Jones running out of time

England’s reliable back-up, yet not quite so reliable as to be trusted when it actually matters

Jones was dragged out of position by a simple piece of movement from Kevin De Bruyne f or t he opening goal, f o l l o wing t he Manchester Cit y midfielder deep and then wide.

England didn’t look totally assured with a back three but at that moment Jones left a back two exposed, and they were punished seconds later by Thomas Meunier’s close-range finish with Jones chugging back into the frame as the net bulged.

The second goal wasn’t much better. Jones dropped too deep playing Eden Hazard onside, and when Hazard was given the ball the Chelsea midfielder evaded him with ease to cut inside and kill off the game.

Afterwards Gary Neville insisted that Jones has the potential to become a player of the ilk of Gerard Pique or Rio Ferdinand.

Watching Jones here, a man who doesn’t run so much as gallop, who doesn’t head the ball so much as fling his face towards it, this kind of praise – like Capello’s and Ferguson’s before – seemed some way off the mark. But clearly you do not play centrehalf for Manchester United without a set of exceptional core defensive skills.

Jose Mourinho said at the start of the season that “he’s potentially a very good player... I t hink potentially he’s everything I like i n a central defender.”

Perhaps t his i s t he underlying problem. He is now 26 and yet potential is still the word that is used. He has still never played more than 30 Premier League games in a single season. Fitness i s s ues continue t o i nterrupt his rhythm.

And now Jones is running out of time to shed the back-up tag and be more than an international player for the smallest occasions. – The Independent