It's time to talk about what we all thought at the beginning of the season. Manchester City lack centre-back depth There were minor discussions at the end of the last transfer window about Vincent Kompany's lack of replacement and how serious an injury would be for Manchester City's defense but because of how much Pep Guardiola is respected around the football community nobody was too critical of City's unwillingness to really pursue a world class defender and most assumed they'd find a way to cope with that lack of depth at that position.





Early in the season the best defender of the team Aymeric Laporte was injured and that really complicated things for the defending Premier League champions with his return likely to come next year leaving the side with only two defenders in the squad, Otamendi and Stones. It is important to make it clear that City is still a great team and you cannot summarize the possible failure to win the English title this season in the absence of Laporte for much of the season, just look at City's competitor and how good they are plus everywhere else on the pitch Klopp has backups that are not of the same level as Guardiola. The Citzens' squad are still the best in the Premier League and superior to Liverpool but this is a mere obligation in my view considering the significant difference in investment capacity that exists between the current Premier League champions and current European champions who can spend but not at City's level just consider that their biggest signings came right after the biggest sale in Premier League history.





My point is this Man City started the season with three centre-backs in the squad, and that is far from ideal for a team that works under ideal conditions, it becomes even worse when we consider that two of them do not inspire much confidence (Stones and Otamendi) if someone had said 4 years ago that Nicolás Otamendi would go through long periods as a starter in the best team in the world without being a liability, no one would believe it and it actually happened but that period seems to be over.





F ernandinho can fill that void at centre-half even more now with the arrival of Rodri and has been acting there frequently but this says much more about the lack of confidence in other defenders than the instantaneous adaptation of the Brazilian defensive midfielder to his new position something that did not happen and in fact I'd argue that he should only play there temporally not only because of how good he is at his original position but contrary to what one might think playing as a centre back in Guardiola's system is a tougher task physically than the one of the holding midfielder, plus if you play him as a defender in that case the team has no backup for the CDM position as Guardiola rarely uses Gundogan there and I guarantee he never will in a big game except like the last one at Anfield unless he is under extraordinary circumstances. It is bizarre for a team with so many financial resources to not have better options in defence or at least a couple more players at the same level just to provide cover.





Manchester City are the side that:





Their third left-back in the squad was a undisputed starter and a key player of PSV last year.





To provide some context Liverpool does not have a backup left back if Robertson can't play Milner fills in.





Using the team that played the last match as an example you could put together a reserve-only attack with Mahrez, Jesus and Sané who is hurt but even when healthy often sits on the bench.





The Manchester City centre-back group needs reinforcements to try to match the level of the team in other sectors of the pitch but I do not have the same opinion regarding the fullbacks. This is not to say that the menu of players available to Guardiola in that position is the best in the world but let's be honest which right fullbacks today are better than Walker and / or Cancelo, very few in my opinion and none who might be could realistically be bought today, the same goes for the left full-backs, however looking at the middle of the defence the situation is different. Leaving aside names that City did not seek or sought without great efforts such as De Ligt, Maguire, Van Dijk who were sold recently and only looking at the current market we have names available like Reuben Dias or Romagnoli who can like I said earlier provide depth and maybe evolve into regular names on the team sheet but if we raise the level a little we will find two players who would represent a solidity that now you can't find in their squad, those two are Koulibaly and Skriniar, I admit that today only the Napoli defender is a real possibility, with the arrival of Conte and what seems to be a head to head battle for the Italian Scudetto there is no way to get the Slovakian defender from Internazionale in the winter window but if we are looking further ahead it cannot be denied that this is a plausible signing for a summer window because even with this resurgence of Inter Manchester City is on another level.





Koulibaly would be the perfect defender for Guardiola's team he has all the attributes needed to play in his system that's based upon a very high defensive line just look at his speed and just sheer talent in one on one clashes combine that with the fact De Laurentis himself already seems to be resigned to the likely sale of the Senegalese in the near future as long as the value is good which cannot be such a hindrance in this case.







To conclude I consider that Manchester City needs a reinforcement at the centre-half position but not because with that signing the team would be Premier League favorites again after all Liverpool is so good they lost 1 match of the last 50 in PL play they need a centre-half because there is a discrepancy in quality and depth in relation to any other position in the squad and in relation to other major European football clubs at that position and to me is something to be corrected.