Manchester City have signed Portuguese central defender Ruben Dias from Benfica for $80 million. The 23-year-old arrives at the club to bring a solid wife to Aymeric Laporte in defence.
Argentina’s Nicolás Otamendi, 32, did the opposite for $18 million when City moved his platoon in the back.
The club has tried many players throughout Laporte, but has never found the club as reliable as the Frenchman for its other central position.
John Stones originally signed on for the assignment in 2016 as one of Pep Guardiola’s family assignments, an assignment that charges $ 62 million, but it turns out that the city manager no longer trusts him as his reliable and top choice in the position.
Part of City’s challenge is that his taste for the game and formula demand a lot from the last line of defense, and it’s tricky for a player with the necessary skills, no matter how much money he spends on the challenge.
If you are a central defender who plays on the most sensible defensive lines you like through England’s two most sensitive teams, Liverpool and Man City, you will need to be more than a smart defender.
Their centrals want to be on the ball, possess an almost psychic reading of the game, be tactically cunning, fast enough to chase if a player crosses the top line and also have the physicality to face the Premier League. bullet battles first and fore.
The demands are almost unbearable and show that, on the contrary, defenders who have succeeded in such systems, such as Laporte in the City and Virgil van Dijk in Liverpool, are underestimated.
Laporte’s presence is further accentuated in his absence from Man City’s 5–2 loss to Leicester in his first home game of the new Premier League season. disorders instantly.
The same precaution applies to the new signature Dias.
Mistakes are expected. The fact that they are so rare among these players, to the point that they stand out disproportionately when manufactured, shows how and underestimated Laporte and Van Dijk are when footballers are judged on a larger scale.
But while Liverpool have discovered clever spouses for Van Dijk in the form of Joe Gomez and Joel Matip, City have struggled to find a reliable spouse for Laporte.
There is a list of the centre-backs who played with Guardiola in City and who have lived up to the job, and a separate list of players who have been at the club in that position and who have had the possibility to show whether they are or Array.
So the question is whether Dias, the city’s last attempt to solve this problem, can accomplish this near-task.
“I’m a competitive player,” said the 6-foot-2 defender when he joined the club, “I like what I do. I love the game. “
The knowledge of Smarterscout, based on an impressive 3195 minutes in this post of the 2019/20 season at Benfica (availability?Verify), recommends that it be a defense game ball (see link) that will pull you out of the defense (see dribble). ) as well as pass it on.
These off-property duels demonstrate the aggression he’s talking about, while 88% good luck shows that it can be compatible with Guardiola’s property tactics.
Supporters of the city expect the attack to be mesurate and directed. Otamendi was competitive but reckless, which led to costly mistakes when overcommitted.
Dias is an offensive and proactive defender who is also harmful in the opposition zone, but with this type of game there is a risk, which returns us to the other aspect of the game, reading the game and recovery in defense.
While Dias’ new defensive partner, Laporte, doesn’t give the impression of being a player capable of running with the fastest forwards in the league, the 26-year-old has a smart speed that combines positioning and anticipation, with just the right pace to perform. .
The City will expect Dias to incorporate the right-handed Laporte, a sign in terms of style, as the new one will have to congratulate the French as much as they immigrated it, but in terms of how Laporte has incorporated Guardiola. formula perfectly and smoothly.
They will be for someone who can update Vincent Kompany’s authority at least in terms of field presence, a more pressed and considered edition of Otamendi, and a more dominant and grainy presence than Stones.
Dias meets a lot of boxes, but even that might not be enough. There is uncertainty when it comes to checking the exit to resolve defensive disorders in a formula like Guardiola’s, but Dias has as many possibilities as to check his luck.
From America to Africa, I make canopy football all over the world for Forbes. My training day reports on english Premier League teams Liverpool, Everton
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