Man City have a thriving new partnership that £31million signing could break up

Manchester City are getting success down their left through Nico O'Reilly and Jeremy Doku and Rayan Ait-Nouri has work to do to get back in the team.

Hugo Viana was explaining the technical and tactical skills that resulted in Manchester City landing on Rayan Ait-Nouri as their preferred left-back target, detailing that the Algerian could play outside and inside when playing in that role.

City's director of football also stressed Ait-Nouri's "really, really good" technical skills and his youth. But reading it now, it's a description that could just as easily fit the player he replaced, who now finds himself back in competition with, in Nico O'Reilly.

The only part of Viana's assessment for Ait-Nouri that didn't fit for O'Reilly was that he had a "lot of Premier League experience", but that gap might well be closing.

City's new £31million left-back has had a stop-start beginning to his Etihad career. He was impressive at the start of the Club World Cup before struggling against Al-Hilal, then started the first three Premier League games of the season but lasted only 23 minutes against Tottenham.

Another injury has kept him out of action throughout September, and by the time he returns, he will have missed at least seven games. In that time, O'Reilly is taking his chance.

The 20-year-old was a makeshift left-back last season and probably looked at the idea of Ait-Nouri playing more often meaning he could challenge for the midfield berth he has his eyes on long-term. The problem is that every time O'Reilly is shunted back to left-back, he excels again.

He only started training in that position in January, but is now performing so well that his name is being mentioned in dispatches around the England squad for next summer's World Cup, and the possibility of filling a position that has long been a problem.

To achieve that, he will need more games there for City, but he might get his wish. Ait-Nouri has shown flashes so far, but when he returns to fitness in October, he will rapidly need to make the position his own.

The 24-year-old will also need to prove he can click with Jeremy Doku. They combined well in the Club World Cup but there were no sparks at the start of the domestic season. It might not be a coincidence that since O'Reilly came into the team, Doku has hit a rich vein of form.

O'Reilly described his instructions at left back as a "free role," but he seems to have struck up a good tactical understanding with Doku, who is producing the most consistent run of his City career.

"I feel like last season I was learning a lot from him, what he likes to do, and I feel like this season we've clicked and we work with each other," said O'Reilly.

"I know when he went outside, I'd go inside, I'd leave him, give him his space in a 1v1, because I know that's what his best attribute is."

When Ait-Nouri returns to the City side, he will have to develop the same level of understanding with the in-form Doku to truly hold off O'Reilly's challenge for his position.

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