Former England defender Rio Ferdinand has insisted that John Stones must be allowed to learn from his mistakes as he continues to develop.

The 21-year-old has been criticised on a number of occasions this season for trying to play out from the back, inviting pressure on his team and giving away goals.

However, Ferdinand believes that the youngster is a "fantastic talent" and hopes to see him learn from the errors that he has made in his fledgling career so far.

"I've been very vocal in my support for him. He has got fantastic talent, he is naturally gifted with the ball and defensively I see signs that he has got great attributes. It is about moulding it all together. His problem is he is making mistakes at the moment and it is in the public eye and people are on him. But you have got to be able to make mistakes," Ferdinand told talkSPORT.

"The big thing he has got to learn is that not to make the same mistakes again. If you keep making the same mistakes, then people are going to have cause to question whether you should be in the England squad, etc. But he is knowledgeable enough, he seems like a sensible lad that and in time he will get it right and choose when to play.

"What I liked about him against Manchester United at the weekend was he one of the ones driving the [Everton] team from behind and for a young centre-back to be doing that was impressive. Yes he has got some defensive things to learn but even in that game I saw him kicking the ball up into Row Z. Maybe the [Anthony] Martial goal he could have done a little bit better in sensing the danger earlier but these are the things hopefully a young defender learns as he gets a bit older."

Everton are now winless in their last seven matches in all competitions having been beaten 2-1 by Manchester United in the semi-final of the FA Cup on Saturday.