Phil Jones has been reminiscing on his time at Manchester United and explaining how the pressure of the shirt and badge can affect players in different ways.
Jones spent 12 years at Old Trafford, signing in the late years of Sir Alex Ferguson’s era and winning the Premier League in 2012/13 before experiencing the turmoil in the decade since under managers David Moyes, Louis van Gaal, Jose Mourinho, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, and Ralf Rangnick.
The former United defender is slowly making a transition from his playing career into the media with a recent appearance on Sky Sports’ Monday Night Football and now a guest spot on Rio Ferdinand’s YouTube channel.
Speaking to his former United teammate, Jones explored his career at Old Trafford and picked out one example of a player who struggled to live up to the intensity at the club: Angel Di Maria.
Jones explained that Di Maria’s Premier League debut against Burnley caused him concern when he saw the midfielder in the changing room after the game looking like ‘a lost soul’.
“I look at Angel Di Maria I think ‘wow’. I remember his first game away at Burnley, I remember getting into the dressing room, tight as anything, he looked like a little lost soul,” Jones told Ferdinand.
“He got absolutely battered, absolutely mullered. Every time he got the ball, ‘whack’.
“He just never really got United. Maybe the manager didn’t help, he didn’t get along with him. I’ve seen so many players, they don’t perform because the shirt’s so heavy, and they go on to do well in their career.”
Di Maria was signed for £59.7m under then boss Louis van Gaal but only lasted one season at United before making the switch to Paris Saint-Germain.
At the time he was the club’s record signing but United managed to offload him for £44m which is still the club’s third highest sale of all time. Di Maria went on to win the World Cup with Argentina in 2022, before returning to former club Benfica in 2023, where he still plys his trade.
Ferdinand went on to ask why playing for United weights so heavy on many players and Jones responded immediately saying: “Pressure.
“It’s pressure to win every game. The pressure, the fans, the expectancy. We’ve been so used to winning for so long that that’s the level. If you come to Man Utd you get to that level or you’re out the door.
“As footballers you have to be able to deal with stuff like that. Playing for Man Utd you have to deal with that, those are the pressures and the environment that you have to face every single day.”