Jonny Evans needs Man United fans' support to play his best football

The Football Association has charged both Papiss Cisse and Jonny Evans for their spitting altercation on Wednesday's Premier League match between Newcastle and Manchester United.

It wasn't only the 3,000 travelling Manchester United fans high up in the third tier at St James' Park who missed two players spitting in Wednesday's Premier League game at Newcastle, the match officials and both benches missed it too.

Everyone witnessed the outraged reaction from Cisse in the stadium, while the slow motion, HD television replays provided clear evidence of spitting for those watching at home. Evans has vehemently denied that he intended to spit at the Senegalese and will respond to the charge which carries a six game ban before Friday's 1800 GMT deadline.

The Northern Ireland international, 27, has had better times in his career than the last five days. He played fine in United's two victories -- which yielded two clean sheet sheets -- but one of two pass backs to David De Gea from the halfway line on Saturday were jeered before a chant of "Attack! Attack! Attack!" followed.

"There is nothing worse for a footballer than being booed or jeered by your own fans and I say that from experience," said former United defender David May. "It hammers your confidence and I don't like to see the confidence of Jonny, an excellent player, being harmed."

May is a friend of Evans. He was a guest at his wedding in their native Northern Ireland to Helen, a TV presenter whom May works with on MUTV. The couple had a baby girl eight months ago and Evans is a family man. His younger brother Corry plays for Hull City, while he is close friends with David Healy.

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Like most emerging young professionals at Old Trafford, the latter pair left United at a young age to pursue successful careers at a lower level. Evans senior didn't. He went on loan to Sunderland where he was outstanding. But he was always wanted back at United, where Sir Alex Ferguson marked him out as an eventual successor to Rio Ferdinand and Nemanja Vidic, more so when his reserve team centre-back partner Gerard Pique left the club in 2008.

"I worked with them both, they had an excellent partnership and Jonny has a very high technical level," said then-coach Rene Meulensteen. "He's fast, can use both feet, has good positioning. A confident Jonny would make the best United team. He can have that bit of aggression when things get tough, but he's not a sly player who I ever saw spit."

Evans doesn't look as confident as he did at the end of Ferguson's spell at the club. Is that a surprise? Vidic, Ferdinand and Patrice Evra departed, the remaining three central defenders of Evans, Chris Smalling and Phil Jones have all been afflicted by injury, four managers in little over a year and a shift in tactics. The trio would have all benefited from stability or a wilier defender alongside them.

As Vidic said: "It's important that they build a partnership, important for them to understand the game. They're young; they have ability, the right physical size and technical level. It's important to know that at the top level the small things make a big difference. As a defender you have to learn the game. Sometimes you have to do the things you don't like to do. Yes, it's beautiful to run 20 metres with the ball, but it's not always necessary. Experience counts. I'm still learning and the younger players still need to learn."

Papiss Cisse, right, and Jonny Evans could both be banned six games for their involvement in an alleged spitting incident.

Despite Louis van Gaal preferring three central defenders, the leading three didn't start a game together this season until Stoke away on Dec. 26 -- not their finest afternoon.

While Van Gaal has let popular players depart because he didn't think they had the technical level required to play for United, he considers Evans one who does. Other prominent figures at the club consider him to be the best natural centre-back. At 27, he's no youngster, though.

All three centre-backs have to overcome the difficulties created by playing alongside partners in a new system, some of whom don't speak English. They see the reports of United being linked with players in their position, a position which has changed.

One coach who has worked with Evans compared the change in position in this way: "Imagine driving the same car every day. You get used to it and become confident driving it. Then, after 20 years of driving it, you get in and the roads are iced and you can't see properly, but you still have to drive. Your confidence isn't what it should be, you become nervous."

The result is that instead of being United's best centre-back, he's one of many players with an uncertain future at the club.

"Jonny needs a dominant centre-half to play alongside him," said May. "A leader offering positional skill who will grab him by the scruff of the neck and say, 'You're a very good defender'. If that person is Mats Hummels then United should sign him because the defence is missing that character.

"Jonny is comfortable on both sides, he uses both feet. I've never seen him get done for speed. He has all the attributes of being a top, top player. He was outstanding alongside Vidic and Ferdinand. He's dead clever too. He's got degrees and all that, which clever people have."

If United do buy a defender in the close season, he too will have to adapt to a new system. He too will be instructed to retain possession, even if it means passing back from the halfway line. Evans was only obeying instructions.

ESPN FC's Craig Burley and Ross Dyer discuss whether a potential six-game ban for spitting would fit the crime following the spitting incident between Jonny Evans and Papisse Cisse.

As United have found this season, the solution doesn't always lie in an expensive acquisition. And would any replacement be able to sing "Sweet Caroline" on karaoke in the voice of fellow Belfast man Van Morrison like Evans does? Would they be able to answer the riddle 'What word becomes shorter when you add two letters to it?'* as Evans did?

Sometimes the answers already exist in the players United have. Last season, Ashley Young was scapegoated by many United fans who wouldn't have been sad to see him depart. This term, he's been one of the team's best players.

United's No. 6 deserves support, and not only because he has a phobia of spiders and snakes. Evans shouldn't be made the latest scapegoat now that Anderson and Tom Cleverley have departed. He hasn't cost the club a penny; he understands Manchester, understands United. These things do matter.

He's playing as part of a defence with the second best record in the league and Evans, with 196 United appearances, will only benefit from support from supporters.

"Two or three good games and it builds your confidence and self esteem," said May.

That support should start on Monday in the huge FA Cup 6th round game home to Arsenal, when fans are organising a 1970s themed flag night.

That's if Evans can play and isn't commandeered to do a half-time singsong instead because he's banned.