We Missed Nigel De Jong...

[persvenality cult]

lolling at the people who still think he holds this team back

he's a different player to last year. much more like the all-round midfielder who emerged at Ajax.

no way Everton would have taken liberties if he'd been on the pitch.

no fucking way.

 

[Half Pint]

Nigel de Jong is immense and provides cover for our defence right across the pitch. He stops things at source or makes opposing players rush passes - you'd rush your pass if you saw him coming at you - so tackles are not even needed sometimes.
He would have been covering Rodwell for the first goal so Kompany would probably have cut out the near post cross; and he would have been the one to take out the player who played the ball through for Cahill to play it back to Baines to score instead of relying on Silva (I think it was him). He also never gives away the ball and having won it he plays simple passes to people who are the creative elements in the team. He also allows Barry and Yaya to get further forward. Every team needs players whose work goes unheralded because they are not the flair players and him and Barry are excellent at breaking up the play of the other team. Invaluable in allowing Silva, Tevez, Johnson, Yaya etc to do their stuff further up the pitch.

 

[peoffrey]

If us creating less than half the chances when he plays isn't limiting us then I don't know what is. He's always one of our best players in the big games because that's when he's needed, when there's a midfield battle to be won. I have no problems with him playing against the top 6/7, he's vital to us in those games. When we're having 67% of the possession and 25 chances however, he's not needed. If the back 4 had done their jobs properly for the 2 goals then this thread wouldn't exist.

Do you know who Wolves are? Do you know where they are in the league? Did you see how much midfield they had when we played them earlier this season? De Jong was out.

Sure, he doesn't single handedly win matches for us - but he's as important as Tevez on that field. His role is somewhat different.

 

[Sabster]

A) We didn't create 25 chances against Bolton, you're not kidding anyone.

B) The point is, he limits us. Severely. No other club in the top 10 has a player as limited as De jong in their team. That includes players like Mikel and Huddlestone, who at least attempt to pass the ball forwards every once in a while.

He played in both games vs Everton last year. Did he do all this shite he would've supposedly done if he'd played last night? No.

If he was this world class midfielder people on here make him out to be, you wouldn't get City fans questioning him (as 5 or 6 have in this thread) and the Dutch coach wouldn't have dropped him from the squad at the first excuse.

this surely can't be the calibre of person watching us week in week out?

Talk about knowing fek all..... Christ

He has made clear coherent points, you have responded with a degrading comment

 

[Zin 'messiah' Zimmer]

this surely can't be the calibre of person watching us week in week out?

Talk about knowing fek all..... Christ

He has made clear coherent points, you have responded with a degrading comment

what is coherent here is the lack of genuine football knowledge, if you want to argue with a straight face and tell me you agree I'm all ears. The reason, myself included, people are making statements without resorting to stats is simple..... Sick to death of having the same arguments with the same people when one negative result occurs, I wouldn't mind de Jong didn't even play, the biggest indicator being we lost a midfield battle he would of won hands down.... Why? Well fellani's efforts would of been pressed right back with yaya in the attacking 3rd, if your unable to see this then cover your eyes because it's degradng 'you are a bigger whopper for not substantiating the original claim made by said poster', If your merely his protector and chief and actually disagree then one does apologise but I'm sure he can stick up for himself.

 

[FeedTheGoat10]

Being a sad bastard and looking at some stats
When de Jong has played this season:
W:13(9) D:4(4) L:2(2)
Win percentage (all comps): 68.4%
Average league points per match: 2.07

When de Jong hasn't played:
W:1(0) D:3(1) L:4(2)
Win percentage: 12.5%
Average league points per match: 0.33

(numbers in brackets are in the league)

I think that's definitive proof that we do miss de Jong.

 

[Deleted member 14625]

We missed him no doubt but to be fair a £23mil young player of the season 09/10 should of been an adequate replacement.
The second goal killed us (quallity finish) it just allowed Everton to sit back and defend deep with small players upfront it was always going to be an uphill struggle.
Oh and Walton again FFS!!!!!

Forget about how much we spend on anyone. The pricetags do not represent the quality of the players we buy. I said before we signed Milner that if we can get him for £10-12million then I'd go formhim as a punt but I didn't think he'd get near our team anyway. But £23million is a ridiculous overvaluation of him. He's slow, he's technically poor, he's weak, he can't pass, he doesn't get in good positions in forward areas, he chooses the wrong option far too often... to sell him I reckon we'd get £5-8million at best. He's a mid-table Prem player at best!

Nigel de Jong is the best player at City. And to think there were numerous threads on here last season saying that he is useless to us! Without him we are gutless and toothless. When he does play he keeps the ball blue at every opportunity! To all those that groan when he passes sideways and backwards go and watch back the game from Monday night and watch when Milner gets the ball and looks to go forward and then gives the ball away - this is why Nigel goes sideways and backwards sometimes, because it's better that we still have the ball than we give it away! Making the right options at the right time! It's why Holland made Brazil look shit in the WC. It's why we rarely lose games when de Jong plays because when the oppostion don't have the ball they cannot score!

And I've barely mentioned his defensive qualities!

Not only by far my favourite City player but the man we miss the most when he doesn't play!

 

[u2fme2]

looked more pissed off then me at half time

 

[dref619]

i get so much stick from everyone i know when i say this, but ndj is our most important player without a doubt in my mind, he makes sure everyone else can go on and do their shit

 

[dref619]

plus his passing is a country mile better this season, he was a talented attacking midfielder in his younger days, and we are starting to see some of that passing come out of him