Phil Jones needs to be dropped for his own good

Long gone, it seems, are the early days of the season where Phil Jones was marauding down the left, right… well, practically all over the pitch.

Manchester United this season have certainly hit rocky patches, especially within that inexperienced defence and after riding out initial Premier League results, United have found it hard to keep clean sheets

Phil Jones, at 20, has a lot of promise in the game but playing constantly gives him little time to reflect on his mistakes and rectify them through training.

(And seriously, when did these ‘young promising’ players become younger than me. I still remember the days when I was 14, saying to myself ‘it’s alright - he’s breaking through to the Utd. first team at 17, I’ve got time.’)

It’s a tried and tested method. Well, it’s Alex Ferguson’s method to blood the youngsters gradually, giving them time to ascend into being a first team regular.

Jones, however, has become an ever present but his games seem to be increasingly littered with misplaced passes, or having an opposition player slip past him.

There’s obviously a time when players come of age and step up to become first team regulars. (That’s the way progressing through a football team works, really.)

But that time is not yet, playing in all the pivotal matches for the biggest club in the world.

He's certainly got talent, but it is all too long ago now that he was being touted as a future England captain.