5 | John Stones - 2023/24

[normskih]

Feels like he has come back from england injured a few times now , they dont take care of him , all on southgate

I disagree with you Kaz, Stones, like most footballers will want to play for their country but like it or not he is injury prone, a crying shame but he is. Stones miscontrolled the ball, overstretched to try to redeem the situation and seemed to pull some muscle somewhere in the groin area. That is all that happened. Stones is as important as anyone else to us but he is often out injured and it’s such a shame because he’s a bloody good player.

 

[Legal Alien]

There was no need for Stones to play in the second game.

There were other options Southgate could've used but, for some reason, they weren't used. That's my problem with him, he doesn't have the nerve to use his squad. The game against Belgium was the perfect opportunity to see how Palmer and Branthwaite would do at that level, but no!

To have both Stones and Walker come back injured has really pissed me off!

 

[Bill Walker]

There was no need for Stones to play in the second game.

There were other options Southgate could've used but, for some reason, they weren't used. That's my problem with him, he doesn't have the nerve to use his squad. The game against Belgium was the perfect opportunity to see how Palmer and Branthwaite would do at that level, but no!

To have both Stones and Walker come back injured has really pissed me off!

Southgate is a brain dead fucking idiot. Why not use friendlies to try out new blood instead of playing Stones, Walker & Foden over and over. It's almost as if he wants City to fail. The twat.

 

[Bluethemaway]

Southgate is a brain dead fucking idiot. Why not use friendlies to try out new blood instead of playing Stones, Walker & Foden over and over. It's almost as if he wants City to fail. The twat.

Funny how Southgate was desperate to put an eighteen year old, inexperienced player in the team though.

 

[alexmcity]

Stones miscontrolled the ball, overstretched to try to redeem the situation and seemed to pull some muscle somewhere in the groin area. That is all that happened. Stones is as important as anyone else to us

So, his injury was down to poor decision making. Why overstretch to try to redeem the situation when you are injury prone in the first place?

Also, if you are injury prone and if you get injured almost every time you play for England, you should be super cautious and play only one game per week...Or not play in friendlies at all and try to stay fit for the club that pays your wages.

I think his presence in midfield is a bit risky against teams that are really good at high pressing like Liverpool and Arsenal. Better use a proper midfielder like Kovacic and Bernardo.

 

[ganganvince]

I disagree with you Kaz, Stones, like most footballers will want to play for their country but like it or not he is injury prone, a crying shame but he is. Stones miscontrolled the ball, overstretched to try to redeem the situation and seemed to pull some muscle somewhere in the groin area. That is all that happened. Stones is as important as anyone else to us but he is often out injured and it’s such a shame because he’s a bloody good player.

Spot on.

 

[Macca77macca]

Southgate is a brain dead fucking idiot. Why not use friendlies to try out new blood instead of playing Stones, Walker & Foden over and over. It's almost as if he wants City to fail. The twat.

You think a team can just rock up to a tournament without having played together since the qualifying half a year before?

 

[super_city_si]

You think a team can just rock up to a tournament without having played together since the qualifying half a year before?

Theres 2 games. If you only ever play you best 11 how do you know how others will play? What happens if Stones/Kane go down in a tournament? We learned Toney is a better fit than Watkins. Wouldn't have learned that if you keep playing Kane in Friendlies.

 

[normskih]

So, his injury was down to poor decision making. Why overstretch to try to redeem the situation when you are injury prone in the first place?

Also, if you are injury prone and if you get injured almost every time you play for England, you should be super cautious and play only one game per week...Or not play in friendlies at all and try to stay fit for the club that pays your wages.

I think his presence in midfield is a bit risky against teams that are really good at high pressing like Liverpool and Arsenal. Better use a proper midfielder like Kovacic and Bernardo.

You may have seen the incident? It was a split second action, unlike a very poor decision when Dunk lunged for the ball and made a cock up. He didn't get injured by the way. All I’m trying to say is Stones made the decision to rectify his mistake in a milli-second, not as if it was a poor decision making act, where he had time to think about it, it was that quick. There’s no use crying over spilt milk now, he may be fit enough to play on Sunday, he may not. We can’t take away from the fact that Stones does get injured an awful lot, no matter when he plays, unfortunately.

 

[Dialog]

It surprised me that Stones decide to even participate in the EUROS given how poor his injury record is. Every EURO he has came back injured. He knows very well that CITY play a lot of games and he misses a lion share of those games, yet he insisted on getting another cap, why would he do that, given his fitness levels?

He missed almost 45% of CITY games in the premier league with his injury record, which is very alarming, yet being injury prone still goes on to feature for ENGLAND. He is needed at double pivot, CDM, LB and CB if anything goes wrong to Rodri, Walker or any player in those positions. We are 3rd on the table, 3 horse title race, with 10 games remaining, meaning its crunch time and we have a suspect defense and we are participating in 3 competitions. We have been plagued with injuries and yet Stones goes on to feature for ENGLAND, which he knows very well, he is always guaranteed that he will come back injured. Why he did that, its just beyond me.

Every EURO season, STONES plays an average of 15-games for us in the premier league. Which is very poor.

Outside the EURO season, he manages to play an average of 24-games for us in the premier league, which is on the end of average for a top senior CB. His is our highest paid defender, good player, but with him missing majority of the games, is a very bad return. His heart is willing to feature for both team and nation, but his flesh is weak. He should just get his priorities sorted.

He should call it quits on the internationals, he will be 30 soon, he is injured every season for long spells of time and that has become a massive inconvenience, because we are now forced to buy defenders almost every season now, when we could use that money to cover more pressing and agent positions.