Manchester City star Kevin De Bruyne has come to the defence of teammate John Stones after the Englishman’s mistake while on international duty with the Three Lions a couple of days ago.
De Bruyne was one of the final marquee signings to be made at the Etihad stadium, prior to the arrival of Pep Guardiola from Bayern Munich.
Under the reign of the Spanish tactician, Manchester City have significantly changed their style of play, adopting an approach which is very similar to Barcelona’s from their peak years between 2009 and 2012.
That particular playing style strictly requires defenders to be comfortable with the ball and pass it from the back even when they are under serious pressure from the opposing team.
England tried to replicate that in their clash with Netherlands a couple of days ago but John Stones’ underwhelming contribution saw the team concede sloppy goals to the Dutch.
After being criticized by the fans, Stones has been defended by City colleague Kevin De Bruyne, who has attested that it is not easy to replicate the style of Guardiola.
“When you play in a team like we do at City we are used to playing out from the back and we give each other options,” De Bruyne said, as per Sky Sports
“To go to another team and try to do the same where you don’t get the options that you get in your normal team, it’s very difficult to play differently.
“I think everybody knows what John’s strengths are but obviously he can’t do it by himself, he needs the help there and I think that’s also what happened with the third goal.
“The ball that he gave to Barkley, with [City] it would be fine because that ball would probably go to Fernandinho, [Ilkay] Gundogan or to the ‘keeper and we’d play out from the back.
“That’s something we are used to, we’ve trained like it now every day for three years so I think people have to look at the full concept, but obviously when you make a mistake people will judge you.”