Pep’s perfect pair to take centre stage
BRAZIL ACE LOOKING IDEAL PARTNER FOR LAPORTE
CITY might have found the perfect centre-back combination for the second half of the season.
The performance of Fernandinho at Old Trafford on Tuesday night spoke of a man who has completed a transformation from top-class defensive midfielder to quality defender.
And with Aymeric Laporte returning to training this week, it has been a good few days for the Blues as they head into a crucial phase of the campaign.
The clamour for City to delve into the transfer market, from fans frustrated by Liverpool’s runaway lead at the top of the Premier League, has been deafening at times.
Of course it is not that simple. Finding players of sufficient quality to enhance Pep Guardiola’s squad is never easy, and to do it in January, when clubs are even more keen to cling on to their best players, is nigh impossible.
Napoli ace Kalidou Koulibaly has long been seen as a potential City player – strong, quick and technically sound.
But his £100m buy-out clause is beyond City’s means. They baulked at paying £75m for Virgil Van Dijk and even more for Harry Maguire, so there is little to suggest they will go gung-ho and splash the cash for someone who is not tried and tested in the Premier League is unlikely.
And with Eric Garcia emerging nicely from the academy cocoon, and Taylor HarwoodBellis a year or so behind him, the urgency has lessened.
Laporte could be ready for the second leg of the Carabao Cup semi-final against
United, although his return will not be rushed.
They cannot afford to get it wrong with him.
His season came to a shuddering halt on the day Fernandinho’s began. In fact, the Brazil international made his first appearance of the season as a substitute for Laporte when he suffered the knee ligament damage against Brighton that brought his long lay-off. The French ace has developed into the perfect Guardiola centre back, as Spanish pundits, and Gary Neville, predicted he would. Strong, fairly quick, combative and decent in the air, Laporte also has a left foot which most Premier League creative players envy – his ability to curve channel balls down the left for David Silva, Raheem Sterling or Benjamin Mendy, as well as thrash those raking long-range balls out to Riyad Mahrez or Bernardo Silva on the right touchline, has been sorely missed by City.
With Real Madrid looming on the horizon, City may finally have a pairing to inspire confidence