United (H) | PL | Sun 3rd March, 15:30 | Pre-Match Thread
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Kinkybyname
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O ne of the most commented-on moments in Manchester City's Champions League round-of-16 first-leg defeat of Copenhagen was John Stones having an intense discussion with his manager, Pep Guardiola, on the touchline during a break in play. Stones is such a deep thinker about the game, a real-time responder, that he wanted to attempt some tactical shift, namely him moving briefly away from Rodri's vicinity in the centre to force an overload on the right.
The demonstrative way with which both Stones and Guardiola spoke highlighted the energy helping to drive the Treble winners. The thought process, too, and willingness to talk tactics provided an insight into City's excellence. Stones conversed powerfully but also listened intently. "Pep said for me and Rodri to play close together when we had the ball to have the short passes." Stones was stepping into midfield, making those passes with Rodri and working the ball upfield, occasionally releasing quickly wide.
"I was trying to tell Pep that once the ball is transitioned to the other side we haven't got an overload on the right-hand side with Bernardo [Silva] or Phil [Foden] out wide with Kevin [De Bruyne] and Walks [Kyle Walker]." Stones thought he could go. "We needed that extra player to make a 4 v 3." That precious overload.
"That was just us having a conversation. Pep said, 'No, keep staying close to Rodri. The space will come because we're trophies something inside That attracting so many players across the other side.' '' That's the City way, dragging opponents out of position, then attacking that space, preferably with an overload. "Pep's very strategic," Stones continues before describing the more visceral character of his manager. "He lives the game so intensely. He's so focused before games, from probably 48 hours before. That's all he'll think about. The game."
An hour in Stones's company at the Etihad campus after training yesterday afternoon proves typically enlightening. He talks at length about space, using it and creating it from his movement stepping from centre back into midfield. "How would I describe my role? Exciting, I'd say! Tactically? I'd still say I'm a defender. I've not got [the same] abilities as the guys in front of me. It's about recognising space, occupying space sometimes. I'll make runs to allow other players to get on the ball, create space for them. Everyone here is good at getting space. Just because of the natural talent, everyone can receive the ball, even in tight spaces. That's what the manager wants."
Smart players' swift comprehension of what Guardiola wants is vital with such a ferocious schedule. "We don't have the time to train that much, especially when it [a match] is every three days. Pep really wants us fresh for the games. Everyone here is clicked into this mentality of how the manager wants us to play."
We talk about some of City's leading lights, like Rodri. "We all know how good he is for us, and how important he is for us with his qualities. Sometimes you get players that read certain situations so well in big moments and he's got that. He's brought so many goals to his game as well [seven in 33 this season], kept improving."
When it comes to goals, talk turns quickly to Erling Haaland. "You know how players have got a gift in a certain aspect? Erling's gift is just to score goals. I mean that in the best way. I'm not disrespecting the other side of his game because of what he brings, pressing, his physicality, his hold-up play. He's known for his goals. He's just born to score goals."
Stones sympathises with opposing centre backs. "I do! I do! I've seen how Erling bullies people or pushes them over when he's running. To feel that force and aggression when he's trying to hold up the ball or win headers, for someone so young to have that aggression in such a controlled way, he's unique."
And what of another 23-year-old, Foden? "Incredible! Incredible! His natural ability is scary. It's like he's playing on the street or on the park. If I was four weeks out and I came back my touch is off. Phil comes back and his touch is perfect. I'm jealous of that. I admire him. Football, Phil just loves it. You can see it. He's just having fun.
sets off you. feeling!
"Kevin makes the difficult things look so easy. He can do everything so well, head, left foot, right, everything. We all know he's world class. When he plays he brings something no one else can. He sees things no one else sees. One of his assists [his second] in the 3-2 win over Aston Villa last game of the season, two seasons ago, I've watched back a few times.
"Kevin took a touch into the box, knows where to put the ball, the 'keeper [Robin Olsen] can't react quick enough and Gundo [Ilkay Gundogan] just slides it in." De Bruyne's cross from the right is perfectly angled and placed, just a foot too far in front of Olsen, perfect for Gundogan at the far post. "Kevin has something you can't teach."
Stones nods at mention of De Bruyne's competitive nature, the Belgium playmaker looking almost angry when substituted. "The manager said about him having that [anger] keeps him sharp during the game. We thrive off it as players. He's not lost it. It's only grown that hunger."
Stones understands it. "Winning trophies sets something off inside you. That feeling! You want it again. It's hunger and desire. That doesn't go. Look back over six, seven seasons now and we've always been there fighting for the Premier League, always been there in the FA Cup, the semis, finals, in recent years Champions League, Carabao [Cup] four on the bounce. Something that goes so under the radar is how difficult that is to maintain over a sustained period. That's something I'm proud of. This hunger."
That appetite is sharpened by competition from Liverpool and Arsenal this season. He smiles at mention of the media narrative of Jürgen Klopp going out with four trophies. "Oh, no. Can't be letting that happen!" His respect for City's rivals is also there. "Arsenal, Liverpool, the teams that have been pushing us and us pushing them for the trophies, it's working in our favour. We've got to be better. It's healthy competition.
"It's hunger. Do everything, have no regrets. Look, at the end of my career, which is hopefully a long time away, I want to look back and see all the things that I've got that I never thought I would have as a kid." Lifestyle? Large house? "No. I'm not bothered about that. For my kids and my family I want them to have the best life but I'm talking about footballing achievements.
"That's still in all of us here: going out on the street or on the park and just playing football and wanting to win, no matter who it's against. I never thought I'd be able to even play in these games or win all these trophies. So to do it just makes me want to do it even more. Do it again. The Barnsley boy is still in me, 100 per cent."
Stones began at Barnsley, his local club, was nurtured by superb youth coaches like Mark Burton and Ronnie Branson, and soon shone in the first team before he moved on to Everton and City, where he has constantly excelled, arguably playing his most accomplished football to conquer Inter Milan and Europe last season. Barnsley posted a picture from
Istanbul of their former player captioned: "John Stones there, just bossing the Champions League final."
He dribbled past Edin Dzeko, Marcelo Brozovic, Alessandro Bastoni and Hakan Calhanoglu three times. His best game? "Possibly, yes, on the biggest stage. To hold that trophy and know I've given everything during that game." He first walked past the European Cup, paused and kissed it. "I actually headbutted it! It meant so much because of Porto [where City lost to Chelsea in 2021], that was difficult. It was something I'd always dreamt of, watching it as a kid on our small TV. My dad said to me after, 'You remember you'd sit in the kitchen watching Champions League football. Now you've gone and won it.' That was nice."
Nice because Stones also knew what it meant to his family. On his left thigh he has a large tattoo of four faces. "They all mean something to me. These are my grandparents, all four. My dream on the back of my leg was to play for Barnsley, I never thought I'd be a professional footballer and play for England. I've always had great people around me to help me get there." Such as his parents, Peter and Janet.
"The sacrifices they made, taking me everywhere, training three, four times a week, the support. I know that now, being a dad. Just to be there. I realise now they were at everything. Still are." That support network is particularly important as Stones is wary of who he can trust. "That's difficult [who to trust]. I've not let many people in, only my family, my partner, my friends."
He's experienced some difficult moments down the years, has worked on his mental health and wants more people to open up. Through City In
The Community, Stones has become involved with Andy's Man Club (AMC), the suicide prevention charity that has 180 support groups nationwide helping more than 4,000 men. The men come in and can talk, peer to peer, about their issues or simply listen. It's knowing they are not alone that matters.
"I'd spoken about my mental health and this came up with the club and I wanted to get involved," Stones says. He met two of the facilitators from AMC, Lucas Whitehead and Oliver Vikse. "It's a really great thing that they're doing and I was so happy to be on board with that."
There are 12 AMCs in Greater Manchester, and when the newest, in Ashton-under-Lyne, opened last month, 70 men attended the opening night. Another AMC will soon be operating a weekly service from the Etihad. "They're doing a lot now with the stadium. I feel it's so important now, especially after Covid, that people seem to be speaking more about their mental health but still need that help."
Footballers are not supermen.
"We're definitely not," Stones responds. "It's a perception that's been created from not knowing players as individuals and coming to your own judgment of players. We are probably toughened from a lot of the things we do in football but we go through so many of the same things in life, with family, with kids."
Stones went through some particularly "dark times" during the 2019- 20 season. He made a bad mistake trying to bring the ball out of defence against Holland in the Nations League on June 6, 2019, gifting possession to Memphis Depay, who forced an own goal off Walker. Gareth Southgate dropped Stones for the next game, against Switzerland three days later in Guimarães. "He wanted to take me out of the limelight. It was an obvious decision but one that he handled so well. He knew how difficult it was for me. I felt I'd let everyone down.
"It was something that has helped me a lot. I look back and I can say 1) well, I definitely won't do that again, and 2) I felt that support. Gareth's an incredible manmanager. He just knows us. I feel like when I come into the England camp, everyone's such a good person, the same as g about health rtant. not men here. That's such a key characteristic that top players have now is they are such good people."
Stones represented England the following November, against Montenegro, but then not for 16 months. The nadir of that period was being on the City bench on August 15, 2020, against Lyon at the Etihad, when Guardiola went with a back three of Fernandinho, Eric García and Aymeric Laporte. "When I wasn't playing that was the most difficult, a lot of questioning, doubting myself."
He turned a negative into a positive. "It was a really important time for me: going back to basics, marginal gains, 100 per cent, diet, before a game more carbs, recovery, ice baths, massages. The gym is massive for me, still now, twice a day, come here and train, and go home, do my extra bits. I use the Reformer, a Pilates machine, good for strength and mobility. I am quite mobile anyway. My mum was a high jumper, hurdler." Janet was nationally ranked. "She could probably still do it now!"
Tomorrow brings the Manchester derby and Stones knows Guardiola will not need to emphasise the game's importance. "It's the derby. We know what's expected. We know how much it means to the fans and us as players wanting to beat them."
United will be missing the injured Rasmus Hojlund. "Any strong player out makes a difference," Stones reflects, before warning against underestimating weakened, criticised neighbours. "We've seen in the past anything can happen. We could have won the league here once against them [in April 2018] and we lost that 3-2 and they weren't in the best of form then. It's derby day." He calls Marcus Rashford a "difficult" opponent to face but adds, "I find it not only a privilege to play in these derbies but exciting."
His booking against Brentford on February 20 was his first at the Etihad in 125 appearances. "Which is nice!" How on earth? "Perfect timing," Stones says, smiling. He laughs off the idea that he lacks an aggressive edge. "You can see how I approach tackles, headers, everything, how aggressive it is.
"I think I've been clever as well [with] how I play, knowing now that there's so many scuffles that go on and players trying to wind you up, I don't rise to that. I know how important it is not to be on a caution."
Last weekend the BBC commentator Jonathan Pearce told Stones he reminded him of Bobby Moore, the master of the immaculate interception. "I've seen footage of Bobby Moore," Stones replies. "I'm in awe of him. I've only got pure respect and admiration for what he did in the game, winning the World Cup.
"The longer it's gone on the respect grows, not only from me, from the English nation. I know how difficult it is and they did it." Can England end 58 years of hurt at the European Championship finals in Germany this summer? "That's the aim," Stones replies calmly.
The demonstrative way with which both Stones and Guardiola spoke highlighted the energy helping to drive the Treble winners. The thought process, too, and willingness to talk tactics provided an insight into City's excellence. Stones conversed powerfully but also listened intently. "Pep said for me and Rodri to play close together when we had the ball to have the short passes." Stones was stepping into midfield, making those passes with Rodri and working the ball upfield, occasionally releasing quickly wide.
"I was trying to tell Pep that once the ball is transitioned to the other side we haven't got an overload on the right-hand side with Bernardo [Silva] or Phil [Foden] out wide with Kevin [De Bruyne] and Walks [Kyle Walker]." Stones thought he could go. "We needed that extra player to make a 4 v 3." That precious overload.
"That was just us having a conversation. Pep said, 'No, keep staying close to Rodri. The space will come because we're trophies something inside That attracting so many players across the other side.' '' That's the City way, dragging opponents out of position, then attacking that space, preferably with an overload. "Pep's very strategic," Stones continues before describing the more visceral character of his manager. "He lives the game so intensely. He's so focused before games, from probably 48 hours before. That's all he'll think about. The game."
An hour in Stones's company at the Etihad campus after training yesterday afternoon proves typically enlightening. He talks at length about space, using it and creating it from his movement stepping from centre back into midfield. "How would I describe my role? Exciting, I'd say! Tactically? I'd still say I'm a defender. I've not got [the same] abilities as the guys in front of me. It's about recognising space, occupying space sometimes. I'll make runs to allow other players to get on the ball, create space for them. Everyone here is good at getting space. Just because of the natural talent, everyone can receive the ball, even in tight spaces. That's what the manager wants."
Smart players' swift comprehension of what Guardiola wants is vital with such a ferocious schedule. "We don't have the time to train that much, especially when it [a match] is every three days. Pep really wants us fresh for the games. Everyone here is clicked into this mentality of how the manager wants us to play."
We talk about some of City's leading lights, like Rodri. "We all know how good he is for us, and how important he is for us with his qualities. Sometimes you get players that read certain situations so well in big moments and he's got that. He's brought so many goals to his game as well [seven in 33 this season], kept improving."
When it comes to goals, talk turns quickly to Erling Haaland. "You know how players have got a gift in a certain aspect? Erling's gift is just to score goals. I mean that in the best way. I'm not disrespecting the other side of his game because of what he brings, pressing, his physicality, his hold-up play. He's known for his goals. He's just born to score goals."
Stones sympathises with opposing centre backs. "I do! I do! I've seen how Erling bullies people or pushes them over when he's running. To feel that force and aggression when he's trying to hold up the ball or win headers, for someone so young to have that aggression in such a controlled way, he's unique."
And what of another 23-year-old, Foden? "Incredible! Incredible! His natural ability is scary. It's like he's playing on the street or on the park. If I was four weeks out and I came back my touch is off. Phil comes back and his touch is perfect. I'm jealous of that. I admire him. Football, Phil just loves it. You can see it. He's just having fun.
sets off you. feeling!
"Kevin makes the difficult things look so easy. He can do everything so well, head, left foot, right, everything. We all know he's world class. When he plays he brings something no one else can. He sees things no one else sees. One of his assists [his second] in the 3-2 win over Aston Villa last game of the season, two seasons ago, I've watched back a few times.
"Kevin took a touch into the box, knows where to put the ball, the 'keeper [Robin Olsen] can't react quick enough and Gundo [Ilkay Gundogan] just slides it in." De Bruyne's cross from the right is perfectly angled and placed, just a foot too far in front of Olsen, perfect for Gundogan at the far post. "Kevin has something you can't teach."
Stones nods at mention of De Bruyne's competitive nature, the Belgium playmaker looking almost angry when substituted. "The manager said about him having that [anger] keeps him sharp during the game. We thrive off it as players. He's not lost it. It's only grown that hunger."
Stones understands it. "Winning trophies sets something off inside you. That feeling! You want it again. It's hunger and desire. That doesn't go. Look back over six, seven seasons now and we've always been there fighting for the Premier League, always been there in the FA Cup, the semis, finals, in recent years Champions League, Carabao [Cup] four on the bounce. Something that goes so under the radar is how difficult that is to maintain over a sustained period. That's something I'm proud of. This hunger."
That appetite is sharpened by competition from Liverpool and Arsenal this season. He smiles at mention of the media narrative of Jürgen Klopp going out with four trophies. "Oh, no. Can't be letting that happen!" His respect for City's rivals is also there. "Arsenal, Liverpool, the teams that have been pushing us and us pushing them for the trophies, it's working in our favour. We've got to be better. It's healthy competition.
"It's hunger. Do everything, have no regrets. Look, at the end of my career, which is hopefully a long time away, I want to look back and see all the things that I've got that I never thought I would have as a kid." Lifestyle? Large house? "No. I'm not bothered about that. For my kids and my family I want them to have the best life but I'm talking about footballing achievements.
"That's still in all of us here: going out on the street or on the park and just playing football and wanting to win, no matter who it's against. I never thought I'd be able to even play in these games or win all these trophies. So to do it just makes me want to do it even more. Do it again. The Barnsley boy is still in me, 100 per cent."
Stones began at Barnsley, his local club, was nurtured by superb youth coaches like Mark Burton and Ronnie Branson, and soon shone in the first team before he moved on to Everton and City, where he has constantly excelled, arguably playing his most accomplished football to conquer Inter Milan and Europe last season. Barnsley posted a picture from
Istanbul of their former player captioned: "John Stones there, just bossing the Champions League final."
He dribbled past Edin Dzeko, Marcelo Brozovic, Alessandro Bastoni and Hakan Calhanoglu three times. His best game? "Possibly, yes, on the biggest stage. To hold that trophy and know I've given everything during that game." He first walked past the European Cup, paused and kissed it. "I actually headbutted it! It meant so much because of Porto [where City lost to Chelsea in 2021], that was difficult. It was something I'd always dreamt of, watching it as a kid on our small TV. My dad said to me after, 'You remember you'd sit in the kitchen watching Champions League football. Now you've gone and won it.' That was nice."
Nice because Stones also knew what it meant to his family. On his left thigh he has a large tattoo of four faces. "They all mean something to me. These are my grandparents, all four. My dream on the back of my leg was to play for Barnsley, I never thought I'd be a professional footballer and play for England. I've always had great people around me to help me get there." Such as his parents, Peter and Janet.
"The sacrifices they made, taking me everywhere, training three, four times a week, the support. I know that now, being a dad. Just to be there. I realise now they were at everything. Still are." That support network is particularly important as Stones is wary of who he can trust. "That's difficult [who to trust]. I've not let many people in, only my family, my partner, my friends."
He's experienced some difficult moments down the years, has worked on his mental health and wants more people to open up. Through City In
The Community, Stones has become involved with Andy's Man Club (AMC), the suicide prevention charity that has 180 support groups nationwide helping more than 4,000 men. The men come in and can talk, peer to peer, about their issues or simply listen. It's knowing they are not alone that matters.
"I'd spoken about my mental health and this came up with the club and I wanted to get involved," Stones says. He met two of the facilitators from AMC, Lucas Whitehead and Oliver Vikse. "It's a really great thing that they're doing and I was so happy to be on board with that."
There are 12 AMCs in Greater Manchester, and when the newest, in Ashton-under-Lyne, opened last month, 70 men attended the opening night. Another AMC will soon be operating a weekly service from the Etihad. "They're doing a lot now with the stadium. I feel it's so important now, especially after Covid, that people seem to be speaking more about their mental health but still need that help."
Footballers are not supermen.
"We're definitely not," Stones responds. "It's a perception that's been created from not knowing players as individuals and coming to your own judgment of players. We are probably toughened from a lot of the things we do in football but we go through so many of the same things in life, with family, with kids."
Stones went through some particularly "dark times" during the 2019- 20 season. He made a bad mistake trying to bring the ball out of defence against Holland in the Nations League on June 6, 2019, gifting possession to Memphis Depay, who forced an own goal off Walker. Gareth Southgate dropped Stones for the next game, against Switzerland three days later in Guimarães. "He wanted to take me out of the limelight. It was an obvious decision but one that he handled so well. He knew how difficult it was for me. I felt I'd let everyone down.
"It was something that has helped me a lot. I look back and I can say 1) well, I definitely won't do that again, and 2) I felt that support. Gareth's an incredible manmanager. He just knows us. I feel like when I come into the England camp, everyone's such a good person, the same as g about health rtant. not men here. That's such a key characteristic that top players have now is they are such good people."
Stones represented England the following November, against Montenegro, but then not for 16 months. The nadir of that period was being on the City bench on August 15, 2020, against Lyon at the Etihad, when Guardiola went with a back three of Fernandinho, Eric García and Aymeric Laporte. "When I wasn't playing that was the most difficult, a lot of questioning, doubting myself."
He turned a negative into a positive. "It was a really important time for me: going back to basics, marginal gains, 100 per cent, diet, before a game more carbs, recovery, ice baths, massages. The gym is massive for me, still now, twice a day, come here and train, and go home, do my extra bits. I use the Reformer, a Pilates machine, good for strength and mobility. I am quite mobile anyway. My mum was a high jumper, hurdler." Janet was nationally ranked. "She could probably still do it now!"
Tomorrow brings the Manchester derby and Stones knows Guardiola will not need to emphasise the game's importance. "It's the derby. We know what's expected. We know how much it means to the fans and us as players wanting to beat them."
United will be missing the injured Rasmus Hojlund. "Any strong player out makes a difference," Stones reflects, before warning against underestimating weakened, criticised neighbours. "We've seen in the past anything can happen. We could have won the league here once against them [in April 2018] and we lost that 3-2 and they weren't in the best of form then. It's derby day." He calls Marcus Rashford a "difficult" opponent to face but adds, "I find it not only a privilege to play in these derbies but exciting."
His booking against Brentford on February 20 was his first at the Etihad in 125 appearances. "Which is nice!" How on earth? "Perfect timing," Stones says, smiling. He laughs off the idea that he lacks an aggressive edge. "You can see how I approach tackles, headers, everything, how aggressive it is.
"I think I've been clever as well [with] how I play, knowing now that there's so many scuffles that go on and players trying to wind you up, I don't rise to that. I know how important it is not to be on a caution."
Last weekend the BBC commentator Jonathan Pearce told Stones he reminded him of Bobby Moore, the master of the immaculate interception. "I've seen footage of Bobby Moore," Stones replies. "I'm in awe of him. I've only got pure respect and admiration for what he did in the game, winning the World Cup.
"The longer it's gone on the respect grows, not only from me, from the English nation. I know how difficult it is and they did it." Can England end 58 years of hurt at the European Championship finals in Germany this summer? "That's the aim," Stones replies calmly.
Vienna_70
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I love that from Guy.
Tuearts right boot
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Are you still doing the BOGOF deal before KO.
kaz7
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Wish this was today, cant wait to get stuck into them , derbies can go either way but with kev and thor back we shouldnt have too much trouble , fingers crossed
BlueMoonRisin’
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Yeah.
Chris in London
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TinFoilHat
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TLDR: United players are thick as fuck compared to us.
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