John Stones vs John Terry
Chelsea seem set to try and sign John Stones from Everton before the end of the transfer window. They have been in the search for a good centre-back and have targeted the 21-year-old from Merseyside. Stones was one of Everton’s best defenders last season, but the team didn’t do as well as expected, he could be in-line to play for Chelsea for many years to come and replace the legend that is John Terry, soon.
We compare both players based on last season thanks to Squawka.com, we would be looking at per-game averages as one English defender is compared with another.
A perfect replacement?
Stones might be way younger than Terry, but it was the Chelsea legend who played the most number of games between the two. Terry featured in every Premier League game last season while Stones only played 23 times in the league.
Nevertheless, the young defender has a higher defence score of 15.8 from last season compared to Terry’s 12.66. This kind of ratings continue with the other stats in the game, Stones also seems to be a better passer of the ball with a 90% completion rate compared to Terry’s 89% from last season. The 21-year-old also had a greater number of blocks last season for the Blue of Everton.
Stones notched up 1.01 blocks per game last season while the Chelsea captain, Terry only brought in 0.79 blocks per game. This could be due to the fact that Cahill would have been the partner who runs out to close down shots as Terry isn’t the quickest in the league anymore. Terry also has great positional awareness and that is one of his greatest strengths.
Even in terms of interceptions, the English youngsters races ahead of Terry with 1.52 interceptions compared to just 0.84 for Terry. When it comes to the most crucial aspect of being a defender, tackling, it is Stones who somewhat surprisingly wins the battle.
Stones won 1.17 tackles per game last season for Everton last season while Terry came out with just 0.97. The one place that Terry does own the defender is in the aerial duels won. Terry won an outstanding 72% of aerial duels last season while Stones only won 63%.
One thing is a certainty, Stones is someone who will grow and get better as the seasons go by. He still is young to continue his growth in the game and the more he plays the better it is. The stats show that he might have had a better season than Terry last year but Terry didn’t have to do a lot of tough defending since he is a veteran and knows how to position himself and nullify the attack. Stones playing for Chelsea could be a reality and a wet dream for all the Chelsea fans if the stats continue to grow for him in the coming years.