English Football 14/15

Tbf the club accepted the FAs decision on that too and didnt try and contest it. Very different to how the Suarez situation was handled at Liverpool

 

We're top in the last 15 games though. He clearly just got his numbers mixed

 

I'm kind of sympathetic to the style, I don't like it but I can understand it. He tried the whole gung-ho attacking football earlier in the season and then Leicester happened. He's said it himself that he's still suffering from that particular hangover. I don't think he has any confidence in our back 4 at all and so he tried going back to a 3, and wanted us to opt for the "they can't score without the ball" mantra. It worked in that we stopped leaking goals but it has crippled us going forward, and it's lethargic and shit to watch. Even today when we tried to be a bit more expansive Swansea get a goal against the run of play and we lose.

Now Rojo aside I don't think man for man our defence is particularly bad... Jones is full of potential if he can iron out some of the psycho decision making and both Smalling and Evans have shown what they can do alongside an experienced defensive partner in the past. What we lack though is a strong defensive coordinator and leader. A John Terry or a Vincent Kompany (no matter what people say here about his ability, noone can deny that City are a worse team without him. And that's simply down to his presence and organisational skills). De Gea for all his qualities doesn't shout and organise the defence like VdS and Schmeichel did either. The best our defence has looked this season has been when Carrick's gone in there and that's no coincidence. It's just a shame we don't have 2 of him as we really miss his presence at the base of midfield too

 

Rojo just doesn't know what he's doing positionally, he's very one-footed and he's relatively short. In fairness he has improved, but he was signed to play on the left of a back 3 and I think that's pretty clear when he plays in a 2. Jones really needs a season where he can stay injury clear imo. Smalling had a cracking half season in 2011 - displaced ~Evans after he'd done the same the year before and according to an interview with James Wilson I read he's the fastest player in the squad on the time tests they do in training. He definitely got hurt by Jones' arrival though

 

I'd heard Rojo being the only defender LVG trusts is why you've been playing defensive football since the Leicester debacle. I haven't properly watched many United games but surely he's the least of your issues?

 

Watch him against any attack of quality though... The City game in particular he was all over the place.

As for Leicester, we had Rojo at LB in that game and one of the goals was most definitely down to him picking not only a horrible time to go forward but also a horrible line