25 | Manuel Akanji - 2022/23 Performances

[super_city_si]

He was the one who set the tone for the game early on… negatively.

He gave the ball away four times in the first eight minutes, under no pressure.

Even when he doesn’t give it away (and this is in every game), every pass he passes is too soft and takes an age to get to the man he’s passing to.

Everything he does is too slow.

We are missing stones and dias for the right cb slot badly.

 

[dhruvblue]

He was £15m for a reason. He isn’t good enough. Why we have so many injuries at the back is beyond me.

Dortmund fans warned us. They told he has bad mistakes in him at key moments. We called him Vincent Kompany, it's our fault

 

[Lauz9888]

He's a solid centre-back and vital cover considering the injury records of our other defenders.

It's pretty simple for me -

Stones - best all-rounder, should play when fit/have minutes managed to target big games
Dias - strength, leadership and organisation, best for matches that need discipline and concentration
Laporte - great passer, best for matches where we need to beat a press and find space in behind it
Ake - practically immaculate defensively, best for matches where we need to starve an opposition striker

For me, injuries permitting, we need at least one of Stones and Laporte on the pitch at all times. Our build-up play falls off a cliff without them. But they can partner with each other, or with anyone else, and those decisions can be made (after fitness issues are taken into account) based on what the match needs.

I'm not sure what Akanji's USP is. The only time I've ever thought "we could do with Akanji on here to sort this out" was against Southampton when we had Walker at centre-back.

He's a back-up, and surely one of the league's best 5th choice CBs. But there's going to be times when he plays and we really miss one of the others.

 

[Millwallawayveteran1988]

Dortmund fans warned us. They told he has bad mistakes in him at key moments. We called him Vincent Kompany, it's our fault

If you sign average players then this is what you get. Average performances. I’m sure he would be great playing for someone like West Ham but he isn’t good enough for us.

 

[nellyonthewing]

He's a solid centre-back and vital cover considering the injury records of our other defenders.

It's pretty simple for me -

Stones - best all-rounder, should play when fit/have minutes managed to target big games
Dias - strength, leadership and organisation, best for matches that need discipline and concentration
Laporte - great passer, best for matches where we need to beat a press and find space in behind it
Ake - practically immaculate defensively, best for matches where we need to starve an opposition striker

For me, injuries permitting, we need at least one of Stones and Laporte on the pitch at all times. Our build-up play falls off a cliff without them. But they can partner with each other, or with anyone else, and those decisions can be made (after fitness issues are taken into account) based on what the match needs.

I'm not sure what Akanji's USP is. The only time I've ever thought "we could do with Akanji on here to sort this out" was against Southampton when we had Walker at centre-back.

He's a back-up, and surely one of the league's best 5th choice CBs. But there's going to be times when he plays and we really miss one of the others.

Laporte and Stones are injury prone , We need Guardial

 

[OrigamiNinja]

If you sign average players then this is what you get. Average performances. I’m sure he would be great playing for someone like West Ham but he isn’t good enough for us.

In a nutshell but I keep reading on here how good Akanji and more so Ake are doing. We’ve gone from having 2 x WC CBs playing every week and us keeping clean sheets for fun, to these two playing most weeks instead. People wonder why our defensive stats have fallen off a cliff.

 

[blueballs84]

Showing us why he only cost €15M.

 

[US47Blue]

He’s a great 4th or 5th choice CB. Which is what we signed him for. We didn’t sign him to be our big game starting CB. It’s time that Stones/Dias/Laporte get healthy on a regular basis or move on from them. 2 years in a row now we’ve gone through long stretches where we’ve had to rely on the reserves, it’s becoming a trend.

 

[simon23]

Physicaly a good defender but positionally very poor...gets dragged into empty spaces far too often

 

[Millwallawayveteran1988]

In a nutshell but I keep reading on here how good Akanji and more so Ake are doing. We’ve gone from having 2 x WC CBs playing every week and us keeping clean sheets for fun, to these two playing most weeks instead. People wonder why our defensive stats have fallen off a cliff.

Indeed. I knew Akanji wasn’t good enough when I watched how easily Brentford and then Everton scored against us. Saying that not playing Laporte today and actually choosing to play Cancelo after his shitshow in midweek was just very strange. When are Dias and Stones back because I can see more of the same in the next few weeks if it’s not soon.