No wonder Pique likes him.

People are just doing what they do with every young English player, they see the tools and are assuming he will put it together. He has yet to do so.

I honestly think if he wasn't that good on the ball hardly anyone would be talking about him as this potentially world class defender.

Take that away and he'd be judged on his defending. Now when you look at his defending nothing screams this guy is gonna be elite.

People assume that because he's so good on the ball the defending will come in time because he's young. Or they outright lie and claim he's already a class defender.

Honestly do not get the hype with this kid whatsoever.

Would loved to be proven wrong as England need a top class cb. But I'm not sure he's going to be it. And even if he is, he's certainly not one now.

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We got the best midfield depth in premierleague.

But none of the teams in the premier league are Barca so it's a moot point.

I think it's just the in vogue thing to want defenders who are comfortable on the ball and can bring it out into midfield. I guess it's based on a style of play Barca use which works but for any other club who don't control games and have the offensive power like they do it's a bit dangerous to play defenders who aren't actually that great at defending.

Spot on, 1982.

It's funny it's happening in England as well. For years so many used to dismiss great foreign players and teams because they lacked

I think its a bit silly to just say that Stones is good on the ball but not much else. There were even people saying he had a poor season last year which isn't true. His stats were among the best of his age in Europe.

Last season Chelsea had the best defence and Stones' stats beat all of theirs...

http://twitter.com/WhoScored/status/622397972274282497/photo/1

The guy is an all round top defender.

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......attributes that we valued in our game.

But now people are going so far the other way that these attributes, such as being able to defend, are being dismissed because it's not the same as the Spanish culture.

This is why English football is a mess. We can't make our minds up and keep trying to emulate different countries and fail massively.

That's not to say there's no value in a lot of these footballing cultures. But it doesn't mean that some of what was good about the English game has no place.

Stats can be misleading. Because if you're trying to tell me John Stones was better than John Terry last season then you're a caaaant.

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It doesn't need to move on from producing quality defenders. Though sadly it appears it has.

England needs to improve that aspect of its players game, no doubt, but it also needs work it around other things that are going to make us effective.

We cannot simply try and emulate Spain. We'll fail miserably.

Will be interesting to see who we try and copy next now Spain's golden generation has come to an end. My bet's on France again as I think they'll be the next top dogs in international football over the next four-six years.

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No it's not.

comment by Darren The King Fletcher (U10026)
posted 8 minutes ago
Stats can be misleading. Because if you're trying to tell me John Stones was better than John Terry last season then you're a caaaant.
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Maybe he was though. Hence why Jose went to war with his own club to sign Stones. He saw what this summer it's likely Barca, Real (maybe not Real), United, City and maybe Bayern will see.

And if not as good as Terry last season there wasn't much in it. And if you add that Terry had a better defence around him than Stones does it makes those stats better.

Sometimes the hype is justified

comment by Darren The King Fletcher (U10026)
posted 6 minutes ago
It doesn't need to move on from producing quality defenders. Though sadly it appears it has.

England needs to improve that aspect of its players game, no doubt, but it also needs work it around other things that are going to make us effective.

We cannot simply try and emulate Spain. We'll fail miserably.

Will be interesting to see who we try and copy next now Spain's golden generation has come to an end. My bet's on France again as I think they'll be the next top dogs in international football over the next four-six years.
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I still think Germany have a lot in the tank tbh.

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"This is why English football is a mess."

Very true and while England continue to follow other nations on how to evolve themselves they will never overtake others as they will always be 1 or 2 steps behind.

There was something I read about it the other day that was quite interesting and pointed out that English sides could have looked back at the successful English sides of the 70s and 80s and see how their success was based so much on a high pressing game that became such an English way of playing. Sadly it's taken other nations to take that on board and develop their own style while England still continue to have little idea what they want to do themselves other than try and copy the best teams and do it poorly.

Yep you're a caaaant. It wasn't even close. Terry was comfortably superior.

Stretty, yeah Germany will always be up there. I think they may have issues because of their lack of strikers which could cost them. And losing Lahm and Schweinsteiger being past it could effect them as they're there real leaders.

I think France look primed to kick on and really become a top international side. Winning the Euros at home could be the catalyst, and I fancy them to win it.

Not an issue? Spain will struggle to produce players like Xavi, Iniesta, Alonso, Puyol and Villa - key parts of their golden generation.

Spain have always had class players. But it all happened for them at the right time that so many came through at the same time, and just as importantly, played together in one of the most dominant club sides of all time. You understimate this.

1982, makes it worse because pressing is all the rage.

I remember when we used to call it closing down. Apparently that was a neanderthal English trait.

Since Barca started doing it and they renamed it pressing it's not got the same stigma.

The French are talented but they are their own worst enemies. They've had better teams than this and flopped. The Benzema thing is a distraction and their defence isn't great.

Its an open tournament that anything could happen in. Quite fancy Belgium to do well if Hazard can find some form. He hasn't scored a single goal all season for Chelsea!

France definitely seem to have some great talent coming through, just need to work as a team, seems to have been their downfall in recent years (a bit like the Dutch). Watching the Bayern game now and the Coman kid looks very good, strange that Juve loaned him out.