Manchester City defender Aymeric Laporte will be out of action until January or February, according to Pep Guardiola. And the absence of the Frenchman in their defence was evident on Saturday evening as they fell to a 3-1 defeat to Norwich City.
Vincent Kompany’s departure for Anderlecht leaves Guardiola with just Nicolas Otamendi and John Stones available as central defenders at Manchester City. With their failure to bring in a central defender during the transfer window, their incompetence in the transfer market could well hamper their Premier League aspirations.
The chemistry of Stones and Laporte was second to none while the injury to the latter could not come at a worse time for Guardiola, with Champions League football on the horizon.
The fact that Otamendi and Stones hadn’t played many minutes together showed and if Guardiola is unable to find a solution quickly, City could find themselves behind Jurgen Klopp’s Liverpool before they even get a sniff at retaining the Premier League title.
Otamendi’s lapse in concentration gifted Teemu Pukki the killer third goal for Norwich City following a horrendous error while new arrival Rodri warned his City teammates that they have to get back to winning ways in midweek, when they face Shakhtar Donetsk on Wednesday night.
The Spain international labelled City’s defeat at Norwich as a collective failure: “When you lose the team is down, but we play every three days and have to keep pushing,” said the Spain midfielder, who scored a spectacular first City goal late in the game to make it 3-2,” said Rodri.
“Now the coach has to analyse what happened, and the players have to listen and solve our mistakes. When we play, it is not training. We as players have to take a look because we made quite a lot of mistakes. The good thing now is it’s the start of the season but we need a step forward because we know if we want the championship again it’s going to be tough.”
With Klopp’s Liverpool seemingly breezing past sides with relative easy, Guardiola needs to find a solution sooner rather than later.
It raises questions in the Manchester City hierarchy as to why the club didn’t bring in a central defender of some sort during the summer period. It’s an area that needed strengthening – should City pick up any injuries – which they now have and it’s left them with a dilemma. Sure, Kyle Walker could play there but it’s a risk that Guardiola wouldn’t have been willing to take at the start of the season.
Time will tell as to whether City will come to rue this come January/February.
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