Finally Stones put his body on the line like JT.. and that could be his salvation
I REMEMBER watching Chris Smalling and Phil Jones play as England’s central defenders in a friendly against Ecuador in Miami in 2014.
They were awful. The press pack were all agreed: ‘These guys aren’t pushing for an England place’, ‘We’re going to struggle’, ‘We’ve got no back-up central defenders…’
And, of course, we went on to have a dreadful 2014 World Cup.
Smalling’s stock, in particular, was at an all-time low, and he went back to Manchester United with his tail between his legs and people demanding, ‘Biff him off, he’s not up to the standard’.
But even so, then-England boss Roy Hodgson stuck with him and he played in almost every international that followed. Hodgson realised Smalling was playing well in the Euro 2016 qualifiers and the player himself used those games to help rebuild his form and confidence.
He took both into his football at Old Trafford, started to play well and, for a while, became indispensable at club level.
That’s the template John Stones must now use with England and Manchester City, where in recent weeks Pep Guardiola has preferred to partner Vincent Kompany and Nicolas Otamendi.
And, Holland on Friday,
it looked like Stones (above) might have been thinking, ‘Hmm, this is my way of playing my way back into Pep’s thoughts’.
For a while now, I have had two criticisms of the 23-year-old. Firstly, those little lapses in judgement when he thinks doing a Cruyff turn in his own box is a good idea.
And, secondly, that he hasn’t always shown himself to be a front-foot defender. All the greats know how to pinch the ball, they nick in front of opponents and stride forwards. And while there has never been any question about his ability on the ball, never been any question that he can play football, there have been questions about him doing those other things well. On Friday, however, he did them a dozen times – he got in the correct position and said, ‘Right, I’m coming out with it and setting England on the front foot’. That’s what I want to see more of. People will say, ‘You’ve been very harsh on Stones over the last couple of years, what did he do differently on Friday against a really awful Dutch team?’
What he did was want to defend.
There were times the Dutch were all pass, pass, pass, get into position, and Stones wanted to block, he wanted to defend like John Terry, and I haven’t always seen that.
Otamendi has had a renaissance this season, but he hasn’t got the pace or the ability on the ball that Stones has.
But he does have the JTs about him, he will put his body on the line for the team.
On Friday, we saw that from Stones, and now he needs to keep doing that all the way through to and during the World Cup.
If he does that, he will give himself a platform to take his game to the next level, just as it was for Smalling and United.
England could well be Stones’ salvation for City.