Man City: Kalidou Koulibaly links weighed up by pundit
Manchester City should be given the Premier League trophy if they sign Kalidou Koulibaly this summer, according to former defender Danny Higginbotham. City are favourites to win the title this season despite finishing 18 points behind Liverpool last term. Pep Guardiola has made just two signings so far this summer, with Ferran Torres and Nathan Ake joining for a combined price of over £60million.
Man City have been backed to win the Premier League if they sign Kalidou Koulibaly (Image: GETTY)
"Without doubt the question marks will be talked about in terms of defensively," Higginbotham told ESPN FC.
"Liverpool were the only team to concede less than [City] in the Premier League last season.
"But the knock-on effect that they had was that near enough by the end Guardiola was only really trusting Fernandinho alongside [Aymeric] Laporte and he's probably the best defensive midfielder that they've got.
"They've brought in Ake as well and I think that if they do get Koulibaly, because there's a lot of talk about him coming from Napoli, my own honest opinion, you give Manchester City the Premier League trophy now, because I think that is just the missing piece of the jigsaw for them.
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"Everything else is in place but they've just got to probably shake themselves up a little bit defensively and get a good partnership like Liverpool have with [Virgil] Van Dijk and [Joe] Gomez."
Meanwhile, former England striker Darren Bent can see Liverpool finishing third, behind City and Chelsea.
"Manchester City yeah, I think they'll strengthen again, so I think they are the best team," Bent said on talkSPORT.
"I think Chelsea, with all the players they've brought in, I think they're just going to find a way of getting it done. So I think they will finish second.
"Liverpool haven't strengthened enough and their players look knackered to me, what I've seen of them so far, so I think they will finish third.
"I think Manchester United will just pip the rest to fourth, yeah."