5 players who the Premier League's big clubs should move on in the summer | Premier League 2019-20

#4 Nicolas Otamendi (Manchester City)

Nicolas Otamendi has been guilty of some sloppy mistakes at Manchester City this season

Much has been made of Manchester City’s struggles this season; Pep Guardiola’s men are still second in the Premier League table and are still in with a shout of winning the Champions League, but it’s clear to everyone that they haven’t been at their imperious best, and they’ve already lost as many games during the current campaign than they have done in the previous two combined.

It’s clear that Guardiola needs to carry out a rebuild at the Etihad, and one area he definitely needs to look at is in defence. That probably means moving on a couple of players, and one likely candidate for a summer exit could be Argentine centre-back Nicolas Otamendi.

Not only is the Argentine an older player at the age of 32, but he’s also come under fire on numerous occasions this season for his reckless on-field decisions and sloppiness on the ball in difficult defensive situations. Most notable of course was the individual error he made that cost City a key goal during their shock 3-2 loss to Norwich in September.

Otamendi simply doesn’t command the respect that his teammate Aymeric Laporte – and former captain Vincent Kompany – do in the centre of City’s defence, and so it’d be a smart move for Guardiola to look to ease him out of the Etihad and bring in a younger, and hopefully superior replacement.