City fans writing John Stones off too early?

Fully. It's really is a shame but I'm surprised by some of the posts in this thread. Personally I wouldn't trust Stones in a high pressure big game at all. His consistency over 90 minutes is piss poor. Bit like Otamendi, he's got a terrible habit of giving up one guilt edge chance to the opposition every 90 minutes. And that's before we get into his terrible physical condition.

For me, it's neither of those things, although both are a problem, it's that he doesn't play like John Stones anymore. His passing is safe and boring, he hesitates, he never really carries the ball out any more - he has completely lost his swagger. Remember when he shushed the Everton crowd after they shit themselves because he was playing in his own box? He'd never do that any more. He seems mentally destroyed by so many high profile errors.
 
For me, it's neither of those things, although both are a problem, it's that he doesn't play like John Stones anymore. His passing is safe and boring, he hesitates, he never really carries the ball out any more - he has completely lost his swagger. Remember when he shushed the Everton crowd after they shit themselves because he was playing in his own box? He'd never do that any more. He seems mentally destroyed by so many high profile errors.

Yeah, all of that too!
 
He has nobody to blame but himself. He's had enough chances. Like the guy and really wanted it to work out for him, and really thought this was the place, if any, he would achieve what we all thought, but perhaps he just isn't as good as we thought he is or could be.
 
Stones has had two fantastic half seasons.

If he was consistently as good as he was in the first half of the 17/18 season then alongside Laporte we’d have one of the best defensive partnerships in Europe.

Instead he struggles badly to hold down form and this is because he is mentally fragile. All it takes is a knock, a couple of games on the bench or a basic mistake to completely blow him off course.

It has been obvious for a while now that his body language hasn’t been quite right and that will bother Pep a lot having to see that in training everyday. It feels like he just doesn’t have the determination to be a top player, whereas someone like Sterling is absolutely desperate to be as good as he can be.

It’s a shame because at his best, even in short bursts, I was so impressed by him. After this many years and probably being off form comfortably more than on form, I’d say he probably isn’t good enough to be a player for us anymore. He’d be best off at a Europe League level side where the pressure to be the best isn’t quite as high.
 
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I'd say his cards are already marked. Problem is, he's homegrown so that carries value in itself. Cant have a 50m player warming the bench tho, so time to cash in and get the obligatory pittance for him.

*rolls eyes*
 
Great OP. I remain adamant that no player of ours receives more underserved and unfair criticism than John Stones. It borders on the ridiculous a lot of the time.

He is definitely good enough for this team and has proven that beyond doubt. I'm sticking by him to bounce back next season.
Pep don't think so .
 
For me, it's neither of those things, although both are a problem, it's that he doesn't play like John Stones anymore. His passing is safe and boring, he hesitates, he never really carries the ball out any more - he has completely lost his swagger. Remember when he shushed the Everton crowd after they shit themselves because he was playing in his own box? He'd never do that any more. He seems mentally destroyed by so many high profile errors.
He seems to take ten touches whilst he pretends he’s looking for an incisive pass before then passing to Walker and sprinting back to create an angle to receive the ball back off him. Then he’ll take ten touches again and pass to his centre back partner. That’s his game.
 

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