Once arrived at Manchester City, Pep Guardiola was concerned with getting the best out of Kevin De Bruyne and David Silva. Previously one of them was ditched out wide drifting inside, with the other playing as a number 10. Pep found the ultimate solution by playing both as 8s ahead of Fernandinho.

Silva and De Bruyne have created myriad of chances from these positions, but the issue arises when the opposition is seating deep. The problem now is reaching the midfield duo without them leaving their positions between the lines, or reaching one of the forwards in a dangerous position.

Pep Guardiola’s sides have often deployed a deep-lying maker in the midfield from Sergio Busquets at Barcelona to Xabi Alonso at Bayern Munich. In Manchester, Pep’s option are a bit different Fernandinho and Ilkay Gundogan are more of movers of the ball to enable Silva and De Bruyne, or controllers to maintain the tempo of the game. However, Gundogan still has those incisive passes mainly providing the pre-assists rather than the assists themselves.

Against deep compact oppositions the vertical space is minimized making it harder for City to find their creators or create. This logically leaves plenty of space and time for City’s center backs.

One of those center backs is Aymeric Laporte, who played the most minutes for Manchester City during the 18/19 Premier League season after their goalkeeper Ederson. Earning himself a spot next to Virgil van Dijk in the PFA team of the year, the French defender impressed defensively but more importantly offensively.

With the space mentioned above for him against deep oppositions, Laporte tends to carry the ball forward himself in the build up phase rather than leaving it for the holding midfielder. As seen in the figure below, Laporte topped the Carries per 90 stat for defenders in the top five leagues last season.

Progressive carries for defenders in the top five leagues during 18/19 (via Opta)

Laporte’s positioning on the grid shows that he carries the ball forward a lot but with a median distance when compared to other defenders — The Y-axis presenting the distance per carry. Rather than dribbling past the opponent he tends to end his progressive carry with a pass.

Other than the regular circulation passes Laporte has two distinct types of passes to penetrate the opposition. A line splitting low driven pass in the left channel and a long cross field diagonal to the right wing. Against Bournemouth Laporte showcased them both, a line splitting pass in the first goal and a diagonal to the right side in the second.

Deep in a 5–4–1 shape Bournemouth wanted to smash and grab using their front three’s pace. David Silva, the game’s most outstanding player, has been positioned behind Bourenmouth’s midfield waiting for service to wreck havoc. Laporte managed to find him in the 14th minute with an accurate pass from the left channel, taking out five Bournemouth players and more importantly enabling Silva. As a domino effect, City’s players combined for the ball to fall for Sergio Aguero after De Bruyne scuffed his shot.

The second goal featured the other type of pass, a long diagonal to the right side. Bernardo Silva and Oleksandr Zinchenko positioned themselves by the touchline throughout Bournemouth’s 5–4–1 period to stretch Bournemouth horizontally — stretching horizontally to create spaces inside the lines themselves rather than between them. Laporte found Bernardo on the right wing isolated against Ryan Fraser, who occupied the left wing back position after Charlie Daniels got injured. Bernardo managed to find the other Silva in a number 10 space, and the Spaniard was set to do what he normally does. Finding Raheem Sterling with a pass to put him through on goal. The below illustration visualizes the second goal from a top view.

2D top view of City’s second goal (via Ricardo Tavares/Twitter:@Lastrowview)

This isn’t new to Laporte though. He has been unlocking deep and compact oppositions throughout the last season. Finding Aguero, who dropped between the lines to be a passing option, gave City their only goal in a loss away to Leicester City. Then taking out all of Wolves’ 10 outfield players with a single pass to Leroy Sane, putting the winger in a position to play City’s trademark low cross across the goal for Gabriel Jesus to score. Similarly, he found De Bruyne’s dashing run into the left channel against Cardiff City. De Bruyne managed to open the scoring with a shot from an impossible angle.

Laporte isn’t only unlocking deep defences with his passes. He is a valuable asset for City in set pieces. Scoring decisive goals away to Wolves, Everton and Brighton from set pieces, the French defender presents a lucrative offensive kit for City. That’s of course in addition to the creativity coming from the likes of the Silvas and De Bruyne.

City’s opponents are now left with the impossible decision. Pressing up high leaving spaces behind which could be exploited due to the new goal kick rule as seen against Liverpool in the Community Shield. Or staying deep leaving space and time on the ball for Laporte to pick out City’s players — possibly a medium block would be the best approach against this City side.

In Pep’s utopia every player on the field is a midfielder, but why play midfielders when others can do what midfielders can do.