Pep Guardiola has said Manchester City were forced into the transfer market to sign Manuel Akanji over fears about Aymeric Laporte‘s fitness.
City completed the €17.5 million signing of Akanji from Borussia Dortmund on deadline day.
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And Guardiola said the decision was partly down to the availability of Laporte, who has not played this season after undergoing knee surgery in the summer.
“We have four incredible centre-backs before but sometimes we’ve had it tough with injuries,” Guardiola told a news conference on Friday.
“Some are getting better but a month or month and a half [for Laporte] and Nathan [Ake] could not play [the last two games].
“So we’ve just had two centre-backs. We had an opportunity to bring him [Akanji], one year left in Dortmund, a lot of experience, he’s perfect for what we need and we’re very pleased to have him here as competition.”
