Manchester City walking a tight-rope without Aymeric Laporte

Manchester City are without star defender Aymeric Laporte for the foreseeable future, and it could very well cost them a 3rd straight Premier League title.

If you followed the Premier League proceedings over the weekend, you likely heard about a certain Norwich City, with half of their regular starting XI out injured, convincingly beating defending champions Manchester City 3-2. It was one of those matches that doesn’t come around very often, where the brushed-aside underdog rises up to put the glamorous champions to shame, having them licking their wounds and pointing fingers for answers.

Well if one thing about the match was a bit helpful for Manchester City, it was that everyone could pinpoint exactly what was wrong with the team: the center-backs.

At the end of August, Manchester City’s star center-back Aymeric Laporte went down with a knee injury, which upon further inspection, leaves him sidelined till well after the New Year. With long-time captain Vincent Kompany departing the club in the summer with no replacement coming in, this leaves just 2 natural center-backs in the squad: Nicolas Otamendi and John Stones.

If you watched the Norwich match, you’ll know exactly what happened next.

Stones and Otamendi started side-by-side at the back, and made a fool of themselves throughout the 90 minutes, being firmly at fault for the loss. On Norwich’s 2nd goal, the pair got lost in their positioning, allowing Pukki and Cantwell to cut through their back-line like a hot knife through butter.

Norwich’s killer goal was a clear error from Otamendi, one that is worthy of an extended benching, as he dallied on the ball in his own half, allowing Buendia to steal the ball from him and feed Pukki, who slotted home.

Now, the transfer window is over, and Manchester City have no other options at center-back. With Laporte out for the next 5 months or so, Stones and Otamendi were set to be relied upon extensively at the back, as Manchester City look to stay alive in the title race, which has already very much begun, with Liverpool pulling 5 points ahead. However, now John Stones has also been ruled out for the next 4 or 5 weeks, leaving City with just 1 natural centre-back. Fernandinho is expected to slot in at the back to make up for this shortage.

At the end of the season, we may very well be looking back at Aymeric Laporte’s injury as the moment where Manchester City lost grasp of their 3rd consecutive Premier League title, and the moment where Liverpool were handed their 1st.