I pointed this out as nauseum over the summer on that famous John Stones thread. I Pointed out his leadership skills were undeniable. I posted video evidence example after video evidence example. I asked folks to watch videos I posted and pointed out how men 2ice his age differed to him. On numerous occasions, Barry, Jageilka would differ to him instinctively. He has always oozed leadership. All the pointing out where players should be, go or stand, he was doing at Everton. I repeated it till I got tired.Mistakes/brain farts werent my concern. A lot of what he was doing wrong can be sorted with coaching/instruction and growing up.
But I thought his positional play was poor last season, and for me his qualities on the ball counted for little if he couldnt defend properly.
Been very pleased with his first few months though. With the ball it's what I expected but he's been an excellent presence in defence. And shown leadership skills I don't think he ever showed at Everton.
I said in the summer that I don't see it with Stones but so many others do so I was happy to wait and see, hopefully they were right and I was wrong.
So far so good.
His ability to take fantastic positions to the ball was evident on so many of those videos. It seems too many didn't watch them :(
Sadly, he hasn't blown me away coz I've seen most of what he is doing now before. I'm.waiting for when he makes that next level jump personally. This is what I expected his start to be. No surprises here for me yet. When he starts scoring headers on corners. Screamers from outside the box, and mentally imposing his will on top strikers, that's when I'll be impressed. Right now he is just as good as I thought he'll be. Hence why I was one of the all in for him crew.
NB: I was later called our on this as he wasn't playing with any 40 yearolds :)
Last edited: