John Stones admitted that England were second-best against Greece and revealed he was not happy with his team-mates.

The Man City star, who captained the Three Lions in the absence of Harry Kane, was in a downbeat mood after England fell to a 2-1 defeat. Poor defending saw Vangelis Pavlidis opened the scoring in the second period before Jude Bellingham looked to have secured a draw with a late equaliser.

John Stones was unimpressed with England’s efforts

John Stones captained England versus Greece

Once more, Pavlidis slipped past Jordan Pickford to secure Greece’s first victory over England and England’s first Wembley loss in four years. With Gareth Southgate’s departure in the summer, Lee Carsley was forced to consider his team selection and his next move as interim manager.

Stones was far from content with what his side produced in the Nations League clash. England now sit three points behind Greece in League B Group 2 at the halfway mark.

“Absolutely gutted. It’s hard to put into words,” Stones told ITV.

“We prepared how we normally do and it didn’t come off.

“We’ve got to give credit to them, from the start they put us right under pressure. We found it hard to come out from the back and play through the lines. Disappointing from us as well.”

“As Lee [Carsley] said to us, we’ve got to deliver, to put the onus on ourselves and go and do the business and we didn’t,” he added.

“We didn’t create enough chances, we didn’t get enough second balls. We were quite spread from set pieces, a lot of counter-attacks that I’m not happy with personally. A lot riding on it for me personally and a lot of the lads. We could’ve topped the group. We’ve got to look at it and move forward.”

While England struggled without a recognised striker on the pitch to start the game, Carsley believes playing with a false 9 remains an option moving forward. The former Everton midfielder was nevertheless disappointed with his side’s performance.

“We were second best for a lot of tonight, it is disappointing. You are going to get set backs and it’s important we respond,” he said following the game. “We tried something different and tried to overload the midfield. We tried it for 20 minutes yesterday, we experimented, and disappointed it didn’t come off. It’s unrealistic to expect too much and we will have to try again. All the goals were from mistakes, which is disappointing.

“It is definitely an option going forward. When you have someone of Kane’s quality though it rules it out when he is available. But in the future you have to have the courage and ability to try things. We tried something different. It doesn’t change anything. My remit is to do the three camps.”

England next face Finland, who are yet to win in this edition of the competition and were defeated by the Republic of Ireland on Thursday.