5 | John Stones - 2022/23

[Txiki Txiki Bang Bang]

He is so good the problem is none of the other CBs can emulate this. We have no depth for this.

My only thinking for next season is if we need to give Stones rest, there is no reason Rodri cant play this role with Phillips or someone else playing the DM spot.

We don't do replicas. We have no replica for Yaya, Silva, Aguero, Dinho and we've still done very well. This might just be Stones thing, his legacy and that's fine with me. We don't need someone else to copy his style of play.

 

[Cheadle_hulmeBlue]

 

[jimharri]

 

[super_city_si]

Looks like theres an interesting write up and interview with him in the telegraph. Behind a paywall though.

i always thought he would be a natural in the DM role but i remember Pep tried him there a while ago against against palace at home and he looked lost. Seemed he just didnt have the nouse for the position. Wonder if playing behind Rodri has helped him understand the role better, cos hes always had the skillset. Looks a complete natural now.

 

[ManCityGR!]

Looks like theres an interesting write up and interview with him in the telegraph. Behind a paywall though.

You can bypass this easily if you are a bit fast if e.g in Firefox browser(I don't know about others how their offline routine works), start loading the page and hit FILE instantly and then hit really fast(before the paywall message covers everything) the Work Offline.

 

[domalino]

Looks like theres an interesting write up and interview with him in the telegraph. Behind a paywall though.

i always thought he would be a natural in the DM role but i remember Pep tried him there a while ago against against palace at home and he looked lost. Seemed he just didnt have the nouse for the position. Wonder if playing behind Rodri has helped him understand the role better, cos hes always had the skillset. Looks a complete natural now.

You can bypass this easily if you are a bit fast if e.g in Firefox browser(I don't know about others how their offline routine works), start loading the page and hit FILE instantly and then hit really fast(before the paywall message covers everything) the Work Offline.

Or you can archive it with something like archive.ph

https://archive.ph/RyufG

 

[supercity88]

Looks like theres an interesting write up and interview with him in the telegraph. Behind a paywall though.

i always thought he would be a natural in the DM role but i remember Pep tried him there a while ago against against palace at home and he looked lost. Seemed he just didnt have the nouse for the position. Wonder if playing behind Rodri has helped him understand the role better, cos hes always had the skillset. Looks a complete natural now.

Pep's got a long history of taking a player from one position and moving them into another. Martinez and then Kimmich at CB. Lahm, Alaba, Benatia inverting. Mascherano and Yaya at CB.

He doesn't often give a player much time to try it, but identifies games to experiment in to test ideas. Stones failed the previous test and Pep said a few weeks ago he didn't think John could do it. But whether it's because Rodri is also there, or that he's comfortable with the other defensive options around him, he's just continued to excel.

There's a video where we turn over the ball and Rodri is carrying it forward before Rashford steals it. Pep is on his knees in desperation because that's exactly what his gameplan would have been looking to avoid - a turnover with Rodri stuck up the pitch. But Stones tracked Garnacho and stole the ball off him to get us moving again.

I'm sure Inter will continue their gameplan of attacking with pace and firing balls to Dzeko/Lukaku/Martinez. Allowing Stones more freedom, with Dias and Walker on the sweep and Ederson as the final resort means we should be able to mop those up. You almost have a bank of three with Rodri ahead of the man, Stones competing with him and Walker/Dias there for the 2nd ball. Win those battles and it will come back just as quick as they fire it forwards.

 

[Love_Each_Day]

To me his role now is very different to when he was actually playing as a midfielder with a back 4 behind him. I remember one of the problems was him backing off too much and not knowing when to step up to the player with the ball. Our game is intelligent enough not to give the ball away in bad areas allowing Stones time to get back beside Dias and our real DM can deal with those situations.

It was only really Bayern that could pressure us enough to have him defend as a midfielder more than we'd like. They have more pace, energy and directness across the board than any other side, possibly Arsenal would too but he didn't play like that against them.

 

[Haaland94]

 

[FantasyIreland]

Could be our most instrumental and vital player tonight.