John Stones: Why midfield masterclass for Man City is no surprise to Gareth Southgate and England
year out from the start of the European Championship finals, John Stones’s display for Manchester City in the Champions League Final might have given Gareth Southgate pause for thought.
Stones was magnificent in Saturday’s 1-0 win over Inter Milan in Istanbul, running a bitty game from the heart of midfield.
His quality and bravery on the ball were outstanding, particularly considering he began this season as a centre-half and, not so long ago, appeared to have reached the end of the road with Pep Guardiola’s City.
For all the questions about City’s state-funding and the 115 charges which continue to hang over the treble-winners, the transformation of Stones from ball-playing defender to ball-carrying midfielder is one of the myriad of touches which make Guardiola a worthy champion and surely the greatest coach of our age.
History maker: Stones celebrates City completing the Treble with victory over Inter in the Champions League Final
/ REUTERSAfterwards, City defender Manuel Akanji jokingly likened Stones to Diego Maradona, and the England international certainly took the game to Inter with marauding dribbles from deep, while also covering defensively in a complete performance on the biggest stage. Stones completed all six of his dribbles — most of which were surges through a packed and hard-pressing Inter core; the last player to complete more in a Champions League Final was Lionel Messi, with 10 against Juventus in 2015.
Southgate, whose side face Malta on Friday night and North Macedonia at Old Trafford three days later in Euro qualifying, has considered utilising Stones higher up the pitch but has always needed him in the heart of defence.
“We thought at times, in the past, about playing him as a midfielder when we didn’t have one before Declan [Rice] and Kalvin [Phillips] came in, but we have always needed him at centre-back… we need to get as many of our best players on the pitch as possible,” the England manager said this month.
While Southgate is short of top-class defenders, he has two generational midfield players in Rice and Jude Bellingham who will surely form a pairing in Germany next summer, but Stones is nonetheless an intriguing option.
It is no secret that England’s lack of midfield control has been a factor in failing to get over the line under Southgate and even in Qatar, when they took the game to holders France in the quarter-final, Antoine Griezmann ran the game in the middle of the park. Pushing Stones forward more permanently might elevate Southgate’s England, just as it has Guardiola’s City, but would depend on Southgate having other trusted options at the back; a resurgence for Harry Maguire and the continued development of Chelsea’s Levi Colwill perhaps.
“We have always encouraged [Stones] to step into midfield but not quite as obviously as he is doing now,” added Southgate. “He has always had those attributes but he has managed it brilliantly. John had attributes when he was at Barnsley which would allow him to play slightly differently to how a traditional central defender, bar maybe Rio [Ferdinand].”
