Manchester City backed to do well despite injury issues in defence

Posted by

Manchester City star Bernardo Silva has backed his team to do well despite their injury woes at the back.

Aymeric Laporte will be out of action for a few months after sustaining an injury in a Premier League match against Brighton and Hove Albion. In the Frenchman’s absence, City lost 3-2 to Norwich City last weekend.

SEE MORE: Man City legend looks set to end 10-year spell at Etihad with ace likely to seal summer MLS transfer

Things went worse for the Premier League champions when John Stones suffered a muscular injury while training before Manchester City’s Champions League opener against Shakhtar Donetsk. The England international will be out for a few weeks as stated by Pep Guardiola. As quoted by the club’s official website, the Spaniard said: “John Stones was injured this morning. He will be out for a month – 4, 5 weeks. The Problem is muscular.”

This leaves Manchester City with only Nicolas Otamendi as their only recognisable centre-back while Fernandinho joined him at the heart of defence during the match against Shakhtar earlier this week. The Premier League champions went on to win the game 3-0 thanks to goals from Riyad Mahrez, Ilkay Gundogan and Gabriel Jesus.

Silva said that in the past, his team responded well whenever they suffered a setback and feels that they’ll do the same thing now when two of their key defenders are injured.

As quoted by Sky Sports, the Portuguese international said: “People can criticise and say what they want. We don’t need to prove anything to anyone after what we’ve done the last two seasons. We’re relaxed. Of course we’re not happy because we want to do better and we know losing against Norwich isn’t ideal, but all teams have good and bad moments. It’s impossible to stay three seasons, only with good moments.”

“Sometimes you will have bad moments and it’s the way you react to those bad moments that show how good a team you are and that’s what we’ll try to do. Every time we’ve had bad moments in the past we’ve always reacted well, and that’s what we’ll try to do again.”

Being without Stones and Laporte will certainly be a massive blow for Manchester City but they have Otamendi while Fernandinho has so far done well in the heart of defence. Guardiola’s side are currently second in the Premier League table, five points behind Liverpool. Their next match is against Watford tomorrow.

More Stories Bernardo Silva