A great day to put things right – John Stones insists Man City had to improve

John Stones accepts Manchester City had some wrongs to put right after manager Pep Guardiola rounded on the players last week. City boss Guardiola angrily criticised his

squad in public, claiming they were lacking hunger and fire, after they needed to fight back from 2-0 down to beat Tottenham last Thursday. Guardiola’s broadside underlined

his frustration after a series of frustrating results, including a derby loss to Manchester United and a meek Carabao Cup exit at Southampton. Their response was to brush

Wolves aside 3-0, with the prolific Erling Haaland scoring his fourth hat-trick of the season, in their latest Premier League outing at the Etihad Stadium on

Sunday. Defender Stones said: “At half-time the other day he (Guardiola) told us what he wanted, what he wasn’t happy with. “As players we were not at our best, not

playing well and we had to correct that. We have got to learn from these things and it happens in football. “We had to move forward quickly and it was a great day to put

things right. We needed to start well, play our football, be free, be patient, not get frustrated with things and the chances would come – and they definitely

did.” Haaland’s performance, which took his goal tally for the season to 31 from 26 appearances in all competitions, was also a strong riposte to claims City are a worse

side, in terms of style at least, since his arrival last summer. Stones said: “I’m so pleased for him. I love Erling as a person and he’s an incredible football

player.