Pep Guardiola warns against expecting defender Aymeric Laporte to solve Man City's defensive problems

The French defender is nearing a return having not playing since Aug 31 due to injury - Manchester City FC
The French defender is nearing a return having not playing since Aug 31 due to injury - Manchester City FC

Pep Guardiola warned that Aymeric Laporte will require time to settle back into his defensive duties but the France international's return will not come a moment too soon after Manchester City's latest exhibition of back-line frailties in Saturday's 2-2 draw with Crystal Palace.

Laporte is targeting Sunday's FA Cup visit from Fulham as his comeback from a four-and-a-half month lay-off with cruciate knee ligament damage and despite his manager's cautionary words, City will need their best defender to quickly provide that touch of class and confidence to stabilise an error-prone defence.

City's continued defensive malaise has torpedoed their Premier League title defence but Guardiola's free-scoring side can still redeem their season as they seek to retain the FA and Carabao cups while chasing a history-making Champions League success. They have the cushion of a 3-1 Carabao Cup semi-final  lead against Manchester United going into Wednesday week's second leg, while Champions League round of 16 clashes with Real Madrid loom in February and March.

"We cannot expect Aymeric to solve all of the problems. After four or five months he will need time so he will not be ready immediately to do it," Guardiola said. Benjamin Mendy, the City left-back, is eager to see his team-mate back, saying: "He is very important. The way we play, his left foot is needed so it will be good to have him back central. I think City will do much better."

As the post-mortems began on how City were able to dominate Saturday's match but, after Sergio Aguero had hit his 250th and 251st goals for the club, still drop points to a late equaliser, the harsh spotlight was directed principally at John Stones.

An injury-disrupted season has left Stones without a settling sequence of games and struggling to recapture the consistency that made him both a mainstay when Guardiola landed his first league title at the Etihad in 2018 and an automatic England choice. Still stylish on the ball and smooth in distribution, it is in other areas of the defender's art that Stone is coming up short. He was perhaps fortunate to survive a VAR penalty review after bundling over Wilfried Zaha but was then outjumped by Palace's Gary Cahill in the lead-up to Cenk Tosun's opening goal for the visitors six minutes before the interval.  City's pressure finally told, with Aguero turning the match on its head with classic 83rd and 87th minute finishes and it seemed the story would once again be all about the brilliant Argentinian.

Then, a late twist. Stones was unable to shepherd Zaha away from danger, the Palace flier instead getting in a low cross that was inadvertently turned into his own net by the luckless Fernandinho. Not that it could all be laid at Stones' door. Tosun was left unmarked to head home, while at a stage when City should have been closing up shop, there was an absence of screening midfielders as Zaha made his late dash forward.

"We struggle a bit for the second ball, the long balls," lamented Guardiola, who looked like a man who had seen his 49th birthday party fall flat.

Roy Hodgson, the Crystal Palace manager who gave Stones his England debut in 2014, had words of encouragement. "He's playing in a goldfish bowl. Every mistake or good thing is magnified 10 times over. He is a player that City and England will have good use from in the future," he said.

This was another tactical triumph at the Etihad for Hodgson, who also oversaw Palace's stunning 3-2 victory in east Manchester last season. Again, they stayed compact, gave up little space between the lines or in the penalty area, and were sharp in front of goal when the rare chances presented themselves. "There is no formula, when you come here or to Liverpool, you've got to be very well organised and disciplined, and make sure you show the character necessary," he said