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Rúben Dias at Manchester City: The perfect defender for Guardiola's football

2021-04-06T14:08:32.992Z


Like Jürgen Klopp in Liverpool, Pep Guardiola has been looking for a defender for Manchester City who will take his team to a new level. He found it in Rúben Dias. What makes the Portuguese so good?


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Rúben Dias: City's direct hit

Photo: Rui Vieira / AP

Manchester City coach Pep Guardiola put together one of the highest quality replacement benches in the history of world football over the weekend.

National players like Ilkay Gündogan, Bernardo Silva, Phil Foden, Raheem Sterling, John Stones and João Cancelo sat outside in City's 2-0 win at Leicester City at the start of the game.

You should save energy after the international break and before the quarter-final first leg of the Champions League against Borussia Dortmund.

Rúben Dias could certainly have used a little rest.

He was on the pitch for more than 90 minutes in all three World Cup qualifying matches played by Germany's opponent Portugal, and will be guarding Erling Haaland this Tuesday (9 p.m., DAZN).

The only thing is: in a city team that can offer an abundance of quality because of the sponsorship from Abu Dhabi, the defensive chief is the only professional who cannot be replaced.

City spent half a billion euros on defenders

So Dias, 23, also played in Leicester and did what he always does.

He directed the defense of the runaway leader who finally wants to win the Champions League this season.

Dias was there when things got tough.

With an impressive tackle against Leicester's Belgian Youri Tielemans, he defused the greatest chance of third in the table shortly after the break.

The Premier League later named the Portuguese man of the game.

Manchester City has invested almost half a billion euros in defenders since Guardiola's arrival in 2016.

Scoffers say the club spends more money on defense than some states.

Nevertheless, there was a gap in the center of the sky-blue defense after the departure of city icon Vincent Kompany after winning the 2019 title. This was only temporarily stuffed last season and led to the team being 18 points behind champions Liverpool in the Premier League landed.

It was clear that the next defensive commitment had to be a direct hit.

And it was a direct hit.

"The outstanding performer"

Dias came for almost 70 million euros at the beginning of this season - shortly after a 2: 5 bankruptcy against Leicester - and has become the defense chief Manchester City was looking for in record time.

He has played a decisive role in ensuring that the club has regained the aura of inviolability and will soon ascend to the Premier League throne for the third time in four years.

"Manchester City is champion, and he's the outstanding performer, the best player of the season," Sky Sports expert Jamie Carragher just said about slides.

This judgment has weight, because Carragher knows what he is talking about as a long-time defender at Liverpool FC and in the English national team, at the same time he is still an ardent Liverpool fanatic today.

Partiality in favor of Manchester City can be ruled out.

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City coach Guardiola: finally wants to win the Champions League with Manchester

Photo: Rui Vieira / imago images / PA Images

City itself is also very enthusiastic about slides.

“He's not just a player who plays well.

He also makes the other players better, ”says Guardiola.

The best example of this is John Stones, who was almost written off due to his susceptibility to errors, but has flourished alongside Dias this season and has returned to the English national team.

The full-backs Kyle Walker (right) and João Cancelo (left) also owe their strong form to the new security in the center of the defense.

Quickly used to the Premier League

Dias, who was once considered too skinny in his youth and therefore played in midfield, has exactly the strengths that a central defender needs in a Guardiola team: he combines classic defensive virtues such as tackling strength, a good header game and uncompromising attitude with a good overview and passport security.

Of all Premier League professionals, Dias plays by far the most passes.

He also shows a level of leadership that is unusual for someone who has just moved into what is supposedly the best league in the world.

"He speaks for 90 minutes and says in every single action what we have to do," says Guardiola.

The Portuguese got used to English football as quickly as "like a duck to water," wrote the Telegraph a while ago.

Great English teams are often built on strong defensive foundations.

At Manchester United, Rio Ferdinand and Nemanja Vidić formed a terrifying duo of central defenders for years, Arsenal FC's "Invincibles" had Sol Campbell and Kolo Touré, and Chelsea FC John Terry.

The current benchmark in England for the transforming power of a central defender is Virgil Van Dijk, with whom Jürgen Klopp's once porous Liverpool FC became Champions League winners and champions (Manchester United and Harry Maguire have hoped for such a change in vain).

Van Dijk was the player who turned a very good Liverpool team into a Champions Legue winner and Premier League winner.

Rúben Dias could now be Guardiolas van Dijk.

His story is further proof that it is not always strikers and playmakers who take a team to the next level.

Source: spiegel

All sports articles on 2021-04-06

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