Jones, like many local players before him, suffers from having to be exceptional to be thought of as adequate. In the past he has been exceptional, but the way the team is playing, he’s only been adequate.
Injuries have slowed his progress, just when he appears to be getting a bit of form, he’s out again, but he’s not currently near the level he needs to be at and we don’t have the luxury of a number of games for him to ease himself back in.
It’s true I think that his style is often frustrating, and I agree recently play slows when it reaches him, as the majority of times he receives the ball he takes an extra touch then passes back to the centre backs, but the rest of the team aren’t playing with much confidence and as we’ve all seen, play “safe” passes and take up “ safe” positions.
The general malaise isn’t just down to Jones, and trying to regain form in the current setup must be a difficult thing for any returning player.
Like most, I’d love to see more generally attacking play that sees the first touch forwards, fewer passes across the back or into midfield then back to the centre halves, and quicker passes in front of players rather than behind, but that seems to be difficult for our team to do at the moment and we’ve only seen it in flashes.
We all know the team can play much better, they will know it too, we can only hope Jones and the rest of them can click out of their current form and give us something to cheer in the last 6 games.