Man United 2021-22 Season Ending Player Review: Phil Jones

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Manchester United’s season has been far from ideal. The Red Devils have continued disappointing the fans with the fifth consecutive season in which not a single trophy was won. The club is still waiting since that famous Europa League final in Stockholm, when everything felt much more positive and hopeful for this club. But half a decade later, Man United have lost a lot of time. And in the previous season, the club had recorded the worst Premier League campaign since it began in 1992.

With 57 goals scored and conceded, the Red Devils only managed to win the lowest number of points in these past 30 years. And one of the players who was for the most part unable to help out was Phil Jones. The experienced centre-back has been through a lot in the previous couple of years, with the knee injuries giving him serious problems and hurting his career in many ways. His season has been a tough one, another one in this sequence, but it did provide at least some hope for the central defender.

Appearances across all competitions

Phil Jones has managed to string together just eight appearances during the entire season and even those did not all come for the first team. Jones was out of action for so long he had to feature in three Premier League 2 games for the reserve team, in order to regain match fitness and get used to playing matches again. He also had four appearances in the Premier League and one in the FA Cup, all of those totalling just 191 minutes. That has been far from what Jones would have wanted, but on the other hand, he managed to return to action after missing almost exactly two years of Premier League football. When he returned against Wolves on 3 January 2022, his previous league appearance came against Burnley on 22 January 2020. It has been a long and painful ride and Jones can at least appreciate that he is now back and can start rebuilding his career slowly.

Did he perform above or below the expectations?

There were no real expectiations on his performances. His return against Wolves was a positive one, as Jones did quite well for someone who was out of action for so long. But no one around the club expected Jones to just slot back in and continue playing like nothing ever happened. This is a tricky process for every player and Jones’ was the same.

Will he be a part of Manchester United during the 2022-23 season?

Most probably, Phil Jones will want to make a change and leave Manchester United during the summer. Jones has been out of action for so long it is unrealistic to expect him to have his playing time in this team. With the arrival of Erik ten Hag, new type of central defenders are expected to come in and complement Harry Maguire and Raphael Varane. For Jones, the best move would be to move down the English football ladder and try to get his career back on track either at a lower level Premier League team or a high level Championship side.

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