The form of our captain Mile Jedinak has been the hot topic of conversation this past couple of weeks.
Defeats at home to both West Bromwich Albion and Hull City have coincided with two poor performances from the big Aussie. It is hard to be critical of our central midfielder who has more often that not been key to our success.
The difficulty is to decide whether he is suffering from poor form, exhaustion or something else. He has been involved in two big wins in his four games so far under Alan Pardew – both away to West Ham United and Sunderland.
Interestingly enough, those two games straddled a four game suspension after his loose elbow at Upton Park. It is those four games he missed that makes me think it is more to do with a lack of form rather than tiredness.
There is no denying that his statistics so far this season speak for themselves. According to Who Scored, he is the top rated Palace player at the moment;
- Average rating 7.59
- Premier League appearances 22 (1907 minutes)
- Goals 5
- Assists 3
- Yellow cards 5
- Red cards 1
- Shots per game 1.2
- Pass success 66.5%
- Aerials won 4.6
- Who Scored man of the match awards 2
While those make good reading, it is clear that the more recent Premier League games that have seen the dip in form;
- 25/04 Hull City 7
- 18/04 West Bromwich Albion 7.06
- 11/04 Sunderland 7.95
- 28/02 West Ham United 7.59
- 28/12 Queens Park Rangers 8.26
The ratings for Jedinak in each game have dropped. The game at QPR was his final match for the club before heading off to the Asian Cup with Australia. Of course, Pardew was not in charge for that game so Jedinak has only made four appearances since the new manager arrived. Two of those he was substituted.
As for how he fares on average rating, Jedinak remains high up the list in the Premier League. He is currently sixth ahead of Sergio Aguero which is exceptional company behind the likes of Hazard, Sanchez, Fabregas, Ozil and Cazorla.
Rather selfishly, our concern is more about his form in the last two games. Maybe there is more to it than we see on the pitch, but it is obvious that Pardew admires the midfielder after bringing him straight back into the side when he returned victorious from the Asian Cup.
While Jedinak was absent, Joe Ledley and James McArthur were excellent even though Welshman Ledley has been suffering with a hip injury for most of the season.
The re-introduction of Jedinak for the West Ham game paid off as Palace returned home with all three points but it was at a cost. The Football Association found Jedinak guilty of an elbow and was handed a four game ban.
His return to the team was once again immediate and for the away trip to Sunderland, it paid off. Two defeats later we are left wondering if Pardew is trying to accommodate the captain in a team that did not look to miss him when he was absent.
The problem we have had is that the ‘McJedley‘ worked so well for the games employed for. However, the team has evolved since then and that formation did not lend itself to attack minded football. It will be very surprising if we ever see the ‘McJedley‘ again this season, if ever.
I remain of the belief that Mile Jedinak will one day become an excellent centre back. The way he plays the game has all the attributes of the position but more importantly, his lack of passing ability more often than not hinders the team. He will have to learn to lay the ball off, make that easy pass just like Damien Delaney has learnt to do.
Having had to cope with the absence of Jedinak, it has allowed the team to be a little more creative. The experience and touch of Ledley alongside the hard working McArthur has been quite a combination. That duo playing so well did make many wonder if Jedinak would ever get back into the side.
It pains me to say, I preferred that combination too which suggests that there we struggle to find a place for our favourite Aussie in the team. It allowed the team to play to its strengths.
That is not strictly true. It is at home where we have struggled this season and the rigidity that Jedinak gives to our game is much more important away from home. It may however restrict us too much at home or at least it will until we find a real ball playing midfielder.
The difficulty has been where Pardew has tried to accommodate these talented midfielders. Against West Brom he tried Ledley at left back when we had two much more accomplished players in that position on the bench. For Hull he put Ledley on the bench and play Jedinak and McArthur together.
While we greeted the ‘McJedley‘ with much adoration, it has become a formation that no longer suits us. The introduction of Jason Puncheon in the number ten role has given us that ball playing midfielder in a more central position. If the two behind do not provide the back up, Puncheon drops deeper and deeper as we saw in the last two home defeats.
I certainly expect to see the Jedinak that we all know and love against Chelsea at Stamford Bridge at the weekend. It is the kind of game that he will excel in.
What we do in games against less high profile teams though remains a quandary but the problem does not lay with our captain alone.
Pardew will find a way to address the problem as form is temporary, but class is most definitely permanent.
