It's Quiet thread 14 - 'do one' edition

[OccupiedPalestineBlues]

Stones didn't quite cover himself in glory on his last outing with England

Well you're not wrong on that one, he's certainly not flawless, but his "rabbit caught in the lights" moments seem to generally come when we're exposed by a ball over or through the defensive line and are desperately trying to get back fast to extinguish a counter-attack.

 

[Keeper!]

I absolutely agree with them.

The Leicester Title season took a hell of a lot out of him, that guy ran forever, he was magnificent.

 

[Stoned Rose]

Of course City know their own requirements, bloody hell!

I'd rather sign a fit Stones to a new long-term deal than sign Koulibaly - and blow the fucking lot on a world-class defensive midfielder - Flanaghan's Law - Cocktails and Dreams.

It could have missed a lot of people by the other day, but Ake's comments last week were also interesting - Pep has asked him to prepare to be played in three positions this season - centre-back, left-back and holding midfield.

Ake as holding midfielder is interesting.

 

[tolmie's hairdoo]

Ake as holding midfielder is interesting.

No worse than what we currently have!

 

[Keeper!]

No worse than what we currently have!

And he's an intelligent guy, good reader of a game, so important in that position.

 

[blue oli]

If we had Ake, Denayer, Stones though, we still haven't signed a power player in the Vinny mould.

I get what your saying but I think you will be surprised by Ake, Laporte back on top of his game will be something else to behold and Denayer is so much better than people give him credit for.

Laporte, Ake, stones, denayer Plus the quality kids coming through would be enough.

Laporte will take that Kompany role up - maturing into it this year with Ake who is a lot more vocal than Kompany ever was bossing the line I think.

I don’t think the back line looks too back now, without looking for perfection it’s a solid unit now that will do.

Let’s not forget that Kompany, great as he was had some frailty and had the comfort of De Jong, then Fernandinho bossing the defensive midfield, THAT is where we feel a little lightweight now for me.

 

[skyblues]

Lothar would disagree. All before his injuries and off-field issues.

Germany legend hails John Stones as one of the world's best defenders

John Stones has hardly put a foot wrong this tournament

www.joe.co.uk

Of course a german with no interest in seeing an english team succeed internationally would say this. All english pundits are saying the same about Stones: he’s a weakness in this team, he’s not focused and make silly mistakes. Everyone talks about his potential but it’s not reasonable to wait 5-7 years for a guy to wake up.

People have different opinions about Stones but fact of the matter is: the club (and one can assume Pep) wanted him gone and go with Garcia and Koulibaly(?) instead. That didn’t work out so now they’re stuck with Stones and just might give him a final chance. But if Garcia stays and Koulibaly comes in, we’d have four quality cbs and then Stones. He’d be lucky to play any cup games.

Honestly just being 4th choice for Stones is bad enough when Koulibaly comes in.

 

[wattle]

Case in point. Skriniar is a fucking robot and Inter have been open to selling him for two years now. He is shite.

Buy a proper, energetic midfielder.

I'd even look again at Denayer for centre-back, we still have an option on him. He's right footed, can also play on the left side of a two, very good in the air and homegrown.

Far too many people decided to write him off after he was sent for hot-dogs playing against Wales when he got turned for the goal at the Euros.

Probably get him for £40m like Ake plus our sell-on discount.

I've always thought that about Denayer - thought he was quality from the moment I saw him play. Would he want to play for us though now, especially how he saw how it worked out for Angelino?

 

[blue oli]

No worse than what we currently have!

Ake or stones would do well in that role.

 

[Craig]

Stones was great for England then and I think he would still look great playing in the team because England don't play a high line like we do. There are plenty of good centre backs out there who would suddenly look very average if playing for us.

Yeah I agree with that and think prime John Terry would have really struggled in our system. The problem with Stones though is the silly errors are just pretty inexcusable rather than because we play a high line.Take your point regarding England but a few good games in the World Cup against shite teams isn’t long enough to judge for me. He started making basic errors after that though for Rngland and lost his place.