Stones-Laporte partnership is the next phase of Pep evolution

THE challenge for a top team is to keep evolving and Pep Guardiola knows that Manchester City cannot go into this year with just the same combination at centreback that they used last year.

But that is why John Stones and Aymeric Laporte played together at centreback in the Community Shield on Sunday, and why they could be the most important pairing to City’s attempts to retain the Premier League and push on in Europe.

Last season City’s mostused centrebacks in the Premier League were Nicolas Otamendi and Vincent Kompany, their two more conventional, confrontational old-fashioned defenders. But those two – aged 32 and 29 – were on the bench on Sunday. While Stones and Laporte, still both 24 years old, were used instead.

By pairing those two, City marked out their intention to play an even more assertive, proactive brand of football this season. By not starting the slower Otamendi, City could defend higher up the pitch, taking the game to Chelsea, helping them to press Chelsea high up while not sacrificing too much space between their lines.

Even more importantly than that, Stones and Laporte are both far more natural ballplayers than Kompany and Otamendi. They help City to build out from the back, keeping hold of the ball well under pressure as well as piercing the opposition lines with their forward passes.

That was the case on Sunday. City’s opening goal started when Laporte pierced the lines with a forward pass to Bernardo Silva, who teed up Phil Foden on his run that led to Sergio Aguero’s goal.

Even more impressive was City’s second, that started with Stones assertively stealing the ball from Alvaro Morata and then leading the charge up the pitch that led to Aguero second goal. – The Independent