Conte and Cahill show Pep and Stones that simple can be beautiful

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  • John Stones.

    It’s a damning indictment of the level of options Gareth Southgate has at his disposal, but if England were to play tomorrow their starting centre-backs would  more than likely be Gary Cahill and John Stones.

    The fact that Cahill is only five caps short of Southgate’s own total is even more illuminating but then the England manager existed in the eras of Tony Adams, Sol Campbell, Rio Ferdinand, Gary Pallister, Martin Keown and Steve Bruce. However, Southgate must work with what he has and right now that is two defenders at differing ends of a spectrum, in so many ways.

    One is currently thriving under his new coach, while the other is suffering in a system which has left him horribly exposed and only sought to further highlight the kinks in his game Roberto Martinez’s had tried and failed to iron out.

    What binds them is they are both playing in a back-three. That verboten of formations that can never succeed in the Premier League. England’s top-flight is too dynamic with a focus on width that always unmasks its flaws, critics rabidly claim. A strange and mysterious practice that belongs on the continent. Like eating horsemeat, wearing lederhosen or the EU.

    Yet Antonio Conte is proving the naysayers wrong; while Pep Guardiola continues to justify the cliches. And no players emphasise this more than England’s two premier centre-backs.

    Gary Cahill.

    Gary Cahill.

    Upon Antonio Conte’s arrival at Stamford Bridge, Cahill was one player whose place was supposedly under threat. Partly stemming from the Italian’s desire to buy Juventus’ Leonardo Bonucci or Kalidou Koulibaly of Napoli, and also because of own patchy form.

    Cahill is not particularly quick, dominant in the air, diligent of a marker or proficient of a distributor. He’s around a 7/10 for all those attributes while has a worrying knack to commit the odd positional crime or individual error.

    For a defensive disciple such as Conte, who has played alongside or worked closely with the likes of Ciro Ferrara, Paolos Montero and Maldini, Alessandro Costacurta, Giorgio Chiellini and Bonucci, it makes for a curious match.

    But since the Italian has settled on his trident, Cahill has flourished and improved as a player. His passing remains a notable weakness, while the errors are still there – the slightly unfortunate own goal at the Etihad – but against West Brom yesterday he delivered 90 minutes of irrefutable evidence as to why he’s captaining the league leaders who possess the joint-best defence in the division. It was not achieved by doing anything flashy, eye-catching or remotely unique. Just a competant and consistent defensive display.

    Contrast that with Stones. The man who Guardiola sanctioned £47.5 million (Dh219.3m) to be spent on in order to anchor his new-look defence and, therefore by definition, his building block for his vision of City.

    Nothing has changed more with the first XI that what the Catalan has elected to enact with his rearguard, Claudio Bravo included, which is why its collective failure has had such a collateral effect of the rest of the team.

    Stones’ outstanding characteristic lies totally at odds with Cahill in the sense he is that cultural, ball-playing defender so alien to English football, but supposedly perfect for Guardiola. But whereas Conte’s realism is drawing the best out of Cahill, Guardiola’s idealism is leaving Stones to play his worst.

    Yes, against Leicester on Saturday he started alongside two full-backs in Aleksandar Kolarov and Bacary Sagna, but then Cahill has Cesar Azpilicueta and the alleged liability that is David Luiz for company. They are far from perfect situations.

    In mitigation, Guardiola is entrusting a 22-year-old with anchoring his defence with an uncertain goalkeeper behind him still adapting to the Premier League and life in England – it’s a perfect storm and Stones is in the eye of it.

    Guardiola will persist with his project and chances are it will bear fruit eventually, but there has to be a concession that simplicity might be the best way forward for Stones.

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