Carabao Cup 3rd Round Football Thread ** spoilers ** [16/17/23/24 September 2025]

Mark1989 said:
I’d class what you describe as a transitional midfielder what we had in Henderson in his prime years for us.

I don’t think Jones has reached his level and I’d of expected him now.

In games like this he is senior, I’d be expecting him to be barking orders encouraging the tempo forward.

Not goals per se but there is many a times he does press it forward to not actually play the the pass forward and opts to recycle it back when it’s not needed, he is some what too safe at times imo.
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Which (aside from the leadership point) is basically the same accusation levelled at Henderson, who is probably our most influential midfielder of the last decade.

Football is more and more a control based sport. Slot is evidently a risk averse manager. Keep the ball enough, pass the ball enough, and you'll eventually win. It worked last season, and it's working this season - we're not blowing teams away, but we're winning late by being patient. Jones is good at that. He is also capable at being more adventurous in the final third when necessary, and we've seen that on multiple occasions when he's come off the bench late on and created something.

He's not the most exciting player, and I'm never going to pretend that he is. But he's good at the job he does.

I'm also not going to pretend that I know more about football than others on this forum. But his (reasonably) consistent selection by our only two managers to have won the league this century suggest he's doing something right.
 
Tombstone said:
Absolutely agree, hasnt had too much to do but he has been in the right positions when needed, shown a decent turn of pace when needed, near faultless with his pass completion. Looks very good
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My post was slightly tongue in cheek but despite having little to do, he's done everything asked of him. It's a bit of a stretch but the one genuinely impressive thing was early in the first half when Southampton tried to knock a ball over the top and running back, with the ball coming over his shoulder, he pulled the ball out of the air as if it was nothing. From watching some highlights clips when he signed, you could see he was massive and a bit of a physical monster and sometimes these big lumps aren't the best on the ball but he looks very comfortable in possession too.
 
Mark1989 said:
Gini, was brilliant for us def didn’t under rate him myself
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Every critism your throwing at Jones was the same used against Gini, too safe, doesnt do much, just passes around taking the easy option etc etc (and hendo aswell tbh)
 
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BaZ87 said:
My post was slightly tongue in cheek but despite having little to do, he's done everything asked of him. It's a bit of a stretch but the one genuinely impressive thing was early in the first half when Southampton tried to knock a ball over the top and running back, with the ball coming over his shoulder, he pulled the ball out of the air as if it was nothing. From watching some highlights clips when he signed, you could see he was massive and a bit of a physical monster and sometimes these big lumps aren't the best on the ball but he looks very comfortable in possession too.
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He looks comfortable too, the old looks like he has been playing in the team for years adage.

Edit : lol and then a sloppy pass. Commentators curse.
 
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BaZ87 said:
You're wasting your time. Mark's formed an opinion on Jones and will make the wildest of criticisms of him no matter what. There was a match last season when he complained about him giving the ball away - Jones had a high 90s pass completion rate, the highest of anybody on the pitch.

He's an unspectacular player. He's not somebody that goes around flying into challenges or scoring for fun. Like you say, his job is just to keep things ticking over, always providing a passing option for players to pass to and keeping things moving. When the side doesn't play well he's an easy target.
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Not entirely fair but would I expect him to take more charge in this game as a leader by now? 1000% I would and I don’t think that’s unfair.

Gini, Henderson and Fabinho all would have, maybe it’s cause Jones doesn’t give off that aura or isn’t maybe as vocal I don’t know

I just think Jones is alright but I expect more of him by now, I expect him at Gini or Henderson level.
 
Mark1989 said:
Not entirely fair but would I expect him to take more charge in this game as a leader by now? 1000% I would and I don’t think that’s unfair.

Gini, Henderson and Fabinho all would have, maybe it’s cause Jones doesn’t give off that aura or isn’t maybe as vocal I don’t know

I just think Jones is alright but I expect more of him by now, I expect him at Gini or Henderson level.
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I'm not sure Fabinho would have done. Quality player, but he basically just jogged around like a very effective lamppost.
 
Mark1989 said:
Not entirely fair but would I expect him to take more charge in this game as a leader by now? 1000% I would and I don’t think that’s unfair.

Gini, Henderson and Fabinho all would have, maybe it’s cause Jones doesn’t give off that aura or isn’t maybe as vocal I don’t know

I just think Jones is alright but I expect more of him by now, I expect him at Gini or Henderson level.
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As C Kent said, the criticism of Jones is the same as what was labelled at Wijnaldum for years. I'm not really sure what you mean by this leader comment? As in shouting or trying to be everywhere on the pitch? He's clearly not a shouty character, not everybody is. Wijnaldum wasn't. But if you're referring to his performance and wanting him to 'get about more', that's down to the manager to dictate. Having a player charging around the pitch, wanting to be everywhere can certainly look good for that player, I'm not sure it benefits the side though, not unless their role is to be that box to box player.
 
BaZ87 said:
As C Kent said, the criticism of Jones is the same as what was labelled at Wijnaldum for years. I'm not really sure what you mean by this leader comment? As in shouting or trying to be everywhere on the pitch? He's clearly not a shouty character, not everybody is. Wijnaldum wasn't. But if you're referring to his performance and wanting him to 'get about more', that's down to the manager to dictate. Having a player charging around the pitch, wanting to be everywhere can certainly look good for that player, I'm not sure it benefits the side though, not unless their role is to be that box to box player.
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I didn’t criticise Gini for it however I get Kent point as many did.

I’m not saying Jones is bad as he isn’t I’m not stupid as pointed out early two managers have thought allot of him and I trust Klopp and Slot.

Maybe I’m wrong for wanting more from him perhaps, but I don’t see him at Gini / Henderson level and I’d of thought by now he would be and least to me he hasn’t gotten closer to that, I think he is at his ceiling.
 
Mark1989 said:
I didn’t criticise Gini for it however I get Kent point as many did.

I’m not saying Jones is bad as he isn’t I’m not stupid as pointed out early two managers have thought allot of him and I trust Klopp and Slot.

Maybe I’m wrong for wanting more from him perhaps, but I don’t see him at Gini / Henderson level and I’d of thought by now he would be and least to me he hasn’t gotten closer to that, I think he is at his ceiling.
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He's not as good as Gini was but he was an excellent and incredibly underrated player. Jones plays in a similar way or at least that's how he's asked to play under Slot (he had a bit more offensive freedom under Klopp). As I said earlier, his job is very unspectacular - he's not flying around the pitch making big challenges or bombing forward getting shots away. He's a water carrier that links things together and when the team doesn't play well it's easy to point the finger at him because he's not had any big moments in the game but again, his role in the side means he's not likely to.
 
BaZ87 said:
He's not as good as Gini was but he was an excellent and incredibly underrated player. Jones plays in a similar way or at least that's how he's asked to play under Slot (he had a bit more offensive freedom under Klopp). As I said earlier, his job is very unspectacular - he's not flying around the pitch making big challenges or bombing forward getting shots away. He's a water carrier that links things together and when the team doesn't play well it's easy to point the finger at him because he's not had any big moments in the game but again, his role in the side means he's not likely to.
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Perhaps then I’m just being too harsh or my expectations of what I felt he could be were too high.

Again he isn’t bad but he isn’t Gini or Henderson and I thought he could be
 
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