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Manchester City obviously have a problem with their leftbacks. A way to fix this issue is by having Kyle Walker (their best defender/fullback last season) being played as a starting inverted leftback (similar to Delph 17/18).
A way this can work is that as Delph successfully showed in the 17/18 season, as one fullback will shift into a DM/CB role in transition, Walker with pace being his main attribute, will cause him to ultimately be the left back City need this season.
What he has done which has been been noticeable since his arrival to City is that he will NOT cross the ball into the box. Therefore the fact that he is a right footed player in the leftback role, it will make it so he can do what he still does which is runs/passes to midfield
With Walker playing at LB now, Cancelo as you could see at the end of last season, can play crosses into the box. The problem is, at leftback he always put in a good shift however it was very very predictable he would always cut in.
Cancelo playing in his prefered position will make it so that he can play at his current ability go back to when he was one of the best fullbacks in the world. He will be able to do what Walker couldn't which is put balls into the box.
With fullback positions now sorted, the CB options this window have been improved massively. The CB options of Laporte, Dias, Stones and Ake are perfect for the way Manchester City want to play. All good on the ball and all great for the build up play.
Man City's best ever CB Pairing since Guardiola came has been Aymeric Laporte & John Stones, but with John Stones being very injury prone since his arrival, the partnership we will see most is Ruben Dias as a RCB next to Aymeric Laporte as a LCB (with Ake and Stones filling in)
For me this would show our most frequent backline would be Walker-Laporte-Dias-Cancelo. This has potential to be one of the best backlines in europe. The backup for this back 4 can be Mendy/Zinchenko, Ake, Fernandinho, Stones
Mendy as the backup to Kyle Walker makes perfect sense as he is a natural LB and great backup to have. His problem is that he is inconsistent and error prone.
Ake is a great backup option to laporte as we have seen many times he can be very good as both a LB (cover for walker) for the Dutch national team and when he came on against leeds. But for Laporte at CB he can be the like to like replacement.
Fernandinho is very experienced but the fact is, since he is behind Laporte/Dias/Stones/Ake in the pecking order (and the fact Dias can rarely been out injured for Benfica) this is a good way for him to get gametime while still bringing his experience to the side
Stones for Cancelo might seem like a bit of a strange idea but he has played there before in the 2018/19 season and looked very comfortable. Games that come into mind are Huddersfield (H) a 6-1 win, Burnley (H) a 5-0 win and Shakhtar (A) a 3-0 win.
End of thread (Likes and RTs appreciated!)
