5 | John Stones - 2024/25

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RayCTID said:
The rest of the defence has been injured too baring Gvardiol.
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Thats my point.

The reality is that Stones and Ake have constantly picked up injuries their career. We knew this but we relied heavily on Dias and Walker playing basically every minute in the past several years. Then Akanji ran himself into the ground and now is picking up constant niggles and now a major injury himself.

So your solution is to stay as we are, spending millions on players that can't put two games together and we have to throw a random back 4 together each game and somehow hope that is how we climb back to the top of elite football. Then when John comes back and looks world class, we all get our hopes up again.
 
decmancity said:
Thats my point.

The reality is that Stones and Ake have constantly picked up injuries their career. We knew this but we relied heavily on Dias and Walker playing basically every minute in the past several years. Then Akanji ran himself into the ground and now is picking up constant niggles and now a major injury himself.

So your solution is to stay as we are, spending millions on players that can't put two games together and we have to throw a random back 4 together each game and somehow hope that is how we climb back to the top of elite football. Then when John comes back and looks world class, we all get our hopes up again.
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Move Ake on in the summer as we will get more money
 
decmancity said:
If there are buyers then we should move both on. If Huijsen is there for 50m, i hope the club pursue it.
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Personally no with Huijsen but get a more experienced defender in. We already have potential with both Khusanov and Reis.
 
Fucking gutted as I believe that was the final nail in the coffin for him. What I really mean is the club shouldn’t even have to think about keeping him, it’s a waste of wages. What a player he’s been for us, but time to move on the old players and the ones who can’t contribute to more than five games in a row.
 
His quality has never been in question.

Let that contract go down and let him go.

We simply can't build any momentum with any defender made of glass.

Give him minutes when he is fit, sure, but we can't give him another contract.

Same with Ake.
 
Can't build a team with broken players. This league is getting more athletic.

We need to leave him to see out his contract on the bench as a super sub.

I love the guy but he's toast.
 
ninjamonkey said:
Perhaps. Don't think we can make that declaration in a season where pep has repeatedly pushed every single defender to breaking point though.
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It's the opposite. Stones's and Ake's injuries have led to injuries of other defenders, as we didn't have enough players and had to overplay Dias and Akanji. If anything, Pep has been too patient with injury prone players. Starting next season with the same CBs invites new problems and crises.

That Stones can't stay fit is not something for which Pep is responsible. It's not like Stones hasn't been injury prone in previous seasons.
 
alexmcity said:
It's the opposite. Stones's and Ake's injuries have led to injuries of other defenders, as we didn't have enough players and had to overplay Dias and Akanji. If anything, Pep has been too patient with injury prone players. Starting next season with the same CBs invites new problems and crises.

That Stones can't stay fit is not something for which Pep is responsible. It's not like Stones hasn't been injury prone in previous seasons.
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As you say yourself, Pep knew stones and Ake's history, yet he decided 6 defenders with 2 of them being those 2 and another being a 34 yr old was enough for a season in which we were looking at playing more games than ever before. That mental decision, one that was very very easy to see the massive problem with it is the reason why we've had a disastrous season. Had we got the 2 defenders we got in January in the summer then we wouldn't have had to continuously push players to breaking point and play when unfit and the cycle we now cannot break wouldn't have happened to begin with.

Next season we'll have khusanov and Reis from the start, we might have an actual genuine fullback too, we'll be far better equipped to handle stones' limited availability.
 
I’d have started him in midfield next to Nico tonight instead of Gundo. I think it suits his physical state better now.

However, he’s just too injury prone and it’s only getting worse. He's just not up to playing 2 games a week. One of the best players to ever play for us when he’s fit in my opinion, but he’s got to be moved on. Exacerbated by the decision to have a small squad.
 
Love him, he's one of the best centre backs in the world but he cant play week in week out and its a problem when trying to build a starting XI.
 
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