Crystal Palace vs Manchester City: Pep Guardiola will continue to be 'Mr Nice' to turn John Stones into Gerard Pique

Guardiola has been criticised for being too soft on England defender Stones, but the City manager insists he will make mistakes if he is to develop into a world class defender

Pep Guardiola says he will not change his approach in handling Manchester City defender John Stones (Getty)

Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola claims he will continue to be 'Mr Nice' with John Stones and nurture him into a centre-back to rank alongside Gerard Pique.

There has inevitably been greater scrutiny on Stones since he became English football’s most expensive defender following a £50m transfer from Everton in the summer.

Guardiola is a big admirer of Stones’ confidence to bring the ball out of defence and initiate attacks with his range of passing from deep.

However, the England international has been prone to occasional lapses in concentration in matches which has led to suggestions Guardiola needs to take a tougher approach with the player.

Guardiola insists, though, he will maintain his ‘softly softly’ stance with the 22-year-old to make sure his talent flourishes at City, who take on Crystal Palace at Selhurst Park on Saturday.

“I'm so nice with him! So nice!” said Guardiola. “With John, you cannot forget, he's young. He has to make a lot of mistakes and I will do it in the nicest way possible, for sure.

“In his career, he only played one game a week and now he plays three games a week in places like the Nou Camp against Lionel Messi.

“For the international team, he didn't play one minute at the European Championships, now he plays 90 minutes, 90 minutes, 90 minutes. And of course he has to improve, but not now at the beginning.

“He’s 22 years old, that's why my job is so nice to help him develop, to not discriminate in how he wants to play, to help him be more aggressive, how he has to drive to the ball, how he has to pass quicker.”

Stones is a unique player among his peers according to Guardiola, who has likened the former Barnsley man to a player recognised as one of the best all-round defenders in world football in Barcelona centre-back Pique.

Guardiola’s promotion to Barcelona first-team coach in 2008 came a few months after Pique returned to the Nou Camp following a frustrating four-year spell at Manchester United.

Under Guardiola’s tutelage Pique won multiple titles including La Liga and the Champions League as well as being part of the Spain team which won the World Cup and European Championships.

Guardiola believes he can develop Stones into a leading defender on the world stage (Getty)

“It's difficult for me to find at that age, one player with this personality - this personality to play,” Guardiola explained.

“Sometimes you have to help him understand when he can do some things and in some other moments he cannot.

“Gerard Pique when he started here was quite similar. Gerard came here to Manchester and he started playing not so often, but through time he grew stronger. This does not happen in one day or one month, he needs time.

“I like working him with a lot because he tries to improve. He realises his mistakes, he knows he can be better. He's always available to help the team and the way he plays is special, strong in the air, defensively has good qualities.”

Stones has been let-off making mistakes so far by Guardiola (Getty)

Guardiola also addressed concerns about Stones’ fellow centre-back Vincent Kompany after the City captain’s injury scare while on international duty with Belgium.

Kompany had been scheduled to play in a friendly against Netherlands but pulled out during the warm-up after feeling some discomfort.

City will seek to address the psychological rather than physiological issues which are affecting the 30-year-old following a nightmare couple of seasons with injury.

“We are working on him being free in his mind, the muscular issue is much better. We are working on that,” Guardiola added.

Kompany is suffering physiologically from his injury problems (AFP/Getty) (AFP/Getty Images)

“I spoke to Roberto Martinez, the Belgium national coach, on that. Vincent was ready to play the first game but he did not feel so comfortable so that is why Vincent decided not to play that game.

“He can start. He is close to helping us and we are working on recovering Vincent the best as possible.”