John Stones and Nathan Ake debunk Man City myth with Champions League roles

You don't have to know much about football to know that Manchester City are not a defensive team.

Pep Guardiola often argues otherwise. "When the opponent has the ball far away from the goal and when you have the ball, that's the best way to defend," he said back in February. "To concede a goal, the opponent has to have the ball and the less they have it, the more chances we have to have a clean sheet and be solid."

Guardiola's defensive strategy is based on his players keeping hold of the ball and not giving it away in risky areas, but in the traditional sense, City are not a defensive team. They don't sit back and crowd the box, and they rarely have to make last-ditch tackles with their backs to the wall.

Because of that, the quality of City's central defenders — primarily John Stones and Nathan Ake — often gets unfairly called into question. In the eyes of many, the duo are superb ball players, the perfect defenders to execute Guardiola's strategy of building attacks from the back and retaining possession.

But neither are physical brutes or leadership types like Ruben Dias, or tall and dominant in the air like Aymeric Laporte. The general consensus seems to be that if Stones and Ake played for teams that don't dominate possession like City do, they'd get found out.

During City's ill-tempered 0-0 draw with Atletico Madrid on Wednesday — which descended into chaos with players, substitutes and technical staff involved in a mass scuffle during injury time and after the game — both Stones and Ake proved their doubters wrong with gritty and dogged performances.

Stones has endured a frustrating season. The England international formed a dependable partnership with Dias at the heart of City's defence last season, but this