Five things learned as Mendy shows his defensive frailties in Man City’s 1-0 win over Spurs

In a breathless battle at Wembley, Manchester City beat Spurs 0-1 to go back to the top of the Premier League.

The match was an open, end-to-end slugfest with both sides throwing bodies forward in an attempt to try and win it. In the end it was, quite fittingly given the weekend’s tragedy, former Leicester winger Riyad Mahrez who scored the winning goal. But what did we learn?

1. A game befitting the pitch

With Spurs’ stadium still at least two months away from completion, Mauricio Pochettino’s men are stuck playing at Wembley, which means they have to play just two days after the NFL held one of their regularly scheduled games here.

What does that mean? Well, with the exception of the half-spaces, the pitch was far from the pristine surface one usually expects from England’s national stadium. But just as notable were the vertical lines marking every five yards up and down the pitch.

As though they were conditioned by the markings on the pitch, Spurs and City played an incredibly stretched out and vertical game. Rather than City play their possession game and Spurs press and harry and break, both teams played it quite like an NFL game, with both sides making big forward passes to their downfield runners.

It made for a breathless and exciting encounter that made up for its lack of quality by being absolute bundles of fun, much like the NFL. Perhaps even the players were aware of the nature of the game, which would explain why Erik Lamela blasted that chance over the bar in the second half; he was going for the field goal!

2. Laporte the colossus

The top teams in Europe were after Aymeric Laporte for a long time. Barcelona in particular were constantly being linked, as were Manchester City once Pep Guardiola took over. The reason for this makes sense, Laporte is a supremely physical defender who is also wonderfully confident and competent with the ball at his feet.

But no one ever moved for him, because Athletic Bilbao constantly set his buyout clause at absurd levels. It ended up at €60m and the Basques thought they were safe, because no one was going to pay that for a centre-back. Except then Liverpool paid £75m for Virgil Van Dijk, and suddenly Manchester City knew they had their “excuse,” pouncing in that same January window.

Laporte is now coming up on a year with City, and has arguably developed into one of the very best centre-backs in the Premier League. He’s played every single minute of the season so far, and tonight at Wembley he was a pillar at the heart of defence, clearing numerous crosses and constantly being the man in the way when Spurs looked like they were going to score a goal. And at just 24 years of age, Laporte has the best part of a decade ahead of him – which is frankly terrifying if you’re one of City’s rivals.

€60m well spent!

3. Winks the architect

Despite all the world-class talent on display, it took a 23-year-old from Hemel Hempstead to actually inject an element of control into the game. Harry Winks came off the bench for Spurs after 67 minutes, replacing Mr. 6/10 Eric Dier, and things changed fast.

Suddenly Spurs wrestled control of midfield away from the Champions. Their attack was no longer just rooted to attacking down the right, with Spurs now taking control of the middle of the pitch. Winks dominated with and without the ball, and Pochettino’s men had their best spell in the match, creating several half-chances including what should have been the equaliser for Erik Lamela.

There’s (so much) more to come from Harry Winks. Despite the loss, Spurs fans should be excited.

4. Mendy’s defensive frailty

If there is one thing that Manchester City should be concerned by, it was the performance by Benjamin Mendy. Now, the French full-back is an absolutely peerless attacking talent who offers so much to City going forward, but at the back he is an accident waiting to happen.

Despite Aymeric Laporte playing phenomenally well as the left-sided centre-back, including again tonight at Wembley, City were opened up time and time again on Mendy’s side of the field. In fact if it wasn’t for Laporte it’s impossible to think that Spurs wouldn’t have scored by exploiting Mendy’s defensive lapses. A better team than Spurs would have made them pay, imagine Leo Messi, Mohamed Salah or Arjen Robben marauding into that kind of space? This is something City must address.

5. Pep the pragmatist

Back in 2009/10, Pep Guardiola was coming off a superhuman debut season in charge of Barcelona. His side were attacking and positive to such a degree that they genuinely revolutionised football. His season season, by comparison, was much more prosaic.

It wasn’t that Guardiola had abandoned his principles, it was that Pep knew that in order for them to maintain their incredible level from the previous season and continue to dominate and retain their titles, they needed to be solid. And so he played in a more pragmatic system with just two forwards and four midfielders (Pedro acting more like a hybrid) using an asymmetric 4-2-3-1.

This season, Guardiola’s Manchester City side are trying to retain their title following a groundbreaking and phenomenal title winning season, and so once again the Catalan coach has returned to pragmatism. We saw it at Anfield, when Pep was happy with a 0-0 draw, and we saw it tonight when Guardiola was comfortable defending a 0-1 lead.

Pragmatism doesn’t necessarily mean defending, but it means being willing to sacrifice, for example City didn’t defend with possession at Wembley. City played a pragmatic game to try and exploit the opponent’s weaknesses with fast, direct counter-attacks as well as playing to the nature of the pitch (and subbing on Vincent Kompany for David Silva). This pragmatic approach has led them to top the table with an incredible defensive record of just three goals conceded in 10 matches this season, so it’s definitely working.

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