In and out of possession, our England man is again showing why, for many, he is one of the best defenders in world football.
The four-time Premier League winner suffered with injuries earlier in the campaign but with the run-in just starting, he appears to be returning to the peak of his powers.
A centre back for most of his career to date, the No.5 has recently been asked to play in the unique right-back/midfield hybrid role which Pep Guardiola has made a regular feature of our play.
After a stellar showing in that role against Liverpool, Guardiola was full of praise for Stones.
“I thought when I arrived that he has the quality to play there,” he said.
“It is different when you see all the game in front of you. In that position he is surrounded from Henderson, Salah, Fabinho, Elliott, Gakpo.
“He is surrounded like a bubble. To play there is not really easy. You have to have a lot of personality.”
With Guardiola asking his players to build up from the back, defenders and deep midfielders have a crucial role in progressing the ball up the pitch in a controlled manner.
Opta’s latest Premier League data proves just how effective Stones has been on the ball at centre back, right-back and when venturing forward to play alongside Rodrigo.
The 28-year-old has only lost possession of the ball with 6.7% of his touches this season in the Premier League (87/1300), the lowest rate of any player with more than 150 touches.
He’s joined in the top three for that metric by City team-mates Manuel Akanji and Ruben Dias.
In line with that, Stones has completed 1075 of his 1148 passes.
His passing success rate of 93.6% is the best in the Premier League, narrowly ahead of Manuel Akanji, Rico Lewis, Ruben Dias and Aymeric Laporte who make up the rest of the top five.
Defenders tend to dominate these metrics as they have the most space on the pitch, with midfielders and forwards under greater pressure from opponents when they receive the ball.
However, Stones also excels in passing when closed down by the opposition. With his new role seeing him move into midfield more often, navigating the most crowded area of the pitch appears to have come naturally to him.
He has the best passing accuracy of any player this season when under pressure from the opposition – completing 91% (691 of 759) of his passes with an opponent in close proximity.
These passes are not just played safely back to unmarked team-mates either, with Stones the league leader in terms of forward passes under high pressure at 75.6%.
He has completed 62 of 82 forward passes while receiving intense attention from a defender. Jack Grealish is second in this metric with 52 of 72 forward passes under high pressure successful.
Stones’ move into the hybrid role in recent weeks is also allowing him to showcase his talents further up the pitch.
The below graphic shows the difference in touches between this season and last season, with Stones having significantly less of the ball in traditional areas a centre back for a side in control of possession may occupy.
Instead, he can be found deeper in the opposition half, even popping up on the left on occasion.
While all of the above shows just how crucial Stones is offensively to Pep Guardiola’s side, helping us to build up so that our midfield and attacking talents can strut their stuff, Stones is still a defender at heart.
In terms of one-on-one defending, Stones remains one of the best examples. He has been dribbled past just twice in 1360 minutes of Premier League action in 2022/23. That equates to 0.13 per 90 minutes played, which is the best in the league ahead of Arsenal’s William Saliba (0.15).
While it’s obvious to City fans all over the world that he is crucial to Guardiola’s plans, this data shows that Stones is setting the standard for the rest of the Premier League to follow.
