Manchester City are a team which always want to dominate the game and attack, especially under the management of Pep Guardiola. They hold the goal-scoring record for a Premier League season, also scoring 102 goals in the previous campaign. However, this season they have faced difficulties in finding the back of the net; on the contrary, it might be a surprise to see City keeping more clean sheets and conceding fewer goals than the rest of the teams in the league. So, who has made the difference?
Our answer is John Stones, one of Peps first signings as City manager. He has been heavily criticized in recent times by fans and pundits, including former Chelsea and Norwich City striker – Chris Sutton, who pin-pointed Stones as the “weak point” of the team in 2016. However, Stones has once again proved that Sutton was wrong, now that he has replaced Aymeric Laporte as the first-choice centre-back alongside new arrival Rúben Dias.
This tactical analysis will show how Stones was able to reclaim his spot at City by using data and in-game examples. We will compare Stones with Laporte a lot as they seem to be competing for the same spot.
Data comparisons
First, we compared the numbers of the City defenders to briefly understand the level of Stones among his competitors. Only the four top choices were included in the shortlist, which is why Eric García is not on the list due to his uncertainty future and limited game time.
The bar chart shows some defensive statistics for the central defenders. In terms of PAdj interceptions, Stones ranked third with a value of 5.95, but the margin between all four players was not large enough to indicate huge differences.
Stones has more PAdj tackles than any of his counterparts (0.71 per 90). However, this is not a pivotal element of Pep’s team, and it is a matter of context, since tackles do not necessarily reflect good defensive work; they could also be the result of a mistake in positioning or anticipation.
Therefore, t
