John Stones

[DonAK]

This guy simply cannot defend. Heck David Luiz who was seen as a joke at the same age was a better defender.

But somehow all the excuses in the World are valid for John Stones, and not anyone else.

Even Umtiti will commit some small mistakes from time to time as he's still relatively inexperienced, especially when it comes to playing against some WC players, but the guy is still a BEAST in actual defending.

 

[xXKonan]

Off the top of my head players Stones age or near it. Umtiti,Bailly,Zouma,Marquinhos,Laporte (quite a bit more) are far ahead of the curve when it comes to defending compared to Stones that it's mindboggling just how behind Stones really is.

Bailly and Zouma are rawer compared to Marquinhos,Umtiti and Laporte but you can see they at least know where to be in Positioning and when to make the challenge most of the time and you will see improvement. Bailly has come along way since his Espanyol days.

Stones is just frustrating to watch despite being good on the ball. He has a long way to go if he truly wants to live up to that price tag.

 

[Ritchie]

His development under pep hasn't been as good as I expected.

Good on the ball but abysmal at everything else. However he's young and will in time improve but City seriously lack a real leader in the back line as Kompany is made out of glass and can't stay fit for long stretches of time.

Pep wants Stones to be his new Pique but without a proper defensive partner (like a Puyol) to call Stones out for his mistakes and help get the kid on the right path it's not going to happen. Pique when he came here had the likes of Puyol,Marquez,Milto,Abidal etc to learn off of in his first season which helped him out immensely down the line.

Seems like Pep is constantly changing the back line tactics and throwing the kid in there expecting him to defend and pass the ball.

He needed Kompany next to him.

 

[antonnn]

Glad we didn't get this fella. We've had enough bad transfers.

 

[Morten]

He is a great con artist, even if he is not much of a football player.

 

[Jenks]

As poor as he has been, has anyone at the back for City not looked useless? Otamendi certainly does, Bravo can barely stop a shot to save his life, and the full-backs were average from the get-go. I know everyone likes to bash the league, but at what point does Guardiola take some blame for this? We were told his style would have no problems in England, we were told City would talk the league. When they don't it's the players fault... even when some of them did fine in La Liga.

 

[Yannik]

Everytime I watch the streamables of City conceding, I notice John Stones doing something bad. No exageration, literally everytime.

 

[BenRobbins]

Its a mixture. Stones is shit but Pep does overcomplicate it with odd hybrid formations and players out of natural positions.

 

[El Flaco]

As usual, John Stones was fucking atrocious (against Everton) today.

 

[Jombi]

Its laughable how obsessed people in here were about Laporte, Stones, Marquinhos etc willing to spend almost anything on these overrated players because of media hype. Meanwhile, when I wanted Umtiti, more than a year before he was even linked to us, people mocked the idea.

 

[Morten]

As usual, John Stones was fucking atrocious (against Everton) today.

He is "good" with the ball though, that makes up for it, right? He even had an assist today.

 

[xXKonan]

That transfer fee will haunt the dude for the rest of his days.

He's played a lot under pep but it doesn't look like he's improved at all.

 

[DonAK]

Not sure who the bigger fraud is.

John Stones or the $72m man Brock Osweiler.

 

[xXKonan]

I kinda get Bartra vibes from Stones tbh.

Bartra was good with the ball at his feet but struggled when it came to defending, Stones is suffering the same problems as well. But the saving Grace with Stones is he's three years younger than Bartra currently is and could improve over time but not quite to be the defender a lot of people thought he can be.

 

[te amo barca]

lol Bartra is miles better than Stones.