We need to talk about Jonny Evans

[Lesta2014]

Think his injury is impact and not muscular or surely wouldn’t have stayed on!

[KrefelderFox666]

He may be fairly limited in his abilities but he does those extremely well and is so important for the team and helping build young players like Soyuncu and Fofana. And he is just so consistent.

[baldeagle]

I loved how right at  the end of the first half while he was hobbling  around he still managed to be in the right place and cut out a pass . 

[1972 Fox]

Rolls Royce of a defender and a leader too.

 

So glad we signed him and also extended his contract recently.

[Deeg67]

Obviously you hope Perez is OK (though removing the temptation for BR to use him where and when he shouldn't for a while might not be a terrible thing).  But we can work around his absence.  Losing any more anchors from the back line would be disastrous.  Evans is a huge presence for us even if everyone is healthy - with Fofana and Justin out he's pretty much irreplaceable.  

Edited 14 February 2021 by Deeg67

[reynard]

Somehow have to keep him fit for the next few weeks. With Justin out for the season and Fofana still 3 weeks away from returning our only back up centre back is Amartey. Otherwise it is Fuchs.

[honeybradger]

Second time in two games he's been dragged out wide and we've been outnumbered in the box, needs to sort it out

[5waller5]

Poor tonight, slows the game down far too much 

[martyn]

 

52 minutes ago, honeybradger said:

Second time in two games he's been dragged out wide and we've been outnumbered in the box, needs to sort it out

Don't mind him getting dragged out wide, that can happen, but if it does he needs to be much more committed in trying to block the cross. Against Villa he could have got out to close Targett down much quicker and disrupted the cross and the same tonight.

Edited 25 February 2021 by martyn

[Bezzanator89]

44 minutes ago, 5waller5 said:

Poor tonight, slows the game down far too much 

Think that's not just him. Our overall gameplay was a rousing snorefest by the whole team.

[Mark]

He plays better next to Fofana, or maybe he's just more comfortable on the left.

[CosbehFox]

Just now, Mark said:

He plays better next to Fofana, or maybe he's just more comfortable on the left.

Surprised you say that because before tonight, the defence has been in fine fettle. Something like 2 goals in 6 games ? 
 

He got dragged out for the first goal. Amartey in no mans land didn’t really help. 

[Mark]

7 minutes ago, Cardiff_Fox said:

Surprised you say that because before tonight, the defence has been in fine fettle. Something like 2 goals in 6 games ? 

I think we're a far better team with Fofana, his ability to pass forward into midfield and start attacking moves means it's not down to Evans who tends to dwell on the ball every time. Not a surprise the goals have dried up for us since his injury.

[Tom12345]

6 hours ago, Mark said:

I think we're a far better team with Fofana, his ability to pass forward into midfield and start attacking moves means it's not down to Evans who tends to dwell on the ball every time. Not a surprise the goals have dried up for us since his injury.

Actually, I don’t think it was Evans’ fault. You can see he really wanted to get it forward and win, rather than passing it back to Kasper. The problem is with midfield. They should provide option for him to pass and then be the ones to make that pass forward to the frontmen. Instead, Evans and Soyuncu became our “creative” midfielders looking for a through ball to the frontmen. Firstly, it was because Rodgers chose to play Ndidi and Hamza in front of them - Hamza especially poor. He kept passing the ball back to Evans, Soyuncu and Kasper! Then after the game was lost, with Hamza gone and Tielemans going back to his usual role, it was too late and Slavia had seized the midfield. Having Fofana would not help that much more - afterall, we should rely on our central midfielders to distribute the ball forward not central defenders. We completely lost central midfield this game and our wings (especially our right) were clipped because we started with Amartey, so we failed to stretch the opposition midfield meaning that our defensive players in Ndidi and Hamza got even less space to try to do anything, again resulting in Evans and Soyuncu trying to thread throughballs.

 

I have to say, Slavia Prague pressed really well and our tactics and team selection played into their hands. They must have watched how we fell last season after being found out because we could not get the ball up the field through CM.

 

Just bad tactics really.

Edited 26 February 2021 by Tom12345

[hejammy]

I've been saying it for a while now. Evans, as good as he is being in the team for that experience, just slows our play down so much! EVERYTIME he gets the ball, he needs to stop it, look up, take another touch, open his arms out, take another touch, forget where the ball is so needs to take another touch to bring it back and then eventually passes it to Cags. It cannot be that he has no options everytime. He's just too slow. Fofana was much more dynamic, honestly when he's fit I'd have Cags and Fofana, Evans as good as everyone thinks he is, stiffles our play. Yes we have not conceaded many goals in the last few games but it's not necessarily because of Evans, Ndidi is for me the main reason for this. 

[Nathan mcc]

19 minutes ago, hejammy said:

I've been saying it for a while now. Evans, as good as he is being in the team for that experience, just slows our play down so much! EVERYTIME he gets the ball, he needs to stop it, look up, take another touch, open his arms out, take another touch, forget where the ball is so needs to take another touch to bring it back and then eventually passes it to Cags. It cannot be that he has no options everytime. He's just too slow. Fofana was much more dynamic, honestly when he's fit I'd have Cags and Fofana, Evans as good as everyone thinks he is, stiffles our play. Yes we have not conceaded many goals in the last few games but it's not necessarily because of Evans, Ndidi is for me the main reason for this. 

You played many games at premier league level to judge wether he’s slowing play??? Sitting top 3 in prem would suggest our build up from back , through midfield and into front men is pretty decent indeed! 

[hejammy]

1 minute ago, Nathan mcc said:

You played many games at premier league level to judge wether he’s slowing play??? Sitting top 3 in prem would suggest our build up from back , through midfield and into front men is pretty decent indeed! 

So anyone with a footballing opinion has to play football at premier league level? In that case all posts on here should be disregarded. I think you'd have to have not watched any of our games to not see Evans slows our play down. Yes I know we're 3rd but that doesn't mean the whole team is perfect does it? 

[Nalis]

Thought he was poor by his standards but he was still better than Cags. 

 

Love Cags but the main partnership should be Evans and Fofana (when fit) for now and then Fofana /Cags in the long term.

 

 

[sdb]

Forfana looks incredible but the other 2 have the better understanding, as shown by our recent defensive stats. I was worried about Evans for most of 2020 but actually think he's been class since the new contract.

[jmono84]

10 hours ago, honeybradger said:

Second time in two games he's been dragged out wide and we've been outnumbered in the box, needs to sort it out

Yea I noticed this against Villa and had no idea what he was playing at.

 

We can’t keep leaving ppl free at the back ****ing stick from a simple pissing cross. Two shocking goals to concede the past two games

[Leicester_Loyal]

I fear age is starting to catch up with Evans just as it is Vardy, it'd be fine if he was only playing every 7 days, but it's been every 3 or 4 for the past 6 weeks or so.

 

Still reckon he's got another couple of years left in him at the top though, but only if used as a bit part, rather than every game.

[BKLFox]

Anyone still thinking Evans is over the hill, will continue to be our best CB by a country mile.

He’s the glue at the back and we need him.

& What is Cags on? flies in, no talking, looks like he’s sulking, it’s Evans and Wes when all fit

[baldeagle]

No surprise we looked much better defensively with him back in the side today 

[Charl91]

5 minutes ago, baldeagle said:

No surprise we looked much better defensively with him back in the side today 

Possibly, but it could also because Sheffield didn't really want to go past the half way line.

[Ross 'LCFC' Turner]

I thought his organisation of the defensive line today was a shambles. 
 

Look at the second goal, the ball sails over Fofana’s head, he turns around expecting Evans to be mopping up and he’s too busy trying to play offside! As the centre of a 3 you should be the sweeper and see the whole picture!