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Manchester City chose not to sign a right-back in the summer window and it was not a popular decision with many of their fans
Why haven't Manchester City signed a right-back? It's a question that fans have asked again and again over the course of the summer transfer window.
A left-back was finally signed for the first time in years when Rayan Ait-Nouri arrived from Wolves in June, but despite another £175m window there is still no specialist on the other flank. Making matters worse, Rico Lewis wasn't great in the 2-0 home defeat to Tottenham and then Matheus Nunes managed to be worse when he replaced him for the 2-1 defeat to Brighton.
It was Nunes who conceded the penalty that gifted Brighton a way onto the scoresheet at the Amex, while Lewis had replaced him in a chaotic backline when City conceded the winner. With 24 hours left in the transfer window when the players got back to Manchester, the calls for a right-back were louder than ever.
That didn't lead to action from the club though. The position was of course discussed as a possibility in the summer and Newcastle Tino Livramento was the first name on the list, but City went cold on that idea not long after signing Ait-Nouri.
It won't please people who want a specialist, but then again Guardiola is not really the coach to play with 11 specialists on the pitch. He wants versatile people in his squad who can help out in a variety of different positions.
That was evident when City failed to sign a left-back again in the 2020 summer window and then-COO Omar Berrada went on record to explain why they hadn't moved for one.
"It goes back to the decision of is there any player out there that can play that position better than the options we have and the answer for us was no," he told the Manchester Evening News at the time. "We're satisfied with the options that we have that can play in that position and it's not something that we were actively looking for.
"Had there been a movement in any of those players, we would have potentially considered bringing somebody in but it didn't happen and we're very comfortable with the players that can play in that position.
"With the acquisition of Ake we now have five players that can potentially play in that position so it is Mendy, Zinchenko, Ake, Laporte who is also left-footed and can potentially play in that position, and Cancelo did it last season a few times and in the left-back position."
It was not met well by plenty of supporters at the time, and it was going to live or die by whether these stand-ins could play in that position. As it happened, Cancelo was one of the best players in the Premier League from left-back that very year, Zinchenko stepped up the year after and Ake moving to left-back was fundamental in City winning the Treble in 2023.
What was an unpopular call proved to be the right one for the team. But can that work again?
City can point to a number of players who can play right-back that doesn't stop at Nunes and Lewis; John Stones has played there with aplomb and Abdukodir Khusanov was tried there once last season and didn't look terrible, while Guardiola is not short of a wildcard as he has shown with Zinchenko and Nico O'Reilly.
How well they do this season will determine how loud the calls are for a right-back heading into the next two transfer windows.
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