3) John Stones
When Manchester City acquired John Stones, they did assess his potential to become a world-class centre-back in years to come. However, the meeting between the scouting team and the hierarchy would have definitely raised an important question regarding Stones, “why should we pay £50 million for a defender who made 4 defensive errors, 3 of which led to a goal?”
Stones was sought by a number of clubs and justifiably so as he is unafraid to get into tackles, has a fine positional sense and is a tough man to get past. However, he takes unnecessary risks at the back of the line-up instead of keeping it simple and can often complicate simple situations for his team.
He has come under the scanner in the past with the likes of legendary English defender Sol Campbell claiming that Stones is too error prone to be the first choice centre-back for England at Euro 2016. Even his former managers Roberto Martinez and Roy Hodgson have publicly claimed that Stones is too error prone at the moment.
At Manchester City, the expectations will be sky high, especially with the kind of money involved, and Stones will need to “cut out the mistakes” to become a defensive force to reckon with.
