#5 | John Stones - 2021/22 Performances

[ninjamonkey]

Only after seeing the highlights did I realise how good of a finish that was. Rifled it in with his wrong foot, did the same last season too. Get him upfront as our new target man and let's play route 1!

 

[Akira]

Played at RB. Got his goal with the wrong foot. Proper striker's finish as well.

 

[Hungarian blue]

Not surprisingly, he's actually really good in that position Walker takes up, 10 yards ahead of the CBs, just tucked in a little close to Rodri, and able to make some really nice passes into the attacking players.

If he was a little bit faster he'd probably be the perfect like-for-like Walker replacement.

Yes and more mobile and more creative and better at his crossfield passing etc. etc. :)

What I liked however was how their keeper had no choice but to go long, and Stones dealt with it with such ease (of course, being a CB), it came quite handy oftentimes. Also one big fuck-up but that's OK.

 

[Lauz9888]

Nice to know he can still do a job at right back if we need him to. I do get a certain joy from watching him make those overlapping runs.

Will be nice to see him back in the middle, though.

 

[alexmcity]

Too many injuries so far. Hopefully he will be fit in the 2nd half of the season. We'll need him.

 

[jimmygrimblesboots]

Appears to be picking up niggling injuries again which is unfortunate , still think when full fit he is the preferred option to Laporte but Eric doesnt pick up injuries which leads to a solid consistent centre back pairing.
Stones need to sort his fitness issues so we can rotate the centre backs for the rest of the season.

 

[jamesha]

I still think we should look at John as a defensive midfield backup for Rodri.

I know he did not do very well there when tried previously but sometimes it is worth persevering as I think, of all our squad, he is the best equipped to be a backup DM and we are very likely to need one before the end of the season.

Maybe after having successfully played out of position at right back he will be confident enough to give DM another crack.

 

[Lauz9888]

I still think we should look at John as a defensive midfield backup for Rodri.

I know he did not do very well there when tried previously but sometimes it is worth persevering as I think, of all our squad, he is the best equipped to be a backup DM and we are very likely to need one before the end of the season.

Maybe after having successfully played out of position at right back he will be confident enough to give DM another crack.

Back in his Everton days he was RB as much as or more than he was CB. Of course it's been ages and no doubt he's lost some of his RB skills, and may well get caught out against a better side, but playing at RB is at least partly just a case of accessing muscle memory for him, doing what he used to do.

I don't remember him ever in his career having a stint at DM. He's got the sort of attributes a DM needs, but no real experience there so his positioning would be way off and not at all instinctive. If we want him to learn to cover there at this stage in his career then he's going to need time on the pitch to figure it out. And considering the importance of the position to our team's entire structure, having someone there who's still working it out would leave us exposed.

Seems like a largely unnecessary risk of destroying the notoriously fragile confidence of a player who's never going to be Pep's tactical choice in that position, and who we need raring to go for matches in his actual position.

Absolute emergencies or low-stakes scenarios only, for me. If we're going to take a risk in the DM position I'd rather see us try someone from the academy like Lavia - at least if he struggles then it's a learning experience that will help him and us in the future.

 

[ChicagoBlue]

While he may be able to play DM in some teams, this City team isn’t one of them. He is too ponderous on the ball, takes too much time to play the ball, and doesn’t play with his head on a swivel.

 

[Saddleworth2]

I hope he is back in the team soon. I prefer him 100% over Laporte.