Nigel De Jong

[ono]

He's a good anchorman, but that's about it. I think we're a better side without him.

good point. what we need to do is buy all the best attacking players in the world like madrid do/ did. that surely can't fail, can it?

fact is, ndj will be part of a squad which can be tailored to play the opposition like all the top teams. last night for example, we could have probably got away with no defensive minded midfielders, and blown wigan away. that same team up against manyoo or chelsea would get murdered though.

Erm no, but then again i didn't suggest that we do that.

I just think we benefit more as a team from utilising players who can keep the ball and support each other.

De Jong's job is chase people away from his area of the pitch. Unfortunately this leaves us a midfielder short, and because of this we hand the initiative to the oppositions midfield.

It leaves us with one central midfielder to chase 2 or 3 of the oppositions, and when that player is as slow as Barry or Vieira, it actually creates an even bigger problem. The oppositions midfield advance past our single central midfielder and suddenly De Jong has a big problem on his hands, and as others have noticed, he ends up chasing shadows.

He would be great as an anchorman in a diamond, with two competant ball players in front of him. At the minute though, playing him in certain games is causing us a big problem.

 

[Neil McNab]

All this crap about a holding midfielder makes me mad, no player can be in a team just to sit in front of the back four and break up play because teams use the width of a pitch, it's a shared burden. The rest of NDJ's game is shocking, we're a better team without whoever we're playing.<br /><br />-- Tue Mar 30, 2010 3:29 pm --<br /><br />

He's a good anchorman, but that's about it. I think we're a better side without him.

good point. what we need to do is buy all the best attacking players in the world like madrid do/ did. that surely can't fail, can it?
fact is, ndj will be part of a squad which can be tailored to play the opposition like all the top teams. last night for example, we could have probably got away with no defensive minded midfielders, and blown wigan away. that same team up against manyoo or chelsea would get murdered though.

Daft, nobody said only play attacking midfielders, none of the top 3 have a midfielder that plays like NDJ, decent midfielders can simply change their game for each match because they have all round ability, NDJ is just a poor footballer!

 

[billy_big_spuds]

IMO - he has to play at the Emirates.

I can go with that. Perfect game for him. Its the ones where we should be bombarding the opposition from attack where I don't want him anywhere near the team. At least until we're running away with the lead.

 

[Dave Ewing's Back 'eader]

I think Burnley away he get's a yellow........

Turf Moor is just the rough arse pitch where tackles have to be spot on - think Nige might come to grief on that surface.

 

[Dukers]

The top and bottom of it, De Jong is not a good player. "He's tough", "He's a tackler". No he isn't. He's a headless chicken who chases shadows. He kills any forward play cos he can't pass the ball for shit, so sideways or backwards he goes. City have the capabilities and promise of playing fast, furious football that most of the Premiership couldn't handle - this won't happen while De Jong wears a city shirt. He ain't good enough for where we want to go. Let's get out of the mindset that a 'battler' is what we need. All of the players should be doing that....the difference being, is that the other players have talent to go with it.

 

[Freestyler]

i wouldn't play him at Burnley anyway, we need to play a more attacking team as we need to win, Burnley aren't exactly that physical.

 

[Bellers_a_hero]

Would be more confident of getting a result if NDJ was banned!

Why do people play De Jong down, i think he is an awsome player who gets stuck into eveything and shows what he's about. Typical DCM players dont run through players and pretend their forwards, they move the ball about and keep posession. I rate De Jong very well!

 

[sh249]

Would be more confident of getting a result if NDJ was banned!

Why do people play De Jong down, i think he is an awsome player who gets stuck into eveything and shows what he's about. Typical DCM players dont run through players and pretend their forwards, they move the ball about and keep posession. I rate De Jong very well!

I rate De Jong too. There might well be a case that in certain games he could be left out to give us a bit more going forward, but in general I would want him in the team, certainly against any of the top teams. And he is nowhere near as limited a player as people on here make out - if he was, he wouldn't be such a nail-on choice for Holland, would he? Might not play many (any?) killer balls, but rarely gives it away. And this idea that he stops us playing attacking football is pony - we weren't doing too bad going forward earlier in the season when he was in the team.

 

[Andrea]

People always rate DM's poorly. He is a very very very important addition to the squad, he protects the back four and bosses the midfield. If we can't score....it's not de jongs fault...it's our fw's. I honestly like it when he is in the starting 11 because he is so good at defense. Maybe it's beacuse I am italian but I enjoy a good defense show.

 

[uwe282828]

who cares if he misses 2 games!ffs he`s shit!