We’re finally finding out how important Aymeric Laporte is the Manchester City
It’s only in his absence that Aymeric Laporte is getting the sort of acclaim he deserved all along.
No Premier League team has been as untouchable as Manchester City have been over the past two seasons.
Sir Alex Ferguson’s Manchester United, Arsene Wenger’s Arsenal, Jose Mourinho’s Chelsea — none of them came close to reaching the heights of Pep Guardiola’s City, a side that collected 198 points over two top flight campaigns.
All of a sudden, though, that supremacy seems at risk. Hyperbole can cloud judgement of the immediate and so one should refrain from making any knee-jerk reactions on the back of Man City’s shock defeat to Norwich City, their first league loss since January. But the circumstances that led to that result feel significant.
Aymeric Laporte and Virgil Van Dijk both signed for Man City and Liverpool respectively in the same month, but while the impact of the latter has been well-documented, with the Dutch defender now seen as the frontrunner for this year’s Ballon d’Or, the former has flown somewhat under the radar.
Laporte is just as important to City as Van Dijk is to Liverpool. This has been proven since the Frenchman picked up a knee injury sidelining him up between five and six months. Norwich exposed the reigning Premier League champions’ vulnerabilities without Laporte at the back and they won’t be the last team to target their weakness.
Indeed, defeat at Carrow Road has robbed City of their fear factor, the thing that saw countless opponents beaten before the match had even started last season. But their vulnerability is down to more than just the mentality of the teams they will face between now and Laporte’s recovery from injury.
Statistically, City are a much weaker team without Laporte. In 25 Premier League games with Nicolas Otamendi and John Stones as their centre back pairing, Guardiola’s team have conceded 28 times. This works out as an average of 1.1 goals conceded per games, which is a markedly higher average than the 0.5 goals conceded per game when Man City deployed Vincent Kompany and Laporte as their defensive basis last season.
Laporte’s knee injury will also affect City’s ability to play out from the back, a key aspect of Guardiola’s philosophy as a soccer coach. The Frenchman averages 78.7 successful passes per match, while Stones – Man City’s next best ball-playing defender – averages just 68.5 successful passes per match.
And now Stones is out injured as well, with the England international set to spend the next five to six weeks on the sidelines. This leaves Man City with just one senior centre back (Otamendi) for the next month or so. By the time Laporte and Stones are back, Liverpool might have stretched their legs at the top of the Premier League table, with Jurgen Klopp’s side already five points clear of the reigning champions.
Of course, it’s highly unlikely, verging on impossible, that Liverpool will go through the entire 2019/20 Premier League season without dropping a single point. But it’s possible that the Anfield club will build an unassailable lead over the coming weeks with Man City so badly handicapped in defence.
Guardiola is one of the sharpest minds in soccer management and so he may well be working on solution. After all, he found a way to get by without Kevin de Bruyne last season. Fernandinho has played at centre back before. The Brazilian is adept at playing out from the back and could act as a deputy for both Laporte and Stones alongside Otamendi until Man City’s injuries clear up.
The summer signing of Joao Cancelo also gives Guardiola the option of switching to a back three to mask his side’s defensive vulnerabilities, with Kyle Walker capable of playing on the right side of a centre unit. Guardiola has options, but nowhere near as many as he had just a few weeks ago. The loss of Laporte could be the thing upon which Man City’s entire season pivots.