Great stuff here from De Bruyne
Kevin De Bruyne has defended his Manchester City teammate John Stones, following Stones’ error that led to England failing to reach the Nations League final.
“I think it’s very difficult for people to understand,” said De Bruyne. “For me I think he played a good game, except for the mistake he made.”
“If you play in a team like we do at City, where we are used to playing out from the back and we give each other options, and then go to another team, try to do the same but you don’t get the options that you get in your normal team, its very difficult to play differently”
“I think everybody knows what John’s strengths are, but obviously, he can’t do it by himself. He needs the help there.”
“That’s also what happened I think with the third goal. This ball that he gave to [Ross] Barkley, with us it would be fine. That ball would probably go to Fernandinho or [İlkay] Gündoğan, to the keeper, and we’d play it out from the back.”
“But it is something we are used to. We’ve trained for it for three years, every day.”
Absolute spot on from @DeBruyneKev on John Stonespic.twitter.com/b2ursmr0ec
— John Baker (@Citizen_baker) June 7, 2019
Despite high expectation, England failed to progress past the semi-finals of the Nation’s League after losing to the Netherlands 3-1 after extra time on Thursday.
The game was tied 1-1 at full time, and mistakes from John Stones and Ross Barkley cost England a place in the final.
