Luton Town boss Rob Edwards admitted before his side’s 6-2 defeat to Manchester City that he was hoping John Stones did not start.
Such is the fear that the English centre-back generates, whom Micah Richards thinks is “so difficult” to play against when he is deployed in his hybrid role.
In February, Richard Dunne claimed that what the 29-year-old can bring to the table, no other player in Europe can.
Luton boss Rob Edwards admitted he did not want John Stones to start for Manchester City before 6-2 thrashing
After City’s 1-0 win against AFC Bournemouth, Pep Guardiola revealed that the Barnsley-born centre-back was not fully fit and as a result, he perhaps decided to start him on Tuesday night.
In the 77th minute, the treble-winner was eventually taken off, possibly to keep him fresh for the Manchester Derby on Sunday.
Ahead of Luton Town’s drubbing at the hands of Manchester City, Rob Edwards praised John Stones and admitted that he was hoping he did not start against his side.
“[John] Stones, particularly the other night. I thought he was incredible, we hoped he wasn’t going to play tonight and he’d [Pep Guardiola] give him a bit of a rest, but he goes again”, he told ITV.
“It will be interesting to see whether he stays and they build in a three or if [Kyle] Walker stays and Stones steps in and creates overloads and drives up the pitch like he was doing so often the other night.”
Rare for a centre-back to generate such fear as John Stones has
Considering Manchester City have a plethora of top players like Kevin De Bruyne, Erling Haaland, Rodri and Bernardo Silva, the fact that Rob Edwards singled John Stones out as a potential threat to Luton is a testament to his one-of-a-kind impact.
In our view, not many centre-backs have generated a feeling of fear like Stones seemingly has.
In addition, Rob Edwards did not even mention the five-time Premier League’s elite defensive capabilities and instead focused on his fluid movement, which is also quite rare, if not unprecedented for a central defender.
Unfortunately for Edwards, he was proven right as Stones exploited Luton’s man-to-man press with his clever movement, going on to set up Kovacic’s late strike as well.
