John Stones is one of the three Manchester City players currently representing England at the 2024 European Championship.
Even though he only made 16 Premier League appearances for Pep Guardiola’s side last season, the defender, alongside Kyle Walker and Phil Foden, was picked to be in Gareth Southgate’s squad for this summer’s tournament currently taking place in Germany.
With the group stage of the competition complete, Stones is one of the four outfield players to play every minute of action for England, who will be taking on Slovakia in the knockout stage on Sunday.
Ahead of this game, one former England star has shared his thoughts on what he’s seen from the City defender so far in the tournament and even highlighted one thing he hasn’t been doing in it.
Terry Butcher shares one thing he’s noticed John Stones hasn’t been doing at Euro 2024
Appearing on talkSPORT, Terry Butcher was reflecting on England’s group stage of the tournament and had this to say about what he’s seen from John Stones, in particular.
He said: “Stones hasn’t gone into midfield so much, it’s very, very crowded in the midfield section, but Stones has done a good job too.”
Letting Stones drift into midfield could give England a different dynamic
In the second half of City’s Treble-winning season, the 30-year-old was deployed in a defensive-midfield role by Guardiola when his side were in possession.
This hasn’t been the case in England’s three games of the Euros against Serbia, Denmark and Slovenia.
In fact, after the 1-1 match against Denmark, Alan Shearer highlighted how Stones has not stepped into midfield for England this summer as he usually does for City.
After delivering a star performance from midfield against Manchester United last season, the Englishman was heavily praised by Jamie Carragher on Sky Sports for what he’s able to do for his side in that role.
Given how the Three Lions have only scored two goals in the tournament so far, perhaps allowing the City star to drift into midfield and pull the string from there could give England a new dynamic and allow their attacking players more freedom to create goalscoring opportunities in other areas of the pitch.