On what grounds can you say Denayer IS better than Stones?
Stones distribution is fantastic, as is his positional sense. To cite them as weaknesses is weird, as they're widely regarded as his strengths; John Terry complimented him on his ability on the ball.
After Everton's game at Stamford Bridge, Mourinho quashed the Barkley hype and was full of superlatives about Stones; this is a European Cup winning coach, who's won titles in 4 different countries, and he was purring about Stones. His knowledge of footballers eclipses any of ours on this forum. The fact they're looking to take him South is testament to how highly he's rated by those who's opinion matter.
Cahill plays for Chelsea.
He is a run of the mill player who suits their systematic style, down to the ground & does a perfectly good job for them. Stones may be the same. 6ft 2, strong, competent on the ball, able to be programmed into the Chelsea backline.
That's ideal for Mourinho.
Then look at Stones in a defence he's not used to, vs a bunch of kids, & as soon as things go a bit pear shaped, he turns into Sun Jihai positionally awful, clumsy, crap on the ball, slow on the turn, just total shite. That's the situation he would face every week at City, the way we play, so open.
Then look at Denayer in the San Siro, with Celtic down to ten men, shouting instructions, spotting problems, cool as fuck, then being brought on for Belgium, away in Israel when Kompany is sent off, bossing around experienced internationals, blocking, tackling, reading danger, then in Paris, blocking everything skinning people for pace, tackling, beating two three players & slotting perfectly weighted passes through to the strikers, even v Wales, his least effective game, he was solid, if not spectacular, & made one half mistake in 90 mins (compared to about 12 by Otamendi for example the other night).
And then he is 19 years old. He already plays like a City player is supposed to (or a Barca, Real Madrid type defender). Not saying Stones couldn't learn to play like that, but Denayer already does it naturally, & is a miles better footballer. He is a miles better footballer than Kompany or Mangala, or Zabaleta, Fernando etc for that matter.
The question is whether he can stand up to the physical/aerial test of the Premier League to play at cb. If he can, we have a possible world class cb on our hands within a year or two. If he can't, I recon he'd be a better fullback of def mid than anything we have & we play him there.
That is the point, imo, where & when you start looking for cb alternatives. Not before he's even had a kick.
Give Denayer a season amongst our current cbs & see if he breaks through. Then look at it.
