NDJ

[Blue Toy]

Is it just me who is rapidly losing patience with him? Great tackler, but is that what we need? I'd rather see some creativity than a headless chicken. And let's face it however good he may be, he's a midfielder so why do we appear to have no midfield?

[Mike J]

his last good game was at chelsea.

[Moonchesteri]

Like I put in the official match thread, when we have the ball I'd rather have the B of the Bang in our side than him.

Makes good crunching tackles tho.

[King Kev]

Like I just said in another thread, I thought he was one of our better players tonight.

Far better than Barry who just gives away free-kicks and possession.

[french_tony]

To single out Nige is a joke. For me he has been POTS after Tevez. What to people want him to do? He isnt the sort of player that pings in 70 yard through balls or creates goals. He runs around and closes down the midfield, wins the ball and plays the simple ball, something he does well MOST games. IMO he is one of the best defensive mids in the business. I think the problem is playing him AND Barry together. Its one or the other, not both for me.
Without him in the side we'd be doing a lot fucking worse than we are doing now (we are fucking 5th and 2 points off 4th ffs!!!!)
Tonight pretty much everyone other than Vince and Tevez were shite.

[eastlandsblue]

lets have it right, none of our midfield would be in the rags gunners or chelsea teams. And there lies the problem

[carl_feedthegoat]

To single out Nige is a joke. For me he has been POTS after Tevez. What to people want him to do? He isnt the sort of player that pings in 70 yard through balls or creates goals. He runs around and closes down the midfield, wins the ball and plays the simple ball, something he does well MOST games. IMO he is one of the best defensive mids in the business. I think the problem is playing him AND Barry together. Its one or the other, not both for me.
Without him in the side we'd be doing a lot fucking worse than we are doing now (we are fucking 5th and 2 points off 4th ffs!!!!)
Tonight pretty much everyone other than Vince and Tevez were shite.

Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha.......you should be a stand up comedian.

[french_tony]

Why? Thats the way I see it and I think hes had a great season. Dont agree with me? Fine. No need for that though.

[london blue 2]

To single out Nige is a joke. For me he has been POTS after Tevez. What to people want him to do? He isnt the sort of player that pings in 70 yard through balls or creates goals. He runs around and closes down the midfield, wins the ball and plays the simple ball, something he does well MOST games. IMO he is one of the best defensive mids in the business. I think the problem is playing him AND Barry together. Its one or the other, not both for me.
Without him in the side we'd be doing a lot fucking worse than we are doing now (we are fucking 5th and 2 points off 4th ffs!!!!)
Tonight pretty much everyone other than Vince and Tevez were shite.

Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha.......you should be a stand up comedian.

To be fair carl if we had a decent midfielder to play alongside him he might be alright....

Gerrard - masch
Lampard - Makal
Fabregas - Song

we have too many of the same shit in the centre. one top class midfielder changes that. That Barton fella from Newcastle looks alright.

[LookMumImOnMCF.net]

He chases around and tackles. He's very good at that. He doesn't really do anything else though.

Downsides are he gets in the way of other players and can't go a game without a yellow. Not a top 4 player by any stretch.

[carl_feedthegoat]

To single out Nige is a joke. For me he has been POTS after Tevez. What to people want him to do? He isnt the sort of player that pings in 70 yard through balls or creates goals. He runs around and closes down the midfield, wins the ball and plays the simple ball, something he does well MOST games. IMO he is one of the best defensive mids in the business. I think the problem is playing him AND Barry together. Its one or the other, not both for me.
Without him in the side we'd be doing a lot fucking worse than we are doing now (we are fucking 5th and 2 points off 4th ffs!!!!)
Tonight pretty much everyone other than Vince and Tevez were shite.

Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha.......you should be a stand up comedian.

To be fair carl if we had a decent midfielder to play alongside him he might be alright....

Gerrard - masch
Lampard - Makal
Fabregas - Song

we have too many of the same shit in the centre. one top class midfielder changes that. That Barton fella from Newcastle looks alright.

He is one dimensional mate and does not know how to spring an offside trap with a telling pass.He slows play down every single fucking time he gets the ball no matter what the fucking result...he only knows how to pass the ball sideways and backwards.

It wouldnt matter who the guy plays alongside..his game wouldnt change a bit.
I hope he,s gone in the summer.

[london blue 2]

To single out Nige is a joke. For me he has been POTS after Tevez. What to people want him to do? He isnt the sort of player that pings in 70 yard through balls or creates goals. He runs around and closes down the midfield, wins the ball and plays the simple ball, something he does well MOST games. IMO he is one of the best defensive mids in the business. I think the problem is playing him AND Barry together. Its one or the other, not both for me.
Without him in the side we'd be doing a lot fucking worse than we are doing now (we are fucking 5th and 2 points off 4th ffs!!!!)
Tonight pretty much everyone other than Vince and Tevez were shite.

Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha.......you should be a stand up comedian.

To be fair carl if we had a decent midfielder to play alongside him he might be alright....

Gerrard - masch
Lampard - Makal
Fabregas - Song

we have too many of the same shit in the centre. one top class midfielder changes that. That Barton fella from Newcastle looks alright.

He is one dimensional mate and does not know how to spring an offside trap with a telling pass.He slows play down every single fucking time he gets the ball no matter what the fucking result...he only knows how to pass the ball sideways and backwards.

It wouldnt matter who the guy plays alongside..his game wouldnt change a bit.
I hope he,s gone in the summer.

who barton?


I quite like Dejong to be honest.

How many times did we see makalele/mash playing defense splitting passes? he has something to offer, just needs to be utilised properly. Agreed that the sideways passes are to frustratingly slow though.

[Grob]

He's a limited situational player.

Midfield is where we need to spend some serious cash in the summer.

Tonight I would have started De Jong to so I dont blame Mancini for that, two games in 4 days is too much for Vieria and we have little options. He was doing a good job untill they scored but after that he wasnt needed, he should have come off there and then for RSC.

He gives us nothing going forwards and when your chasing the game its like playing with 10 men.

[pepsi_dave]

De Jong would walk into ANY team in the prem..... he's like ronseal, he does exactly what it says on the tin.... He's a DM, he's there to try and break up the opposition in midfield... he does that as well as anyone IMO.... totally wrong to single him out for criticism, he's been brilliant for us this season... some games we dont need a player like him, but in the games that we do, he is one of the players who will step up to the plate.... he isnt the most creative of players, or the best passer of the ball, this is why he only tends to play the easy pass, and this usally means going backwards or sideways.....

[The Brazilian Genius]

Just trying to get my head round the De Jong debate.

Granted he is a pitbull in the middle of the park and like somebody mentioned earlier, he does exactly what is asked from him. For effort and committment you can not ask for any more, we all applaud him for that.

However techincally is a definsive midfilder effectively an extra defender? Can De Jong tackle...yes. Can De Jong pass...not really. Thus in a 4-4-2 are we ever going to dominate the opposite with the ball via our midfield with De Jong? Is it clear he should only play when we have a 3 or 5 man midfield?

What do we expect from a midfielder?

[getdressedmctavish]

First 30 he had his best 30 minutes in a City shirt. Got forward with the ball, delayed his passes a few seconds and then played some telling balls into space.Made a couple of decent tackles. Overall he took more responsibility than usual, so a decent game from him. Not one of the main culprits tonight.

[mcfc1632]

Wow - more NDJ criticism??

Perhaps he needs to learn a few step-overs or other little tricks so that he can catch the eye of more fans - obviously some need that type of thing

Mascherno would walk into almost any team in European team - as NDJ is as good in that key role as Mascherno it follows that so would he

Problem is that whilst all (well most) top teams need someone like him (although I wish his passing was better) - they also need players that can work with him - in MF - where Stevie was given a chance but missed the opportunity (before the injury which I thought was cynical/deliberate) - and the defence were not very certain

[Pretty Boy Lee]

He plays in midfield and has not once looked like scoring and sets none up. Yet people think he'd walk into any team?

I know he's. Dm but fuck me there are half a dozen of em around that will get a goal a season at least. To me he can be quite useful, when needed but we have overused him so much this season. It would be interestig to see our for and agisnt with and without him actually.

[Niall Quinns Discopants]

He chases around and tackles. He's very good at that. He doesn't really do anything else though.

Downsides are he gets in the way of other players and can't go a game without a yellow. Not a top 4 player by any stretch.

Pretty solid describtion of Negative Nigel.

I can't for the life of me understand how he can be Dutch. He has problems raising his eyes from the ball when he has ball in his feet, meaning he can't see players around him. Whenever he passes sideways, he ALWAYS passes behind player meaning the receiving player has no chance of making good use of the situation. He never passes forward and he never shoots. He can NOT be Dutch. Surely they had beaten these problems out of his game with a stick when he was 4? I mean that's for the the Dutch do (beat people with sticks that is).

And while there were many underachievers in last night game, De Jong was easily one of the worst. It was his job to control Cahill and Arteta and they were running rings around him, AGAIN.

[mcfc1632]

...... not sure people fully understand what seems obvious in the way the modern game is played - especially at PL level.

Yes - NDJ had one of his less effective games last night - but to say he was one of the least effective seems blinkered - Barry, Johnson, SWP, Bellers, Zab, Given were all at least as bad - but NDJ seems to becoming a target for some - (for some there must be a psychological need to have someone to dump on)

...memories are short - go back to before last January - every single game the opposing MF walked straight through the CITY side and we were continually under pressure - could not get hold of the ball - were just hoofing it clear to then get pressure on us again - and NDJ became a one-man stopper - teams do not do that anymore and in some games, e.g. Chelsea and Liverpool, he really does do it single handedly.

So last night he has one of his least effective games - and what happens - we do not keep the ball - opposition MF gets on top etc - yes a repeat of the old malaise - thing is - he has been so effective for months - people forget that it was always that bad (worse) - so how does getting rid help???? Should we have Stevie there clamping down on top class MF players? - how about Petrov - should we move Vince up into the role - or Zab - or we could just move Johnson's physical presence inside, or recall Robinho....

Guys wake up and find another target and stop biting the player that is one of the best in that role - it is a bit rich (or ignorant) to then expect him to inject all the creativity into the team as well - he should be able to expect others in the team to do that - as Lampard supports Essien/Mikel - as Gerrard supports Mascherano etc (or even Arteta is effective because of twatface, Fellani or Hetinger) - the answer is to have creative players as well as a DM - not instead!!!!

Truth is - he did not have one of his best games last night.... that is it - and it actually shows how much we rely on him - as it would also show if for instance Tevez was injured - whereas other players we have alternatives for

I wonder who (apart from the obvious) is POTS in the minds of critics ahead of him - and I wonder what that shows of their knowledge of football

If we get rid of NDJ, it will be because we bought Mascherano Ya Ya or some other replacement - thankfully people that understand the needs of PL make these decisions