Premier League Preview: Three questions Manchester City have to answer

Manchester City kick off their title defense this weekend vs West Ham. Ahead of the return of the Premier League, we will have four days of preview content. From questions, predictions and squad looks, we have a little bit of everything as we approach the new season.

Let’s dive in:

1 Left back, in or not?

The dance around Marc Cucurrella is continuing and as of writing is at a standstill. That bears the question, will one be signed this summer or not? City have made clear they are after one and alternatives need to be found if City will not be spending the 50M that Brighton demand.

Gerardo Arteaga is still available but David Raum no longer is, so will City look elsewhere and there have been few links. This one is important and we need a new left back. We’ll see of they succeed in bringing one in.

2 Will center back health be an issue this season?

Aymeric Laporte, Nathan Ake, John Stones and Ruben Dias. Will any of the four be healthy nough for the gauntlet that is the City season? Will any of the four play 50+ matches? Just some of the questions ahead of the PL season.

City have four real good CB’s and in them already Laporte and Stones are nicked up and who knows what the panorama is after the World Cup, where all four look to feature for their countries. We saw how the lack of CB’s hurst City in he UCL last season, what will happen this season in the PL with the CB’s?

3 The front three has to be younger or should it stay older?

As we saw in the Shield, the front three of Grealish, Haaland and Mahrez disappointed. When Foden and Alvarez came on the mood shifted and City looked much more dangerous. So, what will Pep do? Keep the young guys, run back Mahrez and Grealish?

It would seem Haaland as long as he is healthy is about as much an undisputed player as one can be under Pep, so his partners will shift and we will see other combos like Grealish and Foden or Alvarez and Mahrez so don’t be beholden to one set of front three players. Pep will take a while to discover his best front three. Or he could even change formations. We will see.

That will do it for today’s preview. What question do you want answered?