View: Tottenham need to make Aymeric Laporte a top transfer priority, stats reveal he can be defensive pass master
Aymeric Laporte looks set to leave Manchester City this season after falling down the pecking order at the club and stats suggest Tottenham should be making the defender their top priority.
Pep Guardiola once described the Spanish international as “the best left-sided central defender in the world,” when speaking to the press after his side’s 1-0 victory over Sheffield United (22 January 2020).
Manchester City signed Laporte for a reported £58million fee in January 2018 and the 29-year-old has since repaid the club in full, winning five Premier League titles, four League Cups, and two FA Cups since his arrival in England (transfermrkt).
However, as a result of the signings of Nathan Ake and Manuel Akanji and the excellent form of Ruben Dias and John Stones, Laporte has now seen himself fall out of favour, starting just eleven league games last season, and may seek a move elsewhere for regular first-team football.
According to a report in The Times (18 May), Tottenham is one of the clubs monitoring the defender’s situation ahead of the summer transfer window and could attempt to lure the player to North London.
Journalist Matt Law said to the Last Word on Spurs that he sees one top defender coming in at Tottenham this summer, and if that is the case, then Spurs should be all over Laporte as that top defender.
When it comes to passing ability and the skill of playing out from the back, very few centre-backs are better at this than the former Athletic Bilbao man.
During the 2021/22 Premier League season, Laporte was in the top one percentile compared to his positional peers in the competition for passes completed, progressive passes, and passes into the final third (FBREF).
As well as this, he was in the top one percentile for progressive carrying distance and touches in the middle third of the pitch, which demonstrates his comfort on the ball. He was in the top one percentile for passes completed over a medium distance, and the top eight percentile for those completed over short and long distances.
His 1.62 carries per 90 placed him in the 92nd percentile in regard to this particular statistic and was just another example among the countless statistical examples of his world-class ability in possession and as a ball-playing centre-back.
Ange Postecoglou’s arrival at Tottenham also makes the signing of Laporte an even bigger must.
The Australian coach enjoys playing a high-energy, possession-based style of football and it will be important for the manager to have defenders who are comfortable on the ball at his disposal.
There are very few defenders in world football who are more comfortable on the ball than Laporte, and if the option is there for Spurs to go and get him, they absolutely have to do everything they can to make it happen.
As well as his ability, the player is still just 29 years of age and therefore by no means past his best and will still have plenty to offer a top Premier League side, even if it is not in Manchester.
With Barcelona also reportedly interested, Spurs will hope the attraction of remaining in the Premier League will entice Laporte as they look to reinforce a troubled defence.
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