John Stones - 2016/17 performances

[The Fat el Hombre]

Been outstanding since his arrival and looks like hes been here years , yet some hack (tim rich ) has written this drivel.............
John Stones is quickly learning that Manchester City life under Pep Guardiola will not be easy


The young defender has plenty of potential but still has a lot to learn at the Etihad Stadium

• TIm Rich
• 17 hours ago
• 6 comments

4

John Stones has his work cut out at Manchester City Getty
At Everton, Roberto Martinez called him the best English centre-half since Bobby Moore. Sam Allardyce thought Pep Guardiola might mould him into a new Carles Puyol.

However, on Sunday John Stones looked nothing like Moore or Puyol. He looked lost and before an hour was up in Manchester City’s 3-1 win over West Ham, the world’s most expensive defender was removed.

It was thought Stones was suffering from an eye injury but Guardiola remarked that the 22-year-old was not playing to the required standard. “I saw him tired, I saw him with problems,” said the Manchester City manager.


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Stones was replaced by Aleksandar Kolorov, who Guardiola has shifted from left-back to centre-half much as he did with David Alaba at Bayern Munich. Kolarov looks the better bet to start the Manchester derby at Old Trafford a week on Saturday.

Stones is a wonderfully-gifted footballer who may not reach his peak for another eight years. However, playing centre-half for Guardiola is one of football’s most demanding jobs.

With the full-backs pushed up into midfield, there were only three men plus the goalkeeper providing defensive cover against West Ham. In Munich, Guardiola’s goalkeeper was Manuel Neuer, who was almost a sweeper. Willy Caballero is no Neuer.

Fernandinho as the sole holding midfielder will be put under enormous pressure. Against West Ham, the Brazilian was further burdened by an early yellow card while Stones, deep in the West Ham half, was involved in the build up to Raheem Sterling’s opening goal.

Stones is not shy of hard work – last season he ran further in Everton’s defence than Adam Lallana did in Liverpool’s midfield - but Guardiola’s is total football pushed to its extreme.

Last season Stones admitted his game had been affected by the pressures of his abortive move to Chelsea. “It is difficult when there is a lot of speculation and a lot of things happening in your personal life,” he said. “It didn’t just unsettle me, it affected my family as well.” Now, he is having to adapt to a new way of playing the game.

Like Marouane Fellaini at Manchester United, Kolarov is one of those footballers whom everybody expected to leave in the summer but who is flourishing in improbable circumstances. The Croat, however, dismissed the idea that Guardiola had simply sprinkled his magic over him.

“I don’t agree that I have been revitalised under Guardiola,” he said. “I always did my job properly. It doesn’t matter what the papers have been saying, I am doing my job in my seventh year here. It is a different kind of football and at the moment we are happy with him but it is just the start of the season and there are a lot of games to play.”

The switch to centre-half surprised Kolarov not least because Guardiola began the season with three centre-halves for whom the club had paid £119m. But it should not have come as a surprise. Whether switching Javier Mascherano from a holding midfielder to a centre-half at Barcelona or shifting Philipp Lahm into midfield at Bayern, Guardiola tends to seek imaginative solutions from within his own squad.

“On the first day when we came in for pre-season, he tried me in that position,” said Kolarov. “I had never played in that position before. I was a midfielder early in my career. But like the other players, like the full-backs who have to come inside, we have to do what the manager wants.

“I am enjoying playing centre-half because we have a lot of possession and I have more of the ball than I do in the full-back positions,” he said. “The derby is a big game, not just for the city but for the world. There are two new managers at both clubs and I am looking forward to playing in the game.”

If Joe Hart is the big English casualty of Guardiola’s coming - he looks set to make a loan move to Torino - and Stones has not started as smoothly as he would have hoped,

Ha what the hell is that!?

 

[Blueknows]

Ha what the hell is that!?

spot the other obvious mistake............Kolarov is one of those footballers whom everybody expected to leave in the summer but who is flourishing in improbable circumstances. The Croat, however, dismissed the idea that Guardiola had simply sprinkled his magic over him.

 

[The Northern Baptist]

The lad is so good, if I had £100 million i'd buy him twice.

Make no mistake about this, we've well and truly had Everton's pants down with the fee we paid.

 

[yeah whatever !!]

And here's me thinking he was man of the match away at stoke..

Seems the only things these jealous hacks can do is to make stories up, because the truth is pretty frightening.

 

[Proy]

That video is everything that is wrong with British football.

I can't believe he made it as a pro and is being paid nicely once more as a pundit.

It's a physiological barrier over here that a defender must kick it into row z. That is exactly how our goalkeepers have been raised and why Joe Hart is gone.

There needs to be a shift in the way we coach over here to be competitive on the international stage.

I swear if Merson is ever officially involved in the England set up I'll jump off the nearest motorway bridge.

 

[yeah whatever !!]

That video is everything that is wrong with British football.

I can't believe he made it as a pro and is being paid nicely once more as a pundit.

It's a physiological barrier over here that a defender must kick it into row z. That is exactly how our goalkeepers have been raised and why Joe Hart is gone.

There needs to be a shift in the way we coach over here to be competitive on the international stage.

I swear if Merson is ever officially involved in the England set up I'll jump off the nearest motorway bridge.

No need to crack your head over a crackhead bud. ;)

 

[BlueAnorak]

Tim Rich - what a d*ck - has to be a rag. Stones plated exceptionally well on Sunday and was only subbed because some pr*ck in claret and blue stuck a finger in his eye!

 

[Tricky_Trev]

At the time I thought he was subbed for leaving his position in the wrong way for the 2nd or 3rd time. It's a learning experience for all of us, fans included. Whenever I see a player doing something slightly unusual, I glance at Pep to gauge whether it's an instruction or whether Pep is going mental at something he doesn't want to see. He appeared to be giving Stones a right bollocking at times. Perhaps bollocking is too strong a word, but he wasn't happy with something. When Stones was subbed off v Steaua, Pep again had a long chat about something with him. Could be completely wrong but my interpretation at the time was that he's just trying to educate John and speed up his learning curve by really pushing him. Like Thierry Henry getting subbed at half time because he left position. He scored a goal out of position, but that's not acceptable for Pep it seems. To anyone else, myself included, Stones played fantastic. But Pep is clearly seeing some important things he wants to correct in his game because I watch Pep intently when Stones is on the ball. In the 2nd half, don't know if you saw it, but Stones even left his hand up in apology to the bench when he knew he made a poor movement (or at least poor in Pep's eyes).

 

[Proy]

Think the sub mate was purely to counter West Ham and the fact they decided to start putting everything in the air. Kolarov is very strong in that dept. It was a great sub. It's coming from a manager who knows what is happening and adapts. Last year West Ham would have scored a 2nd.

That and he was carrying a bit of a knock.

 

[cibaman]

At the time I thought he was subbed for leaving his position in the wrong way for the 2nd or 3rd time. It's a learning experience for all of us, fans included. Whenever I see a player doing something slightly unusual, I glance at Pep to gauge whether it's an instruction or whether Pep is going mental at something he doesn't want to see. He appeared to be giving Stones a right bollocking at times. Perhaps bollocking is too strong a word, but he wasn't happy with something. When Stones was subbed off v Steaua, Pep again had a long chat about something with him. Could be completely wrong but my interpretation at the time was that he's just trying to educate John and speed up his learning curve by really pushing him. Like Thierry Henry getting subbed at half time because he left position. He scored a goal out of position, but that's not acceptable for Pep it seems. To anyone else, myself included, Stones played fantastic. But Pep is clearly seeing some important things he wants to correct in his game because I watch Pep intently when Stones is on the ball. In the 2nd half, don't know if you saw it, but Stones even left his hand up in apology to the bench when he knew he made a poor movement (or at least poor in Pep's eyes).

Pep will be tougher on Stones than other players because the potential is so much greater. I'm not sure that he would have been subbed if it hadn't been for the eye injury. But it wouldn't surprise me if, once the decision was made, Pep was happy to let Stones think it was because he wasn't happy with his performance.