in

Next Season Why Jonny Evans’ Gotta Be Good

I think most Manchester United fans would agree that Jonny Evans didn’t particularly play well last season.

Despite starting the year alongside Nemanja Vidic in the heart of our defence, by the end of the season he was relegated to our fourth-choice at centre-half due to the outstanding progress Chris Smalling made.

Next season will be a big season for Jonny and could be one that decides whether his long-term future really does lie at Old Trafford. Despite the expected departures of Wes Brown and John O’Shea to Sunderland, competition for places in our defence will be just as tough next season as ever before.

There’s no doubt Smalling who enjoyed a fine debut season at the club will be the first in line to come into the heart of our defence should anything happen to either Rio Ferdinand or club captain Vidic.

After all, the youngster’s form towards the end of the season was fantastic and he looked particularly good for England’s U21’s as well in the recent U21 European Championships, despite England’s exit from the tournament at the group stage.

There of course Smalling was partnered in defence by Phil Jones who joined us last month from Blackburn Rovers. Jones too had a good tournament, looking strong and composed showing why we paid a reported £17million for his services.

Whilst Jones of course looks a great prospect for the future, his signing only added more question marks on Evans’ future at the club.  Those questions and doubts were totally understandable given the fact that our no.23 looked out of sorts for the majority of the season whilst Jones was arguably one of the young stars of last season’s Premier League.

There were rumours last January that Sir Alex Ferguson was thinking about loaning out Evans in order to rebuild his confidence that at times looked frail early on in the season. In the end probably due to the past injury-records of our defenders at the club, Jonny stayed on to the season’s end and played in our final two games of the season.

Despite looking shaky in those games – particularly away to Blackburn in the game that clinched us the title – the fact he was playing in those games must have been good for his confidence in that at least he had ended the season in our team.

It shall be interesting to see how Evans gets on next season for us. You get the feeling that he will need to start the season well to build up his confidence or he might slip further behind Smalling and even Jones.

Maybe though, he might not have to be a first-choice to have a long career at us. After all you would only have to look at someone like O’Shea who barring injury regularly makes around 40-45 appearances a season whilst being a ‘utility’ player.

Evans has proved in the past he can be a useful option at left back and his performance at home to Chelsea in the ‘title-decider’ (where he came on after half time to O’Shea) was probably his most solid performance of the season where surprisingly he looked more than decent going forward too.

I think it’s sometimes easy for fans to forget that Jonny’s still only 23 and very few defenders at that age are the ‘finished article’ and that he is still a developing player.

All players go through uncertain spells in their careers and younger players often get criticised more at top clubs when it happens to them as fans (rightly or wrongly) want to see players fulfilling their potential as soon as possible and football as we know doesn’t always work like that.

It shall be interesting to see how Evans gets on next season, as even if he struggles again there are clubs who will want to sign him and Wolves if you believe the papers have enquired about trying to buy him this summer, so he’s clearly still someone who most clubs would want.

Jonny certainly has the ability to be a top defender in the Premier League for the next 10-15 years, only time can tell whether the majority of those years will be at Old Trafford or somewhere else.

By Adam Dennehey – @ADennehey87

2 Comments

  1. I think United need to loan him to Wolves or someone because he needs to play first-team football and sort his career out. He looked so promising a couple seasons ago but recently he has fallen down the pecking-order and in my opinion it is because he has become complacent and assumed he is worthy to succeed at United.

    I don't think he realises how hard he has to try to succeed at Old Trafford. I have met him a couple times in Hale (a posh town in Cheshire, just outside of Manchester) where he is always out and about drinking. I feel he has started to enjoy the young footballer lifestyle too much and the emergence and professionalism of Chris Smalling has taken him by surprise.

    When we drew 2-2 away at Villa Park last season, which was an early kick-off on a Saturday. He was out at the same bar I was in Hale and at around 12 o'clock his mates said they were going off to another for a bit – just 12 hours before kick-off! I understand that he probably knew he wasn't involved in the game the next day but the situation just summed it up for me, as it was about the third time I had seen him out and about in the past couple months.

    Hopefully, SAF has drilled into him what a privilege it is to play for United and he will start to try harder and fulfil his potential but if he doesn't change his attitude then I am not sure whether he deserves to play for us.

    He needs to go out on loan this season and prove himself in my opinion.

  2. Yes, J Evans must do better. At another club that is. The likes of Evans, Gibson, O'shea, Park, Bebe, Obertan et el do not belong to Utd. If you haven't seen the gulf in class ( make that ocean ) gainst Barca, then you are not a Utd fan. This coming season will be tougher. Chelsea will try not to go on a mid-season break of their own. Man City, sadly awash with donno-whose-money, will be there too. So, without significant reinforcement, Utd may struggle domestically, let alone in Europe.

Does Anderson Have A Long-Term Future At Old Trafford?

Nani: My United Player Of The Season