John Stones - 2018/19 Performances

[domalino]

Regardless of Stones' form, it was an absolute shithouse move by Southgate to drop him today.

He's made mistakes trying to play the way you've asked him to play, despite not having the players around him to do it. You don't drop him after that, you show your support in your team selection in a meaningless game.

 

[mccity]

Regardless of Stones' form, it was an absolute shithouse move by Southgate to drop him today.

He's made mistakes trying to play the way you've asked him to play, despite not having the players around him to do it. You don't drop him after that, you show your support in your team selection in a meaningless game.

It actually surprised me given his comments and how he never dropped Sterling that he did that to Stones today.

 

[Cobra]

Regardless of Stones' form, it was an absolute shithouse move by Southgate to drop him today.

He's made mistakes trying to play the way you've asked him to play, despite not having the players around him to do it. You don't drop him after that, you show your support in your team selection in a meaningless game.

We don’t know what Stones’ mental state was though. Or his physical fitness. But yeah he probably should have started alongside Gomez.

 

[City_Sean]

Regardless of Stones' form, it was an absolute shithouse move by Southgate to drop him today.

He's made mistakes trying to play the way you've asked him to play, despite not having the players around him to do it. You don't drop him after that, you show your support in your team selection in a meaningless game.

Southgate is an absolutely shite coach who throughout his England tenure has bottled most of the tough decisions. He continually sets his teams up badly. Stones has improving to do but the decision to drop him was an absolute ****s trick.

 

[hammersmithlad]

Hey..without Stones who knows if we would have won the league this season with his goal line clearance against the Pool!

However, I think most Blues on here will get defensive regarding criticism of Stones especially in an England shirt & perhaps wear blue-tinted glasses on such comments. In my opinion I think his ceiling is a good defender but won't become a great world class defender. The main reason is his lapses in concentration which over the years have always remained. Normally, year by year to get to this ceiling, these lapses either reduce or are eliminated. Yet here we are 3 years later all talking about the same thing with Stones.

Over the years we've seem him have some blinding games, imperious with the balls in the box, controlled and cool when on the ball and some fine passes out of the back. The lapses of concentration seem to occur when under duress either via high intensity closing down or his passing options reduced by traps.

When Vinnie had some poor games, he filled me with confidence that he would work on it and get back to being the best & trying to eliminate the mistakes he was making. So far I don't get that impression/feeling with Stones. Him & Walker comically referred to as the chuckle brothers does help fill me with confidence either.

Totally get why some folks on here state he's not used to playing with his English national team mates on not naturally offering him ways out of defence, which seems to be something Pep works hard on at City. However, to be a world class defender you surely will expect this to happen in your professional career & adapt your performances to play with your less 'inferior' team mates. So far I don't see him mentally adapting to these different situations on the field. To be fair his performance over the weekend was terrible like most of his teammates in defense, but as City fans I think most of us have seen glimpses of this even in the Liverpool game where he saved us he was also responsible for a lazy short pass to Vinnie which got our captain into all sorts of trouble and like most thought the ref was going to send him off for chopping down Salah.

Has all the physical tools to be great, but unless he fixes his lapses in concentration will prevent him from becoming a true world class defender such as a Baresi or our own club legend Kompany.

 

[grim up north]

Southgate made 7 changes in that game how was Stones dropped

 

[Academica]

Every time it looks as if it's all come into place, he starts dropping bollocks again.

It cost us big games two seasons ago, & when he started it again this season, Pep dumped him.

At some point, he has to become reliable.

Tell us about all these dropped bollocks then?

 

[Neville Kneville]

Tell us about all these dropped bollocks then?

Nah.

 

[Academica]

Hey..without Stones who knows if we would have won the league this season with his goal line clearance against the Pool!

However, I think most Blues on here will get defensive regarding criticism of Stones especially in an England shirt & perhaps wear blue-tinted glasses on such comments. In my opinion I think his ceiling is a good defender but won't become a great world class defender. The main reason is his lapses in concentration which over the years have always remained. Normally, year by year to get to this ceiling, these lapses either reduce or are eliminated. Yet here we are 3 years later all talking about the same thing with Stones.

Over the years we've seem him have some blinding games, imperious with the balls in the box, controlled and cool when on the ball and some fine passes out of the back. The lapses of concentration seem to occur when under duress either via high intensity closing down or his passing options reduced by traps.

When Vinnie had some poor games, he filled me with confidence that he would work on it and get back to being the best & trying to eliminate the mistakes he was making. So far I don't get that impression/feeling with Stones. Him & Walker comically referred to as the chuckle brothers does help fill me with confidence either.

Totally get why some folks on here state he's not used to playing with his English national team mates on not naturally offering him ways out of defence, which seems to be something Pep works hard on at City. However, to be a world class defender you surely will expect this to happen in your professional career & adapt your performances to play with your less 'inferior' team mates. So far I don't see him mentally adapting to these different situations on the field. To be fair his performance over the weekend was terrible like most of his teammates in defense, but as City fans I think most of us have seen glimpses of this even in the Liverpool game where he saved us he was also responsible for a lazy short pass to Vinnie which got our captain into all sorts of trouble and like most thought the ref was going to send him off for chopping down Salah.

Has all the physical tools to be great, but unless he fixes his lapses in concentration will prevent him from becoming a true world class defender such as a Baresi or our own club legend Kompany.

So that's 1 dodgy pass last season, like you said he needs to cut out the mistakes.

 

[worsleyweb]

Clearly been impacted by issues in his personal life. Not easy splitting from his childhood sweetheart and his young kid.