City fans writing John Stones off too early?

There was a period during the 17-18 season when he looked a world beater, but history is littered with footballers who never quite fully recovered from persistent niggling injuries.
I hope it works out for Stones, but moving forward, I'm more concerned with how City learn from previous mistakes, and don't allow the system to drift.
 
I like Stones but the attitude that he has been written off has come directly from Guardiola. How are we meant to think of John as anything but a lost cause when he never gets picked ahead of an incompetent Otamendi, a geriatric Fernandinho and a teenage García?

It speaks volumes that young Garcia is getting more game time than him nowadays.I will be very surprised if he`s with us next season.
He’s been injured.
 
Too early? He’s just never progressed. Can’t be weak and play CB stones is a powder puff cb.
 
I hope it works out for John Stones with us. I think he is a very gifted footballer who has been hit with injury and personal problems. When he has been 'on it' he has looked a world-beater. I accept that there is no room for sentiment when you want to be the best but I believe there to be a genuinely top-class player there and Vinnie clearly agrees, having voted him the best defender he has played with.
 
I’m not sure you can hold the centre back pairing solely responsible for the win percentage?

It’s completely outside of their control if we draw 0-0 and our forwards have an off day.

A better gauge of how well a centre back pairing works is the amount of goals they concede and clean sheets.

The Stones and Laporte partnership concedes on average 0.6 per game, compared to 0.5 for Laporte and Kompany.

Stones and Laporte has the best clean sheet ratio out of any of our centre back pairings with 60%, compared with 45% for Laporte and Kompany.

https://www.skysports.com/football/...r-citys-centre-backs-will-cost-them-the-title

skysports-mnf-man-city_4776787.png

Fair enough. And thanks for posting the fuller stats.
Can quibble, of course, over which particular stats are most revealing. You're obviously right that the centre halves shouldn't be held responsible for losses caused by missed chances etc. But then similar applies in terms of goals conceded because of errors by others. Or clean sheets upheld because of an outstanding goalkeeping display etc ....
All of which means I will remain blissfully attached to my own impressions from watching the matches :-) I just have it in mind that there were a series of games last season when the two played together and I thought we looked weak defensively. Newcastle away was the standout, the two Lyon games (I think), Chelsea, Leicester? Palace I think Otamendi started. Could well be wrong on any or all of these though.
 
Fair enough. And thanks for posting the fuller stats.
Can quibble, of course, over which particular stats are most revealing. You're obviously right that the centre halves shouldn't be held responsible for losses caused by missed chances etc. But then similar applies in terms of goals conceded because of errors by others. Or clean sheets upheld because of an outstanding goalkeeping display etc ....
All of which means I will remain blissfully attached to my own impressions from watching the matches :-) I just have it in mind that there were a series of games last season when the two played together and I thought we looked weak defensively. Newcastle away was the standout, the two Lyon games (I think), Chelsea, Leicester? Palace I think Otamendi started. Could well be wrong on any or all of these though.
The stats can only tell you so much, of course. And you can interpret them any way you wish.

I think the stats and the performances show that Stones and Otamendi as a partnership is a disaster waiting to happen. I don't think anyone wants to see that again.

But there seems to be a bit of a misconception among some City fans that our incredible success in the previous two seasons was based on Laporte and Kompany being the bedrock of it, and Stones has been a disaster waiting to happen. It's simply not true.

Stones' record alongside Laporte compares pretty favourably with the record of Laporte and Kompany.

But even putting the stats to one side, my personal view from watching the game is that Stones is our best centre half on the ball at breaking the lines and finding a forward pass in to midfield. I doubt even his biggest critics would dispute that.

Fernandinho has been brought in to centre half for his ability to make those passe. But I think as a centre half, he's made tons of mistakes. But he's a club legend, so people forgive them. If Stones had made the same mistakes, he'd be getting pelters on here.

I love Fernandinho, and he's done his best filling in for us in an emergency. But the OP was about what gives us the best chance of winning the CL this season. In my view, out of the players we currently have in the squad, based on the stats and my own opinion from watching the games, Laporte and Stones is the best chance we've got.
 
I don’t buy in at all.

He’s probably the mentally weakest player we’ve had since Bony.

I don’t believe for a second in coincidence and each and every time he makes a mistake it’s immediately followed up with an absence due to his “injuries”.

He really does flatter to deceive and I think we need to sell him if anyone comes asking, and buy someone with all his attributes except his mentality.
 

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