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Pat Nevin reacts to Man City's "ridiculous" defending at Norwich

There's no doubt that the shock result of the weekend was Manchester City's loss to Norwich. Pep ...



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Pat Nevin reacts to Man City's "ridiculous" defending at Norwich

There's no doubt that the shock result of the weekend was Manchester City's loss to Norwich.

Pep Guardiola's side slipped to a 3-2 defeat in the Saturday evening kick-off in the Premier League, losing further ground to Liverpool after just five games.

While their attack will dig them out of trouble more often than not, defensive problems were shown in sharp relief by the Canaries.

Shorn of Aymeric Laporte due to a lengthy knee injury, John Stones and Nicolas Otamendi combined to ill-effect at the weekend.

Ex-Chelsea and Everton winger Pat Nevin joined us and homed in on that defensive partnership.


"It was kinda ridiculous," he said.

"The passing out from the back by Otamendi, that's just laughable. I don't think Manchester City should stop doing that because it's worked incredibly well for a long time.

Real Concern

"But the personnel doing it has to be considered. Just watching the two of them doing the basic things of trying to hold a line together, again that was just ridiculous.

"They just do not look like a group. They don't look like a back-line that can work together."

As he added, the defensive situation is now "a real concern for Man City", especially with Otamendi's poor attempts at passing out from the back.

But Nevin also pointed out that Man City getting caught out isn't isolated.

"It just looks bad at the moment because if you look around the league, it's happening quite a bit," he said.

"A number of teams have tried to play out and are getting caught and getting done. It looks really bad when it happens. But you notice it more when it's Man City.

Meanwhile, his former club Chelsea were vibrant with their core of young homegrown players. Only Norwich have conceded more this season. But there is a feelgood factor around Tammy Abraham, Mason Mount and Fikayo Tomori.

Nevin had praise for all three but shared a great line about Mount.

"Week after week I watch Mason Mount and I think, 'Oh my God, you are the ghost of Frank Lampard'. That is a massively high compliment to give to anyone."

You can watch the full weekend review with Pat Nevin above via YouTube.


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John Stones Manchester City Nicolas Otamendi Norwich Off The Ball Pat Nevin Premier League