LA Galaxy midfielder and long time USMNT veteran Jermaine Jones believes he is unrightfully given the blame when something goes wrong in the midfield.
In this latest round of World Cup Qualifying, the USMNT picked up four out of the possible six points, a 6-0 win at home against Honduras and a 1-1 draw in Panama. In the latter game, we saw Jermaine Jones start in place of the injured Sebastian Lleget, pushing Christian Pulisic to the wing and setting up Jones to play the pivot role with Bradley.
Though many people were critical of Jones’ performance that game, being graded the lowest in the MLS Multilpex Player Ratings out of all the starting midfielders, Jones himself thought he played well and was given too much of the blame:
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"People hate and try to find mistakes when you lose games. To me, the point is what I’ve said always: ‘Bring me the guy who is better at that position and show that week to week in the league, against me, against other teams.’ I respect it and I say, ‘If he’s better, I step away. I’m 35 — I can step away and say I had a good career.’ But right now, if you be honest, ask my teammates, ask the people inside. There’s nobody who can take my spot.People always say that me and Michael don’t fit together. The criticism is always on me. If we lose a game, they always try to find the next guy who can play for Jermaine. It’s never somebody else — it’s always me. I’ll be honest: That pisses me off, where I say, ‘Wait a minute — when we play the big tournaments, I’m almost or always the best player on the field for this country.’ But then at the end of the day, they try to kick me out when we lose games. That’s not fair."
Though it is great to be confident in the way you play, most people who watched that game-if not all-would agree that Jones is definitely not the best option to have playing in the pivot role with Michael Bradley. Though he may have helped set up Dempsey’s goal against Panama, he definitely wasn’t the “best player on the field” for the United States.
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It’s fairly easy to say that though Jones might get called in again, there are plenty of other players that find themselves higher on the pecking order than Jones at this point.