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Missed you again tonight big man, glad you're back this weekend.

Love bluej xxx

Definitely. And he should be our captain as the other contenders weren't fit for purpose tonight.

bluej wrote:Missed you again tonight big man, glad you're back this weekend.

Love bluej xxx

I'm sure he would have been the key to unlocking the mass Everton defence. :-|

NDJ is someone we need to buy some backup for in Janvier. The nature of big Nige's game means he will miss a fair few games with suspension, and I don't think there is anyone else who can match his game in the squad when he's missing.

Tokyo Blue wrote:

bluej wrote:Missed you again tonight big man, glad you're back this weekend.

Love bluej xxx

I'm sure he would have been the key to unlocking the mass Everton defence. :-|

Think the first 20 minutes would have been different though!

Exactly. I think if De Jong would have been on the field, we wouldn't have started the game so wobbly. He helps to hold our defense together and I think he should be the first name on the team sheet, week in, week out.

Completely agree, tonight proved that Nige IS our most important player. Okay, he has never scored for us, he doesn't spray the ball around and he can't beat players for fun like Adam Johnson, but how shit did Kompany and Toure look without him doing all the dirty work.

Not a chance on this earth we would have lost tonight with him in the team, the man inspires confidence throughout the team, something we didn't have in the first half hour.

Can we change the thread title to "we are a one man team" because without NDJ we just simply aren't the same!

He is definately my fave player for his workrate and commitment. We miss him every time he doesn't play. He allows Yaya to bomb forward and protects the back four. People harp on about kompany being that good but it is NDJ that enables him to be that good, when Nige isn't playing Kompany looks exposed to me.

De Jong hasn't stopped Cahill or Fellini in the past, why would last night of being different. Cahill makes late runs into the box like no one else does, Nige wouldn't have tracked him back or have predicted Kompany would have ran away from where the ball was crossed too.

So disappointed in Kompany last night. Him and Kolo looked way too exposed so I can only presume that De Jong would have covered them better. Maybe we still would have conceded one, but 2? I'm not so sure.

Milner, Kompany, Kolo and Kolarov were the main culprits from last night and when you want to win important matches, you can barely have one passenger, let alone three or four.

We missed Nige alright, probably more so because it changed the dynamics of both our midfield and defence.. the missing link.

MaineRoadMemories wrote:De Jong hasn't stopped Cahill or Fellini in the past, why would last night of being different. Cahill makes late runs into the box like no one else does, Nige wouldn't have tracked him back or have predicted Kompany would have ran away from where the ball was crossed too.

I've got to disagree with this mate, their first goal last night and Wolves first goal when we played them away were caused by players uncovered at the edge of the area. Admittedly the ball didn't go to the Everton player on the edge but caused Kompany to try and second guess it (incorrectly). In both those games De Jong was missing. We are no where near as defensively tight without him.

It's impossible to say whether NDJ would have or wouldn't have stopped either goal last night but the back four play a hell of a lot better whenever he is on the pitch, Without him they look like rabbits caught in the headlights.

bluej wrote:

MaineRoadMemories wrote:De Jong hasn't stopped Cahill or Fellini in the past, why would last night of being different. Cahill makes late runs into the box like no one else does, Nige wouldn't have tracked him back or have predicted Kompany would have ran away from where the ball was crossed too.

I've got to disagree with this mate, their first goal last night and Wolves first goal when we played them away were caused by players uncovered at the edge of the area. Admittedly the ball didn't go to the Everton player on the edge but caused Kompany to try and second guess it (incorrectly). In both those games De Jong was missing. We are no where near as defensively tight without him.

Agreed

Maybe even the field was i problem for us. Many lads had problem maintaing they balance.
Nigel was an important absence for us, but Moyes didn't attack us from the center, but from the sides, where Kolarov and Zaba couldn't stop them