Why John Stones Is Now Man City's Most Important Player
Manchester City's FA Cup Final win puts them on the cusp of the treble. But is John Stones quietly the reason why Pep Guardiola's team have ascended to this new level?
Transcript
00:00 Hi there everybody, Adam Cleary from 442 here and I have nothing more elaborate in way of
00:08 an introduction besides saying we need to talk about Jon Stones, so...
00:14 Okay, so as you've no doubt seen this season, Manchester City are quite good.
00:20 Every time a team sheet drops for them we see this sort of shape with these sort of
00:23 names and barring a miraculous performance by Inter Milan this coming weekend, they are
00:27 almost certainly going to win the treble.
00:30 And the thing is, right, winning the treble is a frankly remarkable achievement, but if
00:34 there was one thing more remarkable than that, it has been the season enjoyed by this man
00:41 here.
00:42 Jonathan "MiddleName" Stones.
00:45 Now really quickly before we get started, you probably already know this is not how
00:47 Manchester City play at all, it's not a 4-3-3 or whatever you want to call it they do, this
00:51 box midfield with the defenders stepping out.
00:53 We've already done videos on it, I'll link them somewhere, other channels have done videos
00:56 on it, but ostensibly what happens is that once they've got the ball in their build-up
01:00 phase, Jon Stones comes out into the middle of the pitch, forms a box midfield with Rodri
01:04 and whoever's playing there, this moves across into a back three and that allows these two
01:08 to shuffle up into a flat, mad fine.
01:11 Now a lot of other teams are doing this this season, we've seen Zinchenko come across from
01:14 left back to do it for Arsenal, we've started seeing Trent Alexander-Arnold come across
01:17 from right back to do it for Liverpool, but the difference with Jon Stones doing it is
01:22 that, how can I put this, in every other system the defender moving into the midfield is
01:26 there to make up the numbers, to create an overload, to give the team an advantage, to
01:30 allow the other midfielders to do more midfieldy things, but with Jon Stones, he is the one
01:36 doing the midfieldy things, in fact he's probably right now one of the best five players
01:40 in the world at doing midfieldy things.
01:44 Central defender, Jon Stones.
01:46 And the thing is, you simply could not have wished for a better living example of all
01:49 of this than the FA Cup Final.
01:51 From start to finish, from end to end, from top to bottom, from balls to bones, Jon Stones
01:57 put in one of the all-time great Cup Final performances, and he did so largely out of
02:02 position.
02:03 So defensive midfielder, number six, pivot player, whatever name you want to give it,
02:07 what makes Jon Stones so good at it?
02:10 Let's watch.
02:11 So to get us started, he is always the first player that City look for in the build-up,
02:14 because in this back line, he is the most accomplished passer of the ball.
02:17 You can see here, easy enough, he's very happy to knock it around with his teammates at the
02:20 back, or if needs be, he can go a little bit longer, direct it into the midfield.
02:23 But he's also the player that Man City look for when they're in a bit of a tight spot,
02:26 when they're under pressure, because his overall awareness and his ability mean that he can
02:30 be a magnet for a press, drop a bit deeper, take some players with him, hit a first-time
02:34 bounce pass out to a teammate who his movement has left open.
02:38 And just on this whole, he makes Manchester City very difficult to press thing, just let's
02:42 look at this clip, let's freeze this clip right here.
02:44 There is absolutely nothing on.
02:46 If you showed this still to 100 people who had not seen this game, they would almost
02:51 certainly say what happens next is that Man United win the ball back and score and the
02:54 camera cuts to John Stones, he's going, "Oh no, silly me."
02:57 But what actually happens is this.
03:00 And just, oh, you know what it is?
03:03 I know normal people will watch goals back and nice passes and things like that, but
03:08 that's, I've watched this 10 times this morning.
03:10 That is, that is food to me.
03:12 It's what I live on.
03:13 Anyway, that's what he does in the build-up, but if there is no build-up, if there's nothing
03:15 going on, he'll just very happily carry the ball into the middle of the pitch, no matter
03:18 how congested it is.
03:20 He can do this because his dribbling and his close control are so good.
03:22 And if you try and tackle him, he'll just go past you, which again, makes him nearly
03:26 impossible to press.
03:28 And what does he do when he gets the ball into the middle of the pitch?
03:30 Well, he just knocks it around as comfortably with the midfielders as he was knocking it
03:34 around with the defenders because he is that accomplished on the ball.
03:37 It's pretty much playing at the same level as your Silvers and your Gunduans and your
03:40 De Bruynes.
03:41 He does not look out of place doing that.
03:43 He looks like he's been playing central midfield his entire life.
03:46 And while yes, he is there extensively to provide an overload to get this whole box
03:50 midfield thing going, if a bit of space opens up because one of the more advanced players
03:53 has dropped deep to receive the ball, he doesn't give a s***.
03:57 He'll just run into it.
03:58 Several times in the Cup final, he got in behind Manchester United from a starting position
04:02 that was in the back four.
04:04 Can you imagine trying to mark that?
04:06 And the thing is, you'd watch all of these clips and you'd go, "Oh yeah, definitely,
04:09 this is one of the best central midfielders/pivot players/number sixes in world football.
04:14 Absolutely."
04:15 But the thing is, this isn't even his job.
04:17 This is his hobby.
04:18 His job is being a central defender in a back four.
04:21 He just does this stuff because the situation requires it of him and he's one of the few
04:24 people who can actually rise to the challenge.
04:27 So yeah, in a way, not unlike f***ing Batman.
04:31 Like this is John Stone's superhero, fighting the high press and cleaning up the midfield
04:35 because he's the hero the Eddie Hart deserves.
04:37 But when he wakes up every morning, he's actually John Stone's this one, like international
04:41 businessman and playboy.
04:42 And is he still really good as John Stone's international businessman/playboy/central
04:46 defender?
04:47 Well, he won pretty much all of his aerial challenges and in the latter part of the game
04:51 when Man United brought Garnaccio on to try and run into the space this kind of aggressive
04:55 shape was leaving, he just dropped back into the back four and recovered the ball here
05:00 and put in a crucial block here and right at the end of the game was willing to headbutt
05:03 the crossbar just to ensure a late equaliser didn't drop below it.
05:06 Legitimately right, football teams this summer, last summer, next summer, they will spend
05:10 a hundred million plus trying to buy this exact player or someone they hope can be maybe
05:16 one day this exact player.
05:18 And Pep Guardiola has just pulled him out of the defence because he believed in him.
05:23 And if there's any part of you that's tempted to think this was a bit fortunate on Man City's
05:26 part that Pep's rolled the dice on this player and he's got really lucky finding out what
05:30 he can do, just look at this interview from a number of years ago.
05:33 And John, they have four excellent central defenders and John for the quality, personality
05:38 he has, I think he can play there.
05:39 And yes Guardiola will get all the applause for that because it was his idea and his giant
05:43 enormous swollen football brain, but this simply would not work without John Stones.
05:49 Like dare I say it, you could maybe put another centre forward in this system and they would
05:53 score a lot of goals.
05:54 It would still continue to function as well as it does.
05:57 But you put any other player right now, bar maybe two or three in the world, in that John
06:02 role, none of this is happening.
06:04 Bananas!
06:05 So anyway, yes, that's why I absolutely love watching John Stones at the minute and why
06:08 I think he deserves all the flowers in the world, which brings me to my final point.
06:13 At what stage do we start to consider John Stones as one of the all time great English
06:18 centre backs?
06:19 Five Premier League, six domestic cups, European Championship finalist, World Cup semi-finalist
06:25 and probably by the end of this week, possibly by the time you're watching this video, Champions
06:30 League winner.
06:31 Would that put him up there with the Ferdinands and the Terrys and the Campbells and the tightest
06:36 brambles of this world?
06:38 I think it does.
06:39 But obviously that's just my opinion, so let me know if you agree in the comments below
06:42 and if you don't, why don't you?
06:44 I actually really fancy having an argument today, so let's do it.
06:47 In the meantime though, you can get me on Twitter @AdamClearyClery and you can get
06:51 442 across the entire social spectrum at 442.
06:55 Until next time, it's goodbye from me and goodbye from John Stones here.
06:58 Say goodbye John Stones.
06:59 Bye John Stones.
07:00 Pretty sure that's what people from Yorkshire sound like.