Stones deserves England call, says Guardiola

JOHN Stones hit back at the suggestion Pep Guardiola’s seven changes had an impact on City’s performance at Fulham, despite a 3-0 win.

The Blues boss shuffled his pack, dropping Fernandinho, Kyle Walker, Aleks Zinchenko, Ilkay Gundogan, Kevin de Bruyne, Phil Foden and Riyad Mahrez. Raheem Sterling was not in the squad at all.

Guardiola named a back three of Stones, Ruben Dias and

Aymeric Laporte, with Benjamin Mendy and Joao Cancelo as wing backs in a 3-4-3 formation.

The new system appeared to disrupt City’s rhythm in the opening 45 minutes, with more wayward passes than usual and an apparent struggle to carve out any clear-cut chances.

However, a second-half flurry secured a 3-0 victory and Stones disagreed with the suggestion the changes or formation had a negative impact, saying: “I don’t think it did personally.

“We’ve all played so many games, we know the squad’s rotated because of the schedule or whatever it might be the manager decides. We all know our roles and responsibilities and I feel everyone who came in deserves every bit of credit for the way we played - the way we fought and stayed so patient, which is so difficult in moments like this.

“It was really difficult, give a lot of credit to Fulham, the way they played their football doesn’t reflect on where they are in the table.

“We came out in second half, corrected a few things and it’s great to get three points again and another clean sheet.”

Stones got on the scoresheet with a well-taken finish from Joao Cancelo’s free-kick.

“Really satisfying to get on the score sheet again,” he said.

“We knew they keep such a high line from set-pieces. I tried to time my run as best I could. The ball was great from Joao, we told him to go over earlier to have an inswinging ball and it paid off.”