Surprise Manchester City player has the best pass completion rate in Europe

Manchester City had a good 3-1 win at West Brom where the Citizens ran riot on the usually stubborn West Brom defence.

Winger Leroy Sane will get all the plaudits for his fantastic performance with a goal and an assist but there’s one surprising Manchester City player who has topped the league with the best passing percentage.

The much maligned John Stones has the best pass completion percentage in the entire Premier League. This includes topping Chelsea’s Andreas Christensen, Nicolas Otamendi and David Silva.

Stones has an astonishing passing success rate of 96.5 percent, which is well above the second highest held by Tottenham’s Davinson Sanchez with 93.6 percent (Whoscored). In-fact it is the highest in the top five leagues in Europe.

The 23-year-old Englishman was heavily criticized for his bad defending last season and rightly so. He was often out of position and was often beaten on one-on-one situations.  But he has answered those critics this season with several good performances and helping Manchester City keep six clean sheets in the process.

Stones has looked more assured in the back this season. Along with Otamendi, they have kept most teams out of their box and have helped new young goalkeeper Ederson to adapt to the Premier League nicely.

And while Manchester City did concede two against West Brom in their recent game, City have been much better in defence overall this season. This is evident by managing six clean sheets out of 10 games. To put this into perspective, Stones only managed to get four clean sheets from all of his games last season.  And along with keeping the ball and passing it, Stones has also managed an average of 3.1 long ball passes per-game.

John Stones is also currently sixth in the top average passes per-game category with 75.3 passes per game.  And he has contributed 2.4 clearances per game which is a decent number.

Although, it’s hardly surprising that a defender has the best passing success rate,  given they often just make safe horizontal passes and Manchester City are known for playing out from the back. But still, the stat shows how much he has improved since last season.

Coach Pep Guardiola must be happy with Stones though and his ability to keep calm and composed under pressure by finding a simple pass.  It looks as if Guardiola has also finally settled on his first choice defence with Kyle Walker, Otamendi, Stones and Delph forming his back four in the past few games.

Last season, it can be argued that Pep’s constant tinkering and changing the defensive line led to Manchester City conceding so many goals as the defenders were not given a chance to form a connection with one another.

But that problem has dissipated now that the back four has been solidified by constant good defensive performances. It looks as if though when and if the much injured Vincent Kompany is fit again, he may find himself still sat on the bench. While new signing Danilo from Real Madrid has also struggled to get a game.

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But this is good for Manchester City and it’s good for Stones. They finally have found some consistency in the back.