14 | Aymeric Laporte - 2022/23 Performances

[MAG]

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[rodsantos]

In terms of attributes, our most talented defender. There's almost no physical or technical ability which he lacks in, except perhaps the ability to consistently stay injury free. He's good in the air, in the opposition's box as well as his own, he has excellent recovery pace, he's strong in the tackle, calm on the ball, and has great distribution over short and long range. He can whip a ball into the channel for one winger to run onto, or hit it crossfield to the other to spread the play.

The main problem for him is concentration. On occasion, he can lose his runner, or mishit a pass, or mistime a jump for a header or a dive into a tackle. Normally, he can bail himself out using his prodigious talent, but in the very biggest games when the margins are so tight, it may not be enough.

If Laporte irons out those little ricks in his game, he has a genuine shout to be the best defender in the world. Until then, you just keep waiting anxiously for when he slips up.

 

[Ric]

This is great to hear:

 

[Ashleymcduff]

This is great to hear:

Sounds confident …Hopefully he stops Shitting his pants in the big games.

 

[domalino]

This is great to hear:

It is nice to hear, but in 20/21 it only took 6 weeks as the third choice behind Stones and Dias for him to start talking to the press about moving.

So I don’t think you can rely on
Statements like that from Laporte

 

[Jamshopbridge]

I sincerely hope that he performs better in 2022/23 than he did in 21/22.

 

[kismet]

In terms of attributes, our most talented defender. There's almost no physical or technical ability which he lacks in, except perhaps the ability to consistently stay injury free. He's good in the air, in the opposition's box as well as his own, he has excellent recovery pace, he's strong in the tackle, calm on the ball, and has great distribution over short and long range. He can whip a ball into the channel for one winger to run onto, or hit it crossfield to the other to spread the play.

The main problem for him is concentration. On occasion, he can lose his runner, or mishit a pass, or mistime a jump for a header or a dive into a tackle. Normally, he can bail himself out using his prodigious talent, but in the very biggest games when the margins are so tight, it may not be enough.

If Laporte irons out those little ricks in his game, he has a genuine shout to be the best defender in the world. Until then, you just keep waiting anxiously for when he slips up.

This is spot on and an accurate assessment. I was particularly impressed the way Laporte played through the pain barrier at the end of last season.

It's hard to leave one of our top 3 CBs on the bench, as they are the the best English, Spanish and Portuguese centre backs around at the present time. We have solved the problem by handing Stones a £60 million contract, effectively double what Aymeric and Ruben are on, and last season he was happy (when fit) to play when he got chance. I doubt anyone will be able to offer Stones the same terms.

 

[Lauz9888]

This is spot on and an accurate assessment. I was particularly impressed the way Laporte played through the pain barrier at the end of last season.

It's hard to leave one of our top 3 CBs on the bench, as they are the the best English, Spanish and Portuguese centre backs around at the present time. We have solved the problem by handing Stones a £60 million contract, effectively double what Aymeric and Ruben are on, and last season he was happy (when fit) to play when he got chance. I doubt anyone will be able to offer Stones the same terms.

I think Stones wants to play when he's fit, wants to play more than he did last season, but equally is aware his repeat muscular injuries make it difficult to build a defence around him across a whole season.

Ruben's a little younger than the other two and still has something to prove. And Laporte obviously has to feel like the main man in order to be happy to stay.

Stones is in the lucky position of being technically good and mentally stable enough to be able to slot in whenever he's needed, and to be pretty much guaranteed a spot in his international squad if he's getting any minutes at all.

I'm sure he'll be fighting for more playing time as long as he's fit this season, but the above facts combined with that hefty contract mean he's very unlikely to go spoiling for a move if he's on the bench a little more than he'd like.

For what it's worth I do rate Laporte and will be forever grateful for those monumental efforts at the end of last season. But I do wish he'd acknowledge he's not the only world class centre-back at our club, and be happy to be a key part of that team rather than looking to prove he's the best of them all the time.

 

[kismet]

Lauz that's a very good assessment. How do you rate our 4 CB's ability wise. They are all very good but at 5 foot 10 inches I think Ake can be out jumped.

Laporte in a couple of games each year, often key games for some reason can have a tendency to make the odd error but distribution with his left foot is immense.

I find it hard to split all 3. What amazed me was that Stones over the last 6 years due to injuries etc has averaged only 20 games per season. !!!

Dias first season was imho was better than last year for some reason.

 

[FromPollockToSilva]

I sincerely hope that he performs better in 2022/23 than he did in 21/22.

We'd have won fuck all without him last season