Stones: I’m going in the right direction

Ian Watson

John Stones is unworried about the criticism his performances have received since joining Manchester City, with the defender adamant he is making good progress.

The England centre-half moved to the Etihad in the summer from Everton in deal worth around £47.5million but the 22-year-old has had an inconsistent start to his City career.

Stones and Nicolas Otamendi – our two early losers of the week – were given a torrid time by the Monaco forwards on Tuesday night, with Radamal Falcao leaving Stones on his backside before brilliantly chipping in the French side’s third goal.

Stones made up for that mistake by netting City’s fourt in a 5-3 win and the defender insists he won’t be distracted by negative reviews of his performances.

“Criticism is always going to be harsh, so you have just got to take it in your stride and worry about yourself,” Stones was quoted as saying by the Manchester Evening News.

“Obviously the one-on-one with Falcao, I could have done a lot better with. I will try hard in training to work on it. I think there was a bit of an element of luck involved in it, but that is what happens sometimes.

“It works harshly against me, but there are a lot of things I will look at over and over again and see how I can improve. I think apart from that [his slip], we were quite solid and defended quite well except conceding three goals.

“I think people have got behind me here and I know when I have had a good game or a bad game. I will always be honest with myself first to hold my hands up and say I made this mistake.

“I think I can improve on it and move forward. I feel like I am going in the right direction.

“I think people can over-complicate things and think about things too much. I am enjoying my football massively. I think how the gaffer explains things to us and how hard we work on things in training, we know what to do in games.

“We know our jobs, which makes it easier for us as footballers both attacking and defending.”