Micah Richards claims Pep Guardiola 'is not trusting' his team and their defence must be sorted*

 

Micah Richards believes Manchester City have some serious defensive issues to sort out if they are to reclaim their place as champions of England.

Pep Guardiola's side face Wolves in their first game of the new campaign on Monday night and Richards is doubtful that they will be fully prepared.

'City’s problems are defensive,' Sportsmail's columnist said during his role as a pundit on Sky Sports.

'Losing Vincent Kompany was a massive risk. Losing Laporte for a lot of last season was a massive miss. Problem lies with Fernandinho dropping back and Rodri trying to fill in the gaps. The defence is then left too exposed.

There’s no real consistency. I don’t even think Pep knows his best back four. Kyle Walker is probably the only certainty in that side.

He’s not trusting his team. When I was playing under Mancini we’d always rotate the full-backs, it’s just that centre back pairing.

'The manager has lost faith in his centre backs - every window they’re linked with one. They’ve brought in Ake - is he going to be the one to lead that line? I’m not too sure.