Former Manchester City and Aston Villa defender Micah Richards has disagreed with Gary Neville’s assessment of Manchester City’s defending. A passionate Richards was speaking in the wake of City’s surprise 5-2 defeat to Leicester City on Sunday, during which the hosts conceded three penalties. Earlier Neville provided a damning evaluation of City’s defenders, claiming they were not good enough. Richards questioned that assessment and identified the system as the root of City’s problems defensively.
Micah Richards said “You can’t say they’re not good enough, Walker has been first-choice for England for years. In this system, it’s probably a fair comment. The problem is £50m for Mendy, £50m for Walker, £50m for Stones, £60m for Cancelo, and now Ruben Dias, another £55m. If you’re gonna pay £50m for defenders, you’ve got to defend better than that, but for me, the Man City defenders are just reactive instead of proactive. Pep said there, let’s go and get the next goal, all of them are thinking about going forward rather than holding a position.
