1) He started playing off Luis and was switched with Gerrard because he was ineffective.
2) When he was deeper he let his man go which gave them two decent chances off the top of my head.
3) He was generally wasteful on the ball.
4) Missed two clear goal scoring opportunities.
5) For all his cockyness and swagger, he bottled a chance with his bad foot when Ruddy came way off his line.
Now don't get me wrong, I'm a big fan of Jonjo. It's just the double standards that irk me. It was a poor performance, I understand people glossing over it because he's young. That's proper order. But people in here are actually trying to make out like he was great. Sheer bollocks to be honest. It was poor but there was encouraging signs there, that's it.
1. You have no idea why they switched roles multiple times throughout the game. The only constant was that Henderson was sitting deep the entire time. Gerrard was at times more advanced, and Shelvey was at times more advanced. You're just assuming causation, and honestly your assumption isn't really based on anything.
2. I don't remember Norwich having any decent chances, but I'll concede that he does tend to lose track of the play defensively when he's forced into a deeper role. He isn't a defensive minded player at all, but I will never, ever use that as an excuse for a central midfielder neglecting defensive duties. So in general I agree with this point, but I don't think there was a single egregious defensive mistake today, and certainly none made by Shelvey that led directly to "two decent chances."
3. That isn't true. At all. His link up play was great. He kept the ball moving, changed the point of attack, and while he didn't thread many dangerous passes today, he was constantly moving the ball to areas where other players were able to put the ball in dangerous positions. Shelvey was seriously anything but wasteful. I could not possibly disagree more with this point.
4. He put a contested header off the crossbar, and didn't quite get to a ball that he was fully extended for that took a bad hop in the chewed up GK area... And that's grounds for claiming he was poor? Yikes. He was unlucky. I'd rather talk about how he got himself into scoring positions that none of our other central midfielders have found themselves in all season. Again, his movement off the ball is sublime.
5. Again, he had a poor game because he didn't chip Ruddy from outside the corner of the 18 with his weak foot? Surely this is a joke... That would have been an absolute wonder goal. Why don't you go ahead and slate him because he didn't attempt a Coates-volley off any corners? Or slate him because he didn't chip Ruddy from 50 yards like Suarez did? Seriously, what a ridiculous rationalization.
From the criticism you've leveled at him I have to wonder if you understand the game very well. Most of Shelvey's contribution seems to go right over your head.
