Roy Keane believes "the signs are good" for Manchester City's defence this season.
Since shipping five goals at home to Leicester, Pep Guardiola's men conceded only three times in the next eight games in all competitions ahead of Sunday's Premier League showdown with Liverpool at the Etihad Stadium.
Big-money summer signing Ruben Dias has slotted into the City team and formed a promising partnership with Aymeric Laporte at centre-back.
“The signs are good," Keane told Sky Sports before the Liverpool match.
"I think what the two players give the team is a nice bit of balance, a nice presence at the back."
Laporte's lengthy lay-off due to a knee injury last season proved a big blow to City's title hopes.
Manchester United legend Keane compared the absence to that of Virgil van Dijk at Liverpool.
Van Dijk is set to miss the rest of this season after suffering a serious knee injury in the Merseyside derby against Everton.
"We saw last year what a big loss Laporte was and I suppose it’s what Van Dijk is to Liverpool, a big presence and it makes the other players around them better," Keane added.
"So the signs are certainly good there.”
Fellow pundit Micah Richards said: “I really like Ruben Dias, he has been a commanding figure at the back. He’s still only young, only 23.
"People mention replacing Vincent Kompany, that’s going to be difficult, but he’s got the right foundation and has started well enough so we can see enough to say he’s going to be good enough to create a good partnership with Laporte.
“Laporte has been excellent, we all know what he can do, the one criticism is that he has been picking up too many niggles so people have had to step in and not really do the job at the level that is needed for that back four.
"I can see a really good partnership making here with these two.”
