I have to say that I was pretty chuffed when Palace secured a deal to sign Jordan Mutch from QPR. Jordan is a player I have followed closely over the years in his spells at Birmingham and Cardiff.
Unfortunately he hasn’t hit the ground running and as of yet it doesn’t seem that Jordan has really been able to find his top form. In the games that he has featured in he looks to be off the pace, lethargic and quite frankly unfit. Mutch has played in a box to box central midfield role for us and I believe that is his natural position but he hasn’t looked comfortable at all.
Of course it is far too early to make a justified judgment on Mutch but so far the rest of the team seem to be carrying him through the match. When he has got on the ball he does look composed and comfortable but for me if he is playing in a central midfield role he needs to be on the ball so much more, he needs to be moving the ball from defence to attack and up to now we just haven’t seen that in him.
The decision to start Mutch over Ledley was very harsh and didn’t seem justified based on the last few performances. When Jordan came off injured against West Ham the game completely changed, it was like we had an extra man on the pitch and had gone from playing with 10 men to 11. Through the introduction of James McArthur we managed to get a foothold on the game and he showed the energy and hassle that we should expect to be seeing from Mutch.
The one strange view that I have found is that people who watch the game on television tend to say Mutch played better than the people who attended the game. When you watch a game you can player watch and are not forced to look at something specific by the camera. This theme has been running through every single appearance that Jordan has made, the argument that the attendees make is that he doesn’t get enough of the ball, he is lost in midfield, he is lazy and he is unfit and I can see how those things go unnoticed when watching on the television or computer.
One man who contradicts my theme is Mr Pardew, in this weeks press conference Pards did nothing but praised Mutch and said how his “fantastic performances” were the difference between him starting over McArthur on Saturday.
I think it would be harsh to write off Mutchy as he is a player with bags of potential and showed last season for Cardiff what he can do in the top flight. I think he will come good and will prove to be a shrewd bit of business but he is going to have to start showing it soon.
