do people on this thread still rate Stones over Zouma? I never did & I saw two similar plays from both lads today. Zouma made the right choice & knocked ball down the field - Stones attempted a back pass & that resulted into a PK. Some people really need to look at the specifc outlook than the generalities.

I don't even rate Stones over Christensen at this point.

That was shocking from him today, sometimes he over does it & I don't mind a ball playing centre back but he does it far far too much!

I don't even rate Stones over Christensen at this point.

 

hell we already seen Kalas put in a shift at CB...why not give him a shot?

hope your right on Christensen. Thought the same about Kalas, gone on loan at Boro can't even start regularly there. There is such a big gap from u21 football to championship football, let alone premiership.

 

The difference between Kalas and Christensen is that one is playing in the top league in Germany and getting European football experience, and the other one is playing in the second division of English football with no European football experience.

 

Christensen is already well ahead of Kalas.

 

I would much rather develop this guy than see us take a gamble on John Stones, a player that doesn't even look like anything special right now.

Edited January 24, 201610 yr by Scott Harris

He had a shocker today, souness said he wants to learn to defend like JT, best CB in 30 years his words.

He was so average today against Swansea. He looks out at sea whenever an opponent tries to move off his shoulder or make diagonal runs, his positioning and awareness is truly woeful, Yes he is confident (key word as sometimes he is too overconfident) on the ball, reasonably tall and has some pace about him but until he sorts out his positioning and awareness he will never be a good let alone top class CB. Yes JT can help him with this but Zouma and Christensen are both currently better defenders.
If I were Everton I would start trying to teach Stones to play CDM (like Dier has for Spurs) I think it would suit him so much better and he would have a lot less to learn.

Give Bamford a go

Dafuq?

Everton must be kicking themselves now they didn't sell for £40m.

If he was worth anything remotely close to that they wouldn't be ONE point above us in the table.

Agree with a lot of posts about Christensen. Stones is a good player but only needed if JT doesn't get a new contract. If JT get a one year deal (which he should and I think he will) then we should have JT, Zouma, Gaz & Christensen as our CBs next season. We need to put the faith in Christensen that we put in Zouma

^ In the minority here but I wouldn't give JT a new contract. He is undoubtedly one of the finest CBs of his generation but unless we are getting a 1st choice to pair with Zouma, with Cahill & JT playing mentoring & backup roles it makes no sense. Our defence has been very weak this year; and as much as we might blame some of the issues on a lack of protection from our CMs, you can't ignore the fact he is declining along with Ivanovic.

Another season of both of them in the back line will be absolutely mental, and will show we haven't learnt anything from this season. As a backup CB, it's a no brainier.

A new contract doesn't mean he has to play every game. JT is very much needed just for team bonding alone. We would be lost without him.

would rather marquinhos or laporte, but tbh we should give christensen a chance or sell him and with a buy back clause. 

I still prefer the idea of getting Christensen back for next season and start trying to integrate him, slowly but surely. Keep JT for one more season and let him learn from the best. I think Christensen will be as good if not better than Stones and we can save ourselves £40M +. It's a no-brainer.

 

Been saying for 2 years now, I think he's got what it takes to be our new captain. 

^ In the minority here but I wouldn't give JT a new contract. He is undoubtedly one of the finest CBs of his generation but unless we are getting a 1st choice to pair with Zouma, with Cahill & JT playing mentoring & backup roles it makes no sense. Our defence has been very weak this year; and as much as we might blame some of the issues on a lack of protection from our CMs, you can't ignore the fact he is declining along with Ivanovic.

Another season of both of them in the back line will be absolutely mental, and will show we haven't learnt anything from this season. As a backup CB, it's a no brainier.

 

Terry should never be let go, no matter how far he drops. We need someone like him around. He loves this club more than anyone else at the club.

 

Terry also hasn't dropped to Ivanovic's level, Terry has had more than a handful of good performances this season. Terry's form is like that of the rest of the team right now, just because he is older though people think he is finished. If Terry is finished then so must be the rest of the squad.

 

I'm desperate for Terry to retire here, i'm sick of seeing all of our greatest players move on to finish their careers at different clubs.

Edited January 26, 201610 yr by Scott Harris

Terry should never be let go, no matter how far he drops. We need someone like him around. He loves this club more than anyone else at the club.

Terry also hasn't dropped to Ivanovic's level, Terry has had more than a handful of good performances this season. Terry's form is like that of the rest of the team right now, just because he is older though people think he is finished. If Terry is finished then so must be the rest of the squad.

I'm desperate for Terry to retire here, i'm sick of seeing all of our greatest players move on to finish their careers at different clubs.

A finished Terry would still be a top 10 PL defender by current standards. He'd still walk into most PL teams and although he'd Never do a Frank and play for a rival it would be a shame to see him pull on the shirt of any other team

Watched the Everton highlights earlier and got to say Stones looked a long way off where he normally is.

Hopefully just a blip

I don't think it is a blip.  His decision-making is really bad.  A penalty not called against Citeh whereby he had no business making that challenge at the far end of the penalty box.  And the idiotic back pass to Howard to result in a penalty was unbelievably stupid.  We should stay far away from John Stones.

Frick me.  A triple post by accident.

Edited January 26, 201610 yr by Phillip

Sorry.  Super slow web site caused me to double-post.

Edited January 26, 201610 yr by Phillip

Watched the Everton highlights earlier and got to say Stones looked a long way off where he normally is.

Hopefully just a blip

Hopefully just a blip? He plays for Everton. Hopefully he doesn't get any better than he is now.

I dont watch Stones but what Ive seen, no where near a 40million CB...... additionally, when hearing other people justify his worth/how rated he is, they just refer to his ability on the ball as a CB and not anything about the actual main role of a CB.  Yet he is still making plenty of mistakes and bad decisions with the ball.

 

So seems to me it's 40mil on a "good ball playing CB" with quite a few mistakes in them....or, as it sounds to me, 40mil for an average midfielder whose been slotted into CB position.  AKA, David Luiz v2 but this time we are paying the silly money instead of getting it.

 

My final thoughts on Stones for the prices being mentioned, is he even anywhere near the level that either Rio or Terry were at that age?  Because the price suggests he should be at east at the same level they were at that age... hell, is he even better than Zouma who we got for a fraction of that price?  I don't think so.

What madness possessed the club to submit a bid of 37mil earlier? Thank Christ that didn't go through because no matter his form I would still be ticked we got mugged if we had signed him.

At this point, I'm glad that Everton were greedy and hung onto him.  Well, Greedy may be strong, but certainly trying to keep hold of him despite significant interest and thus over valuing their asset.

 

He is young, has potential, and is English.  That's automatically going to skyrocket his price tag.  I've never been that impressed by him, and certainly not for the money being touted.  If the Evertonians think that he really is the next big thing, then let him stay there.

 

If Jose was prepared to spend the 37 million quoted, it again makes me question just how good Jose is as spotting players 

Bit early to say whether he would be worth the money or not. Still very young and inexperienced. I don't think his signing would have helped our season, but surely the money being talked about was more for potential, than what he would offer this season. Still plenty of time for him to reach that potential though.