Manchester City’s new look back line shows how they can improve

Manchester City started their title defence with a comfortable win away from home at Arsenal.

This match looked like a tough way for the Citizens to start their title defence, but they ended up easing through the challenge. Arsenal’s deficiencies were highlighted in this match rather than any potential issues for City.

Riyad Mahrez was the only summer signing for the club due to the confidence that Pep Guardiola has in his squad. They were interested in buying a defensive midfielder, but Jorginho opted for Chelsea and they didn’t see another for the right price. However, the team did look different based on personnel and set-up in comparison to last season.

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The defensive back line was radically different because the four used had never played together in a Premier League game before. They were used in the Community Shield, although that isn’t the most competitive of matches. Aymeric Laporte only joined the club in January and Benjamin Mendy was injured for the majority of last season while John Stones fell down the pecking order.

Based on the two games, this back four looks like it could provide the defensive platform to improve City. Stones and Laporte are archetypal centre-backs for Guardiola while Kyle Walker and Mendy are rampaging full-backs with the right mix of attributes for City’s system.

Laporte mirrors Stones in that he is technically gifted and composed in everything he does. This ensures that City’s defending is less chaotic than when Nicolas Otamendi or Vincent Kompany is playing. Both of them have glaring weaknesses which can lead to mistakes and the other centre-back being isolated in risky scenarios even though they are more experienced than Stones and Laporte.

The best part of this new partnership is that both can break the opposition lines through their passing as well as being heavily involved in build-up. Teams no longer have a weak centre-back to target and force mistakes from. Laporte showed this by putting in a top display, although Arsenal did have attacking issues.

Mendy is slightly different to Laporte in that his understanding of positional play needs working on because he can dither in possession at times and doesn’t occupy the right areas. However, he is dangerous as an expansive full-back with space to run into. His crossing is one of his best attributes because he targets the right areas with a variety of different balls across. Guardiola opted to use him with Raheem Sterling as an inverted winger which worked well due to the dual threat.

The French full-back varied between staying wide, making underlapping runs, and coming inside to provide another passing option when City had possession as well as reducing the threat of opposition counter-attacks. He had a high average position with City playing asymmetrically because Kyle Walker was deeper. This worked well because of Walker’s powers of recovery for defensive work as well as his ability to provide runs from deep on the overlap which are pivotal against a low block.

This back four has the right mix of attacking penetration and defensive solidity to thrive in Guardiola’s 4-3-3 system. Many have pointed out how hard it is to defend a Premier League title as well as how they will struggle to replicate last season, but the defence has shown that they might improve in certain areas compared to the previous season.