What is Phil Jones' best position?

Phil Jones is an United player that, generally, parts assessment around football fans. While some keep up that Jones is one of the brightest defensive prospects that the English games needs to offer at this time, others champion the notion that the 21-year-old from Preston has been unable to advocate the confidence put in him by the Red Devils when they marked him two summers prior from Blackburn Rovers.

As such, it begs the question: What is Phil Jones’ best role with Manchester United?

In the opening 45 minutes of Manchester United’s 1-0 win over Arsenal on Sunday, the hosts were dominant. Arsenal created little or nothing, they were swamped in midfield and United had a deserved lead. However, in the second half, Arsenal came back into it, they controlled possession in midfield much more and it was only excellent defending by United that secured the win for David Moyes’ side.

There was one big difference between the two halves—and that was Phil Jones.

After Nemanja Vidic was forced to go off, Jones dropped back into defence and Tom Cleverley slotted into midfield. It’s not difficult to see why Arsenal had an easier time passing the ball around when they had Cleverley—who has never knowingly played a pass forwards and is rather less imposing than Jones—to deal with.

United’s midfield has obviously been the subject of much talk, evidently for as far back as three or four years. It was Sir Alex Ferguson’s blind side in the last years of his rule, with a string of costly yet ill-fitting midfielders signed, persisted with then eventually discarded.

Moyes continued that fine tradition by dithering over the signing of Ander Herrera and reportedly passing up on Thiago Alcantara, although it’s doubtful, given the choice between United and Bayern Munich, he would have moved to Manchester anyway.

Marouane Fellaini was recruited, but he has, to put things politely, not exactly got off to a blistering start. His time on the pitch has been relatively limited, but what time he has played has been very uninspiring, particularly for the marquee/only signing for the Premier League champions.

The aforementioned Cleverley won’t win you too many games, Michael Carrick hasn’t hit the heights of his excellent 2012/13, Darren Fletcher is not yet fit and might never be the same again, Adnan Januzaj is not ready to play in the middle, Ryan Giggs is nearly 40 and Anderson is Anderson.

So the uncomfortable truth for United fans is that Jones is currently their best option in central midfield. And given that Jones’ future is probably in defence, it’s not an especially pleasant thought for Moyes and United fans everywhere.

The talk about United’s midfield has been going ahead for quite a while. Given their most able choice at the minute is Jones, a game but limited player as a midfielder, the discussion will be going on for a little while longer yet.