John Stones is England's Key Player

Interesting video on England's strategy here:



The world cup series is a nice watch in the build-up to the World Cup, particularly the group stage videos.

 

Was great to see stones in the flesh again last week, and in a red shirt!

Strolled about effortlessly, but passed the ball to the opposition under very little pressure. On that occasion he instinctively sprinted to where the next pass was going and cut it out.

Love to watch him, and want him to play every game, but against the top teams even a minor error could be quickly punished, but I suppose that's what you get with a ball playing centre half.

 

Thing is with Stones he’s analysed more much than any other player and because he has so much possession of the ball it does stand out more. Alan Shearer has a right downer on him for some reason. One mistake is talked about for ages meantime he’s involved in a good passage of play but doesn’t get mentioned.

 

Not just Sheared, Glenn Hoddle always criticises him in games.I'm not sure why though,he doesn't play any worse than anyone else. I do think there is a unrealistic expectation of how he should be. He is still young and inexperienced really,I think he will meet people's expectation when he is around 28 and has had more top level experience,injuries permitting.

 

Stones is England’s best player.
Dele Alli a close second.

 

He gets the ball more than the other defenders because he’s better on it. They give it to him to play out from the back.

It’s like with Barnsley, you’ll get someone like Jackson who isn’t comfortable playing out from the back passing it to Lindsay who is but then that player gets the stick if the pass is wrong despite him been the one constantly taking the pressure & responsibility off of the other centre backs.

The big problem England have is that apart from Cahill none of them play in a back 3 so it’s bound to end in tears, there’s simply not been enough warm up games to get used to the system & as soon as a team puts pressure on us we’ll crumble which will probably be the Belgium game & then the last 16 game which I’d expect to be our last one. We saw signs in the Nigeria game that the players aren’t comfortable with it but Southgate’s build the whole squad around 3-5-2 so he isn’t going to change it now

 

Spot on about jacko and Lindsay. The latter gets stick for the long diagonal ball he seems to favour. If he couldn't do it, he wouldn't be attempting it.

A bit like Gardner. Had lots of wayward shots and got stick, until he banged one away at boro, which the keeper spilled and Moore scored. He then scored a couple of beauties towards the end of the season.

It's in their locker to do it, but it doesn't always come off. Doesn't mean they should stop trying.

 

Stones hasn't played a game yet at a major finals. He didn't go to Brazil 4 years ago and didn't get on the pitch in France 2 years ago. If he's our key player then his lack of experience will be a big problem. We need to be relying on players with a few tournaments behind them.

 

Stones is exactly the type of player that any good team needs and it's so frustrating to hear him getting criticism when the very nature of his game means he is more likely to lose possession.

I'm surprised by some of the ex pros being critical, especially players like Hoddle who should be able to empathize with him.