Ruben Dias says he was amazed with John Stones’ versatility during the previous season at Manchester City.
The Englishman featured in numerous roles across the pitch during City’s last campaign such as centre-back and right-back, in addition to venturing into a midfield role throughout the second half of the season.
This has since led to one of Stones’ City teammates sharing his thoughts on the 29-year-old and what he offered the team across their treble-winning campaign.
Dias praises Stones
Speaking on a recent episode of the Official Man City Podcast, Dias said this when asked about Stones‘ efforts in midfield towards the end of last season.
He said: “To be honest with you, I never really saw it coming. It definitely was exceptional from John, and it still is and the fact that he’s shown to have that quality is just impressive to us all.
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“And obviously to be able to get that with the part that we already knew of him, it’s a big extra for our team because we became even more versatile than we already were and it was definitely a big extra.
“You know I love him, everyone knows. I can only speak for myself and he already knows how I feel about him and in a way we just love each other and that’s the kind of connection one can hope to find at least once in a season and I’ve had that for the last three seasons so in that sense I’m very happy that I was lucky to find it.”
Stones ended the previous Premier League campaign with the joint-highest passing accuracy percentage (93%) in the City squad, as well as the fourth-highest total of clearances (40), showing how useful he can be defensively as well as with the ball at his feet.
Having also managed to complete all of the six dribbles he attempted during the Champions League final, making him the first player Lionel Messi in 2015 (10) to do so, this also highlights how effective the England international can be in midfield in terms of moving the ball around.
With all of that in mind, it’s easy to see why Dias has been so full of praise for his fellow defender and his new-found versatility.
Moving forward, with the new season on the horizon, it’ll be interesting to see if Stones ends up featuring in midfield again throughout the campaign.