Aymeric Laporte was brilliant with his passing against Norwich City as he completed a staggering 98% of the attempted passes.
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Manchester City displayed a dominant performance to demolish Norwich City 5-0 at the Etihad stadium in their first home game of the season on Saturday. It was a complete team performance from Pep Guardiola’s side as a number of players were impressive. The likes of Gabriel Jesus, new signing Jack Grealish, defender Aymeric Laporte and many more. After their 1-0 loss to Tottenham Hotspur in the previous match it was a much needed victory for the City players. Laporte who partnered Ruben Dias in the central defence has staked a claim for a starting spot with a solid performance.
The Spanish defender who was preferred ahead of John Stones gave a good account of himself with his ability to play out from the back. Although he didn’t have much defending to do, his ball playing skills caught the eye of his boss and he was quick to praise.
“Aymeric Laporte is the best left-footed centre-back for build-up in the world”, the City boss told beIN Sports after the game.
The 27-year-old who was signed from Athletic Bilbao in 2018 for GBP 57 million, was a regular starter in City’s defence in 2018-19 season until two serious knee injuries limited his game time. Meawhile the emergence of John Stones- Ruben Dias partnership made things even more difficult for Laporte.
Last season Stones and Dias formed a formidable partnership in the central defence that played a pivotal role in City winning the Premier League title and reaching the final of UEFA Champions League where they eventually lost to Chelsea.
To comeback from the downfall and to be labelled by Guardiola as the best in the world for something is high praise indeed. Ball playing defenders are an important part of the Catalan coach’s plans as his philosophy is based on building up from the back.
Against Norwich on Saturday the Spanish international completed 109 of 111 attempted passes. That’s a staggering 98%, highest on the pitch. His pass completion was 92% across the whole of previous season, that tells a lot about his quality.
Most of the centre-backs have high pass completion rates as they mostly play simple passes with less risk but Laporte is different as he looks to deliver attacking passes and break the line quite often. He often looks to play runners in behind with his long range passing and drills those trademark balls into feet.
Laporte could prove to be a very important player for City in what promises to be a close title race. Having a left-footed centre-back is hard to come by and the 50-year-old boss understands his value.
