Four months ago Nathan Ake could have quite easily left Manchester City, yet he now finds himself one of the key players in Pep Guardiola's squad.
On Thursday night Ake put in another strong showing as City returned to competitive action with a thrilling 3-2 win against Liverpool in the fourth round of the Carabao Cup. The Dutch centre-back found himself in the unfamiliar position of scoring the winning goal, but as has been the case this season it was his defensive contributions that impressed supporters and guided his team to victory.
Playing at left-back - although the advanced positioning of Rico Lewis effectively made City's back four a back three - Ake did all the things typical of him this season. He was strong in the air and in the tackle, he anticipated well and he made some crucial interventions and recoveries.
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The noticeable thing about Ake this season is that he is playing with a certain confidence he lacked during his first two years in Manchester. City paid Bournemouth £40m for Ake in the summer of 2020, but a combination of injuries and the inspired form of John Stones and Ruben Dias severely limited his playing time as City reclaimed their Premier League crown.
Last season Dias' preferred partner was Aymeric Laporte, and bar a couple of outings towards the end of the season, Ake didn't look comfortable when asked to step in. Perhaps that was to be expected given the stop-start nature of Ake's integration at City, but this season he looks a completely different player.
Ake was one of the stand-out defenders at the World Cup as he started each of the Netherlands' five games. He and the Dutch suffered a cruel quarter-final penalty shootout exit at the hands of Argentina, but their demise had little to do with the 27-year-old.
Ruben Dias was not included in the squad to face Liverpool on Thursday, and after the game Guardiola confirmed that the defender suffered a hamstring injury during Portugal's World Cup quarter-final defeat to Morocco. A time frame for Dias' return has not been established, but he is set to miss City's upcoming Premier League meetings with Leeds and Everton and could be a doubt for the double-header against Chelsea and the trip to Manchester United in the new year.
Most teams would panic if they lost a defender with the technical and leadership qualities of Dias, but with Ake in such fine form City need not worry. There are other leaders in the side to compensate, while Ake is not City's best ball-playing centre-back, he can comfortably provide the physicality and out-and-out defensive abilities that Dias brings to the table.
The saying goes that progress isn't linear, and that can certainly be applied to Ake's time at City. The important thing though is that he has made progress, and now that City have lost a key player, he is in the perfect position to help.
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