In this case you asked a question and I answered it but the answer is meaningless as it has no context: you should at least have asked what percentage of his passes were forward. Also, I wasn't offering a judgment on the players but merely pointing to facts that raise valid questions about the opinion as offered. For what it's worth, I prize possession of the ball highly so the fact that De Jong was amongst the best in the league at passing to a team mate ranks him as a very good distributor of the ball but not a creative one, IMO.

 

[Shaelumstash]

232 last season.

As I said, statistics only tell you half the story. We were so much more fluid with Barry, Yaya, Nasri and Silva in the team and De Jong on the bench. He slowed us down so much and was way too cautious for the way we played.

If you only judge players on statistics you might as well employ Damien Comoli as director of football and pay 35m for Carrol, 20 for Henderson, 20 for Downing and 10 for Charlie Adam.

You are absolutely right that statistics are only part of the story but they are usually more objective and comprhensive than what supporters' eyes see. In this case you asked a question and I answered it but the answer is meaningless as it has no context: you should at least have asked what percentage of his passes were forward. Also, I wasn't offering a judgment on the players but merely pointing to facts that raise valid questions about the opinion as offered. For what it's worth, I prize possession of the ball highly so the fact that De Jong was amongst the best in the league at passing to a team mate ranks him as a very good distributor of the ball but not a creative one, IMO.

I completely disagree that statistics are a more comprehensive way of judging a player than watching the games he plays in and judging him.

On the contrary, I actually think De Jong's seemingly impressive ball retention statistics highlight the major drawback to his game - he was too cautious with the ball.

If I valued the statistical analysis I would have asked about the percentages, but football is subjective so no statistics can ever tell you about making the right pass.

I like De Jong, and I rate him. In a 3 man midfield he is fantastic, like the season we won the FA Cup. However last season when we played a higher tempo, more attacking game, he just didn't fit in with our style of play.

We tore teams apart moving the ball quickly making sharp incisive passes, De Jong slowed us down as a team, playing square and backwards, and percentage 'easy' passes. I don't know if there are statistics that demonstrate this, but it was glaringly obvious watching us last season.

I had no axe to grind against De Jong, in fact he was one of my favourite players, he just didn't fit in to our style of play.