Wait, is otamendi actually being blamed for john stones having poor games. Look I don't think otamendi is that good a defender especially for someone of his age and experience, but stones has looked bad whomever his partner has been many times this season and before for everton.
Stones has started 17 games in the league at center back for the team and the record is 9 wins 5 defeats 3 draws
Otamendi has started 20 games in the league and the team had 14 wins 4 defeats and 2 draws
There's been 8 games where otamendi has started without stones and in those games the teams' record reads 7 wins 1 draw (wins against bournemouth, palace, burnley x2, watford, arsenal, hull and the one draw being the 2-2 against spurs) team conceding 6 goals
Meanwhile in the 5 games stones has started without otamendi the teams record reads 2 wins(sunderland 2-1, swansea 2-1) 2 draws (southampton 1-1, middlesborough 1-1) 1 defeat (leiceter 4-2) team conceding 8 goals
Ironically in all 4 defeats in the games that otamendi has started guess who his partner was. yep stones. You see the pattern here. So really looking at those stats can you tell me who really is holding the other back. The standout being the 4-0 defeat to everton in which he gave one of the worst defensive performances of the season
Stones has made so many unforced errors that have directly led to goals most notably the back pass in the draw against southampton. How some are still failing to acknowledge his many flaws and going as far as blaming his teammates when the evidence suggests otherwise baffles me. Now stones is 22 and otamendi is 29 so he at the very least has age on his side to eradicate some of those flaws therefore you can be more inclined to excuse them for now while otamendi you feel those rush tackles and aggresive, front-foot style of defending is just how he is and may never change but it would be doing a disservice to otamendi if he gets the blame for how poor stones has been for the team.
(i.e I used squawkwa for these stats)
I'm not blaming Otamendi for Stones, only really the media are doing that. But Otamedi is so rash he must be near impossible to play with. His positioning is very erratic. He's quite a good defender individually but he never covers and is out of position so often.
Take the Falcao goal, Stones was very poor, but Otamendi wasn't even in shot by the time he chipped Willy. Why was he so far away from the ball? Why was there such a gap through the middle?
Otamendi is the most reactionary defender I have ever seen.
Stones is a work in progress, Otamendi when bad is a car crash. Stones is trying to cut out the mistakes, but Otamendi at 29 years old is still positionally woeful, charges out of position and flys to ground so quickly. Tis used to be Pellegrini doing apparently, now who's fault is it?
Neither are very good currently, but both have good games and bad games. Both are nice on the ball and you could argue Otamendi's passing is more aggressive.
But it's no coincidence that ex pros pick him out. I played centre back for 20 years, played semi pro through my late teens and I can see he's positionally woeful. In a tight compact defence he'd be great. We don't have that.
I thought Stones was pretty decent Tuesday, dealt with deep runners much better than Otamendi, probably because he had Sagna to help. Yes he was at fault for their goal, but a ball that travels that far, effectively down the channel, there's no way Stones should be so far from his partner. Where is Otamendi for that goal?
Look how far away he is, he even slows down to a jog. Positionally woeful and completely unaware.
No effort what so ever to support Stones, he should be busting a gut to cover.
He's not.
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