JOHN STONES has blasted Manchester City’s parking the bus against Arsenal as “not the right way to go out and win a football match”.
The England man branded the defensive approach City adopted in last month’s 1-1 draw at the Emirates as “not in our DNA” and “unplanned”.
City desperately tried to hold on to a one-goal lead by sitting deep and having just 33.2 per cent of possession in the game – only to concede a 90th-minute leveller to Gabriel Martinelli.
Pep Guardiola was accused of abandoning his free-flowing principles after the game – though the legendary Spaniard insisted afterwards he had not changed his tactics.
Yet Stones, who came on as an 87th-minute sub in the game, revealed to talkSPORT: “No, it wasn’t planned and I think it’s definitely not in our DNA as a team to go out and do that.
“I believe it’s not the right way to go out and win a football match by sitting on the edge of your box.
“I’ve played against it enough to know how frustrating it is and how difficult it is to soak up all that pressure for a long period of the game.
“It was a mixture of things, definitely, not a tactical kind of set-up from us. More of feeling the game and… I don’t know, it’s a difficult one for me to say.
“Looking back at it now it’s very uncharacteristic of us for how we’ve played over the ten years that I’ve been there and we got a result out of it.
“I think next time we definitely have to go there and play our game.”
Stones is with the England squad along with uncapped club team-mates James Trafford and Nico O’Reilly.
But there is still no room for Phil Foden, despite his improved recent form for City, along with fellow Treble-winner Jack Grealish, out on loan from the Etihad at Everton.
Jude Bellingham has also been left out, seemingly due to a lack of match sharpness.
Stones, who has 83 caps to his name, has sympathy for both the players who have missed out as well as manager Thomas Tuchel for the selection headache he faces.
The six-time Premier League winner added: “I know the lads at home will be frustrated and sad that they’re not here because they want to be.
“And the guys that are here deserve to be here and that’s the difficult part.
“Knowing the three guys, they’ll just use it as fuel and motivation to try and get into the next squad and keep performing at such a high level which they do.
“They’re all great professionals.
“It shows what strength in depth that we’ve got in the England squad at the minute with all the players playing so well and deserving to be here, giving the manager that headache to select a squad.
“I’d love to see everyone in the squad but that’s not possible.”
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