Scouting Manchester City and Pep Guardiola Target Aymeric Laporte
Here we are again: approaching another summer transfer window, and Manchester City are direly in need of defensive reinforcements. The last few years of iffy recruitment have affected every area of the squad, but central defence is a particular worry when assessing the stock ahead of Pep Guardiola’s arrival.
Current manager Manuel Pellegrini has tried his hardest to solve the problem position next to Vincent Kompany, but no player has emerged as the answer in the grand scheme.
He’s recruited a trusted confidant in Martin Demichelis, who represents a mistake waiting to happen on the pitch; he’s spent big on potential in Eliaquim Mangala, but that deal hasn’t worked out at all so far; and last summer he poached the best available centre-back coming off an incredible season in Nicolas Otamendi, but he has peaked-and-troughed aggressively in 2015-16.
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All the while, the frail nature of Kompany’s body continues to shine through. There’s a chance he doesn’t make another Premier League appearance this season after sustaining another calf injury against Dynamo Kiev, and that would seal a meagre return of just 12 starts, per WhoScored.com. It’s a shame, because he was superb in almost every game he played.
Kompany and Otamendi can look good together, and Otamendi is capable of producing rock-like showings on occasion. But too often the mistakes flow—particularly from the Argentinian—whose aggressive, rash nature can get the better of him at times. As dominant as he can play for 70 minutes, the good work is sometimes undone by one bad decision.
It should come as no surprise, then, to see reports in the Telegraph on Thursday of a £39 million (€50 million) deal being agreed between Manchester City and Athletic Club Bilbao for Aymeric Laporte—one of the world’s finest young central defenders and a play Guardiola, it seems, has kept tabs on for quite some time.
Later that night, he hit the headlines again due to an injury suffered while playing for the France under-21 team against Scotland. What appears to be a fracture to his ankle will threaten to end his season here and now—though any suggestions it will keep him out of UEFA Euro 2016 will be wide of the mark, as he is not in Didier Deschamps’ plans for the tournament.
The injury is a blow, but given it’s a fractured bone injury, it’s incredibly unlikely to have any serious, career-threatening repercussions. A clean heal will see him good as new, and City won’t be deterred in the same way they would, say, had he torn a ligament in the same area.
Laporte, 21, has been a mainstay in Los Leones’ defensive line since 2013. There are very few players of his age with more than 100 club appearances under their belt—La Liga, Europe and all—but he has managed it, allowing him to accelerate his development and progress rapidly into a pre-eminent talent.
His best asset is his intelligence and reading of the game, followed closely by the precision and cleanness with which he is able to tackle and dispossess. He has played a now-famous game in which he almost entirely shackled Lionel Messi, showcasing incredible recovery pace, diligence in his movements and extreme alertness in tracking.
These assets have allowed him to emerge as a superb sweeper-like presence. If Athletic give the ball away deep and face a counter, Laporte is the ideal man to have chasing back and trying to prevent a breakaway goal. He has supreme confidence in his own ability to fish the ball out from underneath someone’s feet or from between their legs, then calmly restart play.
For Athletic, his best performances have come in a pair with Xabier Etxeita, who plays the role of “smasher” to Laporte’s sweeper. Etxeita is the one who goes up and clears, playing an aggressive, Kompany/Otamendi-esque game, and Laporte drops off to watch for runs on second balls. While this suits his skill set as a sweeper, it means his heading ability hasn’t had the chance to come on at the same pace as his other attributes, and it could be considered a weak point.
This bodes well when projecting his impact at Manchester City, as the club have both Kompany and Otamendi to play the Etxeita role, and what they really need is to construct a balanced central-defensive partnership in which two players can complement each other—not chase the same balls and leave gaps as a result.
Laporte-Kompany, as a pairing, would work on every level. The former has a staunch preference for the LCB role—creating potential friction with Otamendi and Mangala, who both demand that side, too—and his intelligent sweeping will work well in tandem with Kompany’s brutish, aggressive style. They’d be a proper stopper-sweeper combo.
Laporte’s style would also mesh very well with Otamendi's—the former would represent the insurance as the latter is unleashed—but one would have to play RCB and relent their claim on the left-sided position. It may mess with the chemistry of the partnership and skew the wires of one player’s individual game.
But the Frenchman is not perfect, not by a long shot. He has all the tangible skills of a top-class defender and his style would suit City (and Pep’s typical tactics) down to the ground, but €50 million—the full value of his release clause—is a lot of money, and there’s an argument to suggest Laporte isn’t worth that.
He doesn’t play to his full potential all the time, with the odd mentality-based issue creeping in this season. He’s not as consistent as you’d like, and he has moments of absolute madness on the ball from time to time that you can’t help but lament.
There have been instances when he tries to push forward with the ball, gives away possession in a dangerous area and then flies in to try and retrieve, drenched with panic. This either results in a heavy challenge, a foul or a chaotic, directionless clearance (which could land anywhere). That’s not the sort of thing Pep’s going to like.
His list of weaknesses is a short one, and it’s dwarfed by his list of strengths, but for €50 million, one would expect a proven, quality defender who represents the finished article. Every club on the planet would likely love to sign Laporte, but the release clause in his contract—and the fact Athletic will not sell for a cent less—means most are understandably biding their time, watching, waiting.
City may not have that luxury. It’s reasonable to project that Demichelis is off, Kompany’s health will continue to undermine his position in the side, and that Mangala—whom City tried to loan to Valencia last season, remember?—has a limited future under Guardiola. Something has to be done; someone has to be bought to anchor the defensive line.
If it’s Laporte they choose, there will be a few growing pains, but long-term, should he iron out the few kinks in his game, he’d be a fantastic asset to City and Pep.
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