well, we can all agree that he's a much needed player and works amazingly hard. but I think I have to agree to a certain extent with Italian tsar. but i'll rephrase it a bit. when I saw de jong today I found that while remarkably similar to van bommel, there was a difference in the way they play distribution. and I believe that van bommel did a better job of it, than de jong currently does. that's my only qualm about him. he takes longer, with more indirect passes.
but it has to be considered that, imo when van bommel was here, we played differently. van bommel played more central as a true CDM (cuz we had nesta and silva in defence ). de jong doesn't seem to be doing that and plays further back, right in front of the defense as a sweeper. so when in possession, he brings the ball forward, before distributing.
it can also be said that in this particular case, de jong was just being very cautious with his passes due to the mentality of the team on the pitch and w/e.
this is not to take anything away from him though, and i'm definitely not complaining. he's been brilliant for us.
