When John Stones emerged, his confidence in possession marking him out as a distinctly unEnglish centre-back, pragmatists wondered if he was passing the ball in the wrong areas. It transpired he did, albeit not in the way many envisaged. Manchester City were in Ukraine, preparing for their Champions League opener against Shakhtar Donetsk, when Stones was hurt in training. Not by a crunching challenge, either, but by passing the ball.
Stones was sidelined by a muscle injury when Aymeric Laporte had already been ruled out until 2020 by a knee problem. City were down to a solitary senior specialist centre-back, plus teenagers Eric Garcia and Taylor Harwood-Bellis, and at a point when they had just suffered a different kind of defensive mishaps in the error-riddled 3-2 defeat to Norwich City. It was easy to predict more defensive disasters from a makeshift rearguard.
Five games later, City have conceded a lone goal since then. "I prefer to have John Stones back and Laporte," said Pep Guardiola. Stones is on course to return after the international break but, if his side beat Wolves on Sunday, they will have got through a testing period unscathed. If it reflects in part on the way the resourceful, adaptable midfielder Fernandinho has flourished as a stand-in centre-back, it also shows City's can-do mentality.
Guardiola added: “I said when it happened: ‘What can we do? Cry? Complain?’ So we went with the two guys we have and two young players, waiting their opportunity, and it is what it is. But I don’t think, ‘Now we don't concede,’ because we could concede five [today].”
If that is unlikely, Everton registered eight shots on target last Saturday, the most against City in the Premier League during his reign. Dominic Calvert-Lewin scored but was also denied by a brilliant save, as was Yerry Mina. “Against Everton we were lucky, Ederson saved us,” Guardiola said. “Against Bournemouth [in August] as well.”
The goalkeeper has produced some of the finest form of his City career this season. A 74 per cent save percentage compares favourably with most. A still greater indication of Ederson’s excellence is that, in the first seven rounds of fixtures, only Bournemouth’s Aaron Ramsdale stopped as many shots from inside the six-yard box; the sort, in short, that ought to result in goals.
He has helped City to find a way to win. Guardiola's preference is for his goalkeeper to be part passer, part spectator. It is a reason he has enjoyed City's Champions League wins over Shakhtar and Dinamo Zagreb; Ederson was underworked in both games.
“The important thing is to concede few chances and against Zagreb we didn't concede a shot on target,” Guardiola added. “So we are a team in Europe that concede few chances; that is good.”
That Norwich’s three goals against City came from as many shots on target underlined a trend: the teams that beat them tend to convert all their opportunities, so Guardiola is anxious to afford them as few as possible. Wolves offer a warning: they drew 1-1 with City last season while only managing two efforts on target, even if Willy Boly’s equaliser was a controversial affair with more than a hint of handball.
“We have to improve,” the City manager said. “The one, two or three chances we concede are clear chances for the opponent: we have to avoid that. We have to be more solid in some departments.”
He has always deemed attack a fine form of defence. “If we defend a lot of time our box then … ‘Woah,’” he said. “We are not built specifically for that.”
Instead, their pressing helps them snuff out attacks at source. Craftsmen have been willing to graft for a common cause. Guardiola explained: “For a team with this incredible amount of talented players and not defensive talented players, you see our midfield players and full-backs not just with the mentality to defend but the way they fight for each other allowed us to concede few chances.”
