Craig Burley has said that Manchester City centre-back Manuel Akanji is not having his best season so far.
The pundit discussed Akanji’s form on ESPN FC while emphasising how City must improve defensively to have any chance of winning the Champions League in particular.
In late November, Craig Burley had claimed that the Swiss international’s error-proneness at Borussia Dortmund was “creeping back” into his displays at the Etihad Stadium.
Craig Burley says Manchester City defender Manuel Akanji has “not had his best season”
After Manchester City’s 3-3 draw against Tottenham Hotspur, Micah Richards pinpointed that the 28-year-old is not the best fit in John Stones’ trademark hybrid role.
It seems as if the treble-winner’s showings this campaign have become a bit of a topic of conversation.
Before coming on to Manuel Akanji, Craig Burley predicted that Manchester City would fail to win the Champions League again unless they fix their defensive woes.
“If City don’t sort their defence out, they won’t win it. We know they have people coming back and we know they’ll get their quota of goals. But the reason they won it last year was more because they were tighter from midfield to back when they were out of possession”, he told ESPN FC.
“We’ve seen a decline in that ability to stop teams getting at them this year. It’s almost like the City of two or three years ago when they got out of the Champions League to Lyon when they went out to the other teams where they were completely dominating quarter-finals and semi-finals and left themselves wide open and we’re seeing that in the Premier League again, it’s crept back into their game.”
Craig Burley named Manuel Akanji alongside two of his partners at the back who he believes have not been at their usual best this season, saying,“[Nathan] Ake has struggled, [Ruben] Dias has struggled, Akanji’s not had his best season thus far, if they don’t sort that out, they might not even win the Premier League but they certainly won’t win the Champions League.”
Manuel Akanji was terrific against Red Star Belgrade due to playing in his natural role
Perhaps one reason why Craig Burley has been unimpressed by Manuel Akanji this season is due to him having to cover for John Stones during his injury-stricken absence in his signature role.
But against Red Star Belgrade, Manuel Akanji was back to playing like a standard centre-back and unsurprisingly, he did not put a foot wrong.
The ex-Basel colossus dealt extremely well with Red Star Belgrade’s threat in behind City’s defence, using his searing pace to halt counter-attacks on several instances.
Manuel Akanji also won a number of his duels, timing his challenges to perfection while his distribution was effortlessly accurate for the most part.
Akanji is clearly a top centre-half and as he continues playing in his natural position, one can expect such dominant performances from him.
