Has Jonas earned the respect of Toon fans?
Posted on November 17th, 2011 | 28 Comments |
Jonas started his career with Argentina’s Vélez Sársfield as a youth in 1999 and he moved into first team in 2001. He stayed with Vélez for 99 games, winning the title with them in 2005 before moving to Mallorca for just over £3m after the title-winning season. Jonas bought himself out of his contract with Mallorca to join us in July 2008 and there was something of a furore after that with Mallorca demanding £13.2m off us in ‘compensation’. The dispute went to a FIFA hearing in the end and Mallorca settled for an undisclosed – but much lower – fee thought to be somewhere between £2.5m and £5m.
He slotted fairly quickly into our left midfield position and he’s more or less been there ever since. He did play a couple of matches at left-back for us and for his country he has often played at right-back, particularly under Maradona who one described his team selection policy as “Mascherano, Messi, Jonas and eight more“.
He wasn’t received universally well by Newcastle fans at first with many suggesting that he ‘flattered to deceive’ and had no ‘end product’, although I think few doubted his work-rate and his ability – particularly when partnered with Jose Enrique – to make ground up the left wing. One of the main criticisms was that Jonas’s crosses didn’t pass muster and, looking back at the stats, 14% of his crosses were accurate in his first season for us, which has increased to 17% this season. Those figures alone don’t say much without something to compare them to so, to put it in perspective, last season Nani’s crossing accuracy for Man Utd was 26%; this season Ashley Young’s is 17% and Gareth Bale’s is 38%. Maybe, then, there is room for improvement there.
But once we add defensive work into the picture, Jonas begins to shine with a 83% successful tackle rate as compared to 61% for both Bale and Young this season and 67% for Nani last season. I think this was epitomised by his performance at Stoke; his forward runs were often cut off by two or three Stoke players, limiting what he could do in that respect, but his defensive work was exemplary and he was, for me, our man of the match.
Stats don’t tell it all of course and sometimes you just have to look at the game a player plays as whole. But I’ve always liked Jonas, maybe because work-rate is something I really appreciate in a player, and I think he’s improved each season he has been with us. When he signed a new 4-year contract back in September, Pardew said of him:
“Jonas can turn a game in an instant. He has marvellous ball skills, a terrific work rate and, in my time here, has hardly missed a game.
“That’s the sort of consistency, fitness and performance wise, that a manager looks for in a player.”
Which sums him up nicely I think.
Given that Alan Pardew doesn’t see Hatem Ben Arfa as a winger, I suppose the player who’s the greatest threat to Jonas’s place is Sylvian Marveaux, but I think Jonas would have to have a really bad run of form or suffer an injury before Pardew – who seems to like to keep things the same if possible – displaces Jonas. And whilst another player might be able to make more crosses count, they’d have to be pretty good defensively to take Jonas’s place in that respect.
So what do you think?
Has Jonas earned your respect? And is there any current Toon player you’d rather Pardew used instead of him?
NUFCBlog Author: Hugh de Payen
I'm a baby-boomer of the punk rock persuasion, currently exiled in Somerset for crimes committed in a previous life where locals keep trying to poison me with something called 'scrumpy'. Hates sprouts, coat-hangers, Cilla Black, ornaments, Steven Seagull movies and 50 Cent (he's not worth 10).
Hugh de Payen has written 634 articles on this blog.
A few weeks ago, if spiderman had carked it his headstone would have read
“Here lies Jonas Gutierrez, prolific throw-in winner for Newcastle United.”
I was pretty sick of him messing about and playing in to dead-ends all the time.
He shone in his debut, then that was about it until recently.
Now, I think I would be fairly sad if he was to go.