Manchester City: Four Key Matches That Defined Their Season

2. Leroy Sane’s injury in the FA Community Shield
1. Aymeric Laporte’s injury against Brighton

Injuries are part of the game and they can make or break a club’s season.

For the defending Premier League champions, the timing and impact of the injuries to two key players make ranking each event almost inseparable, which is why they are paired together here.

Manchester City opened their season in London against Liverpool in the Community Shield the weekend before the start of the Premier League. Pep’s charges won on penalties, but the match cost them more than expected despite winning another trophy.

Leroy Sane who had been the subject of endless back and forth rumors about a transfer to Bayern Munich was injured in the thirteenth minute of the match with an apparent knee injury. After further examination, it was determined that he had damaged his anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) and required surgery.

Sane has not been able to return to the pitch and started to train in January. Last season, the 24-year old German was a key offensive weapon for the defending champions scoring ten goals. He also chipped in with ten assists which were the most by any player in the team. His loss was a tough blow, but City was pretty loaded with offensive weapons.

Then came an even worse blow

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In the 37th minute, with Manchester City up a goal, center back Aymeric Laporte collided with Brighton’s Adam Webster. The crash damaged the meniscus in Laporte’s knee putting him out of action – indefinitely.

Though the 25-year-old Frenchman’s injury was not a severe as Sane’s, he missed over four months of the season. He returned to the pitch with a start against Sheffield United.

Sadly, Laporte only played in two more matches before injuring his hamstring in City’s Champions League match against Real Madrid.

Laporte’s injury created a vacuum in Guardiola’s backline. At the end of last season, center back Vincent Kompany went back to Belgium. Manchester City did not replace him in the transfer market. Aymeric Laporte became that replacement.

Last season, Laporte played more minutes than anyone in the club besides their goalie. He started 49 of 51 matches racking up 4,352 minutes.

More importantly, as with most defenders in Guardiola’s system, he had two roles. One, being a stout defender in the backline, sometimes being stuck having to parry counter-attacks. Secondly, to be the starting point of the offensive attack, playing key passes into the midfield.

He did both with excellent skill and precision. This tweet from OptaJoe shows one example:

The impact of this blow on Manchester City on the defensive end has been enormous. As stated previously, Pep’s men had given up only fifty goals in the previous two league seasons combined. This season through twenty-eight Premier League matches they have given up thirty-one. That is an average increase of half a goal a game from last season.

The significant injuries to both Sane and Laporte, ultimately resulted in Pep and City losing their third consecutive league title. There are many questions now facing Pep Guardiola, but the biggest one is: What’s next?