Manchester City saw a handful of their players in action during Thursday night’s round of Nations League fixtures.
One of those players included John Stones, who featured in England’s 2-1 defeat to Greece, their first loss since getting beat by Spain in the final of the 2024 European Championship.
Prior to this match, Lee Carsley told Stones that he would captain England against Greece for the first time in his career.
With Stones then saying he was “speechless” after being made England’s captain on this occasion, the City defender was anything but speechless when it came to addressing the media after seeing the Three Lions lose to Greece.
John Stones drops scathing verdict on England’s display against Greece
Speaking in a post-match interview with ITV after his debut as England captain ended in defeat, Stones gave this assessment on the Greece match and the Three Lions’ performance.
He said: “Absolutely gutted. It’s hard to put into words.
“We prepared how we normally do and it didn’t come off. We’ve got to give credit to them, from the start they put us right under pressure.
“We found it hard to come out from the back and play through the lines. Disappointing from us as well.
“As Lee [Carsley] said to us, we’ve got to deliver, to put the onus on ourselves and go and do the business and we didn’t.
“We didn’t create enough chances, we didn’t get enough second balls. We were quite spread from set pieces, a lot of counter-attacks that I’m not happy with personally.
“A lot riding on it for me personally and a lot of the lads. We could’ve topped the group. We’ve got to look at it and move forward.”
Stones had a lot of defending to do for England against Greece
Even though Phil Foden recently claimed that Stones could play anywhere on the pitch, the 30-year-old completed the full 90 minutes against Greece in his usual centre-back position.
This saw the six-time Premier Leaguer trophy winner show off his defensive ability, although it wasn’t enough to see his side come away with a positive result.
Specifically, Stones blocked four shots, made two tackles and one clearance, in addition to winning eight of the 11 duels he was involved in.
With Greece having the same number of attempts at goal (12) as England, despite having significantly less possession than Carsley’s side (64% vs 36%), it’s easy to see why Stones was not pleased with how open the Three Lions were defensively.
While Pep Guardiola may have been pleased by seeing Stones captain England and the individual defensive performance he put in, it was made clear that Carsley has some tweaking to do if he wants to avoid any more disappointments.
