Jedinak is better than 3 of the midfielders we've still got: Ledley, Flamini, Mutch.

Cabaye and Ledley are inferior defensive mids, both recycle the ball better but offer little of the protection a proper DM is supposed to.

I think Pardew needs to rethink having McArthur as the furthest forward midfielder, he does a great job up there, pressing and supporting Benteke but we miss not having him back defending too. If they ever perfect human cloning, we could do with having 2 McArthurs, one DM and one advanced.

I'm wondering if Flamini was brought in to play Jedinak's role but we haven't seen much of Flamini this season

It's a valid point. Jedinak is missing in the dressing room, on the pitch when things get tough, and at training. We've never looked so ill-prepared as we have without him, which gives insight as to his hidden value in getting the players up to standard. If we had to replace him, which was also valid, then we had to replace him with someone who would replace his off-the-field leadership and on-the-field courage and determination. We let him go without doing that and we are missing him. It's a good point.

And BTW, someone laughed at me for suggesting Zaha at LB some time ago - well guess where he played?

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..we are missing Souare, Benteke is missing him too.

We miss Jedinak as captain and for his defensive cover, protecting Delaney, Dann and Tomkins.

With Jedinak in the team, there is no way we would have conceded 2 goals from corners against Liverpool.

With Jedinak, it is unlikely we would have been so open at the back as were against Leicester and Burnley.

Dann does not seem to have the same leadership qualities as Jedinak. Was Dann, in his role as captain to blame for the poor defensive organisation vs Burnley, especially for the last goal ?

Edited by sueagle2012 (06 Nov 2016 7.32pm)

..Jedinak was awful and he would have been as awful against Burnley as all our luck was, their third goal was lost in our attack not our defence and they scored very well with it without any further help from us, the first goal was actually cleared away on the line but unluckily rebounded back, the defence was there to clear it and through luck failed..nothing more, the second was also very unfortunate for the keeper as the ball not only rebounded towards goal but also under the bar, it was a mistake that would probably never happen in another hundred similar situations for him, we must not also forget the mistake that their defender made with handling the ball for our second.