We Missed Nigel De Jong...

[johnmc]

He would not have prevented either goal

 

[Neil McNab]

No doubt we missed him. In all fairness the finish for the second goal was superb (though Zab may have taken him out first), but we hold our shape much better with NDJ and the first goal simply wouldn't have happened.

He makes our defence look far better than it is, he's the 5th man and disrupts 1/3 of the balls/attacks that would get to face our defence otherwise. Also he's always in the mix when the balls in our box. K Toure was shown up last night and for me we should be looking at trying boetang with kompany.

Also as pointed out without him YYT was playing far deeeper and therefore tevez was dropping back more, exactly what we didn't need last night.

Agree about Boateng at cenre half, I wonder how YaYa ever managed to play defensive midfield, he moves like a coatless hairdresser looking for a salon!

 

[Chippy_boy]

I don't think we missed him last night to be honest.

Our problems were

(a) 2 instances of shoddy (woeful?) defending, and

(b) Far too slow moving the ball around in their half. We pinged it about alright generally, but when we got it around their box we slowed it up and let them get organised. So we had real problems creating clear chances. Yes, we had some, but many were only half chances because we allowed Everton to get organised.

We need to keep up the speed and movement and pull the defence out of position. We just didn't do that last night.

 

[without a dream]

He would not have prevented either goal

I think he would have been covering Rodwell on the first meaning that Komapny would't have been drawn out, obviously impossible to prove though.

 

[Marcus2503]

we missed him big time, everytime we had an attack we let fellani pick up the ball and walk out the box. Nige would be there straight away breaking the play down. People say we have depth in our squad and yes we do have the players such as milner and johnson but do they really fit into our team and can they take the roles of De Jong, Barry and Yaya, i dont think so, the only place we have depth in the squad is the defence and its good that even though kolo got sent off we have the players to fill in.

 

[CityPar]

He would not have prevented either goal

I think he would have been covering Rodwell on the first meaning that Komapny would't have been drawn out, obviously impossible to prove though.

That's what I was thinking as well. TBH our defending at times was amateurish and it does make you wonder how many times De Jong has made us look better than we actually are at the back.

 

[Hamann Pineapple]

He would not have prevented either goal

I think he would have been covering Rodwell on the first meaning that Komapny would't have been drawn out, obviously impossible to prove though.

Spot on mate ( IMO)

 

[NorthernBoy]

 

[peoffrey]

I will thanks. Let's see us create 25 chances with De Jong in the team.

Bolton at home just over 2 weeks ago.

Does he want Hart to create more chances, too?!

De Jong does what he does best. Protecting the back four, breaking up play and generally making a nuisance of himself on the field.

I find it astonishing that people can question him. He's a brilliant player.

 

[King Geedorah]

He would not have prevented either goal

I think he would have been covering Rodwell on the first meaning that Komapny would't have been drawn out, obviously impossible to prove though.

Last time we played them he failed to cover Rodwell as he ran half the length of the pitch to set up Arteta.