I'm not really a JJ Fan. However looking back over the years on this board, a lot of people had it in for Jenas because he passed it sidewards and backwards rather than forwards and he played it simple rather than running with the ball. He covered a lot of ground and stuck his fair share of tackles in.
Nowadays Parker is praised for doing exactly the same thing, and in my opinion his passing game and ball retention is worse than Jenas. Jenas also offers a lot more going forwards too.
I'm not really a JJ Fan. However looking back over the years on this board, a lot of people had it in for Jenas because he passed it sidewards and backwards rather than forwards and he played it simple rather than running with the ball. He covered a lot of ground and stuck his fair share of tackles in.
Good for a high intensity pressing game, perhaps?
If he starts the season like a train Parker mightn't even get back in the starting line up!
The way he tailed off in the second half of last season and looked out of his depth at the Euros, I'd say that's pretty much a certainty. I don't think Parker's got the legs anymore to be anything but Sandro's backup.
Sandro got injured in the Brazil Olympic game didn't he? Is it serious enough for him to miss the Newcatle game?