John Stones is "just in a bad patch at the moment" according to former Manchester City defender

Ex-Manchester City centre-back Nedhum Onuoha has leaped to the defence of under-fire John Stones, who was at fault for Aston Villa's goal yesterday.

Manchester City took on Aston Villa at Wembley in yesterday's Carabao Cup final as Pep Guardiola's side secured their sixth piece of domestic silverware since the former Barcelona and Bayern Munich manager took over in 2016. 

A 2-1 win was enough to ensure City won their third successive league cup. Two goals within the opening half hour were enough to keep Aston Villa out of reach, despite a Mbwanna Samatta header just before the break reducing the deficit to just one.  

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Samatta's goal led to widespread criticism of John Stones for his part in the build up. Under relatively little pressure from Anwar El Ghazi, Stones slipped to allow the Moroccan international the chance to cross for Samatta who headed home emphatically past Claudio Bravo. 

Speaking to The Final Whistle With Matt Beadle & Miles Blumsom on Love Sport Radio, ex-Manchester City centre-back Nedhum Onuoha has backed John Stones to recover from this latest error.

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"You know, I don't think he [Stones] is a bad player. I just think at the moment he's being punished every time something - so it's like if you could fall over and the ball could go out of play and nothing happens but instead he falls over and a great cross comes in and a great header and it's 2-1 and it gives Aston Vila the hope you know. 

"It's just it seems like he's just in a bad patch at the moment, but he's a quality player. And I think if he wasn't, you wouldn't see him playing in the cup final. 

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"Pep would not pick him. He could have picked whoever he wanted to pick, you know, he could have put two midfielders there if he wanted to. But this is a player who he has trusted in on the biggest occasion. So yeah, I think he's a good player, he just needs to cut out some of the mistakes he's going through the minute or just find some luck whereby the mistakes don't lead to big talking points, because you know there are lots of players making more mistakes than him in the league, but we just don't speak about it as much because it tends to not lead to a highlight."

Onuoha also gave his thoughts on his former side's chances of Champions League success this campaign, as City gave themselves a great chance of quarter-final progression when they became just the third side to win at the Santiago Bernabéu, securing a 2-1 victory in the first leg of their huge last-16 clash. 

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"Yeah, I think they can [win it], I think they made it to the semi-finals a few years ago as well didn't they? I think that's right. I think that they are more than capable of doing it, I think you need a bit of luck and a bit of understanding as well. 

"Because the run to get to the final - it could be favourable towards them, they probably don't want to be playing another English side like they did last year or the year before during the later stages of it.

"We obviously need to beat Real Madrid first. But it's more than possible and I think the players have that level of focus whereby given the fact that the league is where it is right now, you know, you still want to win the FA Cup. But if you could trade the FA Cup for a Champions League, I think most players would go for the Champions League. So yeah, it seems it's more than possible. 

"And you could see that by the way that they came back against Madrid, and just in general the way they played in that game. Yeah, I think they can do it. But then for them, you still got a lot of big European powerhouses that are still in there believing that they can do as well on any given day I think they could beat anybody."

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