Pep Guardiola insists Manuel Akanji can copy John Stones role after Man City frustrations vs Chelsea

Manuel Akanji is good enough to offer a viable alternative to John Stones in his hybrid midfield role for Manchester City, Pep Guardiola insists.

Akanji was brought in to replace Stones against Chelsea as the number five continues to manage his return from persistent injury problems. Stones had started at Copenhagen on Tuesday, with City welcoming Brentford next Tuesday at the Etihad. Akanji was asked to push into midfield as he has on previous occasions this season, but did not produce his best performance against Chelsea.

The visitors regularly exploited City on the counter-attack, taking the lead in the first half through Raheem Sterling. Rodri equalised towards the end of a frustrating game that saw City fall behind in the title race following wins for Liverpool and Arsenal.

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Asked about Akanji's performance, which was under-par like a few of his teammates, Guardiola insisted that the Swiss international is good enough to do what Stones can from centre-back.

"He can do it. He made a very good performance here against Liverpool once," the manager said, instead focussing on the team dynamic rather than any individuals.

"In the first half our dynamic was not proper. We didn't bring the ball in the spaces that we were. It's not necessary to be a manager to realise the change that we needed after Raheem's goal.

"As a manager, I had to be focused on the first half to be better and on Tuesday we have another chance to do it."