John Stones returned to the Manchester City starting XI in Saturday's FA Cup win over Salford City.
John Stones started on Saturday
John Stones started on Saturday
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Pep Guardiola was pleased with the return of John Stones in Manchester City's FA Cup win over Salford City. The Blues boss was less happy about the overall performance in the 2-0 win, calling it boring, but was glad to have Stones back.
The England defender has shown he can be one of the best centre-backs in the game when at his best, but he has had too many injuries to get close to that over the last two seasons. His last start this season came nearly three months ago in the Champions League defeat to Bayer Leverkusen and he has been sidelined with another frustrating injury since December.
Having trained for nearly a week, Stones started alongside Abdukodir Khusanov against the League Two opposition but was rusty in a game where City came close to letting their early lead slip. In the end, Marc Guehi came off the bench to replace Stones and added a second goal to make the game safe.
Stones evidently has some way to go to sharpen up but his return does bolster a City backline that looks considerably stronger than it did when Ruben Dias and Josko Gvardiol both picked up significant injuries in the same game in early January. Dias came back at Anfield this month, Guehi arrived from Crystal Palace in January and Khusanov has stepped up amid the absences to show that he can be trusted in the middle.
Guardiola knows that Stones needs more work but the squad now have a week to rest without a game before they face Newcastle, and are in the same situation the following week with Leeds. As they head into the final months of the season, City's squad is looking stronger.
"He's back. He still needs time, he's not the John Stones that we knew but his body language was really good in terms of the press and aggression," said Guardiola. "It's normal after more than two months injured but it's important that he played 60 minutes."
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