I am pretty sure you heard that last year as Smalling was the best defender in the side who had the best joint defensive record in England ladt year.
You throw around stats to prove why Stones isn't a bust so why would that stat be any different?
What stat, that United conceded a low amout of goals and Smalling was surrounded by about 6 defensive midfielders passing sideways. I haven't written Stones off but neither have I called him one of the best defenders in the league, after 13 games you guys wrote Stones off yet City had one of the best defensive records with Stones starting every game. By your logic he was one of the best defenders in the premiership then right??? It was plain to see he wasn't. And any stats I throw around were to defend our defensive set up and not one particular player, where you'll see I said we were leaking goals because of individual mistakes, usually trying to start attacks and retain the ball, not stop them.
And on current form most teams will hardly feel that facing Smalling and Rojo is like facing Rio and Vidic (who genuinely were two of the top defenders in the league). C'mon Bailly looks like he's on the verge of being the real deal but him aside (and he's unproven in the prem). Wasn't this place raving about DDG single handedly keeping you in the top 4 race last season, despite having Smalling in front and the season before
Smalling looked good in a team whose keeper dug them out ALOT and who like City had huge amounts of posession. The difference being LVG had it in his own half for the most part and Smalling was far more protected than any of City's CB's have been since Mancini.
I'm not saying Otamendi is better than Smalling or anything but he's certainly better than Rojo and anyone who says others is wearing those red tinted glasses. I'm saying they are good but not world class defenders. In fact of all the teams in England only Chelsea and Spurs can say they have top CB's (Spurs in particular) and the rest of us have alot of good and decent ones.
Even now calamity Stones and Otamendi have only conceded 3 goals more than top defenders in the league Smalling and Rojo and their respective partners.