Laporte's girlfriend, Sara Botello, posted this picture on Instagram
French centre back, Aymeric Laporte, yesterday became Manchester City’s club-record signing
Purely out of frustration, after Italy failed to qualify for the World Cup last year, some Italian players surprisingly heaped the blame for the failure of their team on Pep Guardiola. Bizarrely, the Spanish coach was accused of popularising tiki taka thereby making it difficult for players to concentrate on defending.
However, those who really know him will tell you that Pep will never sacrifice defending for the sake of attack. That the City manager has again added another defender to his team confirms this.
Laporte is the exact kind of centre back that Guardiola likes. Quick, with good positional sense, he is equally excellent with the ball at his feet.
Guardiola’s team lack height and have struggled to defend set pieces. It helps then that Laporte is 6ft 2in. Though Laporte is left-footed, he is almost as good at passing with his right foot. The fact that Laporte has played for Marcelo Bielsa, the former Argentina, Chile and Athletic manager, ideally makes him an attractive player for Guardiola.
The Catalan may have won 21 trophies in eight years of management, but he once described Bielsa as “the best coach in the world”. Guardiola sought his counsel when he first went into management and looks up to the Argentininian, who managed Laporte at Athletic from 2011 to 2013.
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