What to do with Phil Jones?

I was intrigued by this piece by Life's a Pitch focusing on arguably the most important positional question in English football over the next ten years: What do we do with Phil Jones? 


England have had ball-playing centre-backs before but we look around Europe and we covet what others have had. We have never had a player to compare to Germany's Beckenbauer, Matthaus or even Sammer, Holland's Koeman, Spain's Hierro or Italy's Scirea or Baresi. We should learn from the Bible. Thou Shalt Not Covet Thy Neighbour's Libero.

Because we have long desired such a player we tend to try to push players into that position, we surround them with hype and we think - because a player can tackle and pass - that they could, indeed, be England's Baresi. We usually end up disappointed.

What of Jones? There is no doubt he is an exciting player. The hype that surrounded him at Blackburn Rovers seems to have been justified and he seems to be utterly oblivious to the transfer fee. At his best, he has been one of the most exciting players in the league.

That said, there have been defensive errors. There have been problems with his positioning. For all the fluidity of his passing, his surging runs, and his play going forward, there are concerns about fairly basic defensive abilities: positioning, aerial ability and his ''turning circle''.  But those runs! Those runs from deep, through broken play, are astonishing. It is almost as if he is a wing-back but playing through the centre. The only player I can think of in the world game who makes similar runs, or who has the ability to, is Sergio Ramos.

So there are strengths and weaknesses to his game. Of course there are. He's a 19-year-old. Few are flawless and fewer still flawless at that age. But where will he end up? 

The Scottish Tinkerman


I think we can safely say that long-term Phil Jones will not end up at right-back. He may be the Steven Gerrard of his generation - the best right-back around but better deployed elsewhere. So, is it centre-back or centre-mid? I am unsure and I think that Sir Alex Ferguson is too.

One of the great unspoken truths of football is that Sir Alex Ferguson is a tinkerman. That accusation has been labelled fairly at both Ranieri and Benitez but Ferguson is equally guilty of tinkering. This is not a bad thing. There is nothing inherently wrong with tinkering each week. As Ferguson has shown it can be successful. Remember he once changed his team for over 100 games running. Tinkering is often lambasted by the media but it hasn't done Manchester United much harm.

Ferguson often tinkers with his eleven but he also tinkers with his formation and his players. He often fields teams that few in the press would predict, play players slightly out of position or move them around a little.  


Jones is undoubtedly a huge talent but a newcomer has played at right-back, centre-back and in central midfield. Sometimes that has been out of injury-enforced necessity. Sometimes it has been as if Ferguson has been tinkering and, ultimately, testing him. There is nothing wrong with that. Ferguson has invested a considerable sum in the player and it is only right he decides where is his best position.

The problem is such tinkering - if it continues too long - can hurt a player. John O'Shea, laughable as many will see it, was a truly astonishing player when he burst on to the scene. I remember one game where he ran the length of the field and took it past a player with an audacious flick behind his legs. Players who shine at 18 can shrivel. Players who shuffle around at 18 can go on to get 50 England caps.

Let us hope Jones is one of those who shines throughout his career.

A monstrous midfielder?

I am unsure where Ferguson thinks Jones is strongest but I worry that he will end up as a centre-back. Jones will be a fine centre-back. My guess though is that his highest heights will be hit in central-midfield. He could be a once-in-a-generation midfielder. The sort of player who can dominate games - who can tackle, who can run games with their passing ability and who can bulldoze through teams.

His strongest assets - his vision, his passing, his ''game-awareness'', his all-round attacking threat, his decision-making, his ability on the ball - are accentuated to a greater extent in central-midfield than they are at centre-back. I can see him playing a Yaya Toure-esque way. He has the potential to be as good if not better.

He will probably end up at centre-back. He'll have a very fine career there. He may end up being one of our finest centre-backs. But he will not be our Hierro, Baresi or Beckenbauer. No, we'll still be looking for one of those. We might be saying ''if only he'd been a central-midfielder.... hell, he'd have been cracking there''.

The problem with England's footballing future is that we've seen it all before.

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The Best Football Song Ever?

Well, maybe not the best football song ever but certainly in the top two or three.

From the four lads who shook the Wirral, Half-Man, Half-Biscuit and the song is: All I want for Christmas is a Dukla Prague away kit.

And, with the smooth linkage you've come to expect, here's a picture of your favourite Edinburgh-based, Wirralian football blogger (looking moronic) holding a Dukla Prague away kit... you too can buy one from Football Nation (follow the big man here)

I should point out Mr. Dow isn't paying for this advertisement. I just thought (a) you'd like to see what the kit looked like (b) it is a shop I love and it deserves your support.

Why I'm holding the Edinburgh Evening News? Well that was to prove I exist... but that's another story.

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The Prince

I have a few pieces almost complete but, in the meantime, I thought readers might enjoy a little video post about one of the most graceful players ever to play the game: Enzo Francescoli.

I can think of few players who are so lithe, so elegant and so fluid in their movement and who seem to possess those qualities when in control of the ball. Although his nickname was ''The Prince'', and he has a princely demeanour about him, in many ways ''The Swan'' would have been a better name. Elegance underpinned by enormous energy. Even when he surges past a player

There isn't the cockiness of Cruyff, or Prosinecki, but Francescoli's work in ''the tight'' is similar to both. Perhaps that is the princely demeanour. He doesn't need to be cocky. He doesn't need to show off. Of course, there are the impressive flicks and tricks but they do not seem to be intended for show but rather for go.
No, Enzo, seems to be about gliding past players and through defences. Sure, he can scream past them if needs be but he is one of those players who seems effortless.

What always impresses me about Francescoli is his directness, there is no messing about, there is no ''cat and mouse'' with the opposition. He seems to take the quickest route to goal.

It doesn't hurt that he can score absolutely astonishing goals.



One of the finest players of the 1980s, a man who inspired Zidane (he was Zidane's idol and a man he modelled himself on - one can see the similarities) and a River Plate legend. He, like Hugo Sanchez (covered here last week), is one of those players that is often overlooked when we discuss greats of the past.

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The dragback that changed the world

One of the most famous results in history is the famous England 3 - 6 Hungary game in 1953.  The game was significant for any number of reasons and the result still resonates today.

The arrogance of Albion believed that they couldn't be beaten on home soil (in 90 years, England had never lost to a side from outside the British Isles on UK soil). For years, the FA had assumed that the English national team was superior to that of teams from around the world. They took little heed of the World Cup (a competition which had been taken on four occasions by 1953). This belief of superiority over the rest of the world included the belief they would beat the stunning Hungary team that arrived at Wembley that November day on an unbeaten run of 24 games.

So what happened in those 90 minutes?

The WM Formation was discredited. The English players were hapless in trying to grapple with concepts and tactics which, to them, were as alien as modesty is to Alex Salmond.

Heroes of the game - heroes to this day - like Wright, Matthews and Mortensen were outclassed and outshone. These men were titans of the British game.

The idea that the England manager didn't need to be a specialist was shown to be obviously laughable.

Six of the team, including Mortensen, never pulled on the white of England again.

Fifty years of British managers were affected. Busby, Revie, Nicholson, Ramsey (who played in the game), Clough, and Robson were all influenced by the Hungarians. The fall-out of that lives on. Sir Alex Ferguson was wowed by the Puskas-inspired Real Madrid in 1960. To a large extent, many of Britain's greatest teams were influenced and inspired by 11 Hungarians who not only beat, but destroyed, England in 1953.
Some may argue that some of the faults of that day still exist. That we believe that we are the rightful rulers of world football because of our founding role in the game; that we will, one day, rule the pitches of the world again; that we do not think enough about the game; that tactical innovation is a form of cheating; and that we lag behind the rest of the world in technical ability. There may well be some truth in all that. As important as that game was we still haven't learnt out lessons.

Still, the moment everything changed? Surely the dragback after 44 and 50 seconds in this game? If anything in that game typifies what happened it is Puskas making a fool out of the English defence.

The whole game was impressive but that dragback is outstanding. Even today it would be outrageous. Then, as Sir Bobby Robson described it ''We didn't know about Puskas... they were men from Mars as far as we were concerned''. They were men from Mars before the game and after the game - just in different ways.

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Man Crush #1: Thierry Henry

For some time, the excellent Twisted Blood has been running a series called ''Through Gritted Teeth''. This is a space for fans to praise a player they should despise. I owe TB one - I cannot decide which of the triumvirate of evil (Neville, Cantona and Keane)  to write about. It is an excellent series covering everyone from Mourinho to Matty Holland, Andreas Moller to Landon Donavon.

Anyway, as a flipside, I'm going to invite bloggers, journalists and writers to submit pieces about players they adore a little too much. There doesn't need to be any teeth gritting, or gut wrenching, just put forward players you adore*. If you fancy writing, please just ask in the comments or drop me an email to lbinthechangingroom@yahoo.co.uk

So, first up, is my best man, Kenny Fleming who has previously written for the blog with his man crush: Thierry Henry. (For those interested in the man: I wrote about Thierry's return last week).

Can someone get Kenny a towel?

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* Only one of you can have Riquelme.

Man Crush #1 - Thierry Henry

Thierry Henry is my favourite ever footballer. My Irish friends may not like this but it is true. I won’t say he is the most talented, or the best player of his generation, but no footballer has brought me pleasure the way Henry has. Growing up, Arsenal were always my English team. The first European club football I remember were Arsenal’s adventures in the European Cup Winner’s Cup under George Graham. I mean what Primary School kid couldn't fail to fall in love with the flair of a Graham eleven? However, it was the arrival and blossoming of Henry that really made me a fan. Beyond his talent and skill, he had a mixture of style, charisma and swagger that had me at bonjour.

From Hoof to Haan: The end of the centre-back?

All innovations in football lead back to Amsterdam. At that World Cup in 1974, Arie Haan was not deployed in his customary position of midfield but rather at the heart of defence. This was a reaction to a series of injuries to specialist centre backs but, with a player as gifted as Haan at centre-back, it allowed Total Football's highest heights to be realised.

As Cruyff later put it ''We wanted to press forward and therefore had a huge space behind our defence. We needed fit defenders to the cover the area. Also, with Jansen and Nees in midfield, we felt we could cover the centre position and by adding a more football-player type libero we could get the upper-hand of the games''.

What we can learn from rugby #764

A nice little video piece from our egg-chasing friends:



Volume is needed to appreciate it fully.

Whilst I am somewhat loathe to encourage more rugger buggers in the City, and in Edinburgh, getting on their high horse about how games are refereed. If nothing else, to my knowledge, no footballer has yet resorted to Hammer Horror blood capsules in the mouth.

I do think though we must acknowledge that sort of conversation is preferable to the behaviour we routinely see in football. Such behaviour culminates in the sort of antics that Scott Johnston decries here. I don't think the above cannot happen in football. We just need the FA, and referees, to be stronger on such matters and to start routinely carding people for backchat.

And whilst you are here, at LBITCR, why not read some of the week's new pieces? On Messi, on journeymen, and on how we feel when players retire. I think they are rather good but then I am an egomaniac so it is probably better you just leave your comments to keep me in check.

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The beauty of the journeyman

It is easy to understand why many in the game fetishise and hero-worship the one-club man. In many of our minds he typifies what football should be about. 

When a player plays for one club for the entirety of his career many in the game view this as a more worthwhile career or a more virtuous career than those who chop and change clubs.

When that player is a local boy things are even better. The likes of Gerrard, Scholes and Terry are viewed as a throwback to days when things were better, when teams were truly representative of the fans in the stand and when clubs were an extension of the areas that supported them.

Pentapichichi

Whilst I finish off a piece about journeymen, why not enjoy some fantastic goals from one of the 1980s finest players: Hugo Sanchez




A truly outstanding player and one, I'm sure, you'll enjoy.

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The Greatest?

One day in the future you will be asked ''How good was Lionel Messi?''. Maybe you will be wearing a velvet jacket when you are asked the question by a grandchild. If so, you'll be in good company.

The more I consider that question - in the present tense - the more I am convinced that not only are we in the presence of genius but, more than that, we may very well be watching the finest player ever to play the game.

Pub debates will rage over whether he truly is better than Maradona or Pele or Cruyff. There is no doubt that each is a wonderful player but there is little doubt that we are increasingly debating the merit of those four players when we decide who is the finest to kick a ball. Increasingly, Best, di Stefano, Beckenbauer, Puskas and so forth are considered just a little further back.