Pep’s on 24-hour call for Stones at tournament
HAVING Pep Guardiola on speed dial can never be a bad thing. Gareth Southgate would vouch for that. From the possession-based, pressing style Southgate is implementing to the decision to select Jordan Pickford over Jack Butland because the Everton goalkeeper is more comfortable with the ball at his feet — Guardiola’s fingerprints are all over this England team. Southgate has formed a close relationship with Guardiola in recent months and the fruits of that connection are obvious. Equally, John Stones knows the impact Guardiola’s expertise can have. He sees it every day in training and in his Premier League winners’ medal. So it is a huge plus for England that Guardiola has given England’s City players — Kyle Walker, Fabian Delph, Raheem Sterling and Stones — permission to call him from Russia. ‘I will definitely contact him during the tournament. He’s very open,’ revealed Stones. ‘He said we can call or text him whenever we need to — 24 hours a day — he’s always said that, which is brilliant of him. Even if it is not football related, that is important, as you have seen with David Silva, who had a lot of problems (mid-season with the birth of his premature baby). We all wanted him to make sure his family life was OK.’ Stones will be central to Southgate’s plans in Russia. He will play in the middle of England’s three-man defence and be expected to act as chief organiser and communicator. His ability to pick a forward pass or carry the ball out of defence has been a feature of England’s play under Southgate. Stones said: ‘I’m a massively better player than I was two years ago. That’s mostly down to Pep — definitely Pep, the players I’m playing with at club level and obviously becoming more mature, knowing myself and knowing the game better. ‘I think the thing for me is how he has made everything so simple. He has taken my footballing brain to another level. ‘Everyone thinks they know football and different
systems, but when I turned up at City and trained with him, it was like a new door opening that I never thought would be there. ‘Everything seems to click and everything is so simple. Simplicity is key.’ In the lead-up to the game against Tunisia in nine days, Stones will reflect on England’s last tournament. Euro 2016. Iceland. We know how that story ended. But for Stones, the experience was all the more frustrating given he didn’t play a minute during the tournament that resulted in Roy Hodgson’s abrupt departure. The 24-year-old added: ‘It was disappointing. I went to the tournament having played two warm-up games and I thought I knew what I could bring to the team. It was difficult. ‘However long we were out there, me and Ross Barkley didn’t get a single second on the pitch. And that is a tournament I can never get back. ‘There are all sorts of ways to look at it. I can be negative about it and almost start pointing the finger and blaming people, but I would never do that. ‘So I have got to look at it and think how I can bring that experience into this tournament, motivation-wise, and knowing how team-mates feel when they are not playing because they are just as important as the boys who are playing.’ Did the omission make Stones feel worse when England did so badly? He added: ‘I was quite a young lad in the squad but I felt as much a part of it as everyone else. It is down to the manager — it was his decision and I’ve got to respect that. ‘Roy never spoke to me about it but he was always brilliant with me. ‘He gave me plenty of opportunities. ‘There is always a reason behind it and you can’t go knocking on his door every time asking for reasons. ‘So I got my head down and wanted the team to do well. ‘I had to respect the manager’s decision.’ He won’t have that problem this time around.