Man City boss Pep Guardiola makes Aymeric Laporte request with Ruben Dias injured

Pep Guardiola says Aymeric Laporte is at the perfect age to improve but must be open to learning as Manchester City look to cope without Ruben Dias.

Dias was a club record signing from Benfica in September 2020 and instantly nailed down a place in a team that strolled to a third Premier League title in four years and made their first ever Champions League final. To the surprise of many though, his partner for the majority of that time was not Laporte but John Stones.

When Laporte was dropped last season for a poor performance in a 2-0 defeat to Tottenham in November that left City flailing in the table, Stones came in from the cold to form a partnership with Dias that proved unbreakable for the rest of the year. However, fresh from impressing with new country Spain at Euro 2020, Laporte has put the unhappiness of being benched behind him by forcing his way into the team this season.

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With Dias facing around a month out still with a hamstring injury picked up in the FA Cup win over Peterborough, the importance of Laporte to the team has increased even more. He has started the subsequent games against United and Sporting, and will expect to keep his place for a tough test at Palace on Monday — a team who saw him beaten for a goal and sent off inside 45 minutes at the Etihad back in October.

Guardiola was impressed enough with Laporte's performance that those errors and the red card did not leave to another long period out of the team, and the 27-year-old has helped himself by being available while other centre-backs have struggled for fitness. As unique as his quality is on the left side of central defence, Laporte has still been spoken to by