I think a lot of people have unrealistic expectations of him. Let's face it, he will never be a top winger, not to even mention world class. Not many players these days can just take on defenders at will, and while JP can at times, we can't realistically excpect him to skin his marker game in game out, it just won't happen. Players who can do that cost three or four times what JP did.
He puts in an honest shift for us, but will never be the guy to take our play to the next level. As a squad player, I think he has a niche in games when we need a late goal and decide to pack the box and pop in crosses, as he's a much better option than Carra or Xabi hoofing them in from deep. Also he is accustomed to our system and if he needs to play a few games due to injuries or suspensions he can do a job. He is a poor tackler, but he does actually put in a fair amount of effort in trying to defend, it's just not one of his strong points.
At the moment Rafa has to sell to buy, and if he doesn't feel like he can replace JP with someone better at the same price he won't be moving him on, so I suggest we be realistic in our expectations of the lad, and that those who slag him off do it on here or in the pub, but not at Anfield, we must support all of our players during the match.
Let's hope El Zhar can make JP irrelevant and then we can sell him and reinvest in our squad when the moment comes.