John Stones dissects Manchester City frailties ahead of crunch Real Madrid contest | OneFootball

Manchester City defender John Stones pulled no punches in his criticism of the Blues’ display in their 2-0 defeat to Bayer Leverkusen in the UEFA Champions League group-stage on Tuesday evening.

City produced one of their most toothless displays of the 2025-26 season at the Etihad Stadium as goals from Alejandro Grimaldo and Patrik Schick secured a vital win for Leverkusen in the race for Round of 16 qualification.

Pep Guardiola assumed responsibility for the defeat after making a staggering 10 changes to his starting XI against Leverkusen from Manchester City’s 2-1 loss away at Newcastle at the weekend – far from an ideal return to action for the Blues after the November international break.

Stones returned to the starting XI for City against Leverkusen and captained the Blues on the night, with City seriously struggling for quality in attack as the result provided another reminder – as if another was needed – of how overly reliant Guardiola’s side have been on Erling Haaland to score this season.

The Norway international was handed a rest after failing to meet the back of the net against Newcastle at the weekend, though Guardiola did throw on the trio of Haaland, Phil Foden and Rayan Cherki in the second-half to overturn a two-goal deficit.

Speaking candidly to TNT Sports about his side’s disappointing display against Leverkusen, Stones said: “Lots of things (were missing). You can dissect and look at it in so many different angles but I think all in all we didn’t have that edge, clinical edge, aggressive edge.

“We lacked in quite a few things which is uncharacteristic for us as a team and as players, and we’re all disappointed, I’m disappointed to have led the team out.

“To finish that way from trying our best to break them down and working on it in training, we knew they were such a good team in possession and found it difficult at times to keep them in one area of the pitch and they got out. There were a lot of good things but it’s a night we need to reflect on massively.”

Stones was further quizzed on how the Manchester City dressing room was affected in the immediate aftermath of the result, which leaves it all to do for the Blues in their remaining trio of UEFA Champions League group-stage games – starting with Real Madrid at the Santiago Bernabeu.

“Not good (the mood in the Manchester City dressing room),” the England international added. “It’s a difficult one to summarise really. A lot of emotion, I think it’s going to have to be one we have to look back at.

“I think we weren’t good enough as a collective, created a lot of chances (and) we could be stood here – it could be 4-2 or 5-2.”

Stones has been in and out of the starting XI this season and could again be dropped for the pair of Ruben Dias and Josko Gvardiol on Saturday afternoon when Manchester City welcome Leeds United to the Etihad Stadium.