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Sheffield United: Podcaster criticises Phil Jagielka

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Ben Meakin and Andrew from ‘Roy’s View From’ discussed Sheffield United’s 2019/20 season during the latest edition of the BladesPod podcast, where the panel spent some time talking about Phil Jagielka.

Jagielka is a Sheffield United academy graduate. He first departed from the Blades back in the summer of 2007, when he joined Everton, however, he returned to Bramall Lane last summer on a free transfer.

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The centre-back, who will turn 38 on 17th August, made just six Premier League appearances for Sheffield United in the top-flight last term, earning an overall rating of 6.54 from those appearances according to WhoScored. The defender is currently out of contract following the end of the 2019/20 season in which Sheffield United secured a ninth-place finish in the Premier League.

Andrew discussed Jagielka and how he performed upon his return to the Yorkshire-based club during this recent edition of BladesPod and he shared a critical assessment of the defender’s performances, saying: “He didn’t make any major errors, but I felt there [was] a massive drop-off from [John] Egan. A really big drop-off from Egan.

“I think [it was] hard for him because he never really got into a run of games to get into the swing of things but I felt [he was] really average in the cup games and he got an absolute runaround against Millwall in the FA Cup. He was all over the place, really.

“The balls over the top in that game against Millwall were just frightening. I think this is definitely something we desperately need to look at. We need someone for [Chris] Basham [as a back-up], we’ve got someone for [Jack] O’Connell now as a back-up, I think that [middle] central defender – I would not be in any way confident playing with Jagielka for two or three months.”

Is Jagielka still good enough to play in the Premier League?

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YES

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TIF Thoughts…

Egan usually plays in the central position ‘at the heart’ of the Blades’ back three, as explained in this article from sheffieldunited.news. However, Jagielka took his place in that role occasionally last season, playing there during the Blades’ 24th June clash with Manchester United and taking Egan’s place in the defence during a clash with Burnley last November after the Irish centre-back was withdrawn from the pitch.

It’s clear that Andrew feels that Sheffield United need to improve on Jagielka and sign a better back-up for Egan and it may not be too surprising that the podcaster feels that there was “a massive drop off” in quality when Jagielka played in place of Egan, considering that the £720k-rated former England international is now 37 years old and past his prime, in our view.

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