Uilleam 5,960 Posted September 29, 2020 Share Posted September 29, 2020 For all the palaver surrounding and panjandrums fawning over the Abu Dhabi Soft Power Franchise, ladies take note of this: Manchester City have spent £400m on defenders but Pep Guardiola still doesn’t have a reliable left back Paul Hirst Tuesday September 29 2020, 12.00pm, The Times https://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/sport/manchester-city-have-spent-400m-on-defenders-but-pep-guardiola-still-doesn-t-have-a-reliable-left-back-2xwsk3657 A year later than planned Manchester City will finally sign the right-footed centre back that Pep Guardiola has craved since Vincent Kompany said goodbye to the club last year after a decade of service. Although he did not say so publicly at the time, it is understood that Guardiola was furious in the summer of 2019 when the club failed to beat Manchester United to the signing of Harry Maguire. Guardiola will therefore be delighted at bringing Rúben Dias, a commanding centre back, to the club, in a £65 million deal from Benfica. It is hard to escape the feeling that City are still short in defence going into the rest of the campaign, however. When you add up the amount of money City have spent on the back four since Guardiola took over that seems to be something of a ridiculous statement to make, but it is true. Despite spending more than £400 million on 11 defenders in the past four years, there is still one area of the team that needs improving: the left-back position. Mendy is City’s first-choice left back but his inconsistent form and injury record have hampered his performances City have been linked with a move for David Alaba, the Bayern Munich left back who is refusing to sign an extension to his contract, which expires next summer. Alaba, 28, played 77 league games under Guardiola for Bayern. Left back has been a problem position throughout Guardiola’s tenure, with the Catalan playing no fewer than ten players there. Aleksandar Kolarov and Gaël Clichy competed for the slot in the 2016-17 season. When they both left at the end of Guardiola’s first year, Benjamin Mendy, a £52 million signing from Monaco, took over, but his season was cruelly shortened by a serious knee injury. Fabian Delph and Oleksandr Zinchenko, both midfielders, filled in for the Frenchman. City claimed that Danilo, who arrived from Real Madrid for £26.5 million in the summer of 2017, could play at left back if needed, but the Brazilian made it clear that he preferred to play on the opposite side of defence and his fitness struggles also counted against him, so he left for Juventus last summer. City exercised their right to bring Angeliño, the Spaniard, back from his spell at PSV Eindhoven for £5.3 million in the same transfer window, but he made only 12 appearances before being loaned to RB Leipzig because he was not up to the job. Aymeric Laporte, City’s best central defender, has played at left back on a number of occasions, with varying degrees of success. João Cancelo, a right back, played on the left towards the end of last season and performed reasonably well. Adrián Bernabé, the Spanish midfielder, was the latest to fill in at left back during last week’s Carabao Cup win over Bournemouth. When he plays to the best of his ability Mendy is one of the most exciting attacking full backs in the league. We first got a glimpse of what he is capable of in his first three appearances for City three years ago. He was a big upgrade on the previous year’s options, recording an assist on his second appearance, against Liverpool. Kolarov and Clichy had one assist between them the previous year. But since he suffered a serious knee injury against Crystal Palace in September 2017, we have rarely seen a top-level performance from the 26-year-old World Cup winner. He started the following year in good form, but a series of injuries restricted him to only ten league appearances. Last year we saw flashes of brilliance — Mendy played particularly well in the second half of the first-leg Champions League win against Real Madrid in February — but again injuries blighted his campaign. Individual mistakes, such as the one against Chelsea when he dallied on the halfway line, allowing Christian Pulisic to run through and score, also counted against him. Guardiola must take some of the blame for Mendy’s failure to progress over the past three years. He, after all, is the one coaching the player. Then again, Guardiola cannot be blamed for the individual errors that Mendy commits when he loses his composure or just switches off. Few players will be more motivated to play well against Leeds United on Saturday than Mendy. The full back is a big fan of Marcelo Bielsa, the Leeds manager. Mendy worked with the Argentinian for one year at Monaco and admired his methods, although he did admit to falling asleep in one team meeting. But what if Mendy does not perform to his best, or pulls a hamstring on one of his buccaneering runs down the wing? Who does Guardiola turn to then? Nathan Aké, the £40 million signing from Bournemouth? He is left-footed, but the Catalan did not sound enthused about the prospect of Aké playing at left back when asked if that was a possibility last week. If Cancelo recovers from injury he is an option, but he is right-footed and is therefore vulnerable to being beaten on the outside by Leeds’s right-sided midfielder Hélder Costa. Zinchenko has not played consistently well for more than a year and he is, by his own admission, an attacking midfielder rather than a full back. Laporte is City’s most commanding centre back, so it would make no sense for Guardiola to move him to full back. When Dias’s move to City is completed, it will take the club’s summer spending to £126 million, but the club still need to buy another left back to compete with Mendy if Guardiola’s team are to mount a serious title challenge. Defensive spending spree After the arrival of Dias, nine of the 20 most expensive defenders in history have been signed by Manchester City Harry Maguire 78.3m Matthijs de Ligt 76.95m Virgil van Dijk 76.19m Lucas Hernández 72m Rúben Dias 65m João Cancelo 58.5m Aymeric Laporte 58.5m Benjamin Mendy 51.75m John Stones 50.04m Aaron Wan-Bissaka 49.5m Kyle Walker 47.43M 47.43m Ben Chilwell 45.18m Éder Militão 45m David Luiz 44.55m Ferland Mendy 43.2m Rio Ferdinand 41.4m Nathan Aké 40.77m Eliaquim Mangala 40.5m Nicolás Otamendi 40.05m Leonardo Bonucci 37.8m Values in £; Dias fee is estimated Chart: Times Sport Source: Transfermarkt 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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