Jonny too bad: Evans in the firing line

In recent weeks defensive frailties have cost United big.

At Fulham, Everton and Bolton we dropped points and last week against Liverpool despite cruising we almost self destructed due to defensive mishaps. Whilst our defence is a 4 man unit (5 including VDS) one name is mentioned more frequently than others when talking about defensive mistakes.

Many have called for Rafael to take over at right back at the expense of John O’Shea, whilst many feel Patrice Evra is still suffering a World Cup hangover and although relatively solid even Vidic hasn’t escaped the scrutiny of all but Jonny Evans seems to be constantly in the firing line and not undeservedly.

The young Irishman rose to prominence deputising for Rio and Vida and many felt he would one day he would be a starter at the club when either Rio or Vidic were no longer at the club or, at a long shot’ at the expense of one of them but his recent displays are seriously damaging not only his reputation and his chances but also our title chances.

At 6ft 2 Jonny isn’t a small guy at all but it seems when he comes up against a player with size or that is physical he gets rattled and other clubs have realised this and are actually targeting him. Obviously all this is nothing new to you, if you watch games you will have seen him struggle against the likes of Davies, Zamorra etc and although he is an extremely talented player, this is becoming a reoccurring theme. Fernando Torres, despite not being in the same bracket as Zamorra and Davies, befuddled Evans into giving away a penalty last week and opened the door to Liverpool’s comeback. Evans himself acknowledged this thus revealed he thanked Berbatov for getting him off the hook.

At 22 you don’t play as many games as Jonny has for United without having some obvious talent and he has showed on various occasions that he can handle players better than the likes of Kevin Davies (no disrespect intended) so it’s clear he is just a player slightly off the pace and out of form rather than him not having the ability and the fact Rio and Wes aren’t ready to step back into the first team and Smalling is still learning the ropes at the club (even though he looked like a bloody star against Scunthorpe on Wednesday) pretty much means that Evans has to play.

At 22 he is very young to be a starting center back for a team as big as United but as many games as he has played and experience he has accrued, the excuse that he is young is one that won’t wash with people any more, he has now entered the territory of fair game and is open to the kind of criticism more experienced players would receive rather than looked at as just a kid to cover for Rio or Vidic.

Usually in instances like these pulling the player out of the firing line can be seen as damaging to a player’s morale but in this instance I think it is more damaging to leave him in there to be getting targeted and thus getting the flak he is. Smalling may be a better option even if it is a temporary measure until Rio is back.

Evans has looked shaky but as I have mentioned he hasn’t been aided by not so stellar performances from the likes of O’Shea or Evra. Even if he is pulled out, it is more than likely we will see him again playing an important part in the first team this season I just fear that if he is kept in now, it will damage him in the future.