Confidence is back and he’s looking unbeatable

WHAT is pleasing about the form of John Stones is that he is not doing anything you would regard as outstanding. That is the consistency you hope to have as a defender: keep clean sheets, go unnoticed. Then all of a sudden people start to recognise it. Did he do anything differently against Marseille on Wednesday to the first game he played? Probably not, and that is the consistency of performance. I was half-worried for him at the start of the season. City had bought two centre backs, Ruben Dias and Nathan Ake. Fernandinho had been picked ahead of him, too. You could arguably say he was viewed as sixth choice in that position, so it was daunting. Confidence is huge. It is hard when your confidence goes and every player has a dip. But at 26, John is still a relatively young player and he deserves credit for coming out the other side, keeping his head down and performing. At City we’re talking about one of the best squads in the world, so if he’s performing then he is doing OK. Defending well enhances everything else. You feel taller. You’re stronger, you’re faster, you feel you can jump higher. Your instincts are better. When I was defending well, I was better in possession. We’re seeing that with John and it has an impact on the opposition. When his confidence was lower, with the odd mistake, teams would put him under pressure more often — trying to force an error. I don’t see that at the moment. Once he’s playing well and his confidence is high, it’s a waste of energy trying to force that error. Look at Virgil van Dijk and Vincent Kompany when they were playing, they had spells when nobody was getting past them. So nobody even tried. They are then not having to defend as much. John’s standards and his attitude have not dropped in training because the manager wouldn’t pick him otherwise. If he continues to do this I’m sure he’ll be back in the England team for the Euros. He needs to be playing well to get into that squad. He has always had the tools, but there have been patches in his form that led to him not playing. He just needs to continue to do what he’s doing now and enjoy going under the radar. If you’re doing that, you’re doing all right.