Vital Man City noted how poor Manuel Akanji was in Manchester City’s 2-1 defeat to Brentford on Saturday and Alex Brotherton of the Manchester Evening News believes Pep Guardiola should take some responsibility after selecting a defender with a poor success rate from aerial duels.
Akanji wasn’t great with ground duels, coming out second-best the majority of the time. And he lost out in the air more than most, so Brotherton questioned on the Blue Moon Podcast why Guardiola selected him against a side like Brentford.
He said (6:45): “It’s one of those things Guardiola predicted but still couldn’t do anything about. I remember him saying (Brentford) are a great team in the air and that proved the case. City weren’t able to deal with the second ball.
“In terms of aerial threat, I don’t see why City shouldn’t (be able to deal with Brentford). City’s centre-backs are big blokes. Aymeric Laporte has an aerial success rate of 70-something percent. Manuel Akanji is right down in the 30%, so perhaps that was a poor selection on Guardiola’s part.”
The Swiss international is 10th in the Man City squad for aerial duels won per game on average (0.9) and loses more (2.0) per game than any other player. Brentford are 1st in the Premier League for aerial duels won (16.3), so Guardiola should have known better.
Akanji joined City on a five-year deal from Borussia Dortmund over the summer and has gone on to make 12 appearances in all competitions. He’s had different centre-back partners and has been used in a makeshift role at right-back but handled everything Guardiola threw at him until now.
The 27-year-old has looked human of late and his performance against Brentford wasn’t good, so he’ll be desperate to turn things around after the World Cup. The month in Qatar gives him a chance to put domestic matters behind him too.
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