Jozo Simunovic

Aye Paul you're getting me worried now as well, I was thinking his passing was one of his better qualities

I also like how he feels comfortable enough on the ball to run with it.

I think a lot of folk doubted him at first because he seemed to be injury prone and we thought we'd never see the best of him? His first injury started off as a cough I think then he was out for ages no one knew what was going on.

Can see why Ronny bought him now. Talking of Ronny isn't it weird we need at least a couple of midfielders when Ronny was mad for buying them, think we had 15 1st team midfielders at one point Don't know why that never worked out. Christie and Henderson are still young though. * knows what happened to Scott Allen, I thought he was the new Xavi when he first played, never seen such brilliant defence splitting passes then he never played again for ages. Wonder how he's getting on.

What's the story with Toure? He's not played since those two goals against BMG has he? I thought he played well apart from that. Wonder if Brendan is doubting him? Jozo and Erik are playing well but I thought Kolo was in great form before that game.

I hope we can ignore any interest we receive regarding Jozo. He's the kind of player I'd like to keep long term if he keeps improving. Him and Erik could make a long term partnership.

 

I know but the fact you used that as an example, decision making comes with experience, considering his age and injury history I think you can excuse the fact he hasn't had enough game time and experience to improve his decision making.

What video?

 

Oh dear, that is some careless passing. I wonder why I let that go. If that was Boyata or Armstrong I would have noticed it in a big way.

Aye I understand what you mean about his decision making, passes, especially out from defence have to be precise and hopefully simple so as not to put the ball at risk. He does look as if he's got some potential though which is good.

I think Boyata for instance puts the ball at risk of interception because it's easy to read his long passes as his body shaping up for it gives away the direction. Keeping it simple means your body shape doesn't have to adjust so much. When Bitton was on good form he was a classic example of making great passes without being able to read his shape. Rogic is not bad at it either.

Cheers for the video, I shall have to be more wary of big Jozo now.

 

Just saw it there, so that's 3 games from last season where we played with little confidence, you could probably look back at several players and slate their passing those games. Not to mention the injuries he had last season and carried through many games.

So you haven't seen an improvement in his passing from last season to this season?
If you haven't then you have no leg to stand on for claiming people have blinkered views on his passing.

 

This basically. His passing has been much improved this season, compared to the games in that video.

 

Ah right see this makes sense cause I was sure his passing was good recently. So if that's from last season then it doesn't really matter because he's recovered from his injuries now and is a different player. I will still have an eye out for him and his passing though cause Paul has sown the seeds of doubt

 

Obviously had a terrible night with the ball at his feet against Fenerbahce. But 2 passes in 90 minutes against Ajax went astray according to that, and the two clips against Molde were pointless. (the first wasn't his fault that his teammate couldn't trap it). It's not really that bad.

In any case, surely you should be judging him based on this season since he's injury free. His passing this season has been fine this season.

 

His passing has been absolutely fine every game we've played this season. He misplaced two in the Barca game, two.

 

It hasn't been erratic this season. Maybe it was last season but this season his passing has been fine. Misplacing the odd pass doesn't make him erratic. The daft ones have been few and far between.

Maybe it has BEEN poor. But it hasn't been this season and I get the feeling you're the one who's a bit blinkered regarding this tbh

 

You did the exact opposite with Stefan Johansen, holding onto him being class even though he'd played * for ages. His passing has been good this season.
Simple as that. It has improved, if it gets worse then fair enough but when hes fit and firing, then his passing seems fine. It seems you're in the minority here.

 

His passing is improving for sure but he is still sloppy at times. Gave the ball away a couple of times against Barca and has done domestically as well. I really like the guy but his distribution is inconsistent.

 

Rightly getting stick for his distribution the other night. Carelessly lost the ball which started the attack that ended in the pen. Chipped the ball over Forrests head from 10 yards earlier.

That's not good enough and inexcusable in games of that importance, far too careless.

Not saying he won't turn out a solid centre half though but that was * poor.

 

We should still be looking for an improvement on him next summer.

 

Haven't seen much from him to say that we need improvement in the position. He's looked solid to me whenever I've seen him so far this season (with the exception of a few misteps or passes, which has greatly improved since last season). Him and Erik are forming a solid partnership, Kolo is certainly mentoring the pair, and we have O'Connell waiting in the wings if necassary. If Kolo and O'Connell move on next summer we will no doubt need to get in a CB or two, but I'm confident with Erik and Jozo leading the back.