diff --git a/src/backend/distributed/deparser/deparse_statistics_stmts.c b/src/backend/distributed/deparser/deparse_statistics_stmts.c
index e6f8fc262..732341c28 100644
--- a/src/backend/distributed/deparser/deparse_statistics_stmts.c
+++ b/src/backend/distributed/deparser/deparse_statistics_stmts.c
@@ -241,6 +241,14 @@ AppendColumnNames(StringInfo buf, CreateStatsStmt *stmt)
 
 	foreach_ptr(column, stmt->exprs)
 	{
+		if (!column->name)
+		{
+			ereport(ERROR,
+					(errcode(ERRCODE_FEATURE_NOT_SUPPORTED),
+					 errmsg(
+						 "only simple column references are allowed in CREATE STATISTICS")));
+		}
+
 		const char *columnName = quote_identifier(column->name);
 
 		appendStringInfoString(buf, columnName);
diff --git a/src/test/regress/expected/pg14.out b/src/test/regress/expected/pg14.out
index 8c820cbab..2d7dd89c1 100644
--- a/src/test/regress/expected/pg14.out
+++ b/src/test/regress/expected/pg14.out
@@ -142,6 +142,20 @@ DETAIL:  on server postgres@localhost:xxxxx connectionId: xxxxxxx
 -- should error saying table space doesn't exist
 reindex(TABLESPACE test_tablespace1) index idx;
 ERROR:  tablespace "test_tablespace1" does not exist
+reset citus.log_remote_commands;
+-- CREATE STATISTICS only allow simple column references
+CREATE TABLE tbl1(a timestamp, b int);
+SELECT create_distributed_table('tbl1','a');
+ create_distributed_table
+---------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+(1 row)
+
+-- the last one should error out
+CREATE STATISTICS s1 (dependencies) ON a, b FROM tbl1;
+CREATE STATISTICS s2 (mcv) ON a, b FROM tbl1;
+CREATE STATISTICS s3 (ndistinct) ON date_trunc('month', a), date_trunc('day', a) FROM tbl1;
+ERROR:  only simple column references are allowed in CREATE STATISTICS
 set citus.log_remote_commands to off;
 -- error out in case of ALTER TABLE .. DETACH PARTITION .. CONCURRENTLY/FINALIZE
 -- only if it's a distributed partitioned table
diff --git a/src/test/regress/sql/pg14.sql b/src/test/regress/sql/pg14.sql
index 12efe99b9..66c39482f 100644
--- a/src/test/regress/sql/pg14.sql
+++ b/src/test/regress/sql/pg14.sql
@@ -37,6 +37,14 @@ reindex(TABLESPACE test_tablespace, verbose false) index idx ;
 reindex(verbose, TABLESPACE test_tablespace) index idx ;
 -- should error saying table space doesn't exist
 reindex(TABLESPACE test_tablespace1) index idx;
+reset citus.log_remote_commands;
+-- CREATE STATISTICS only allow simple column references
+CREATE TABLE tbl1(a timestamp, b int);
+SELECT create_distributed_table('tbl1','a');
+-- the last one should error out
+CREATE STATISTICS s1 (dependencies) ON a, b FROM tbl1;
+CREATE STATISTICS s2 (mcv) ON a, b FROM tbl1;
+CREATE STATISTICS s3 (ndistinct) ON date_trunc('month', a), date_trunc('day', a) FROM tbl1;
 set citus.log_remote_commands to off;
 
 -- error out in case of ALTER TABLE .. DETACH PARTITION .. CONCURRENTLY/FINALIZE
@@ -73,4 +81,3 @@ SELECT attname || ' ' || attcompression FROM pg_attribute WHERE attrelid::regcla
 
 set client_min_messages to error;
 drop schema pg14 cascade;
-