Yeah him aswell, but Laporte is too good not to play, and Ruben & Stonesy is too good at the moment to even be rotated. With us basically having 3 at the back as our shape I feel its a no brainer to put Eric on the left. Walker is the one that loses out in that situation thoughI think Ake's more likely to take up that role on the left when he's fit again.
Tbf, he called him the best left-footed cb in the world a couple of months ago, so not sure Ake would feel too dissed. He probably knew what he was going to compete with, all though I'm not sure he accounted for Stones renessainceFirst game back, and will only get stronger. Guardiola purposely said he was our best left sided centre-half recently (even if that felt like a bit of a diss to Ake).
You can’t really judge a guy, who has been out for what feels like an eternity, when he is playing alongside an average kid, against a league 2 side.Garcia was decent. If you would not judge. Don't do so coz he just returned from a long layoff. But not because of who played alongside him. They didn't make him over hit simple sideline passes to Foden. Sometimes your errors are simply yours.
He should gets a pass, I agree. But not coz he played with bad players. No disrespect to the opponents, but considering Eric's qualities, they shouldn't bother his game if he were playing with my Nana and her Bingo friends as his teammates,
I have to agree here, this makes a lot of sense.Fairly certain Pep will try him in Zinc's position/Walkers role, basically playing 3 at the back and giving Cancelo freedom to attack and tuck into midfield.Stone right, Dias in the middle, Laporte left could be great. Would also give Stonesy and Aymeric even more freedom to advance forward with the ball to break lines which they are both very good at
My issue us NOT with Laporte. Hence why I agree he shouldn't be judged.You can’t really judge a guy, who has been out for what feels like an eternity, when he is playing alongside an average kid, against a league 2 side.
Laporte doesn’t need to prove himself to anyone, at his best he is a genuine world-class CB, we’ve seen it. He has been unfortunate with injury and is now in a strange situation where he has gone from number 1 CB to number 3 CB. Stones has done great this year and while he takes a lot of the credit, some of it has to go to the guy alongside him, who is an absolute rock, and I’m sure has helped Stones improve.
Laporte was average today, but should be judged when he is 100% fit and played alongside a good partner, against decent opposition.
True, but he's not as good as either Dias or Stones right now. I mean, Kompany wouldn't get his spot back the way these guys are playing. I seriously can't think of a defender in the last 5 years, who'd get there place back had they been on this team.Not sure why Laporte is getting so much criticism , apart from the goal which even pig eye Murphy said it would have been disallowed if VAR was present , because Laporte was blatantly pushed in the back by one of their big donkeys.
Other than that it was great watching Laporte sweep 50 yard balls from left to right only for Mahrez to do f*ck all with the passes.
He has not played for three months but he was still the stand out defender for me , and he is too good for the bench no doubt Dias or Stones could pick an injury or suspension and i think he will claim his place back when given the chance , he is a top class centre back
It makes sense. But at the same time, tougher opposition will funnel our build up to Laporte, as his passing for some reason is nowhere near what it used to be. So there are pluses and minuses to playing him in those games. Zinchenko is almost perfect in the build up phase.I could potentially see him play over Zinchenko against tougher opposition where Pep doesn't need Zinchenko to help overload the attacks and only lets Cancelo do it.