Richard Dunne believes John Stones can do things on a football pitch that no other player can in Europe.
The 29-year-old returned to Manchester City’s starting line-up during their 3-1 victory against Burnley after suffering a recent injury.
Pep Guardiola must be over the moon seeing the Englishman fit and firing once again at the Etihad Stadium.
Richard Dunne says John Stones can do things no other player can in Europe
Apart from when either Rico Lewis or Manuel Akanji are on the pitch, it is noticeable how the Spanish tactician does not even try to utilise any of his defenders in an inverted role.
Despite every defender at City being technically gifted and quite mobile, Guardiola seems aware that Stones is best-suited to the role more than possibly any defender in world football.
Richard Dunne believes the balance John Stones can bring, both defensively and offensively in his hybrid role makes him a player who can do things no other player can in Europe.
“Yeah, he obviously had an amazing season last year and this season has been a bit stop-start for him at times with injuries. But when he’s in the side, he just brings something no other player in Europe I think can do”, he said on City’s pre-match show (via YouTube) on Wednesday.
“I think other people try and imitate what Pep [Guardiola] has done with the squad in terms of inverted full-backs but that inverted sort of centre-half is unique to John Stones with the ability to be able to do it.”
“And he’s one of those players that you want to come and watch play football because he’s brilliant at his job defensively but coming forward, he just adds something which like I say, no one else can do.”
Premier League teams do not even ask their centre-backs to mimic the John Stones role
As Richard Dunne claimed, it seems like only John Stones can play in the inverted centre-back role.
Interestingly, while several teams in the Premier League deploy inverted full-backs, they tend not to utilise the same experiment when it comes to their centre-backs.
For instance, Liverpool have tasked Trent Alexander-Arnold to slot into midfield from right-back, with Ibrahima Konate providing cover for him on the vacated right side of the defence that he leaves behind him.
Similarly, Arsenal have instructed Oleksandr Zinchenko, Ben White and Thomas Partey to invert from full-back at various points of the season.
But not a single team in England has a centre-half doing so like John Stones does because it is an extremely challenging position for any centre-back to play.
