On the evening of April 23, the 34th round of the Premier League will be in full swing, with the leader Manchester City sitting at home to meet the Premier Hornets Watford, with only one point ahead, and Manchester City can not afford to lose every game since then. However, their recent situation is not very good. In the pre-match press conference, Manchester City manager Guardiola also admitted this.
In the last round of the game, Manchester City won 3-0 in the second half to brighten to continue to lead the Premier League, and the previously injured Portuguese centre-back Ruben Dias also made his comeback debut in the second half, but the mood of the Manchester City fans did not become too good, because also in this game, the two starting defenders of Acker and Stones were injured successively, Acker who was replaced at the beginning of the second half was an ankle sprain, and Stones, who came off in the 77th minute, was some muscle discomfort, Guardiola revealed that the England centre-back can now run normally. But City are not ready to make him play in tonight's game, and with the addition of Kyle Walker, who was injured in the champions league quarter-finals in the second leg with Atletico, city already has three injured soldiers in the city backline.
However, compared to this Premier League match against Watford, Manchester City's biggest headache is the first leg of the Champions League semi-final match between home and Real Madrid on April 27, next week. At that time, the Portuguese flying wing Cancello will also lose the opportunity to play due to the suspension of accumulated yellow cards. This season, Kel walker is still City's main right-back, and in his absence, Canceló will pull from the left-back position, in addition, Stons, who plays center-back, has also made some cameo appearances at right-back. However, in the battle against Real Madrid, the three right-backs were in danger of being absent en masse. In this sense, Guardiola's game tonight is not difficult to understand, because Manchester City, who have a great career, can't afford to hurt now.
However, in the rotating army of Manchester City's backline, there is one person who stands out, and he is the Spanish international center-back Laporte. This season, Laporte has played in 36 games in all competitions, scoring three goals, including 3 goals in 27 Premier League games. Compared with the defensive core Ruben Dias, the British general Star Stones and even the long-haired Acker, Laporte is actually inconspicuous this season, mainly because everyone looks at him and gets used to it, no matter when, when he sweeps past, he stands there steadily, which is the legendary blind eye.
It is precisely because of this that when the injuries of Ruben Dias, Acker and Stones were sung and I appeared, only the lively Laporte gave The City defence a sense of solidity. However, at this time, Manchester City fans also began to rejoice, fortunately, Last Summer Manchester City was not happy to sell Laporte to Barca.
In the winter window of the 2017/18 season, Manchester City, who passed by Van Dijk, won Laporte for £57 million, injecting a new blood into the Manchester City backline that was injured at the time. In that half season, Laporte played a total of 13 games for Manchester City, including 9 in the Premier League, and his performance was tepid. But in his first full season, his appearances soared to 51, scoring five goals and delivering three assists, including 3 goals and 3 assists in 35 Premier League games, making him one of the biggest contributors to City's one-point push for Liverpool's defending Premier League title. It was also because of his excellent performance that Guardiola did not add a center-back in the case of the retirement of the old captain Kompany.
However, at the beginning of the 2019/20 season, Laporte suffered a serious injury, playing only 22 games in the entire season to score 1 goal, and in the 2020/21 season, the arrival of Ruben Dias not only strengthened the Manchester City defence, but also activated the British star Stones, who had almost become a wreck, and the two were united on the field, leaving only Laporte to be sad on the bench. Last season, he scored two goals in 27 games in all competitions, the only impressive one of his first goals in the League Cup final against Tottenham.
In this case, Laporte naturally had a heart, at that time he had already transferred to Spain to become the main centre-back of the Bullfighters Army's European Championship, and the inability to play the absolute main force at Manchester City naturally made him less satisfied, and the closest to Laporte was Barca, who liked the wool of Manchester City the most. Fortunately, last summer's Barca pocket was shy, coupled with the comfort and persuasion of the Manchester City executives and Guardiola, Laporte finally gave up leaving the team to stay at Manchester City. Now it seems that this has become a good move.
Of course, even with Laporte, City will still be a bit stretched in their big game against Real Madrid in the middle of next week. Stones can return in time fortunately, Guardiola at least has another candidate in the right-back position, if the British can not play the star, Manchester City's right side defense will face collapse, at that time, Guardiola even if he does not want to live a whole life can not help him.