MANCHESTER CITY’S DEFENSIVE partnership of Nicolas Otamendi and John Stones will cost the club the Premier League title, according to Gary Neville and Jamie Carragher.
Both Otamendi and Stones struggled during Man City’s shock 3-2 defeat at Norwich on Saturday, a result that leaves Pep Guardiola’s side five points behind league leaders Liverpool.
Guardiola can do little change to his side though as the duo are his only fit senior centre-backs following the summer departure of Vincent Kompany and serious injury suffered by Aymeric Laporte.
Former Liverpool defender Carragher was scathing of Otamendi’s performance in particular while he feels Stones’ long-term future at Etihad Stadium could also be in question.
“He (Otamendi) dives in, he has done it all his career,” Carragher told Sky Sports Monday Night Football
“He will never change and that’s why he’s not good enough to play for Manchester City. I have never believed it from day one and nothing I have seen in the last four or five years has changed my mind.
“John Stones, in some ways, over the next three or four months, is almost fighting for his Manchester City career in that, if it doesn’t go well for him they are going to buy someone.
“At this moment, I don’t think Guardiola wants to put those two on the pitch together but he has got no option because he has not gone big in the summer.”
Neville also thinks that Guardiola doesn’t rate the Otamendi-Stones partnership and his inability to bring a replacement in until at least January could cost City dear in the final shake-up.
“Guardiola gave up on this partnership 18 months ago when Laporte came to the club,” Neville said.
“Otamendi always gets caught out as a centre-back and quickens up the opposition in attack. He’s not a Pep Guardiola type centre-back, they’re usually composed but he’s rash.
“Alex Ferguson at times during his Manchester United career would see a game too far with players and say, ‘That’s it, you’re done’. Manchester City’s 4-3 defeat at Liverpool in 2018 was the game when Guardiola decided that Stones and Otamendi couldn’t play together.
“Laporte’s injury, Kompany leaving and not replacing him is a big problem for Manchester City. Stones and Otamendi have played 25 games under Guardiola in the Premier League.
“They’ve conceded more goals than any other partnership, conceded more goals per game, the clean sheets are down, the three-plus goals conceded is well up and then there’s the big one, lower win percentage.
“That will cost Manchester City the Premier League title. If these two play together at their current rate of performance they won’t win the league.”
Neville and Carragher both agree that Guardiola will look for a solution to City’s defensive flaws but disagree over what exactly the Spaniard will do.
“He has always surprised us, he has always shocked us, he has always done what would be unexpected,” added Neville. “Pep Guardiola doesn’t accept what he has, he always tries to come up with new systems.
“I can see that Pep Guardiola is not just going to sit back over the next three months. Already in the back of his mind he will be thinking that he needs a plan B here that can give them domination of the ball and defensive stability.
“He won’t do this because Pep Guardiola will never do what we expect, but he has played a back five before.
“I know the boy Joao Cancelo pretty well, I had him at Valencia. He can play right wing-back perfectly and Oleksandr Zinchenko is suited to wing-back. Walker has played in a back three for England and Otamendi has two people to cuddle him.
“That is a potential option, but at the moment I think he is thinking of a plan B.”
Carragher disagreed, adding: “I don’t think he will do that. I don’t think he is a three at the back man with wing-backs. He does it the Dutch way, 3-4-3 with a diamond.
“But I think somebody you have got to look at is Fernandinho coming into the equation and going back to centre-back. I think that is something that he will look at.
“You don’t want to go away from that 4-3-3 because it is a machine. I don’t think they should rip that up. I think the solution for now is to go to Fernandinho.”
Former Ireland performance analyst and current coaching wizard of OZ Eoin Toolan joins Murray Kinsella and Gavan Casey to predict Ireland’s World Cup, break down every pool, and call the overall winners.
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Feel sorry for the keeper. Mistakes happen. He shouldn’t be blamed.
An inexplicable decision to be fair. Clarke received man of the match in many places in the drawn game only to be dropped. His kickouts would have been better than Hennellys anyway.
@Niall Mcintyre: Absolutely ,Rochford thought he was giving Gavin a curve-ball insofar Dublin had planned for Clarke’s deliveries.Unprecedented & inexplicable decision which lost Mayo the match.
Rochford tried and failed miserably at pulling a rabbit out of a hat !
Clarke’s kickouts were poor the first day. Hennelly was worse but you can’t fault the management for making a change.
They made a call, it backfired but honestly, if they had balls, they would have realised their mistake at half time and put Clarke back in. Hennelly cost them 3 points in the 1st half alone. Didn’t think it was the right call from the minute I heard the rumours earlier in the day.
It’s ironic that the guy that came on for him when he was black carded was super on kick outs.
Dublin put serious pressure on him in the first 5 mins and he cracked. Dublin management deserve some credit for this. Big call changing the keeper for the all Ireland.
Stephen Rochford your system failed. Your bullshit system. Any sign of the great Aiden O’Shea? Dropping one of the top keepers in the country for a lad who hasn’t started in the championship all year ffs enough said. Ye had yere chance the first day when the Dubs were asleep. Better luck next time Mayo
Lack of class present there
Seeing as you referenced class, I’ll point you to your response to my comment above. Hardly oozing class yourself Spodgy.
You’re a parody spoddgy! It’s for people like you was the main reason I was delighted it was a one point win… Give you something extra to moan about!
I’d almost feel sorry for them, but then I think of how much they’d have rubbed it in if they’d won, then that goes away
Where does this come from? We would have been happy to win. You are a classless person.
Pretty classless alright. There were any amount of Dublin fans rubbing it in our faces after the game today and it really started to pi$$ me off after a while. Then of course there was those Dublin fans who were saying to ignore them idiots. To the proper fans I say enjoy the win, I would have. To the others I hope youre puking your ring up tonight
Spodo, as a Dub, I’ve endured many a ribbing from Mayo fans after 2006 and 2012. It’s part and parcel. Roll with it, it makes the good days even nicer.
I don’t doubt it Thomas. I have sat beside dubs and had a good Craic with them before and inevitably congratulated them when they won. The good well outnumber the bad I just thought the original comment was unnecessarily kicking mayo fans while they’re down
I feel sorry for the keeper but at every level as a goalkeeper, when you make a mistake, everybody knows and more often than not it costs your team. The major turning point today came from the keepers error and that’s something he will have to live with. It’s part of being a keeper. Even so, Mayo had chances to equalise and stupid decisions cost them. It was managements decision not to back Clarke and ultimately that’s what cost them.
Completely agree. A strange decision that didn’t pay off in the end. Thought Mayo were trying to be too clever meself.
There was a sense of disbelief among Mayo fans when the rumours of this change started circulating, a crazy decision, the modern game and the extinction of a traditional robust full back mean your keeper need to be dominant in the air.Hennelly has consistently been shown in his Mayo career to be extremely suspect under a high ball and it has ultimately cost his team an all Ireland.
Hoe did he not pick Clarke the stupid bullox!!