John Stones - 2016/17 performances

[RandomJ]

Defending has become an afterthought.

We now have exactly the kind of defence anyone who gives a fuck about defending & watched Otamendi, Stones & Kolarov in action in the past, would expect.

Somehow folks on here figured it would be instantly better with each signing, even after watching them play for their previous clubs.

Mangala has been unlucky imo, falling foul of the 'ball playing' tag. He's potentially a better defender than any of them, but the modern day thing seems to be having shit midfielders as centre backs, rather than proper centre backs.

Mangala had very very few good games for us. Funnily enough it's always "the Chelsea game" that gets brought up. Not the countless times he lost his man in the box, the countless times he switched off, the countless times the ball bounced off him like his feet were made of concrete, the countless times he put us under pressure with a shit pass. Absence really does make some people on here think players are better than they are.

 

[Neville Kneville]

Mangala had very very few good games for us. Funnily enough it's always "the Chelsea game" that gets brought up. Not the countless times he lost his man in the box, the countless times he switched off, the countless times the ball bounced off him like his feet were made of concrete, the countless times he put us under pressure with a shit pass. Absence really does make some people on here think players are better than they are.

Except when you see our current 'ball playing' cbs do the same, every fucking week & people paper over it.

Mangala dropped bollocks, like Stones Kolarov & Otamemdi do all the time. On about two or three occasions, it even cost us a goal.

 

[teddykgb]

That's what the fucking full backs are meant to be for. To stop the balls coming in. When you have Clichy and Sagna giving opposition wingers carte blanche to take their time and whip a ball in you're screwed from the start.

tonight Stones went out to cover Sagna's position, searched for midfield help that wasn't arriving, chased the next pass, blocked a cross, then watched as Sagna defended space and watched the ball fizz back into the CB's area for a goal.

I'm convinced that fixing our FBs will have a dramatic impact upon our results. Sagna doesn't do many of the calamitous mistakes that we all notice and remember but when you focus on him he's really quite poor.

And for my praise of Stones there (and I would praise his taking responsibility in the 2nd half), he's still giving way too much ground when players run at him. As I said in the game thread, he doesn't have to do an Otamendi and rush the attacker but he can't allow the attacker the amount of space he does which lets him just chew up 20 or 30 yards at full pace. He should be able to get tighter and force the attackers wider which will give his teammates a chance to get back and help.

 

[RandomJ]

Except when you see our current 'ball playing' cbs do the same, every fucking week & people paper over it.

Mangala dropped bollocks, like Stones Kolarov & Otamemdi do all the time. On about two or three occasions, it even cost us a goal.

Except it's not every week is it so stop fucking exaggerating. If you're pining for an old fashioned, row Z style defender then you may not want to watch us for the next few years, maybe Chelsea is more to your taste?

And to get back on topic if you really can't see what advantage a defender like Stones brings then I suggest you watch the second half again tomorrow when you have a free moment. Stones stepped up and became the player we badly needed. Dinho and Kev were having shockers and Yaya was on the bench so John stepped up, brought the ball out from defence, pushing their whole team back while he was playing great pass after great pass forward. We took the game by the scruff, had complete control of the ball all thanks to Stones and we got back in the game.

I'm not trying to pass our defence off as perfect as it is far from it we need 3 new fullbacks and a new CB to partner Stones and Stones is by no means the finished article he will make mistakes in the future and he certainly has stuff he needs to work on but tonight was yet another glimpse at the sort of player he will become.

 

[Neville Kneville]

Except it's not every week is it so stop fucking exaggerating. If you're pining for an old fashioned, row Z style defender then you may not want to watch us for the next few years, maybe Chelsea is more to your taste?

And to get back on topic if you really can't see what advantage a defender like Stones brings then I suggest you watch the second half again tomorrow when you have a free moment. Stones stepped up and became the player we badly needed. Dinho and Kev were having shockers and Yaya was on the bench so John stepped up, brought the ball out from defence, pushing their whole team back while he was playing great pass after great pass forward. We took the game by the scruff, had complete control of the ball all thanks to Stones and we got back in the game.

I'm not trying to pass our defence off as perfect as it is far from it we need 3 new fullbacks and a new CB to partner Stones and Stones is by no means the finished article he will make mistakes in the future and he certainly has stuff he needs to work on but tonight was yet another glimpse at the sort of player he will become.

Of course i can see the advantage a DEFENDER LIKE Stones would bring.

I don't see the advantage of him being arsefucked by Falcao in the first leg, which is why we are out of the fucking Champions League.

 

[BigOscar]

Never rated him before we signed him, but when he signed I hoped he'd prove me wrong, but so far has done little to do that. He's confident on the ball, but not especially good with it, while his defending is average at very best. Doesn't get tight enough to people, reacts to things instead of reading play and his marking and decision making leaves a lot to be desired. At the moment he looks like an average midfield player filling in at CB more than he looks like a proper defender

Needs to seriously improve if he's ever going to make that price tag look anything short of ridiculous.

 

[Clercqs]

I don't see the advantage of him being arsefucked by Falcao in the first leg, which is why we are out of the fucking Champions League.

That isn't the reason we're out. The reason we're out is because the whole team performed absolutely garbage in 45 minutes against class opposition.

 

[Cheadle_hulmeBlue]

I think you are all easily impressed.

None of them were any good at he back, slow to react to everything & his passing was nothing more than Joey Barton would do. Ok passing for a big galoot central defender, but pretty average by the standard for any oher position.

I'm sure we will stick with him as we have invested 3 times his value in signing him. Perhaps he may evetually be worth it, if we find 3 others to play alongside.

really ? why even make that comparison. he played some good forward balls tonight. most fans think he played well tonight too.

 

[Cheadle_hulmeBlue]

Of course i can see the advantage a DEFENDER LIKE Stones would bring.

I don't see the advantage of him being arsefucked by Falcao in the first leg, which is why we are out of the fucking Champions League.

so aguero missing plenty of chances, other defenders being non existent, the team playing poorly had nothing to do with it, it was all stones fault ?

 

[Ashleymcduff]

Only player who played well last night imho
Looked like the only one who actually cared