No surprise in Ruben Dias’ individual success – Pressures now on to replicate

The only player that mattered most was Ruben Dias and him staying as fit as fiddle.

Only one player mattered most and that was Dias. Staying fit and being available to start 31 Premier League games out of the 37 played was required to bring back success.

When they lost the English title to their closest challenges, Liverpool, questions were asked about their defence they’ve spent so heavily on – including Dias and since the hiring of Pep back in 2016, the Manchester club has forked out a reported €509.1 million.

Dias and Nathan Ake, who were signed by City last summer, were the club’s most expensive summer arrivals said to have cost them a combined total of over €100m. They were brought in to solve the problems at the back.

At the back, City defence leaked a total of 35 goals in 2019/2020 – which is a lot when vying for the league title. Jurgen Klopp’s Reds were always the better defensive side for the past two campaigns.

Now with Dias in place, they have the best defensive record in the league, conceding as few as 32 and bragging the joint-most clean sheets with 18 clean sheets for the season. Dias alone has help City to 16 of those 18 clean sheets.