John Stones makes bold Pep Guardiola claim about interim England manager Lee Carsley

Manchester City defender John Stones believes Lee Carsley is similar to Pep Guardiola "in many ways", with the interim England manager preparing for his side's upcoming clashes with Greece and Finland

John Stones believes England have got their own version of Pep Guardiola as interim manager.

The Manchester City defender, who will win his 82nd cap at Wembley tonight, has been hugely impressed with the job Lee Carsley has done since taking over from Gareth Southgate.

And when it was suggested that Guardiola and Carsley are like-minded coaches, Stones agreed, saying: “In ways, yes, definitely.

“There are a lot of similarities between Lee and Pep in how they see the game and how they want us to play and I think we saw that last month when we played the two games and got positive results from them.

“It’s been great for me with the likenesses of how we play.”

Stones was a Southgate stalwart, having featured in the former manager’s first game as England manager eight years ago.

But while a new managerial era initially felt odd for Stones, he soon got into the Carsley routine.

Stones, 30, said: “It was a strange feeling after being with Gareth, Steve (Holland) and all the team. And, personally, I've not had many managers throughout my career.

“But they have definitely bedded in now. It has been a very seamless transition, which is a credit to them and not easy to do.

“They (Carsley and his staff) do a lot of research on us as players and as teams and see how we play at our clubs and try to bring that in and make it as easy as possible for us, as players, to gel together and move forward in one direction.”

Stones will move ahead of Rio Ferdinand and Jordan Henderson on the all-time England caps list when he steps out to face Greece in the first of a Nations League double-header.

And the City centre-half could captain the Three Lions if Harry Kane does not make it.

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