I don't think he was terrible. He stopped a few Honduran passing sequences yesterday in the first half. He just didn't do anything else, which is better than Jones's classic "Stop, try the Xavi half turn at half speed, lose the ball" move he did five times yesterday.

I don't rate him that highly as a player, but he was clearly a safe selection. He was playing in the hole where Bradley should have played, and where Bradley usually plays for Roma. I originally thought positioning Bradley this way might work, because he could have provided more service to our forwards in an advanced position, much like Espinoza did to us yesterday. Instead Bradley remained on an island up field because Jones and Williams can't distribute the ball. Then when he dropped deeper to get the ball, nobody was in the middle of the field to receive the ball.

In essence, Williams and Jones should not play together at the same time. Something we figured out last October.

This post was edited on 2/7/13 at 1:11 pm

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Posted by Joe Blow

Member since Nov 2007

2631 posts

Posted on 2/7/13 at 1:08 pm to thenry712

quote:
Jones's classic "Stop, try the Xavi half turn at half speed, lose the ball" move he did five times yesterday.

On the plus side, he didn't follow any of those with a sloppy tackle resulting in a card like he usually does. That's a plus...right?

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Posted by hendersonshands

Univ. of Louisiana Ragin Cajuns

Member since Oct 2007

160105 posts

Posted on 2/7/13 at 1:16 pm to thenry712

Yeah, there's no point in Jones and Williams playing together. All it does is make our midfield shitty with the ball and doesn't make the defense any better because Jones is usually out of position.

Why was he taking corners yesterday, btw?

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Posted by Sheep

Neither here nor there

Member since Jun 2007

19534 posts

Posted on 2/7/13 at 1:22 pm to thenry712

quote:
I don't rate him that highly as a player, but he was clearly a safe selection.

He's just like Edu... A man marker/possession disrupter. Nothing wrong with that... There's certainly a place in the game for it, you just have to temper the expectations for that role. A good game is essentially lots of tackles without getting sent off or committing fouls in shitty situations. That's a really hard thing to quantify, though, and it's rarely pretty. I really have little issue with Williams or Edu. When allowed to play that role, they generally do it well. When asked to do more, they (shockingly) look out of their element.

Jones, on the other hand.... I don't know what the frick he's doing or even trying to do. Yes, he made a brilliant pass... But could Zusi (or Feilhaber or Bradley) not have made a similar pass in a similar position? Apart from that one pass, Jones was a wandering, erratic disaster.

That Jurgen rates him as highly as he does Bradley and Dempsey really speaks volumes.

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