If you want a sense of how profound John Stones' impact on his club has been over the last year, consider this: no one writes Manchester City's formation normally any more. The unspoken, barely agreed convention for writing the shape of a team was to look at how they line up when they do not have possession, and stick some numbers around that. But then Stones' stepping into midfield when Pep Guardiola's side had the ball was so pronounced that the entire footballing world fell over themselves to label City as anything other than the off ball 4-4-2 that they broadly were.
Stones made media, opponents and even his team mates think differently about the game even as he was doing something that has been relatively common across the sport over recent years: a defender stepping out of the backline in possession to add bodies to midfield. Few did it in as pronounced a fashion as Stones, nor did many do it as effectively as the England international, who went from averaging 5.7 touches in the final third in the 2020-21 Premier League to 11.5 this season. With Rodri flanking him, City made it almost impossible for opponents to steal the ball in their own third. If they did have a chance to sneak out, it would be immediately snuffed out by two of the shrewdest readers of the game.
No wonder Pep Guardiola is fearing "deep bad news" after the 29-year-old was forced out of Tuesday's 3-0 win over Young Boys, just his fifth match of a season where he has battled hamstring and hip issues. No timescale has been set by City over his return, though his manager did suggest it could be "a while" before Stones is back. Even with Rodri now available after his recent suspension, Guardiola warned City will have to change. "The problem is we play John and Rodri at the same time - now we are in trouble, because we have to play a bit differently, like happened in Arsenal.
"We do not feel comfortable still, we are not prepared to change many variations."
Given City's dizzying depth of center backs one would assume there is a solution out there but the reality is that when Stones was not available to him in the early weeks of the season, then Guardiola generally did not opt for a different defender stepping up alongside Rodri. Instead the Spaniard tended to have a more orthodox partner in the form of Mateo Kovacic in something more akin to a 4-2-3-1 where right back Kyle Walker had license to bomb on.
That would appear to be the logical course for the coming weeks, not least as the fixture list presents opposition who could punish a rare tactical lapse from Guardiola. City's next four league games pit them against Chelsea, Liverpool, Tottenham and Aston Villa, a quartet who could all take points if the champions are off their best. These are just the sort of games where City would look like an even more awesome force with Stones in the side. If any team can cope without him it is this one, but that does not mean the loss of such a tactically flexible defender will not be keenly felt.
