I am ok with Ake signing, dont think he is any kind of huge upgrade on Stones or Otamendi.
No way he was more decent in a rubbish Bournemouth defence than Otamendi was at La Liga before we got him or when Stones played at Everton and was rated very highly. Higher than Ake now.
What happened is Stone and Otamendi are not reliable anymore at the very high level we need them to be.
stones had the chance to turn into a very strong CB but just did not happen here, he may find himself a bit lower level again, but you are just not confident him going up against Firmino, CR, Lewandowski, Vardy, Neymar etc nd do a proper job. And some complete mediocre attacker turned him around too plus struggling off the field too as per rumours, mentally and physically he has to be on top and he has not been on top in either.
While Otamendi is a really great defender imo , put him in a team that uses two defensive midfielders, dont play so high line like us, and imo he still has 2-3 year at the very top but not in a team/style like City.
But for City its not really the personnel of the defence matters, its the team defending, teamwork, higher up the pitch, the pressing, how quick we are to win the ball back, why can they just run through our midfield so easily without any tackles made which regularly puts the defenders in such awkward spots that makes them look really bad defenders even tho we paid high price for them recently and they are not bad but here they looko bad in this system.
That what Pep need to fix, refreshing the personnel could help somewhat, new energy but put Nathan Ake in those awful defensive comedy spots coming from mistakes in attacks, not being organized off the ball, not working extremely hard off the ball, easily lost balls on midfield etc and he will look sometimes a Championship player.
Van dijks partner Matip or Gomez is not better than Otamendi or Stones. But here in our defence all their weaknesses would be highlighted due to our system repeatedly. While there they are more than good to win PL or CL last year.
Pep needs to see this, and watch again how many times our defence was punished this season with very same pattern, and he certainly cannot put 100% of the blame on the defenders.
Ake will bring fresh energy, can be used in multiple positions, but when he sees opponents run through our midfield like hot knife in butter he will panic and make silly mistakes.