Pep Guardiola rejects claims he's soft on John Stones

Manchester City’s Pep Guardiola enjoys working with John Stones

• ‘He realises his mistakes, he knows he can get better,’ says City manager
• ‘Gerard Piqué was quite similar when he came to Manchester United’

Pep Guardiola believes John Stones has similar attributes to Gerard Piqué at the same age and rejects suggestions that he is too soft with the Manchester City defender.

The former England manager Glenn Hoddle has accused Guardiola of not pushing the player signed from Everton in the summer for £47.5m. “I agree with him, I’m so nice with John. So nice,” the City manager countered. “I think I’ll keep going with that. With John, you cannot forget, he’s only 22 years old.

“Previously in his career he only played one game a week and now he plays three games a week in places like the Nou Camp against [Lionel] Messi. For the national team he didn’t play one minute at the European Championship, now he plays 90 minutes, 90 minutes, 90 minutes. Of course he has to improve but right now he is still at the beginning.”

Guardiola remains a firm believer in Stones’s ability, comparing him to the Barcelona defender Piqué when he first joined Manchester United. “Gerard was quite similar. When he came to Manchester he was not playing so often at first but through time he grew stronger,” he said.

“It doesn’t happen in a day or a month but I like working with John a lot because he tries to improve. He realises his mistakes, he knows he can be better. He’s got a special quality that is difficult to find in players of his age. He is not afraid to play. I think Manchester City is very lucky to have such a player.”

City are at Crystal Palace toon Saturday on Saturday against opponents desperate to halt a four-match losing run, though Guardiola will base his assessment on their playing quality not their position in the league table.

“When I look at a team I never think about where they are in the table. I just try to analyse what they do,” he said. “I think we will get a tough game. Palace have some good players and a very experienced coach. They will play a lot through Christian Benteke but they are also quick on the break. They have fast wingers in [Andros] Townsend and [Wilfried] Zaha, good one against one. [Yohan] Cabaye is an exceptional player too.

“The toughest games we will play are now away. We know the situation. If we want to stay with the big teams in the Premier League, we have to win. Every game is different, every opponent is different but we have to work out a way to adapt our game.”

Finally, Guardiola was able to offer, and offer is the word because he was not asked, clarification on Samir Nasri’s claims about an alleged sex ban before matches. “I never did that and I would never ban it,” the City manager said.

Guardian