The Manchester City Society II

Luckily the majority of his tackles are clean, he's gone nearly 2 years without getting a red.

In the last year just off the top of my head he's broken a player's leg (in a friendly), planted his studs in a player's chest and whatever damage he's done to Ben Arfa today. Add in the numerous hacks and raised studs that follow him whenever he plays and De Jong is an absolutely flithy player. In terms of causing damage to fellow professionals, he's the worst in the league. Awful.

In the last year just off the top of my head he's broken a player's leg (in a friendly), planted his studs in a player's chest and whatever damage he's done to Ben Arfa today. Add in the numerous hacks and raised studs that follow him whenever he plays and De Jong is an absolutely flithy player. In terms of causing damage to fellow professionals, he's the worst in the league. Awful.

Read what I said. The majority are clean.

Of course a player who's primary job is to tackle will make a few bad ones if only by the law of averages. Give me Nigel over your legions of divers any day of the fecking week. Oh and for the record Alex Song has more fouls to his name.

I feel for De Jong. His primary position - his sole position - is as a midfield enforcer. He's told to break up play. He's told to stop the opposition. He's told to play aggressively. Unfortunately for him, it's also what he does best. He can't compete against the likes of Yaya Toure and Barry when it comes to a more general midfield role.

If he wants to stay at City, or if he wants to play for any top 4 team, he has to keep up what he's doing. Van Marwijk used him in that role, for that very same purpose in the Holland squad, and now he's put him in a difficult position. He should get rid of Van Bommel too tbh... but he's probs immune from criticism.

Read what I said. The majority are clean.

Of course a player who's primary job is to tackle will make a few bad ones if only by the law of averages. Give me Nigel over your legions of divers any day of the fecking week. Oh and for the record Alex Song has more fouls to his name.

Oh well, if the majority are clean that's ok if he breaks a few bones her and there. It's not averages at all, Song fouls a lot but he doesn't go into challenges without control and I can't remember him putting in a tackle which I thought was nasty. De Jong on the other hand now has 3 memorable bad poor tackles in the last 5 months as pointed out above

I hope 'your' doesn't refer to Arsenal as there isn't a single diver in the team and i'd class Eboue as the only one in the squad. Divers never hurt anybody anyway, De Jong does